menu planning monday

In an extreme effort to stay home more and spend less on gas and eating out, I thought I would try some menu planning fun. I am definitely an organizer-type person so anything to do with planning I am ALL ABOUT. I've been doing this on and off for a few months but I am going to MAKE myself stick with this!

The first thing I do is print out a calendar for the month. Here is November. You can click on the picture to download the menu and make your own. December's is below that if you'd just like to wait then. :)

{click picture to download}

{click picture to download}

I try to fill in all of our activities and then I grab my recipe book. This book is mainly recipes I've printed from blogs or websites. It's got our favorites and some must-trys in it. Then I jot down recipes on the days where we are definitely going to be at home. I try to allow ourselves to eat out 2-4 times a month. Two times at a nice restaurant and then twice at a fast-food type place. I try to plan the nicer restaurants to fall on the weekends that we get paid. Once I get that all planned out on the monthly calendar, I jot the meal plan down on the weekly menu.

{click picture to download}

This menu has a little grocery list and sides with it. Along with dessert. :)
Here's our weekly menu:

Monday- Chicken Pesto with Angel Hair Pasta
Tuesday- Homemade Pizza Rolls
Wednesday- Cheesy Chicken Rolls
Thursday- Tastefully Simple Party
Friday- Taco Soup (crock pot)
Saturday- Creamy Italian Chicken (crock pot)
Sunday- Loaded Baked Potatoes

I like planning by the month because that allows me to see if we're eating chicken like 6 days in a row or eating spaghetti 4 times that month. This helps me with duplicates. I like using the weekly menu because I  can jot down the whole meal and then figure what grocery items I need for that week!

Hopefully, this little plan will help us out! And some of you too!