I love seeing other families meal plans! It gives me ideas
Meal planning and budgeting . . . getting started P.4!!!
- Thread starter KatyTheChickenLady
- Start date
Thank you again for starting this post. I can't wait to start planning my weeks menu.
- Thread starter
- #23
Allrighty then, we talked about dinner, lets discuss breakfast, lunch and snacks.
Breakfast:
We are huge egg eaters (imagine that), my husband would be thrilled if I would just serve him 3 fried eggs, three slices of bacon and two pieces of toast every morning. I love to make him happy BUT, the whole pig is not bacon. And, as much as I think eggs are a wonderful source of protein, I will not serve him 3 eggs for breakfast and then egg salad for lunch!
I do not think cold cereal is a healthy way to start the day for kids heading off to school. Kids burn so much energy both physically and mentally, that I just cant see how a bowl of sugar and carbs will get them through to lunch. When my kids were small I made breakfast burritos once a month and froze them. Then we just popped them in the microwave to defrost and off they went to school with a hot healthy breakfast.
Snacks:
I guess its probably easy to see how I try to balance natural fruit sugar and nut protein. During the spring and summer the kids go with me to the farmers market on Saturday and pick out their own fruit (7 pieces each). The little ones have such a good time with this, and they are learning to plan a meal already.
Lunch:
You probably have already figured out that I balance meat lunches with no meat dinners . . .
Cocktail hour:
Ahhh . . . a minute to relax. If you look you will see how I have tried to balance that with whats for dinner as well.
Looking at Monday for example; we have eggs and meat for breakfast, fish for lunch, dairy at cocktail hour, and a high fiber low fat dinner.
Next we can get to work creating our meal plans and menus. More later today!
Breakfast:
We are huge egg eaters (imagine that), my husband would be thrilled if I would just serve him 3 fried eggs, three slices of bacon and two pieces of toast every morning. I love to make him happy BUT, the whole pig is not bacon. And, as much as I think eggs are a wonderful source of protein, I will not serve him 3 eggs for breakfast and then egg salad for lunch!
I do not think cold cereal is a healthy way to start the day for kids heading off to school. Kids burn so much energy both physically and mentally, that I just cant see how a bowl of sugar and carbs will get them through to lunch. When my kids were small I made breakfast burritos once a month and froze them. Then we just popped them in the microwave to defrost and off they went to school with a hot healthy breakfast.
Snacks:
I guess its probably easy to see how I try to balance natural fruit sugar and nut protein. During the spring and summer the kids go with me to the farmers market on Saturday and pick out their own fruit (7 pieces each). The little ones have such a good time with this, and they are learning to plan a meal already.
Lunch:
You probably have already figured out that I balance meat lunches with no meat dinners . . .
Cocktail hour:
Ahhh . . . a minute to relax. If you look you will see how I have tried to balance that with whats for dinner as well.
Looking at Monday for example; we have eggs and meat for breakfast, fish for lunch, dairy at cocktail hour, and a high fiber low fat dinner.
Next we can get to work creating our meal plans and menus. More later today!
In case no one has thought of this....
Mondays are always a good day at my local grocery place. It's a little dinky hole in the wall store and the prices are through the roof..... But on Mondays there is a TON of reduced produce and meats. For $35 today I bought 10 pounds of tomatoes, 10 pounds of limes, 10 pounds of avocados, 15 pounds top grade/hormone free lean ground beef (the expensive stuff!), 3 pounds of breakfast steaks, 1 pounds of pork loin, 3 pounds of sliced all beef bologna, a 2 pound pack of corn tortillas and a gallon of milk. I go twice a month right after paycheck comes in and stock up on what I can. This week was really good! A ton more meat than usual, especially the top grade ground beef. I usually get the ground beef for the dog food I make but this time I think we'll eat this! (I'm picky about my ground meats, can't help it)
The tomatoes will be processed into salsa or whole tomorrow. The avocados are going to be scooped and packed into freezer containers and frozen, makes great guacamole on the cheap. The limes will be zested and juiced, the juice will be frozen in ice cube trays, zests will be left to dry out and save for baking. Ground beef is divided into 1 pound portions and frozen since I don't have a pressure cooker/canner yet. The breakfast steaks are sliced up for stir fry, portioned out and frozen in their marinade. Pork loin is dinner tomorrow night. Bologna..... one pack is for lunches and the rest are frozen until needed for lunches.
