September 4, 2014

What's for Dinner? ~ September Edition

What's for Dinner? ~ September Edition.
 Just to clarify ~ I have a month of dinners figured out.
I don't necessarily assign specific meals to specific days.
What works best for me is to group the meals into weeks
and then to go from there.

I also include some ideas for breakfast and lunch on my plan (not shown) ~
however, I don't have the whole month planned out for those meals.
As a money-saving strategy, I am incorporating beans/meatless meals weekly.
One of my goals is to have fish on a weekly basis as well.

At the beginning of the month, I make a master list for the staple items 

I will need for the entire month and shop for them all at once ~ or, try to.
At the beginning of each new week, I make my grocery list for the 
fresh items I will need and shop for them accordingly.

Oh, and one more thing.  I fill in the gaps when I make my weekly list.  

That is, the main dish is decided for the month overview,
but, the sides get plugged in at the beginning of each week.
That's why the first week looks more fleshed out ~ because we are in it!
Any questions?  Feel free to ask.  Now...here's the list.

September 1-7:

~ Shrimp Creole
~ Homemade Fish and Chips with Coleslaw
~ Trader Joe's Chicken with Nugget potatoes, carrots and Greek Salad
~ Trisha's Crock Pot Chicken with rice and steamed broccoli


September 8-14:

~ Farmer's Breakfast
~ Baked Salmon
~ Shepherd's Pie
 September 15-21:

~ Leek and Potato Soup
~ Chicken Stir Fry
~ Salmon Loaf
~ Beef Stew


September 22-28:

~ Sweet and Sour Lentils

~ Meat Loaf and Scalloped Potatoes
~ Tuna Fish Cakes with Foil Veggies
~ Autumn Chowder
~ Chili with Cornbread
~ Tex Mex Chicken Soup
~ Leftovers (Finally!)



September 29-October 5:

~ Green Pea Soup
~ Auntie Fran's Quiche
~ Tandoori Chicken
~ Slow Cooker Spaghetti


Now, we need to implement this and see how it all pans out ~
I find that planning it out helps to keep me on track. 

The big question still remains ~ Will it actually save money? 
I know it will eliminate the last-minute dash to the store as well as the
temptation to order in pizza.  That's got to make a difference...right?  We'll see.

What about you?  What's on your menu this month?

How about this week?  Please share.  
It makes things more fun when you do.

Happy September Y'all!
With Love, Camille

5 comments:

Cheesemakin' Mamma said...

I should not have dropped by your blog before eating dinner, LOL. It all looks amazing!!! Love having so many dinner choices with the garden in full swing and saving us money :)

Camille said...

Dear Jackie ~ Ah, yes....what a blessing!! Your garden could feed and army!! :) With Love, Camille

Patty said...

I tried a monthly menu before but didn't follow through. I want to try it again. I definitely need to trim our food budget also. I think I will try to dig up what I've already done, make some modifications if needed, and try again. Thanks for the motivation!

Grandmabeckyl.blogspot said...

You got me on the menu planning path again. I was good at it awhile as well. But some how got away from it. So I decided what I wanted to make this a.m. for tonight thru next Friday. I didn't have to buy meat as there's lots in freezer. I need to defrost the freezer too. It's hard to do it when there's alot of food in there! Megan and I went shopping today and wouldn't you know, I left the list on the counter but I did make another list while we were eating lunch at Wendy's and I remembered it all and added one thing Megan reminded me that we needed. If I can keep it at a week or two planned, then that helps me. Your food looks delicious! I just gained a lb by looking at it! HA! Have a good weekend!

Camille said...

Dear Patty ~ The thing that is working for me is not assigning specific days to the meals...maybe that will help you, too? Hope you find a system that works. :)

Dear Becky ~ Oh...yaay! Please let me know how it goes. I hope you find your groove with it and find to be a blessing. :)

With Love,
Camille