clean menu plan, week 4

Monday: chicken parmesan
Tuesday: tuna noodle casserole
Wednesday: chicken stir fry over jasmine rice
Thursday: spinach artichoke pasta
Friday: roasted chicken, potatoes, and veggies
Saturday: Emmett's birthday party
Sunday: Mother's Day (plans unknown?)

All of these are my own recipes, and all the meals are clean with the exception of the tuna noodle casserole, because that uses cream of celery soup. If anyone has any suggestions/recipes for clean tuna casserole, feel free to share!

Goal & Focus this week: I have recently taken on another three year old in addition to my boys, so Monday-Thursday, I wanted to make dinners that were pretty easy/familiar and not too labor intensive. We are still eating clean with great success about 90% of the time. We've completely switched over to whole wheat bread crumbs, pasta, and flour, which makes it easy to turn some of our old standby dinners into clean meals. Occasionally,we make exceptions (like with the tuna casserole) but overall, we are filling our bodies with REAL food and that makes me feel great. :)

meal planning

Being a stay at home mama is something I do not take for granted. I feel so blessed to be able to spend each and every moment with my son, watching him learn and grow. The days weeks are passing so quickly lately that I simply can't imagine what I would do if I had to go to work. I'd probably spend 95% of my day thinking about him and wondering what he was doing. It would be hard to focus! Missing all his milestones and having to hear about his "firsts" from a nanny or day care provider would just about kill me. Not to mention the fact that I'm exhausted every day simply from caring for {and chasing around} my son. I can't imagine doing it after having to work eight hours- and somehow finding time to clean and cook, too! Crazy! I want to give all you working mamas out there a big round of applause. You inspire me!

My husband is a soldier. He makes a decent living but you know, there are bills to pay and it seems like we have the worst luck ever- there's always some kind of unexpected expense. Almost every month. Since I'm not working and obviously not contributing to the household {other than the little bit I get from doing blog design} I try to find ways to spend less and save more whenever I can. My latest fixation? Grocery shopping. I've been doing some research lately and was absolutely shocked to read that some people spend as little as $50 for a week of groceries. I've always prided myself in being a "smart grocery shopper"- buying store brands, looking for sales, never shopping on an empty stomach, sticking to my shopping list, and using coupons {this is something I need to do more!}, etc... but our weekly grocery bill is definitely nowhere near $50.

One of the big things I've been doing lately is meal planning. So far, it has really helped us to save, eat healthy (and at home more), and to avoid those spur of the moment shopping trips where you always come home with twice as much as you intended to buy. Next month, however, I'm going to take it to the next level and try once a month shopping. I first read about this on Melissa's blog, Happy Homemaking in Texas. I knew I was going to try it before I even finished reading.

I'm going to do a few more posts entirely devoted to this topic as October draws near, since we've already gone grocery shopping for the first half of September, and I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty excited about it. I'm working on a monthly meal list and master shopping list.
But right now? My first priority is creating a nifty meal planning board like the ones below.

Source: makeandtakes.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: orgjunkie.com via Jess on Pinterest

Source: bhg.com via Jess on Pinterest

Adorable, right? And so functional!

I'm doing some more reading about meal planning, particularly monthly meal planning, at sources like the ones below:
The Organic Sister
Organized Home
Simple Mom


Do you meal plan?
What have you found helpful?