Thank you for your interest in the Balancing Rock Monthly Meal Planner. I hope you find meal planning as rewarding as I do.
First thing I do when doing my meal planning is to check my calendar for any events where I won't need to be cooking. For example if we are heading away for a weekend, or its a footy training night, so I know we'll have dinner at the club.
Next I do a quick stocktake of my freezers and pantry as I love to use up what we have first. In my case, most of my meals come out of our freezer, as we have a large store of meat and vegetables. Once I have decided on some meals from the stocks I already have, I write those meals in where I think it is appropriate.
Then its just a matter of filling in the rest of the spots. I try and mix it up if possible. For example steak one night, then pasta, then a lamb meal, etc. If I find I'm running out of inspiration, a quick search on Pinterest for "quick and easy family meals" will soon give me plenty of ideas. I also ask the kids if they have any special requests, which I may or may not take on board (there is only so many times in a month you can eat spaghetti bolognaise!!)