Menu Planning and the October Plan

One of the keys for me to keeping within a food budget is planning and my biggest planning tool is the dinner menu. I don't do breakfast menus or lunch menus, breakfast is a quick meal grabbed on the run during the week and it usually means something like yogurt, a cereal or granola or fiber bar, and coffee. My adult son and my two teens do not do weekday breakfast although they do enjoy a nice cooked Sunday breakfast. On Saturdays breakfast is a DIY thing, cereal (hot or cold), toast, etc. Sunday mornings I like to cook a breakfast usually some kind of eggs or made from scratch pancakes or waffles or french toast or even a coffee cake and some kind of protein, sausage or bacon or cheese.
 

Lunches during the school year are either the school hot lunch (since I run a cafeteria this is always an option for me) or something eaten at home (my teen daughter is home by lunch time each day) sandwiches, soup, salad or leftovers. These options are also our weekend and summer fare.
For me meal planning centers around the dinner table. I like to create an entire month's worth of menus to choose from. That way I have some leeway for who is going to be home, what we all feel like eating, and whether or not the day has turned into something way busier than originally planned.
The first step is for me to dip into my extensive collection of cookbooks and cook booklets as well as several food magazines I receive via my Kindle. I love variety and I love trying new recipes or even new variations of favorite recipes. My goal is to make something new at least once a week if not more often. I then fill in with tried and true ideas. When creating a meal I use a basic pattern: Protein, starch, vegetable and/or fruit. I don't plan desserts, they are a occasional treat.


The next step is the list. I make a detailed shopping list based on the dinner menus, standard lunch and breakfast options and what needs to be restocked in the pantry and/or freezer. I divide the list up according to which store has the best price or selection and then I am ready to roll out and get those groceries purchased.


Although we are several days into October I want to share what the dinner plans are for this month, once a week it is Dinner Date Night with my gentleman friend which makes it DIY night for the kids, we are into high school football season (my youngest is in the marching band) so most Fridays dinner is a hot dog at the game, and in October we have one special event (my youngest daughter's 18th birthday ) which is an entirely separate menu, those things aside here are the plans:
Pumpkin sausage penne, harvest salad
Pumpkin waffles w/ cinnamon syrup, Scottish skillet potatoes
Beef veggie soup, fly off the plate rolls
Beer battered pan fried whiting (new recipe), crispy oven fries, coleslaw
Horseradish encrusted tilapia, Capri blend veggies
Grilled herbed salmon fillet, white and wild rice, broccoli with lemon
Salmon cakes with lime chipotle tartar sauce, mashed cauliflower, peas
Indian corn stew(new recipe), pumpkin biscuits
Spicy meatloaf, mashed potatoes, sweet and sour red cabbage
Steaks , Oven roasted mushrooms (new recipe), cinnamon glazed carrots
Kielbasa and apple kraut, mashed potatoes, French green beans
Pork chops with apple stuffing(new recipe) , German potato salad, cucumber salad
One dish chicken bake, crescent rolls
Lasagna, salad
Spaghetti, salad
New England boiled dinner, corn muffins
Butternut squash ravioli with browned sage butter, salad
Salisbury steak, mashed potatoes, corn
Pork stew and dumplings (new recipe), fly off the plate rolls
Lazy Golumbki casserole, rye bread
Chicken creole, white rice, salad