Menu Plan

So let's face facts. I haven't been that great about keeping up with posting a menu plan on here.

I found this great site that DOES keep up with it here.

Here are a couple of tips with coming up with your meal plan:
1.  Plan 1 to 2 weeks in advance what kind of meat item you will be making. Take a look at your stockpile of meat and see how you could go about using what you have to NOT have to go purchase meat at the store for any of your meals.

2.  Utilize your non perishable (or longer lasting perishables) to determine one of you side items (rolls, rice, egg noodles, mashed potatoes, etc)

3.  Then as the week approaches, look at your meals and determine what might be good pairings.

4. USE THE SALE AD to determine what fresh produce item you will pair with your meal. Example, Asparagas is generally $2.99 a pound. Broccoli is usually much cheaper, however, this week asparagas is only $1.88 a pound. Purchase 2 pounds, it can be seperated out over the course of three meals usually (depending on your family size).

5.  One last menu planning tip.  The FDA has recommendations for water drinking, the amount of grains, fresh fruits and veggies that you should intake.  It is very beneficial to your budget to look at these recommedations.  Not only will these recommendations help you maintain a healthier lifestyle, but, meat is one of the highest costing portions of our meal.  The FDA would only recommend 2-3 oz of red meat for a dinner portion. 
-Try eating the non-meat part of your meal before your meat.  Usually you will be too full to eat much meat once your eat your veggies first.  This will make for more leftovers.

*When you get home from the store with meat, it is always a good idea to seperate your meat into meal sized portions and then date and freeze them.*