New experiment: Month-long meal plan

Where is this summer going? It's flying by. If you haven't heard, I'm keeping myself plenty busy with the garden, in addition to typical family busy-ness. July is fast coming to a close (I can't believe it!) and August is upon us. For August, I'm going to try a new experiment: a meal plan. For the whole month.

This is kind of silly, since I have a hard time sticking to even a week's meal plan. When I try to plan for a week, I end up cooking Tuesday's meal on Monday because I didn't feel like Monday's meal Monday, and shuffling everything around, so that by Friday, we end up eating out because I've used up all my meal ideas or we didn't have something on-hand that I thought we did.

So why even try to meal plan? Well, for me, it makes mealtimes less stressful. Throwing together a meal is easy- it's figuring out what that meal will be that makes me stress out. If I have an idea of what's on hand, going home and putting it together is easy.

So now, drumroll please.... What We're Eating in August (subject to change)

Breakfasts:
Cereal (neither of us are big Breakfast Eaters, unless we go out.)

Lunches:
Homemade "Lunchables" - crackers, cheese, summer sausage, salty snack & sweet snack
Sandwich, salty snack & sweet snack
Leftovers
Quesadilla & salty snack

Dinners:

1. Leftovers
2. Family reunion (Made cole slaw to share)
3. Spaghetti & meatballs
4. Roast chicken & green beans
5. Pizza
6. Chicken and Rice
7. Hot dogs and Chips
8. Biscuits & gravy
9. Chicken alfredo
10. Chicken Tacos
11. OUT TO EAT WITH FRIENDS
12. OUT TO EAT AT STATE FAIR
13. Rice and chili
14. Burgers, grilled corn, and roasted potatoes
15. Sandwiches
16. Bean and cheese roll-ups, with chips & salsa
17. Green beans, potatoes, and bacon, and corn on the cob
    
18. OUT TO EAT (Birthday dinner for my mom)
19. Cheese & crackers picnic
20. Frozen chicken Parmesan (pre-packaged :-/)
21. Grilled cheese & tomato soup
22. Vegetable Soup & Broiled Fish
23. Baked Mac & Cheese (cookout potluck)
24. Leftovers
25. Tacos & refried beans
26. Chili
27. Eggs & bacon & hashbrowns
28. Pork chops & roasted potatoes
29. Brats & mac & cheese
30. Pizza
31. Leftovers

As I go through the month, I'll italicize the meals we've had, to see if I can actually cook for a whole month, and we can avoid going out to eat. Check back here to see my progress (once August starts!) No promises that I'll actually make these meals in order.

Full disclosure: I know this is a painfully boring list. We typically go out to eat 2-3 times a WEEK, so this will be a different pace for me, and I wanted to keep the meals easy. I think I can do it, but even if I reduce the amount we go out to eat, the experiment will be successful. Food made at home, from scratch, will always be better than eating out, with the huge portion sizes and questionable ingredients. Also, home is cheaper.

Now, to make a grocery list!