Meal Planning Monday: 101

{my favorite salad: baby spinach, strawberries, toasted almonds, poppyseed dressing}

So I started this whole Meal Planning Monday as a sort of way to help me fulfill one of my New Year's Resolutions. My goal was to plan the week with at least 3 cooked meals (with the hope that this will serve us at 5-6 meals). I'll admit that I flub up some, but over all the routine of planning out our week on Sunday has been quite efficient. Some of the benefits I'm noticing:

• Saves us money: We're working around what we have... Less wasted food, No last minute g-store runs or eating out decisions.
  
• Saves me time: I sit down once a week instead of daily to make meal decisions.
  
• Lowers my stress: No 5:00 scramble to figure out what everyone will eat. 
  
• Eating healthier: I can plan balanced meals and work in variety for the week.
  
• Ensures family dinner time: With a plan, I find that we are eating together at the same time each night, and it goes much smoother.

I still plan our week out on my nifty little $1 pad. My sister is meal planning now too and using this one that she prints out. By writing it down each week, we can easily go back over past plans for ideas when we're drawing a blank. I came across a new method recently from one of my favorite sites (Thanks Jenny for the head's up!) and I just think it's brilliant. SimpleMom records her meal plan on her google calendar. She works on a rotating schedule, where she'll plan a few weeks and then just sets it to repeat. (She outlines exactly how she does it here if you're interested in the details.) This eliminates even more time spent and stress out of the whole process. I could easily see how this would work with iCal and other online calendar systems. I'm seriously thinking about trying this technique out and see how it works for us.

Okay, so here's our week:

Monday/Wednesday: 

Chicken Spaghetti (my mother-in-law baked us a big ole batch... Love her!!)

Salad

Tuesday: 

Breakfast for dinner 

(I'm thinking of making a big batch of pancakes or waffles and save some of the batter for quick, yummy breakfasts in the morning.)

Thursday: 

Fish Tacos

Friday: 

Out to Dinner (birthday gift certificate: WOOHOO!)

Saturday/Sunday: 

Grilled Chicken

Spinach/Strawberry Salad

Are you meal planning? Is it working for you? What's your process? 

Happy Monday!