Thursday, May 19, 2011

Dinner is on..and it's only 3 PM!

Well, thanks to the inspiration from one of my best friends, I have started "menu planning!"

What a difference it has made already!

Maybe some of you can relate to what "used" to be Shaun and I.

He would come home for lunch...of course I had nothing already prepared...we would hum and haw about what we should have. And unfortunately, it always ended up being a toss between something quick - "kraft dinner?" "beans"? "tuna sandwiches?"

And of course the same scenario at supper time! Since I wasn't planning ahead, I never had any meat pulled out of the freezer in time to eat, so by the time we thought about supper, it always seemed like too big of a project to get something together. So, we would end up eating something unhealthy, or grabbing McDonalds on occasion.

Well now..thanks to a wonderful excel menu planner, our week has been turned upside down (in a GREAT way!) We have eaten at home the entire week. We have had delicious meals, and have not had to ask each other once the dreaded question, "so...what are we going to eat!!??"

I can't believe how much time is saved, by simply taking 10 minutes on a Monday to fill in a weekly menu plan!

So, just now, I made a quick sweet and sour sauce to put over chicken drumsticks in the crock pot. It will be ready to go as soon as I finish teaching piano tonight!

Gotta love it! Thanks Joanne for the inspiration! I hope to learn so much more from you!

PS: If any of you would like the menu planner, just pop me a note, and I can email you the attachment. You just fill in your meals each week, and then at the end of the week, copy over those meals with the new meals for the following week. I'm going to print mine each week though, and save it, as ideas for meals down the road.

4 comments:

Joanne said...

Well Done! Just a thought you might like...if you save each file as a Spring Week 1 file, or Summer Week 1 file, you can rotate each week according to season just by a simple click...just don't get so efficient that you don't stop by for dinner anymore :)

Shaun and Michelle Slauenwhite said...

Oh have no fear! Our dinners will still never come close to the amazing taste of yours! This I know!

Mandy Hill said...

Menu planning also makes grocery shopping so much easier and quicker! :) Great job Mich!

Shaun and Michelle Slauenwhite said...

It sure does Mandy!