Most of my freezer is prepped so that I can just reach in and pull out a meal without having to figure out what needs to be added. Less time involved prepping in the evenings if all of it is done in advance.
Mondays are always a good day at my local grocery place. It's a little dinky hole in the wall store and the prices are through the roof..... But on Mondays there is a TON of reduced produce and meats. For $35 today I bought 10 pounds of tomatoes, 10 pounds of limes, 10 pounds of avocados, 15 pounds top grade/hormone free lean ground beef (the expensive stuff!), 3 pounds of breakfast steaks, 1 pounds of pork loin, 3 pounds of sliced all beef bologna, a 2 pound pack of corn tortillas and a gallon of milk. I go twice a month right after paycheck comes in and stock up on what I can. This week was really good! A ton more meat than usual, especially the top grade ground beef. I usually get the ground beef for the dog food I make but this time I think we'll eat this! (I'm picky about my ground meats, can't help it)
The tomatoes will be processed into salsa or whole tomorrow. The avocados are going to be scooped and packed into freezer containers and frozen, makes great guacamole on the cheap. The limes will be zested and juiced, the juice will be frozen in ice cube trays, zests will be left to dry out and save for baking. Ground beef is divided into 1 pound portions and frozen since I don't have a pressure cooker/canner yet. The breakfast steaks are sliced up for stir fry, portioned out and frozen in their marinade. Pork loin is dinner tomorrow night. Bologna..... one pack is for lunches and the rest are frozen until needed for lunches.
Most of my freezer is prepped so that I can just reach in and pull out a meal without having to figure out what needs to be added. Less time involved prepping in the evenings if all of it is done in advance.
That's the ticket!
- Thread starter
- #26
Ok then lets talk about starting a 13 week meal plan . . . I have an excel spread sheet to get you started . . . someone smart tell me how to get it to you please . . .
THERE ARE 2 WAYS YOU CAN DO IT....
1.~Well, you can up load it to a free file hosting site like http://www.mediafire.com/. Then copy and paste a link into your post on BYC.
2.~Or you can copy and paste A COPY OF THE EXCEL on to an open page in a painting program, like paint shop or what ever you may have. Then save it . It needs to be either jpeg or gif. Once it is saved in your program it will be able to be brought over and upladed onto BYC.
If you have any questions, let me know.~Tacey
1.~Well, you can up load it to a free file hosting site like http://www.mediafire.com/. Then copy and paste a link into your post on BYC.
2.~Or you can copy and paste A COPY OF THE EXCEL on to an open page in a painting program, like paint shop or what ever you may have. Then save it . It needs to be either jpeg or gif. Once it is saved in your program it will be able to be brought over and upladed onto BYC.
If you have any questions, let me know.~Tacey
- Thread starter
- #28
I love your name Tacey!
ok, hmm . . . I have office 2007 and I don't see paint on there so I will try the first method first will let you know!
ok, hmm . . . I have office 2007 and I don't see paint on there so I will try the first method first will let you know!
- Thread starter
- #30
ahh thanks Tracy!
ok then, somebody try this link and see if it works . . . it should go to my excel 13 week menu template; I filled out my Monday menu so you could see how it works.
I don't know if you will be able to download it and fill it in, or if you may just have to copy it, but let's give it a whirl and get going!
http://workspace.office.live.com/#lestergarage/menu meal plans and budgets/13 week menu.xlsx
ok then, somebody try this link and see if it works . . . it should go to my excel 13 week menu template; I filled out my Monday menu so you could see how it works.
I don't know if you will be able to download it and fill it in, or if you may just have to copy it, but let's give it a whirl and get going!
http://workspace.office.live.com/#lestergarage/menu meal plans and budgets/13 week menu.xlsx
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