I cannot believe it’s 2016 – it feels like 2015 just flew right by! I’m excited to sit down this weekend and really plan out my goals, maybe put together a vision board, and just get focused with a fresh start.
I do already know one of my goals though, and I already started working on it – and that’s to be even more disciplined with my meal planning this year. For the most part I’m pretty good about listing my meals for the week and making my shopping list based on that, but there are definitely some times when life gets crazy and I miss a few days here and there.
For January, I decided to try writing out a monthly meal plan in advance so that I have everything listed and ready to go, rather than doing it one week at a time. The benefits should be two-fold – I know I’ll have a relatively healthy meal each night and I also know that I’ll save money on my grocery bill because I’ll avoid the random stop-ins just to pick up one night’s dinner (which inevitably turns into me grabbing other stuff too – cookies have made their way home a few too many times the past couple months).
- Since I just wrote out the entire month, I thought I’d share it with you all too. Maybe it’ll give you some ideas for meal planning this month too! A few notes…
- I only write out dinners for the month, because lunches are typically leftovers of dinners or salads. And for breakfast, I always just pick up a few standard items for the family – things like oatmeal, eggs, cereal and milk, toast & peanut butter, and fruit.
- I’ve included links to the recipes that I use for some of them; for others I just throw everything together myself from memory.
- I think there are two repeats over the course of month, but other than that it’s pretty much something different each night which I love. If you’re not into all that variety though, you can always meal plan with similar things each week (i.e. “taco tuesday”, “fish friday”, etc).
- Vegetable = whatever vegetable is on sale, and might be fresh or frozen depending on what I buy that week.
- For some of the recipes, I end up modifying things a bit if needed to meet the current dietary limitations with my son’s food intolerences (i.e. substitutions for eggs, dairy, and soy).
- I know someone’s thinking “why are there no dinner salads on here?!”. That’s for two reasons – 1) salads are always are back up for lunches/dinners when we don’t have anything else, and 2) right now my son is only 9 months so salad doesn’t work for him for dinner, and I hate making two separate meals. 🙂
Alright, here ya go – my monthly meal plan for January!
Fri – 1st: Hoppin John (using brown rice rather than white rice)
Sat – 2nd: Salmon (baked in tinfoil with olive oil, lemon, salt and pepper), orzo with lemon and spinach, vegetable
Sun – 3rd: Beef stew, homemade bread
Mon – 4th: Crockpot chicken, stuffing, vegetable
Tues – 5th: Homemade whole wheat BBQ chicken pizza (using leftover crockpot chicken, BBQ sauce, red onion, cilantro); side salad
Weds – 6th: Old Fasioned Meatloaf, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted broccoli
Thurs – 7th: Roast chicken drumsticks with potatoes, carrots, and butternut squash (note that this recipe has a few mistakes listed; I just use this as general instructions and vary the seasonings and veggies)
Fri – 8th: Lentil casserole (will be experimenting with this but will probably do a modified version of this recipe)
Sat – 9th: Shrimp scampi over zucchini noodles
Sun – 10th: Ramen stir fry (but modifying with this soy sauce substitute recipe – it works quite well! – and plain rice noodles rather than the ramen packets)
Mon – 11th: Whole wheat pasta with meat sauce (going easy here – sauteing some lean beef or turkey with red onion, a little red wine, and then adding in jarred marinara sauce), vegetable
Tues – 12th: Hawaiian crockpot pork burrito bowls
Weds – 13th: Tacos (corn tortillas, lean ground turkey or beef with seasoning, beans, lettuce, tomato, avocado)
Thurs – 14th: Crockpot chicken thighs with carrots and green beans (I modify this recipe a bit so it’s baby friendly too – I skip the honey and just use a smidge of brown sugar; I use a few splashes of apple cider vinegar rather than soy sauce for now).
Fri – 15th: Turkey scramble with peppers onions and potatoes (cook potatoes in the microwave for a few minutes until they start to get tender – then chop and saute with ground turkey, chopped peppers, and chopped onions)
Sat – 16th: Breakfast for dinner (depending on what we have and if I’ve added eggs back in, it might be eggs & toast or it might be whole wheat pancakes with fruit topping)
Sun – 17th: Vegan eggplant parmesan with a side salad
Mon – 18th: Baked chicken over a chickpea/red onion puree; side of cous/cous mixed with sauteed asparagus
Tues – 19th: Butternut squash and pumpkin pasta with bacon, cauliflower
Weds – 20th: Turkey meatloaf (so easy – ground turkey, oats, ketchup, and onion), roasted sweet potatoes, vegetable
Thurs – 21st: Acorn squash stuffed with rice/apple/celery/onion/sausage (will have the recipe for this on the blog soon!)
