Man...I'm Hungry!!!

Well, I did it, I made our menu for an entire month! As I mentioned we really want to buckle down on spending. We go out to eat a few times per week and that is really adding up. I tend to resort to restaurants because I wake up and realize we have no plan for dinner or we are missing ingredients. I sat down and wrote out the plan for an entire month, I then went through the pantry and wrote down everything we need for those dinners. I will watch for coupon match ups for these ingredients to help save money.

So here we go, the menu for January 2012!

1. Tacos
2. Crock Pot Roast
3. Crock Pot Salsa Chicken
4. Left Overs
5. Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings
6. Left Overs
7. Crock Pot Chili
8. This is Eliza's birthday party so I have nothing planned, who knows how the day will go
9. Chicken and Broccoli, this is a Stauffers meal, I figured I wouldn't want to cook after her party so this will be easy
10. Crock Pot Herb Chicken and Vegetables
11. Meatloaf
12. Turkey Swiss and Apple Sandwiches
13. Potato Soup
14. Left Overs
15. Crock Pot Lemon Chicken
16. Crock Pot Maple BBQ Chicken
17. Left Overs
18. Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
19. Cock Pot 3 Packet Chicken
20. Left Overs
21. Crock Pot Hawaiian Chicken
22. Left Overs
23. Crock Pot Lemon Garlic Chicken
24. Left Overs
25. Chicken Stuffing Bake
26. Left Overs
27. Crock Pot Pork Chops
28. Baked Mostacolli
29. Left Overs
30. Crock Pot Ham
31. Left Overs

Sorry these are not links to the recipes, I am working via the iPad and I get confused on it easily. Most of these recipes you can find on my pinterest page, www.pinterest.com/kalyne/recipes.

As you can see I use A LOT of Crock Pot meals, with how active Eliza is this is definitely the easiest route for me right now. We spend most of our day in the basement, it is finished and we made that her playroom, so I don't have the ability to hang in the kitchen for an hour or so. As she gets older and is able to occupy herself a bit more I hope to expand to more advanced meals. You will also see I use mostly chicken. This is because we have SO much from when I bought it from Zaycon, and I just don't know how to cook red meat, maybe this is how I will learn! On the days I have left overs indicated this is basically a free for all, grab whatever you find in the kitchen, the meal from the day before or a pb&j.

I really hope this is something we can start to do every month. Having it written out was such a help to think of meals. I have a few favorites that I always go to and I think Mark is getting sick of them, I made sure not to repeat any meals all month.

If you have a way of organizing your daily/weekly/monthly meals PLEASE share, I am open to any ideas!

Happy New Year everyone, this is the year of change for me...in more ways then one!