Menu Plan for June

When we got back from Florida, my mind raced and raced. I honestly thought I was losing it, I couldn't slow down the barrage of things going through it. To help, I started to get myself organized. It calmed me down a lot.

One of my tasks as to make a supper menu for June. It was so easy, to think of what to make each night, for the entire month. Last week's meals were super-simple, because we had VBS each night. This weekend, I went all out, with Father's Day to celebrate. I picked three new recipes to try in the month of June from my Casual Cooking Pampered Chef cookbook. It's something I've had for five or so years, and never used. I also picked a recipe from my Betty Crocker cookbook, a new entree we've never tried before.

As far as the menu plan goes, the week that we had VBS, I put on my menu plan that we would have mac n' cheese one night. Tortillas w/ cheese and fresh salsa another. Fast and simple. Something that has stopped me from planning during weeks like that in the past is that it seems too easy. That if you're making a menu plan, it all has to be four course meals with new recipes. Not so. I've simplified and it made all the difference.

This weekend, we had a new recipe, Citrus Shrimp Skewers. So good (we had it for supper tonight). That will be simple to make again with no recipe. The juice of two limes and two lemons , 1/2 C orange marmalade, a little garlic, parsley, a dash of ground red pepper. A tablespoon of veggie oil. I marinated the shrimp on the skewers and then grilled them. You reserve a little of the marinade to baste them with on the grill. They were sooooo good.

So we are good to go for June. This week, we are having Broccoli and Chicken w/ noodles stir fry. I'm making Uncle Ben's fried rice from a box to go with it. We are also having pulled pork sandwiches. I'm making the pork for folks from church that I'm making meals for and am going to save some back for us. Super easy and so good!

I also left Fridays for pizza or take-out and left Saturdays blank for us to be flexible. I wanted to keep it easy.

The best part about the plan is that now we've shopped ahead one week at a time and even if I switch the nights around a little (I always do), I've got the plan in place to help me with a jumping off point.

We're eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies now, so that makes great snacks and side dishes. I even cut the fruit up in different ways and call it dessert. The kids love it. Oh and popsicles, they love popsicles!

Some stand-by favorites for meals are BLT sandwiches. Grilled anything. My new shrimp recipe, for us grown ups anyway. For whatever reason, my kids love hot dogs. So we've usually got a pack of those in the fridge. Right now, we're eating 99% fat free ones from Hebrew National. They're actually tasty and my kids like 'em.

My main goal is to keep it all stress free. I've been trying to keep up with the dishes as we go. Some days that works better than others. One thing I have found out is that I like to plan suppers for a whole month. I'm going to try it again for July. It takes the weekly crunch of planning out of the equation. Hopefully it will also work when we're back to school. Hope nice it would be for it to be this easy!