How I plan our menu

I honestly don't know how people can do dinner every night without a menu plan! It may just be me. I have to have a plan and recipe for almost everything I cook. My husband Kyle can just open up the pantry and refrigerator and whip up a 3 course gourmet meal. It's annoying but at the same time awesome! I do wish I could provide 'made from scratch' meals like that for my family but God did not bless me with cooking skills!

Here's how I plan our meals:

I use these cute menu planning sheets to write everything out. Since we homeschool, I try to plan breakfast, lunch and dinner. (I am also not a mom that does hot breakfast. I stay up late waiting for Kyle to get home from work so we sleep in in the morning! The boys must fend for themselves most mornings.) I also try and plan snacks. With 4 boys, someone is always hungry!

I use several sources for recipes. One of my new favorites is Pinterest. SO many great food ideas! Several of the dinner and lunch ideas I have in the photo are from Pinterest. My favorite this month are the pizza rolls (so awesome with homemade ranch!). I also use several blogs, such as Heavenly Homemakers, which has lots of healthy-ish and organic recipes. (I am not an organic mom by any means, but I try here and there to buy less processed food and make more things from scratch). I also like Pioneer Womans website for recipe ideas, like the Marlboro Man Sandwich (which we call Cowboy sandwiches).  I also have several cookbooks I'll refer to every once in a while.

I'll just make my grocery list from the recipes listed on the planner and then I am ready to go! I make little checkmarks in the boxes after I have made sure I have written down all the ingredients for that dinner. Menu planning Works for Me!

Thanks for stopping by and checking things out! Check out other great tips at Works for Me Wednesday at We are THAT Family!