Fri – 22nd: Crockpot jerk pork with avocado and mango salsa served over brown rice (*freeze extra leftover pork)
Sat – 23rd: Tilapia or Cod, wild rice, vegetable
Sun – 24th: Vegan Cuban bowl (brown rice, tomatoes with green chiles, beans, roasted sweet potatoes, lightly fried plantains)
Mon – 25th: Crockpot chicken with rice and vegetables
Tues – 26th: Homemade whole wheat BBQ chicken pizza (using leftover crockpot chicken); side salad or vegetable
Weds – 27th: Dairy Free Potato bacon corn chowder
Thurs – 28th: Ham and vegetables; homemade biscuits or rolls
Fri – 29th: Rice and beans with homemade guacamole
Sat – 30th: Walnut crusted pork tenderloin (I just make the coating by processing walnuts, flour, and seasonings in a food processor) with cinnamon apples; roasted vegetables
Sun – 31st: Pulled pork sandwiches (*defrost leftover pulled pork from previous week and mix with BBQ sauce) on homemade buns (or store bought if needed), homemade baked beans, vegetable
Mon – 1st: Moroccan chicken and chickpeas (I throw this together with what I have on hand – but usually chicken, onion, carrots, parsnips, tomatoes, chickpeas, and lots of seasoning like coriander & curry)
Tues – 2nd: Quinoa salad with black beans and avocado
Share with me: Do you meal plan? What’s your method? Do you go by the week or month? Would it be helpful for me to share these each month?
Chrissy Carroll
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Oh my gosh, I can’t even plan for a whole week, let alone a whole month. My schedule is just not consistent enough! I’m going to steal some of your ideas though. 😉
Steal away, girl! 🙂 If I can stay consistent with this I’ll try to post them every month.
I do meal plan and I have for years. I kept all my menus in little notebooks. I just filled up #2! but I only plan one week at a time, to allow for schedule changes and stuff. I shop once/weekly too, so weekly planning works well for us. It’s really great because after a long day at work, there’s no need to think about what to make for dinner. You just do it.
YES – that’s exactly the thing I love, Wendy – being done with the day and not having to put mental energy into wondering what to make.
I pretty much have always done a week at a time, but lately I found that then that week would run out and things would get crazy with work and the baby, leaving a few days in between before I could get another one written. That’s where I found more of our grocery budget being wasted, so I’m going to give the month-long one a try to hopefully eliminate those random in-between days.
You really are all planned out! This is so great! Thank you for including my soy free soy sauce! I’m glad you like it 🙂 Happy New Year!!
I love the soy free soy sauce!! I used it for that ramen recipe a few weeks back and it was so good; exactly what I was craving.
oh wow ! You are incredibly organized for sure. i try to plan out 3 days worth of meals at a time but you might have just inspired me!
If I don’t plan I fail miserably. One day last week I forgot to pick up almond milk for breakfast stuff (cereal, oatmeal). I ended up having enjoy life dairy free spread on a hamburger bun, hahaha.
Wow, this is amazing… I’m definitely going to be coming back for some ideas!!
Yay, I hope you find some helpful ideas Bri! 🙂
I really wish I could stay on top of meal planning too. I go in phases where I do really well and then I fall off the wagon. Some great recipes you have in here! Thanks for the inspiration! Happy New Year!
I totally get that Sue. I do that with strength training – I get really good into it for a while and then fall off the wagon!
I am an awful meal planner. I wish I could really commit to it, but I just can’t seem to get it together enough to make it happen. This is a great list and you are going to have a lot of success with it!
Thanks Jenn! I think I’m such a control freak that having it all listed out is really helpful for me, haha.
Wow you’re ambitious to plan out dinners for the entire month! I always find it difficult just to plan meals for a full 7 day week.
I had a long car ride that morning (as a passenger) so I spent quite a bit browsing pinterest and jotting down ideas. I think being stuck there for a bit helped force me to get it done 🙂
Wow that’s serious meal planning., I’m an avid weekly meal planner. Can’t imagine life without planning and Sunday prep.
I’m hosting a new Friday link up and would love to have you join 🙂
Happy new year Chrissy!
Thanks for the info about the Friday link up Jill – I’ll definitely check it out!
Yea I need to step up my meal planning! But getting it done for the month must take all the guess work out completely! Great idea!
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you as well! Here’s to hoping this keeps me organized throughout the month 🙂
Great plan!! Definitely keep sharing, I grabbed some great ideas for our meals 🙂 I meal plan only on a week by week basis. My husband does the cooking and he doesn’t like to be committed too far in advance. Have a great 2016!
I totally get about not being too committed in advance. I figure I can always shift a few things around if needed during the week, but at least I’ve got a general outline for it all. Glad I could help with some ideas for your meals too! 🙂
You would think we had the cheesiest household ever. We eat random foods usually and I know this is not good. I hope we weren’t totally like this when the kids lived at home. I am going to get more on track and be more of a planner because I think this could be the ticket to healthier food in the body. I would start maybe shopping for 3 meals at time and go from there. Yes, I definitely think your posts would be very helpful! Happy New Year to you and your family!
I think that sounds great to start with 3 meals at a time. And I’ll try to post my plan each month to help give you some inspiration! Happy New Year to you and your family as well 🙂
Thanks for sharing this. I made a resolution to start meal planning! I used to think our lives were too hectic to plan meals out like this, but it’s actually the opposite! Thanks for some ideas and to know that it can be done by a “real person”
It definitely takes some time to sit down and do it, but then I feel like it saves so much more time over the week, ya know? Let me know how it goes for you Nat!
I am SO SO impressed you can meal plan a month out! Wow!
Thanks Sarah! It took a bit of time but it has seriously made January so much easier when it comes to dinner time.