Easy Meal Planning Ideas

"What's for dinner, Mom?" is a late afternoon question that rings through the kitchens of households everywhere throughout America. With insatiable appetites, food seems to be constantly on the minds of growing children! Likewise, trying to figure out what to cook for dinner seven evenings a week can become a tiresome task for busy moms! You know what your family's likes and dislikes are when it comes to specific dishes, so rather than tell you exactly what to make in with specific menus, this article tells you how to easily organize and plan your family's favorite meals. So, when that popular question of what's for dinner pops up, you already know the answer!

Meal planning does not have to be difficult! First, come up with seven categories of dinner meals, one for each day of the week. In our house, our categories are the following:

Monday- Mexican

Tuesday- Italian

Wednesday-Chicken

Thursday- Soup or Main Dish Salad, and Bread

Friday- Hamburger and Fries

Saturday- Pizza (or Eat Out)

Sunday- Beef or Chef's Choice

Your categories of meals may look completely different than mine, depending on your family's tastes. You may prefer to have a Vegetarian Night, Pork Night, Sandwich Night, or Greek Night. The possibilities are endless. I like to include a Chef's Choice option during the week to allow some flexibility in what I cook if I feel like trying something new, or I find a good sale on an item and want have it for dinner.

Now, list a main dish your family likes (which is quick to prepare) under each category. Add an optional side dish or dishes, and optional dessert to go with the main dish. You now have one weeks worth of meals planned. The menu plan for one week at our house looks like this:

Monday (Mexican)- Tacos, Refried Beans

Tuesday (Italian)- Spaghetti, Salad

Wednesday (Chicken) Roasted Chicken, Cooked Baby Carrots, Green Beans

Thursday (Soup or Main Dish Salad, and Bread)- Chicken Caesar Salad, Italian Garlic Bread

Friday- Hamburger and Fries

Saturday- Pizza (or eat out)

Sunday- (Beef or Chef's Choice) Pot roast with potatoes and vegetables, Corn Bread

You can repeat the steps of choosing dishes your family likes in each category, for each day of the week, as many times as you'd like to make multiple weekly menu plans. It helps if you first list out as many main dishes as you can for each category. Then, you can pick and choose what main dishes from each category you want in the same week. Continuing the example from my own family's meal plan, my list of dishes in each category include:

Mexican- Tacos, Taco Salad, Quesidillas, Enchilladas

Italian- Spaghetti, Fettuccini, Calzones, Lasagne

Chicken- Roasted Chicken, Chicken Fingers, Broccoli and Chicken Casserole, Chicken Pot Pie

Soup or Main Dish Salad, and Bread- Chicken Caesar Salad, Chili, Baked Potato Soup, Vegatable Beef Soup

Hamburger and Fries (This has become a tradition, we always have this on Fridays.)

Pizza or Out to Eat- (Again, we have this every week and usually do not vary the menu on this day.)

Beef- Pot Roast, Cubed Steak, Grilled or Pan-Fried Steaks, Hamburger Pie

From the above list, I have four weeks of meal plans that I can make. All I need to do is write out each weekly menu plan and add some side dishes.

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Planning meals can take a little effort at first, but definitely saves time in the long run. With meals planned, from those recipes you can easily make a standard grocery list for your dinners for each week. By sticking to your meal plans, you will save money on groceries by having fewer miscellaneous ingredients to buy for dishes you may only make once in a while, which, if they are not used within a short amount of time often go to waste. Plus, with a grocery list in hand and meals already planned, you'll be less tempted to grab for those extraneous items on the grocery shelves that you don't really need, and only add up to a bigger grocery bill at the cash register!

Meal planning is not meant to be confining or restrictive, as you can always choose not to use the plan any time you want to fix something different. Whether or not you strictly follow your plan, once you've got it on paper, you now always have an answer to fall back on when the inevitable question arises, "Mom, what's for dinner?"

Thanksgiving Menu, or should I say Feast?

I have cooked a big Thanksgiving dinner by myself only once. Our family has always gone to my parents' or my inlaws for Thanksgiving, so I never actually had to host the dinner myself. The one time I did cook the whole meal, I loved every minute of the planning, organizing, cooking and serving. I thought I'd share the menu. It is mostly traditional, except for the lasagne. I cooked that, in addition to the turkey, at the special request of my husband!

