Menu Plan Monday - Getting It All Organized!!

I love planning a weekly menu - it reduces my daily stress significantly! However, when Sunday afternoon rolls around and it's time for me to make my weekly plan... I stress. I love recipes. I love reading them, finding them, trying them. I have a bookmarked folder full of recipes to try that I found through MPM... not to mention all of the pages I have marked in my actual cookbooks... oh, and the ones on allrecipes.com. Whew. I've just overloaded myself with them all.

So, here's what I've done. I listed all of my family's favorites. I was astounded that I came up with over 20 meals (not even including the Fall soups and chowders)! I set up a calendar and tried to balance out each week with different meats/fishes/veggies. I assigned my crockpot/slow cook meals for Sunday so they will be ready when we return from worship services. Wednesday is an extremely fast supper because of evening bible study and Friday/Saturday are generally grill/smoker ideas to let Jeff get involved. I also left one day open for a new recipe to try.

This Sunday I sat down to make my grocery list and gather my coupons that corresponded with this week's meal plan and I was amazed at the LACK OF STRESS! I didn't even use the exact plan as there was a meal we didn't eat last week and just carried it over to replace one for this week. I was able to finish everything in record time and I know that I have a balanced week planned! I'm just so excited about this!

So, here's the plan I came up with for this week's rotation (all recipes are made dairy free at my house... if you have a question how I convert it, just let me know!):


Bow Tie Pasta & Sausage
Steamed Broccoli
Sliced Peaches

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Chicken Sandwiches
chips
sweet peas
mandarin oranges

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Baked Taquitoes
Spanish Rice
Refried Beans
Black Beans

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Sheppard's Pie
green beans
creamed corn
pear halves

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Grilled Pork Loin
Steamed Broccoli
Sweet Potatoes
Broiled Asparagus
Baked Beans
corn bread

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Baked Pork Chops
Pinto Beans
Honey Carrots
corn bread
mashed potatoes

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Now that I have 5 weeks of menus planned, I may be on my way to shopping monthly? We'll have to see... :)