Dinner Menu Planning: Save Time, Save Money, & Stress

I know this is going to sound so nerdy, but it is what it is.  It's important for us to eat dinner together as a family nearly every night of the week and for me, it's important to feed my family a healthy, wholesome meal that doesn't blow my monthly grocery budget.  I see nothing wrong with a frozen pizza or meal, hot dogs, or mac & cheese but I don't want to serve those items for dinner routinely.

I'm a planner by nature, so the past few years we've implemented a weekly menu.  This helps everyone to know what's for dinner, speeds & simplifies preparation, reduces the time it takes to decide what to cook, and helps me to use what we have on-hand rather than having to run out to the store several times a week! The menu is never fully written in stone, it's flexible and somewhat rearrange-able.  It's just a very helpful organizational tool for our house.

Here's what this week's menu looks like at our house:

• Sunday - chili & cornbread & (yes) boxed mac & cheese for the kids!
• Monday - leftovers from last night and grilled cheese sandwiches
• Tuesday - crockpot chicken breasts, kale slaw (kale from the garden), crescent rolls (yep from the refrigerated food section), and yet again leftover mac & cheese for the kids
• Wednesday - leftover chicken with potatoes, onion, & something else (to be determined)
• .....................what we actually had was hot dogs, roasted potatoes, and baked beans (remember my comment on rearranging and flexibility?)
• Thursday - bean, rice, and kale soup with homemade bread
• .................what we actually had was creamy chicken breasts (crockpot with cream of chicken soup, herbs, water), brown rice, kale slaw salad (similar to what we had the other night), homemade bread
• Friday - hot dogs??? (may try to hit the store since it's been a couple weeks!)
• ...........We are having steaks on the grill, potatoes, green beans, kale slaw, bread
• Saturday - Parents out / Kids pizza!