Meal Planning

So I am guilty of buying lots of easy-to-make food and never expanding my selections. I(am I'm sure Brad) have gotten a little sick of the same old same old and that was reflected in our eating out more. I decided that I really need to change that as well as expand our tastes in a healthy way. I'm hoping putting in a little grunt work helps out the grocery bill as well.

I found these meal planning worksheets through a Google search and I love them!

They are from Craft Sew Create blog and you can download them here.

I adjusted them a little so that they were each their own separate page because I need lots of room. I made a goal of planning out the meals for this week and only buying what I needed for that plan. We have plenty of snacks to keep us for a while, so I knew that we'd be able to do this this week.
I did a little bit of prep on Sunday, but it really wasn't too bad. I made a minestrone soup that I saw on HRG that I needed to try! So I made a huge batch of that and froze some and kept some out for lunches this week. Recipe here. I also made some mini omelets for breakfasts. I would give you a recipe, but it's just in my head:



8 eggs
Any veggies/omelet toppings (I used spinach and mozzarella this time)

Beat eggs. Spray a muffin pan. Pour eggs into the tins until about 3/4 full. 8 eggs makes about 7 mini omelets. Then I chopped some spinach and put that on top of each and added the mozzarella on top of each. Then I bake at 350 until they are all set (usually about 13 minutes).

I can refrigerate these and just pull one out for breakfast. I usually pair with a hard boiled egg so that I get a good breakfast without making anything in the morning! (I guess I do have to microwave the omelet for about 30 seconds).

Finally, I cut up some sweet potatoes to use as sweet potato fries.

We'll see how this goes! The grocery bill was about the same as it always is, so that was encouraging! I had to buy a lot more meat and produce, but I should be eating that anyway. I'll give a more full report at the end of the week. You may see some pics during the week of me trying new recipes. I'm branching out people!

Does anyone else plan out their meals?

Any good recipes I should try?