July Meal Plan and Grocery List

I've told a few people about my idea to make a menu plan for a whole year.  I hate planning out my menus, but I've found that it is a necessity.  Otherwise, I head to the grocery store with no idea what to buy and end up getting a bunch of random things that I can't make into (edible) meals.  So, basically, I've been menu planning for the past 8 years and got really sick of it. I hated forgetting where I saw a new recipe, hated making the same old things all the time, and hated frantically sitting down the night before a shopping trip to decide what to eat.

So, when I saw the idea on Pinterest to menu plan for the whole year (with grocery lists and everything) I was sold.  I started working on it late last year and it didn't take long to get pretty much every meal figured out.  I did pretty well with following it and saving grocery lists and all...and then the food adversions and cravings hit when I was about 8 weeks pregnant.  So...I did away with the planned meal plan and just kinda winged it for awhile.  I ended up grocery shopping pretty much every week.  It was easy while Lane was in preschool - I only had to take Katy with me and she was really good.

Then summer hit and I quickly tired of bringing both kids with me all the time.  I tried to go at night when Curtis was home, but I was way too tired.  Then, a few weeks ago was the last straw - both kids cried/screamed the entire way through the grocery store and I vowed that I am never taking them again.  I will only take them to our small-town grocery store where they can push the kids' carts.

So, my plan now is to go to Walmart once a month and stock up on all the non-perishables and pantry staples I need for the whole month.  They are by far the cheapest place to get the basics, even though I don't always like their produce (both prices and quality).  So, my grocery list has two parts - non-perishables for the "big" trip and then a list for each week with produce/dairy/meat.  (This month I ended up buying all my chicken and ground beef at once and prepped everything that first week.  It has worked great and I will probably try to do that all the time!)

I think this idea will work out pretty good once the baby is born...there is no way I'm hauling three kids to grocery shop every week.  So...just because I'm pretty sure I like all of you who read this blog...I'm going to share July's menu and grocery list with you :).  Quite a bit of the recipes are from Taste of Home, others are from blogs (found on Pinterest) and some are from various church cookbooks.  And some are super simple meals that don't need a recipe (pizza!  spaghetti!).  Oh, and double check the recipes against the list to make sure that you have everything you need.  I left out stuff like spices and other staples that I know I always have on hand.

Wow that got really long, but I've had people ask what I do when I say that I meal plan...and so far this is working pretty good.  Now if I can only get disciplined enough to keep up with the grocery lists and put it all in a binder...and not have to do this next year :)

Menu Plan for July
Grocery List for July