Master Meals Lists

My friend, Toni, the Happy Housewife is doing a series on menu planning and she had an "assignment" of coming up with a list of 15 meals for helping with the ease of menu planning. Since I have been doing menu planning for some time, I already have my list of meals made up. I took the time to divide up my meal list into three--one for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I found that since I liked to have different sides with the main course that it was easier to make up a different list of the different side dishes that I make up. I also found that having a master list of snacks makes it easier to keep my snack basket full with different items rather than the same old things.

Here is links to each of my lists! You will also find the links down in my right sidebar!

Breakfast Master List

Lunch Master List

Dinner Master List

Sides Master List

Snack Master List

As for keeping up with my menus, I have a copy of the menus on my computer as well as on a piece of paper. The piece of paper gets stuck up on my refrigerator so that the family knows what to expect for each of the meals and for the daily snacks. Having that piece of paper has been a sanity saver for me because I don't hear THAT same old question(Mom, what's for___?") over and over again!

I sit down on Saturday afternoon and plan out the meals for the next week using my freezer and pantry inventories of what I have on hand to plug in the different meals. Using the inventories first to make up the meals helps me to not have to rush to the store last minute for something. Also using up the inventories first helps me to save money on my grocery bill each week.

I also make sure that I don't plan 3 chicken meals in a row! There is lots of whaling and gnashing of teeth from the family if I don't pay attention to that detail.

This post is linked at:

• Menu Planning 101 at The Happy Housewife!