Meatless Monday Menu Planning

I cannot sing the praises and benefits of menu planning enough.  It's one of MANY things I am grateful to my mom for sharing with me when I moved out and started on my own.  Even as a "single lady", I planned my menus.  And now with a busy family of 4, it is INVALUABLE. If you don't menu plan, I encourage you to try it for a month and see.  You will save money on groceries (no more impulse buying and coordinate with weekly grocery specials for future menus), save on sanity (no more panic/dread "What the heck am I gonna make for dinner tonight" when you're already exhausted and at your limit) and expand your culinary boundaries by being aware of what you're eating and not falling back on fast food to save the day.

I have a few tips to make planning easier:

1. I try planning out an entire month using one resource (a favorite cookbook, my recipe box, a favorite cooking website, Pinterest).  I have planned the last four months of our family's menus almost exclusively off of Pinterest recipes (follow my recipe board at Pinterest) with no repeats. Better Homes and Gardens and Taste of Home are great resources loaded with easy, family friendly recipes.

2. Coordinate with your grocery shopping schedule and plan only a week to two weeks in advance. For example, I usually sit down on a Sunday night before a Friday payday (which is when I grocery shop) to plan the upcoming two weeks.  I have a calendar template in Word for each month and I include special events, meetings and practices, etc. that would affect our dinner schedule.  I usually leave one day a week empty just for "whatever" dinner days, or if something comes up and I need to reschedule a planned dinner. Make your menu flexible for your family!

3. Pick special nights of the week, ala "Meatless Mondays","Mexican Mondays", "Taco Tuesdays", "Pizza Fridays", to help plan more effectively.  It allows you to narrow down your recipe search so it's not so overwhelming.  I am including our July Meatless Monday recipes in this post!  In the fall and winter, I designate Sundays as crock pot days. In the summer, I leave a few days blank to use what we receive from our CSA.


Here are 4 of the KrausHouse's Meatless Monday recipes for July that are easily appropriate for August, as they use summer seasonal veggies in most. (I don't have a 5th, because our wedding anniversary was one of the Mondays this month!)

HODGE PODGE VEGGIE FRITTATA

Like most CSAs, our early bags included a lot of greens.  I am thankful that I can now sing the praises of greens, as they were previously an untouched area of food for me prior to joining our CSA.  Greens are incredibly healthy and I always look for new ways of preparation with every bag.  For this recipe, I had a few leaves of hodge podge greens left (swiss chard, kale, spinach) along with the regular stock of veggies in the drawer, and I was looking for a way to use them all.  Frittatas are like quiche, without the worry of a crust.  You do need a frying pan that is oven safe however, as it begins cooking on the stove top and then is transferred to the oven to bake for a short time.  Use whatever veggies you have stored up in your fridge and follow this basic frittata recipe.

ZUCCHINI BOATS

-Enough zucchini to feed your family;  for 2 adults and 2 kids in our family, I used 4 zucchini

- jar of spaghetti sauce

-several cherry or grape tomatoes

-fresh or shredded mozzarella

-fresh basil leaves

-Cookie sheet with rim

*Preheat oven to 375*F

1. Cut zucc in half length-wise.  Scoop out (and discard) just the seeds in the middle, leaving most of the "meat" of the zucc. 

2. Cut tomatoes and fresh mozzarella balls in half.

3.  Spread in just enough spaghetti sauce to fill cavity where seeds were removed.

4. Layer on halved mozzarella balls or shredded mozzarella cheese, then tomatoes and finally torn or chopped basil leaves.

5. Place zucchini boats on the baking sheet and place in pre-heated oven.  Bake approx. 25 mins.  Keep a close eye on them for the last 5 minutes to see if sauce and cheese are bubbling. Remove from oven and serve!

BAKED PORTABELLO MUSHROOMS

I love portabello mushrooms for Meatless Mondays.  They are a hearty veggie replacement for burgers and are very versatile!

Follow this recipe; straight from my Pinterest recipe board!

EDAMAME PROVENCAL

This was my "daring" recipe of the month.  It's full of flavor and I love olives, so it was an easy choice.  My kids did ok with it, but chose to pick out the super-brined olives, which was fine.  They love edamame! When I first made it, I told them it was lima beans (which they both LOVE) and haven't had any complaints since.

I hope these recipes provide the kick-start to your menu planning endeavors.  It really is one of the smartest family management decisions you can make! If you have any other questions about getting started menu planning, ask away! I'd be happy to help in any way :) GOOD LUCK!!!

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