A Glimpse Into Meal Planning

I always like to hear what others are cooking up, planning in their homes, so sporadically I share what I have oh so lovely planned for my family.

I've gotten into the habit of trying to do a 'big' grocery trip every 3 weeks.  In between, sometimes I run in for more bread, milk,eggs or sandwich stuff if we run out in between.  But I try to shop the sales on meat so I can always pull things out.  We also LOVE Stove Top stuffing and Rice a Roni Spanish Rice so when things like that are on sale we stock up. 

Couponing has kind of been hit or miss lately because of time constraints and I haven't gotten a Sunday paper in about a month and I don't use Internet coupons unless they hit my email.  I do use mperks through Meijer and I occasionally will check out various blogs to get coupon/sales deals.

I also stalk the internet for recipe ideas and we very rarely eat the same thing twice.  Unless we love it and it gets thrown in the rotation for awhile until we forget about it and then I will remember it again a few months later when I'm searching my favorites or pinterest boards. 

Things we always keep stocked in the pantry..
diced tomatoes, cans of corn, salsa, spaghetti sauce, pasta, rice, pizza sauce, jiffy pizza dough, cream of mushroom, chicken broth, black beans, pinto beans, enchilada sauce, tortilla chips, tortilla shells, sugar, flour, brown sugar, chocolate chips, Betty crocker frosting, canned soup, canned chicken, granola bars, tomato sauce, rotel, and Hormel chili

I'm sure there might be more but those are things I usually always stock back up on or load up on when they are on sale..

My current goal is to meal plan out for 2 weeks and I usually don't include the weekends unless we are planning a big Sunday meal for leftovers. 

Here is our current two week out plan..

M – Swedish Meatballs in the crock pot, served over mashed potatoes w/ a green salad

T – out to eat at our local Taco Tuesday
W – Chicken Enchiladas w/ Spanish rice
TH - leftovers
F – Meatloaf or since my husband is in charge it may change to takeout
S – Beef stew

M- Goulash
T- Spicy Bean Burritos
W – Taco Chili

Since, the next week is Thanksgiving, I only did three meals because I am sure all three will give us leftovers to get us through the weekend, plus we will be at a lot of family gatherings which cover our other meals!

I don't plan out our breakfasts, but we usually either grab granola bars, yogurt, oatmeal, eggs or leftovers.  Same with lunches, we either eat leftovers, sandwiches, frozen meals or fruits and veggies. 

What do you keep stocked in your pantry? How far out do you meal plan?