Meal Planning Friday!

So, another week is ending and that means it is time to get going on meal planning!

Here are the basic steps I follow to plan meals for my family:

1.  Review next week's calendar to see how many nights we will be home for dinner.  Make a note of the days on my meal planning sheet for the week.  (note:  I do not normally plan meals for Saturday or Sunday because we usually eat out on those nights)

2.  Survey the kitchen to see what meals can be made from already available ingredients - or - check the freezer for meals already made that just need to be thawed and cooked.  If possible I like to have a crockpot meal at least once each week.

3.  Assign the meals found in #2 to a day noted in #1 on the meal planning sheet.

4.  If there are still days that do not have meals assigned I then have to figure out what we can make that night and add the necessary ingredients to the grocery list.

Meal Plan for next week:

Monday - Meatloaf and candied carrots from the freezer with canned green beans and corn
Tuesday - Melissa's Crockpot Zesty Italian Sirloin Pork
Thursday - Chicken Tikka Masala with basmati rice and naan bread - already have chicken, bread and these fantastic  McCormick Recipe Inspiration spices (that have the recipe on back!) so I just need to add the additional ingredients to our grocery list
Friday - Tacos with spanish rice, add taco toppings to grocery list