Meal Plans May 20-25

Meal planning is a necessity in household organization for our family.  It may just be the way I think, but grocery shopping or meal preparation without a written plan in advance would be a nightmare!  So I almost always think through dinners for our family weekly.  I've tried to think seasonally and prepare four weeks worth of favorite dinner ideas to rotate through as a general guide though I often veer from that outline as Pinterest or a friend's suggestion may lead :)  I also enjoy reading other meal plans from friends, and often talk with my mom about her recent dinner ideas as inspiration for my family.  I hope that sharing our meal plans with you might give you a spring board into trying a new meal or remembering one of your old favorites that may have been forgotten.  It'll also help me refer back to some of our ideas so that I can reuse them in the future!

where our meals are enjoyed

This week we're having:

Sunday -
Crock Pot French Dip sandwiches, edamame and parmesan cheese, sweet potato fries, and brownies*
(*we're having a single man from our small group over which was cause for the meat splurge and the dessert)

Monday -
Northern Bean and Brown Rice salad from Ashley at The Vanilla Tulip
(we have small group tonight so we're bring a side dish to contribute)

Tuesday -
pesto chicken pizza, and fruit
(I've only used mozzarella on our pizzas as I found fontina to be expensive)

Wednesday -
bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on English muffins, and fruit

Thursday -
BBQ meatballs, roasted carrots, and garlic/butter pasta
(I make the meatloaf recipe but roll it into meat balls instead of a loaf, I have a funny aversion to the meatloaf idea! - cook for about 30 min instead)

Friday -
veggie sandwiches from Passionate Homemaking

To help with grocery costs I try to buy only what we'll need THIS week, which means that we're often looking pretty bare by the end of the week, but the Lord has always provided.  I'm also thankful that my family enjoys nights like Wednesday's when we have breakfast for dinner.  Both Thursday's meatballs, and Friday's veggies for sandwiches have been frozen as I made each meal last week as well and saved half of the portions in the freezer for future use.  I'm sure I'll have extra French Dip meat from supper tonight to store away in the freezer as well.