**Welcome to my monthly meal plan! While the plan will remain the same for the entire month, I will continue to update this post as I add recipes to the site. So check back each week. I’ll list them at the end of the post. Thanks so much, and I hope you’re enjoying the meal plan! 
Happy February everyone!
It’s finally not freezing and I’m thrilled. I’m going to find something outside this house to do as soon as I get this post up. I know you’re all just sitting at your computers waiting to find out what my family is eating this week!
I’m excited to announce that I’m finally going back to a meal planning system that I used long ago and really loved. (Don’t ask me why I stopped doing it this way, I have no idea!)
It’s once-a- month planning and shopping. Oh yeah. No more being mad at myself because I have a meal plan but no food because I habitually skip the grocery store. I don’t know what it is about the grocery store but it just always seems there is something (way) better to do than grocery shop.
And, believe it or not, it saves money!
I’ll post more about this on Monday. For now I just wanted to get this out in case you need some ideas for your menu. If you’re not quite ready to jump into monthly planning, just use what you can. Maybe just follow week by week.
Here is my menu for this month. Feel free to download it and use it for your planning. I’ve linked the recipes that I’ve posted so far. I’ll add more recipes to the blog as I go along so be sure and check back for those.
Click to view PDF
Oh, we have to think about breakfast, lunch and snacks! I hope to have a running list of ideas for each ready for you by next week. When you’re doing your monthly dinner plan you can actually go ahead and plan for breakfast, lunch, and snacks as well. Just choose the delicate produce items for early in the month.
OK, here we go, here’s what we’ll have this week:
Breakfast choices:
Whole Grain Waffles w/ strawberries
Peanut Butter Toast with Bananas
Oatmeal with blueberries
Smoothies
Lunch Choices:
Leftovers
Chili & Potatoes
Spaghetti
Snacks:
Popcorn
Yogurt
Carrots & Dip
Apples
Graham Crackers with Peanut Butter
Pizza Nachos
Dessert of the week:
Since it’s almost Valentine’s week I thought I’d make one of the six thousand beautiful desserts I’m seeing on Pinterest. Something unusual, something that takes lots of time and show my family how much I love them. And then I realized the best way to show them that is to make something they’ll love. And the boring truth is, when it all comes down to it, my family seems to prefer a good old fashioned chocolate chip cookie. So, in honor of them, and to add some Valentine’s flair, I’m making these. http://whiskawayyourworries.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/love-is-in-the-air/
**Update: made the cookies, they were great! Here’s my post with a few small changes.
This week I think we’ll try these Cream Cheese Brownies with Heart Shaped Strawberries!
Have you ever tried monthly meal planning and shopping? I’d love to hear about your experience and what you love/hate about it.
**Here are the recipes from this plan that I’ve added to the site since posting the plan (Links will not appear on the downloadable meal plan.)
Nach-Yo mamma’s Chicken Soup (Tortilla Chicken Soup)
Sweetheart Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Linking up with:
I’m coming to your house for dinner on the 8th and the 24th. 🙂 Num num! I have to try those recipes. Adding them to my future meal plan. I’ve been planning on a weekly basis lately as most of my shopping is done at Costco once per month because I can buy meat in bulk and use my FoodSaver to separate and freeze family-size portions. But with the weather being so terrible here in PA lately I’m delinquent on making that Costco trip. Thanks for the inspiration to try a few new yummy looking recipes from your meal plan and site.
Come on over!
I wish we had a Costco nearby, I hear a lot of people say that they find good deals even on organics and other real foods. Ours is about 45 minutes. I guess I could go once in a while but I’m not sure I’d really get my $ worth out of a membership. Have you ever compared the meat you buy at Costco to Zaycon Foods? https://zayconfoods.com/refer/zf45994 That’s where I’ve been getting my chicken and beef. I’ve got 80 pounds of chicken (yes you read that right) coming this Friday. Guess I know what I’m doing all day!
Rosann
I just read your post from February 3, 2014, the read it out loud to my husband. He thought I had wrote it! We are in Oregon and yes sometimes the weather delays out monthly trip to Costco. Our closet town of any size (that has Costco, Wal-Mart, and Winco) is 45 miles always. we try to shop every 4 weeks, but last time it had been 7 weeks!
By the way Beth – we have the Costco Executive card and we get almost all the cost back annually. The least we have ever received back on the 2& was a little over $80.00. So the actual card cost to us less than $20.00
Hey Betty Lou,
I’m really not familiar with Costco because ours is 45 minutes away, and unlike your situation, I’m 5 minutes from just about anything else I could need. So it’s very difficult to justify spending half a day chasing deals 45 minutes away. However, if I keep asking questions and find that I can go once a month and find good deals on healthy foods, I may have to make it worth the trip.
Explain to me what an executive card is. You mentioned that it almost pays for itself. Not to sound snarky, it’s an honest question; if it doesn’t actually fully pay for itself and then some, what is the benefit to having it?
thanks for stopping by Betty Lou, I’d love to have you sign up for my mailing list and get my free ebook!
Costco Exc. card is $110.00 and you get 2% back of everything you but(except gas, pharmacy, and other little shops in the store) We get a check once a year for the 2% we bought just when the membership card is due. With that card we can also get in the store at 10AM. The regular card is $60.00 and you can’t get in the store until 11:00 AM. I also keep a running list of what I buy and the cost. I agree that sometimes Costco does not have best price, then I buy at the store that does. I did compare Costco wit Zaycon (?) that was mention by someone else’s reply and they are much higher than Costco and some of the larger supermarkets in town, on items they were even higher than the small market here in this little town. As we only shop once a month it is a hard trip, but I buy everything I need for the month, I do have to buy milk at this little market. I pay $5.12 for 2 gallons of milk, here it is $2.50 to 2.79 per 1/2 gallon. I freeze my milk but sometimes I do run out before I can get into town.
I just found this via the weekly menu plan link up. You have so many delicious recipes! I’m going to try out some of your soups this week!
Hi there Yuliya, I’m so glad you stopped by! I hope you find some new favorites. I’d love to have you sign up for my mailing list, that way you’ll always know when I have a new recipe up!
Enjoy your soup!
I used to monthly meal plan and shop monthly when I was working. (We also used to cook once a month a freeze it all