And we're off!

Since I'm on vacation and don't have access to my house, I'm working on timelines for goals as well as starting on my first undertaking- meal plans.

I've looked at my regular week schedule and can see that some nights my husband will be at band practice and won't be home for dinner. These nights I can make simpler, lighter meals (or foods he doesn't like!). I also have a dance class on wednesday, so I won't be eating till quite late (I never eat meals before dance). Taking all your predictable changes into account will help you. I also plan on doing less work on saturday and sunday since we like to have extra fun on those days.

Next, I'm going to start compiling recipes. Surf any of the lovely recipe websites out there and find a weeks worth of doable dishes. While I could eat the same thing for a week straight, my husband likes variety so I will be choosing dishes from several categories. Here is a one-week sample of my meal plan:

Mon- Meatloaf and Mashed Potatoes
Tues- Rosemary Ranch Chicken kabobs
Wed- Asian Lettuce Wraps
Thur- Steak and Potato Wedges
Fri- Chicken Pot Pie
Sat- Pot roast
Sun- Freezer food (pizza, pot pies, left-overs)

While gathering recipes I save them into my 'MealPlan' folder for safe keeping. Then the fun part, making grocery lists! I am creating and saving these in an excel folder so that I can re-print them as needed. Since I do a lot of 'freezer cooking' shopping lists allow me to check off the items I already have. Paperclip these to the start of the week divider in your Meal Plan notebook so you can quickly grab them when you're off to shop.*

Your homework:
Start saving recipes you find interesting and compile weekly meal plans. Do four, and you've got a month!

*Since I'll be changing some recipes to meet my needs I only print one month's worth of grocery lists at a time. Printing these at the beginning of each month goes on my monthly 'To Do' list to prepare me for the next month. You can print up a bunch to have but I find going month to month works better for me and prevents me from getting caught off-guard or wasting paper.