Menu Monday

The past week was a fail in the cooking department. My poor kitchen was left pretty lonely and my wallet is asking for a vacation. In my defense, I live in the suburbs of Atlanta and we did make it through an ice storm!

Does anyone else have grocery store panic? During menu planning I go through all the thoughts of whole foods, organic, coupons, frugal, ahhhh, how do you figure out how to balance all this without losing your mind! Am I the only one?

My menu plan for the next two weeks is complete, but now for the hard part: actually following it! Putting together a list of meals, the grocery list, and then shopping are not the difficult part for me. Many times I am not in the mood for the dinner that is slotted for that day. Since changing to a system of just writing down 14 dinners, 14 lunches, 14 breakfasts that are not given specific days we are doing much better at following our menu plan. If anyone has advice on following the menu plans I would love to hear them!

This is our menu plan for the next two weeks. I'm sorry that these are not linked to recipes, I have not yet learned how to do that. Many of them can be found in either the "this week's recipes" or "cooking" boards on my pinterest boards.

Breakfasts: 

Oatmeal with fruit
Apple pie oatmeal in the slowcooker
Steel cut oats in the slowcooker

(do I need to mention that I buy oats in bulk?)

Lunches:

I do not make any plans for these. Typically we will just eat leftovers or heat up soup and sandwiches. When school is in session my daughter eats the same thing every. single. day. I get to vary the fruit for her, but that is the only variable.

Dinners:

Pork fried rice
Crockpot chicken, rice, veggies (this is a whole chicken that just cooks in slowcooker, I do whatever veggies I have on hand that need to be eaten)
Black beans and rice, salad
Ranch chicken (my favorite and easy, which is probably why it is my favorite! pictured above, I do not have "after" pictures as this is always eaten quickly!)
Turkey burgers, sweet potatoes, veggies
Chicken noodle soup, brown rice bread
Chicken "teriyaki" & veggies
Pasta with meat sauce, salad
Chef's salad
Repeat: crockpot chicken, potatoes, veggies
Chicken fried rice
Repeat: ranch chicken
Repeat: chicken noodle soup, brown rice bread

My menus are typically gluten and dairy free and absolutely no tree nuts. Pork will make occasional appearances. Beef will not be making appearances. Chickens and turkeys fear us!

Hope everyone is doing great with their menu plans and has a fantastic week. I am linking this to Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie's website http://orgjunkie.com/2014/02/menu-plan-monday-feb-1714.html. If you are looking for some inspiration in your menu planning be sure to check it out!