Menu Planning

One of my new year's resolutions this year is to be more diligent about planning out a weekly menu. I decided I wanted to do this for a few reason....
1. I get tired of trying to think something up at the last minute
2. I get tired of once I do finally think of something I go to the cabinet/refrigerator only to find I'm missing a key ingredient.
3. I think it will help us spend our money more wisely.
4. It will help us use items before they go bad. It seems like we are always throwing out potatoes, carrots, celery, etc. because we didn't end up using them all and they spoiled.

So I finally decided to sit down today and plan out a menu. I first did a quick inventory of what we already have on hand in effort to try to make a menu around what we already have vs. planning a menu and then going out and buying what I needed. My plan was to come up with a dinner menu for Monday-Friday. So far I have come up with a menu for the next two weeks out of mostly the items we already have. Ironically Money Saving Mom was having a guest post today on "How I Save Money by Planning a Menu" that was pretty interesting. I also found a website today called Supercook that you can go in and enter all the ingredients you have on hand and it will come up with various recipes you can make out of those items. It also allows you to set up an account so you can go in and add additional items as you buy them or take items off as you use them. Each time you add or remove an item the recipes are automatically adjusted.

If you have any favorite recipes that your family enjoys please feel free to share as I'm also trying to add to our limited menu rotation.