Meal Planning Tip #2 - Meal List

One thing that really helped me was creating a list of meals my family likes to eat. It's easy for me to get stuck cooking the same things over and over and forget things we used to eat. It's like we get in a rut for a little while, try some new things, and then get in a rut eating those over and over. I easily forget things we haven't made in a few weeks. Making a list of meals is a big help. 

One clarification, in our house, my kids make breakfast for themselves. I'm not a morning person and this helps me out a lot! I make sure they have plenty of healthy things to eat that they can make for themselves. Yes, this list includes cereal, but I only buy them the healthier ones. They each get a box a week and after that, they have to eat something else. So the breakfast list is just to help me make sure everything is in stock in our house. They know to eat one serving of a main dish, one fruit, one yogurt tube, and one protein (cottage cheese or sausage links) along with a glass of milk. About milk, yes there are a lot of choices listed! My kids that are growing like weeds drink whole milk, my kids who aren't growing much at the moment drink 2%, I drink soy, and one of my kids is lactose intolerant.

Here's a sample:

Breakfast: 

Cereal

Oatmeal

Grits

Cream of Wheat

Leftover French Toast, Pancakes, and Waffles

Yogurt Tubes

Sausage Links

Cottage Cheese

Milk (whole, 2%, Soy, and lactose free)

 Lunch:

PB&J Sandwiches

Lunch meat and Cheese Sandwiches

Triangle Sandwiches (ours are not this fancy)

Hot Dog Sandwiches 

Farfalle Pasta (bowtie)

Mac n Cheese

Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

Tortilla Pizzas

Dinner:

Spaghetti

Fajitas

Pancakes

Tacos

Burritos

Fish

Sausage Gravy Biscuits

Fried Rice

Hamburgers

Hot Dogs

Baked Potatoes

Eggs & Bacon

Soup

Roast

Taquitos

Lasagna

This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but it's just some things I could come up with off the top of my head without the list in front of me. I added links for some of them. They are not necessarily where I got this recipe from, but at least somewhere that shows what I'm referring to. 

I pull this list out when I'm menu planning to make coming up with meals easier.

Edited to add: Here is a copy of an old list I found. I need to write up a new one!

I hope this is helpful!