A new batch of weekly menu plans today. I am sharing four weeks worth of plans which I have created using the menu planner app. When I posted my last bulk menu plans, I had some questions on how closely do I stick to them, when I plan this far out.
Some months I vary more from them than others. The last plan wasn’t hitting the spot right with how it fitted in with my time commitments and the kid’s activities. So while I cooked about 95% of the meals on the plan, I did vary the order quite a bit. This is one of the things I like most about menu planning, in that it gives me options. I have all the ingredients for the meals, I can easily change the day I cook it to meet my needs.
I have changed the structure of the menu plans for the week this month, based on what was working for me in reality over the last couple of weeks. Changes include cooking a double batch meal on Mondays to cater for left overs. Many recipes used to easily give us left overs, but as the kids are growing up, there is less and less left over. So I need to start increasing the quantity of the ingredients, to factor in left overs. (For the menu plans in this post though, I only added one quantity of the meal.)
The Weekly Menu Plans
Day Meal Type | Sat Self Serve | Sun Roast | Mon Morning Cook (for us double batch) | Tue Left Overs | Wed Slow Cooker | Thu Meat and Veg | Fri Fun Night |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week Starting: 19th May | Tacos Baking: Banana and Oat Muffins | Slow Cooker Roast Lamb | Fried Rice | Left Overs | Slow Cooker Satay | Sausages and Steamed Vegetables | Pikelets |
| Week Starting: 26th May | Marinated Chicken Sticks and Salad Baking: Testing New Recipe | Slow Cooker Roast Beef | Baked penne with bacon | Left Overs | Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup | Marinated Steak and Garlic Mash | Nachos |
| Week Starting: 2nd June | Tacos Baking: Butter Cake | Easy Roast Chicken With Stuffing | Pumpkin Soup | Left Overs | Slow Cooker Risotto | Pan fried chicken and veg - new recipe | Homemade Pizza |
| Week Starting: 9th June | Sweet Chilli Chicken Wraps Baking: 100 biscuit recipe | Slow Cooker Roast Lamb | Fried Rice | Left Overs | Slow Cooker Satay | Sausages and Steamed Vegetables | Sushi - recipe to come next week. |
When you create the menu plans in the app, a shopping list is then created. You can then either use the shopping list directly on your iPhone and check off the items you have, or you can email the list to yourself or someone else.
The app plans Monday to Sunday at the moment and I plan from Saturday to Friday, so Monday in this plan is really Saturday for us and so on.
I have pasted the contents of the shopping list emails into word docs, turned them into PDFs and zipped them together, so they can be easily downloaded. Or you can purchase the App from iTunes and make your own!
Planning With Kids Weekly MenuPlans – May/June
What changes have you made menu planning as your family has grown?