menu ideas

[Annette]

I'm looking for some good menu ideas for breakfast,lunch,snacks, and dinners for my family. Could anyone give some recommendations for online resources? I don't just want recipes for meals. I'm looking more for menus that are already written out. I don't like having to come up with how many (if any) side dishes and then trying to figure out from all the possibilities what to serve. Too much work, especially now that I'll be homeschooling.

Annette

[creativemommy]

You could try relishrelish.com to help you with dinners. You can pick the meals with side dishes & it prints the grocery list for you. I haven't personally used it, but know a friend who signed up for it.

[inHistiming]

http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com has some recipes, and they're economical too. Some, if not all, have recommendations at the end of the recipe for what to serve with it. The site also has two menus for those trying to really cut back on grocery spending. It may be worth a look for you. We've enjoyed everything we've tried, so far.

[mommadonna]

I am always hearing Dave Ramsey recommend e-meals. I am not sure of the exact web address, so you could just google it, but it does provide a menu and grocery list. I think it even does the menu around what is on sale at a specific store?? You should ck it out. HTH

[mom24boys]

I signed up for e-mealz.com a couple of weeks ago. We are enjoying it! I love that I don't really have to decide what to eat. I do, however, mix things up or eliminate some meals due to an egg allergy in our family. It is pretty basic food...nothing crazy on the pallet (sp?) which is good for the kids.

We shop at Publix so it's really nice that the meals are specific to the sales that are currently happening in our store. They also match it to Aldi and Walmart (I think)? They do include side items and they also include the shopping list. So far so good. =)

[pjdobro]

My sister has tried e-mealz. The web site is http://www.e-mealz.com It worked out ok for her, but she had to go with the generic menu plan because she didn't have one of the stores nearby whose specials they use. I think it would work much better if a person was able to subscribe to a menu plan using one of the designated stores so that the ingredients you are using are on sale that week. That would make it much more economical.

I'm a big fan of the hillbilly homemaker too. She has some great recipes and ideas on her web site. I've never tried her menu plan though.

I got a great menu planning guide in e-book form from Graham Family Ministries. She has a lot of great tips on how to make menu planning simple: http://www.school4jesus.com/homemaking/menu-planning

I know it can seem like a lot of trouble at first to plan menus, but once you invest the time up front, you can reuse the same menu plans over and over. It doesn't take a lot of different menu plans to keep variety in mealtimes. I like the idea of coming up with a list of entrees, then a list of vegetable side dishes, then a list of starches. I did that making 3 columns and then I could easily choose something from each column and have a nice meal. I'm going to use my 3 column idea this fall as I start incorporating my children helping me with meal time. Each week, I'm going to have an assistant cook that will help me make the menu plan then help me with all the preparations as well. I feel it will be good for them to start learning these skills and the 3 column menu planning idea will simplify planning with them.

I hope that helps a little. A year ago some ladies here set me in the direction of freezer cooking and menu planning and it really helped me a great deal. Our household and our school runs so much better when I have invested the time in planning and prepping our meals ahead of time. I hope you find something that works well for you!