August Meal Planning

I have posted a short and sweet post on meal planning previously...here.  I have continued with my meal planning like normal but haven't done it quite to the best of my abilities lately.  As Summer winds down and I'm fixing to go into my busy season of school, hunting, work, and just LIFE the easiest way to stay ahead and use my time to the max is by planning and preparing as much as possible for the knowns.  As we all know there are plenty of unknowns that will throw a kink in your plans so the less I have to rack my brain for supper then the better.  That leaves more time for cleaning, homework, brainstorming, and general trashy TV watching. ;)  The last few days of the month I prepare my grocery list, meal plan, and organize my budget for the upcoming month.  This month went awesome and it only took me a couple hours.  I went a little overboard and I'm sure I'll have meals left over but again that works well for next month and is less preparation.  I was sort of in a slump this past month on my cooking and really needed some inspiration so I turned to none other than Pintrest.  I cruised my own Get in my Belly board found HERE and then surfed the food genre to find more yummy recipes to try now and pin for later. 

Here is my list of possible meals, my planner to decide what day needs which meal, and then my grocery list to ensure I have the needed goods.

I try to leave at least one day a week for leftovers.  With cooking so much we are always bound to have a bit of leftover to clean up because there's nothing worse than throwing out food.  I also try to list my meals out before I pencil them onto the calender so I can get a good variety of dishes for every week. No one wants to eat Mexican themed dishes for a week straight...it can really mess up your month.

I'm super impressed with my meal planning for the month of August because it got me really motivated to cook again and try several new recipes.

Here's what we have:

1-Aug	Grilled chicken, grilled vegetables, baked potato
2-Aug	Echkards sausage, homemade mac-n-chz, green beans
3-Aug	Go out
4-Aug	Slow cooker chicken and broccoli fettuccine
5-Aug	Chicken fried steak, scallop potatoes, green beans
6-Aug	Left overs
7-Aug	Homemade hamburgers and fries
8-Aug	Beans & Cornbread, sauteed cabbage
9-Aug	Cajun dirty rice
10-Aug	Tuna Casserole
11-Aug	Quesadillas and Queso
12-Aug	Go Out- Dr. Appt
13-Aug	Homemade corn dogs
14-Aug	Chicken kabob, baked potato
15-Aug	Enchiladas
16-Aug	Left overs
17-Aug	Pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, brussell sprouts
18-Aug	Fish fillets, broccoli, rice
19-Aug	Cajun chicken pasta
20-Aug	Chicken strips, mac-n-chz, corn
21-Aug	Left overs
22-Aug	Meat loaf, mashed potatoes, broccoli
23-Aug	Homemade Pizza
24-Aug	Grilled chicken, potatoes, corn on the cob
25-Aug	American Chinese
26-Aug	Left overs
27-Aug	Honey garlic pork chops, zucchini, rice
28-Aug	Chicken spaghetti
29-Aug	Beef and broccoli stir fry
30-Aug	Salmon patties, mashed potatoes, peas
31-Aug	Oven baked chicken, mac-n-chz, fried okra

At the end of the day when I'm updating my week/days I mark through the meal I used and if I didn't cook the planned meal for some reason all together I circle it so I know that I can use it later in the month if I need to or in the next month.

I hope this help anyone who needs a little inspiration or motivation or good o' organization!