Thanksgiving Menu:

Lasagne
Turkey Breast with Italian Herbs
Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans
Stuffing in a Crock Pot
Homemade Yeast Rolls with Butter
Sweet Potato Casserole
Homemade Noodles
Corn Casserole
Sweet Tea
Lemonade
Pumpkin Pie
Buttery Cranberry Pie
Chocolate Pecan Pie
Egg Nog

Looking at this list I am amazed that I actually cooked all that food! But, organization was key, and because I had a step-by-step plan and did a lot of preparation in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I truly was not stressed on the big day.

I wrote out a day-by-day schedule of things to do, starting on the week before Thanksgiving. I assembled and froze the lasagne ahead of time. I also made and froze the uncooked noodles, cooked the sweet potatoes for the sweet potato casserole, chopped vegetables for the stuffing, and put together parts of recipes that could be quickly thrown together on Thanksgiving day. I made out an hourly schedule of what needed to be done on Thanksgiving day, planning ahead of time what dishes could bake in the oven together and when each dish needed to be assembled and cooked. Because I was well organized, we were able to have a huge, completely home cooked meal that did not chain me for hours to the kitchen!

I want to share with you the Sweet Potato Casserole I adapted from the internet. Instead of using a nut topping, I substituted Vanilla Wafers in the topping recipe for a sweet, crunchy, absolutely delicious dish!

Sweet Potato Casserole

4 c baked sweet potatoes, mashed (bake medium sized potatoes 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees)

1/2 c sugar

2 eggs

1/2 t salt

4 T butter, softened

1/2 c milk

1/2 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine all ingredients, mixing well. Pour into a greased 9x13" baking dish. Top with crumb topping(recipe below).

Crumb Topping:

1/2 c brown sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

3 T butter, softened

1/2 c vanilla wafers, coarsely chopped

Mix together sugar and flour. Cut in butter. Stir in vanilla wafers. Sprinkle over top of sweet potato mixture in baking dish. Bake for 30 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Whether you are cooking up a feast, or keeping things simple, remember to keep your priorities in sight. A table full of food is not worth the effort if the cook is overburdened, upset and exhausted from cooking all day! Stressing over the food is never worth ruining a day in which we have so much to be thankful!

Beet You'll Love These!

Have you ever opened a can of beets, threw them in the pan, and served them to your family only to receive an unfavorable response? Canned, or even boiled fresh beets don't usually have a lot of flavor. But, beets are really good for you, not to mention their deep red color is beautiful....and there IS a way to cook beets that result in a tender, sweet, flavor! If you know how to bake a potato, you already know how to bake a beet!

To bake beets, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. If the green tops of the beets are still on, cut them off at the base and scrub each beet well, leaving the skin on:

Photo Copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies


Wrap each beet well in aluminum foil. Make sure these are completely wrapped to avoid dripping beet juice in your oven!:

Photo Copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies

Bake the beets for about an hour. Depending on the size of the beets, just as in baking a potato, you may need to bake these a little longer, until they are tender. As they cook longer the more carmelized the beets become and the flavor deepens and sweetens.

Remove beets from oven and carefully remove foil. Be careful, the steam in side is hot! With your fingers or a knife, remove the peel from the beets. Slice the beets and butter. If you'd like a little more "wow" to your beets, drizzle the beets with vingar---Balsamic vinegar is delicious with these!

Photo Copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies

It's good to try new foods, or even re-try them with your family from time to time. Just because something wasn't liked the first time around, doesn't mean it won't grow on them in time! Beets are a great place to start since they are sweet and don't have a strong flavor. Try baked beets soon!

Copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies

Shortcut French Toast

French toast is a breakfast item our family enjoys, but, if there's a way to keep from having to stand over the stove babysitting the multiple batches of French toast cooking, then I'm all for it! I doctored up this simple French toast recipe that eliminates this hassle, and, while it's nothing gourmet it does fill the growling tummies at our house! This is how we usually make it now:

photo copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies


French Toast Casserole



6-8 slices whole wheat bread OR 10-12 slices white bread

4-5 eggs

1/2 c milk

1 T sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1 T vanilla



Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Break bread into pieces and place in a greased 8"x8" pan.

