Menu Planning?

Please note: This is a sponsored post that contains affiliate links. 

How many of you actively Menu Plan? I don't. With it just being me and 1 or 2 kids at the most we just eat left overs for a couple of days, sandwiches, GF or healthy chicken nuggets and soup very occasionally. I love it - but Gianna? Not so much. She drinks the broth - forget the filling.

Recently I heard of a new Freezer Planning program called Once A Month Planning. Now, I know it's not NEW NEW but this is the first time I've really looked at the program. Really I just need a couple of meals each week and I can fill in the rest of our menu with what I have on hand. I'm always looking for snack ideas, kid friendly meals and high protein foods & snacks are a huge bonus. Keep in mind I can't have any dairy or soy so cheese and yogurts are out for me. