my menu planning

I was just reading on "Sister's Cafe" about menu planners.  I've been meaning to share how I do my menu planning as well, so now that I'm thinking about it, here we go..

I'm going to assume most women (or MEN) plan their menus by the week.  I'm definitely not a natural at cooking, I was definitely not raised in a family that ate a home-cooked meal together every night, and I definitely don't always stick to my "menu plan", BUT- this is what I've found to be the easiest for me.  I plan by the MONTH! yes.... it's true.

At the beginning of every month, or, like this month, on the 16th of the month... :), I print out a calendar for the whole month.  Then I sit down with all my cookbooks and my laptop and I find a whole months worth of dinners.  I fill in each day (minus Saturday's (left-over day) and Sunday's (we mooch off the parents on this day)) with just the main course.  We have a few staple sides at our house... things like broccoli, bananas, asparagus, etc. so I just add those to the list.  Every Monday I make the grocery list, going off of the meals for the week, add in the staples and the regulars (milk, eggs, cheese, etc.) and meal planning is complete.

It's the only way I cook even somewhat often.  Some weeks I am really ambitious and cook Monday-Friday (okay... maybe that has only happened a handful of times), and some weeks I don't cook anything on the menu (that's okay though... then I can add it to the next month!)

Anyway, if you are like me, and you lack in the cooking genre, hopefully this will help.  I had a little jumpstart this week and I'm trying out some new recipes.  I will try my best to post them!

Ta-ta!