Here is my Publix meal plan for next week. Since I typically shop at the end of the Publix sale my menus are always a week ahead. I don’t know about you guys but there is nothing worse than standing in front of the refrigerator hoping a dinner idea will jump out. My husband is usually not much help when it comes to menu planning. He is so laid back and will pretty much eat whatever…so it is left to me to come up with the menu. It makes it nice as I get to cook what I like most – tee hee!
Having my menu done for the week also allows me to move things around if I need to. If I decide that I am not in the mood for Moo Shu Pork on Monday I can easily move it to Thursday as I will have everything on hand for the entire week. Folks are always asking how to cut their grocery budget and I honestly think meal planning is the easiest way to slash spending!
Being able to inventory what you have on hand and then just fill in with sale items means you only buy what you need. I really think people spend too much money on things that they might use. I used to walk down the aisles thinking that by putting lots of veggies in my cart mean that we were going to have so much to choose from and I would magically have great meals at my fingertips! Usually I tossed out half of what I had bought due to spoilage. I was overbuying in a big way. While I would love if my family would eat massive quantities of the good stuff…there is really only so much you can eat in one week. I found that planning meant that I was actually using what I was buying. I was not buying nearly as much and what I did buy – actually got used! So one head of cabbage is used for two meals and completely consumed. No more half a head left in the fridge to wilt and rot!
Here is what I have on my menu for the week -
MONDAY
Moo Shu Pork
Steamed Rice
TUESDAY
Spinach Sunflower Seed Pesto Sauce over Grilled Chicken
Steamed Cauliflower
Yellow Rice
WEDNESDAY
Cream Cheese Stuffed Roasted Chicken (without the potatoes)
Roasted Asparagus & Cauliflower
Kale Chips
THURSDAY
Korean Beef Tacos
Black Bean & Corn Salsa
FRIDAY
Homemade Pizza
Side Salad
SUNDAY (Easter Dinner with Family)
Ham
Deviled Eggs
Green Beans or Baked Beans
Potato Salad (my mom is bringing this)
Rolls
What’s on your menu this week? Share your menu or your recipes in the comments. I always love getting new ideas!
Also, if you have questions about menu planning or just want to share some of your best tips – bring them on. I really think if you start planning your meals you will be amazed at what you will save – both time and money!
Just clicked through and pinned that roasted chicken recipe. It looks amazing and relatively easy to make.
We had to rearrange our menu (the best laid plans…) from last week since my husband ended up working a few overtime shifts and missing dinner at home. So we moved some of our planned meals to this week. Good thing most of the ingredients had a decent expiration time : )
I find planning a week or two of menus help alot in saving money also saving time. With baseball in full swing the first home can start dinner. At least my boys know what is in the house to cook. And no more what is for dinner when we walk in the door at 8pm it is done and waiting for us thanks to my DH. And I too say it is not set in stone we can change it up. Thank you for all you do.
Are these meals plans based on the upcoming ad or the ad out right now?
I have a question. I don’t have a huge stockpile and right now most of my meat comes from Costco (Haven’t stocked up on crazy meat sales yet). My question is: should I plan my meals based on which sales – protein, veggies, staples?
I made a half-hearted attempt at meal planning from your suggestions on here. Your weekly meal plan would nudge me a little and I would go look at what was on sale and then I would try three or four things. Made a huge difference.
Then I was introduced to flylady and she insists on meal planning. Well, I tried it her way for a while too and lo and behold, I cut another $50-$100 off the monthly food budget for two months in a row. I slipped back to old ways and sure enough, food budget was over the very first month.
So now I am doing it the flylady way. I not only plan two weeks rotating meals (I add in new recipes to try or float things around every time) but I actually assign to a particular day each week. Like you, I sometimes swap them out but if I know we have a game on Tuesday then I know I need a crockpot meal, leftovers recreated, or one of my quickie meals for that night. It completely stopped the “let’s go by the xxxx drivethru” issue because the family already knew what I had planned for dinner. What a HUGE difference.
When I do my two week plan I take stock of the freezer, look at the sales and look at our schedule before I plan it out. The combination seems to work best!
Sherri
Really a little bit of everything….I usually see something that is a really goo price-maybe pasta sauce. Then I look to see if there is anything that I have on hand or something else in the ad that i can add in to create a meal. So for example if chicken was on sale but beef was not …instead of spaghetti & meatballs I might do chicken parm. It is all about buying things when they are on sale and avoiding paying full price for anything you buy. Some weeks it requires a little more creativity than others
Really these are based on the upcoming ad and what I have in my freezer/pantry
I always plan my menus trying to focus on the Publix sales. I just started a blog and am planning to share my menus and recipes each week. Here is the first one I posted for this week based on the sales in the current flier. The weekly ad in my area comes out on Thursdays, so I am going to try to have my menus posted each Saturday. thanks for all of your postings – they are so helpful! Enjoy! http://www.ourlifetastesgood.blogspot.com/2012/03/this-weeks-menu-and-shopping-list.html