Menu--Month at a glance

I have received LOTS of questions about my menu planning.  I talked about it here, but then I tweaked it a little.  Then I tweaked it a little more.  Then I got more detailed.  Now I finally have 4 weeks of meals planned out.  I can't tell you how nice it is!!  I love being able to know what I am going to fix that day.

Before I detailed it out, I sat down and looked to see if there was anything that I could streamline.  We eat a lot of salads, and there are about 6 different ones that we really like, so I decided to assign each salad to a day of the week.  We also eat homemade pizza every Friday night, so that one was really easy.  Saturdays are crazy busy, so why not do leftovers...then I don't have to worry about preparing anything that night.  Then I made a list of all of the things we eat and tried to break them into categories, for example, rice, soup, pasta, etc.  Once I had the categories figured out, I assigned a category to each day.  We also only have dessert 2 nights a week.  On Monday night as part of family night, and on Friday night just because. Of course it didn't lay out perfectly, but once I did this, it was pretty easy to detail out a 4 week menu.  So, here you go.

Monday--Rice
Breakfast:  Apple cinnamon oatmeal, fruit
Salad:  Mandarin orange salad
Dinner:  1.  Black beans and rice, corn
             2.  Roasted veggies and rice
             3.  Chicken and rice, broccoli
             4.  Stir fry and rice
Treat--whatever the kids want to make--they help me make it

Tuesday--Soup
Breakfast:  Spinach smoothies, fruit (don't knock them until you try them!  :)
Salad:  Cranberry and walnut salad
Dinner:  1.  Veggie soup, breadsticks
             2.  Taco soup, corn bread
             3.  Potato soup, breadsticks
             4.  Chicken and wild rice soup, breadsticks

Wednesday--Pasta
Breakfast:  fruit and pancakes
Salad:  Strawberry spinach salad
Dinner:  1.  Spaghetti, corn, mashed potatoes
             2.  Minestrone with noodles, breadsticks
             3.  Spinach lasagna, green beans
             4.  Pasta salad and veggies

Thursday--Salad (or other)
Breakfast:  Spinach smoothies, fruit
Salad:  Caesar Salad (when needed)
Dinner:  1.  Baked potato and/or salad bar, broccoli
             2.  Chicken Caesar salad
             3.  Cabbage soup, whole wheat bread (kids usually eat sandwiches on this night)
             4.  Taco salad, sliced apples

Friday--Pizza
Breakfast:  Apple cinnamon oatmeal, fruit
Salad:  Garden Salad
Dinner:  Homemade pizza--usually pepperoni
Treat--whatever the kids want--they help me make it

Saturday--leftovers
Breakfast:  fruit and muffins
Salad:  whatever we want
Dinner:  whatever leftover we want

Sunday--Other
Breakfast:  cold cereal (so we aren't late to church)
Dinner:  1.  Potatoes, sausage, and green beans
             2.  Zucchini and Swiss chard, blueberries (kids usually eat sandwiches)
             3.  Burritos/enchiladas, Normandy blend
             4.  Veggie and chicken pot pie, broccoli

We do have a few rules.  The kids have to try everything on their plates.  If they won't try it, then they don't get anything else and they can go to bed with no dinner.  If they try it and say they don't like it, but I know it is something they have eaten fine in the past, they can choose to eat or choose to go to bed with no dinner.  If it so something I know they don't like because they have never liked it, they still have to try it, but once they do, I will make them a sandwich instead.  RARELY do they choose to go to bed hungry, but it does happen sometimes.  They also don't get dessert unless they eat their dinner.

If you see something on this menu that you want a recipe for, send me an email at pumpkinpatchdesigns@hotmail.com

Thanks!!