does anybody do a monthly meal plan?

KathrynMD · December 2011

I feel like that might be easier to do instead of weekly - and I'm not even OCD

madladybride · December 2011

I've entertained the idea, but haven't done it yet. It would be a great way to avoid having the same things every other week. Then again, I'd probably lose steam after week 2. While we do a weekly meal plan, we don't always stick to our days, i.e. if we have red beans and rice listed for Monday, but are exhausted, then maybe we will do Mac n' cheese & broccoli and have the beans and rice later. I'm not sure if this would mess up the monthly meal plan too much.

gracie2762 · December 2011

I go through phases where I feel like cooking every night and then I won't want to cook for weeks (which I seem to be in now). I don't think I could stick to a monthly meal plan at all.

SarahKate31 · December 2011

I like the idea because when I do weekly plans, I'm always looking back at my list from last week to make sure I don't repeat anything and I look at my lists from 2-3 weeks ago for ideas. There is no way we'd stick to a monthly plan though and since I shop weekly, I guess it's just easier to plan by the week.

KathrynMD · December 2011

I feel like I'm always stumped when I try to do, but I actually have a lot of things I like to make/want to make, I just forget about them. I'd probably still shop weekly though. I'm thinking I'd do a better job of making them healthy if I did monthly - so I could make sure we did lots of vegetarian and fish meals and really limited meats to 1-2 times a week.

linzee · December 2011

i'm lucky to plan for a week, its usually only this post that gets me to plan for the week.

daisyterp · December 2011

I couldn't do that because I totally rely on the Friday specials at Whole Foods and what looks good in terms of produce, etc.

LoveLossHopeRepeat · December 2011

I've done two weeks at a time before when there's a lot I want to make and I want to get to it soon - it helps me avoid forgetting something. But, in general, I see stuff every week that I want to make. If I plan for a month, I may have to wait weeks before I get to something new that's caught my eye.

If you'd like to encourage yourself to put more healthful items on the menu, make it a goal to have one meal/week that's red-meat-free, or meat free. Or limit red meat to one meal/week. I try to do one seafood, one pasta, and no more than one red meat each week.

madladybride · December 2011

We try to do pasta only once per week, and I pretty much insist on having a green vegetable with dinner 3 or 4 nights out of the week. If we have pizza or veggie burgers, we don't always have a green vegetable.

tspring82 · December 2011

linzee:
i'm lucky to plan for a week, its usually only this post that gets me to plan for the week.

haha...me too! Our weekly meal plan is VERY fluid. The only reason this week's is done is because we have stuff pulled out that needs to be used.

lauranne · December 2011

We do every other week in the winter once our CSA is done. I try really hard to only grocery shop every other week as well. So I'll plan meals that need fresh produce for the first week. I will say it's so nice not to have to go to the grocery store every week (especially w/ two kids in tow). Also we usually wind up skipping a meal because something will come up. It's never 14 meals...usually more like 10-12.

kelleymark82606 · December 2011

I did this for the last week of November and month of December. It was more of a calendar and write down diff ideas on the days. I will probably switch things up here and there. We had leftovers Sunday so I pushed that meal to Monday and skipped my orig Monday meal all together. Honestly, I hope I can continue to do this towards the end of every month. I realize I'm only essentially a few days into it, but I already feel a relief in stress over "what's for dinner". December is always really bad for me too because it's so busy, we tend to eat out a lot. With paying for daycare right now, I just need to watch the money on misc items. So overall, I think it will be awesome for me. Last night, I looked at the calendar and it was tacos so I put some frozen ground beef in the fridge to defrost. It was like an immediate sigh of relief. I KNOW what I'm going home to cook, I don't have to play around and dig around and stress about what the heck to have.

does anybody do a monthly meal plan?

Re: does anybody do a monthly meal plan?

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