In a mixing bowl, mix together the remaining ingredients.

Pour mixture over bread.

Stir together with a rubber spatula, then lightly press the top down with the back of the spatula. Cover with foil.

Bake 18-20 minutes, then remove foil and bake, uncovered, another 5-7 minutes.

Insert a toothpick in the middle of casserole. If toothpick comes out clean it is ready.

Cool slightly, then slice into bars.

You can sprinkle powdered sugar on top, serve with syrup, maple syrup or honey.

In the picture above, I was feeling creative and made a glaze out of powdered sugar, a splash of vanilla and a tiny bit of milk and drizzled it over the top.

Now, that's a satisfying breakfast sure to stop the gastric growls...at least for awhile!

Copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies

Unique Use for Your Crockpot

When you think of crockpots, you might think of using them to make one-pot meals, simmering something yummy all day long while you work, and dinner's ready in the evening. Crockpots are great for that, but here's another use: make yogurt! One quart of yogurt at our local grocery store costs almost 3 dollars. You can make a whole lot more yogurt so easily in the crockpot for a lot less money than to buy it already made! That's important if you enjoy making smoothies and such, like I shared with you in my last post! Besides, yogurt is full of good bacteria so essential for intestinal health, and even in preventing illness!

Here's how easy it is to make yogurt in a crockpot:

1/4 c storebought, plain yogurt OR 1/2 c homemade yogurt

8 c whole milk

photo copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies

Pour milk in crockpot, put on lid, turn crockpot to low.

Leave for 2 1/5 hours.

Turn off crockpot, leave cover on. Let sit for 3 hours.

Take one to two cups of the warm milk and place in a mixing bowl. Mix in the storebought OR homemade yogurt.

Pour this mixture into the crockpot and stir into the rest of the milk.

Put lid on crockpot, fold and put a heavy towl over crockpot to insulate (leave crockpot off). Let sit overnight.

photo copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies

Place yogurt into containers and store in the refrigerator. Keeps about 2 weeks.

photo copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies

The consistency of homemade yogurt is typically a bit thinner than storebought. If you continue to make yogurt from your other batches of homemade yogurt and you find it is becoming too thin, then purchase some plain yogurt from the store for your next batch. In the batch I just made, there was a lot of liquidy whey separated out. You may wish to carefully scoop out the yogurt around the whey for thicker yogurt, but I'd rather keep the nutrition from the whey and have thinner yogurt!

Copyright 2008 Feeding Growling Tummies

Smooth, Cold, and Full of YUM! Smoothies!

Looking for a filling and nutritious snack? A frequent bedtime snack we have here at our house is a smoothie. We've tried a number of flavors, but, by far our favorite is good ol' strawberry!

The children think it's extra special when I serve the smoothies in a "fancy" glass! I think it's true that food presentation adds a lot to taste experience!

Our smoothies tend to be almost the consistency of soft-served ice cream--it is freezing cold and creamy!


Here's my recipe for a strawberry smoothie:


2 cups plain yogurt

1 c frozen strawberries

1 t vanilla

12 drops liquid stevia extract (a natural herbal sweetener--you could use honey or sugar instead), or to taste


Place all ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl and let sit for a couple minutes to ever-so-slightly thaw the strawberries. With a hand blender, blend the ingredients until smooth and creamy. Serve! (This makes a good breakfast too!)


The fruit you use, and amounts, can be altered. We also like banana smoothies, peach smoothies, blueberry smoothies, and mango smoothies...or a mixture of fruits!


You'll notice I sweeten our smoothies with stevia, a natural herbal sweetener. Whenever I can get away with it, I try to substitute sugar and artificial sweeteners with natural sweeteners like stevia and honey. It is so much better for your health than refined sugar and chemical, artificial sweeteners.

Do YOU have a favorite smoothie flavor? What about a unique add-in to a smoothie? Variety is the spice of life and love to hear about it so we can try it!


Copyright 2008 Nourishing Growling Tummies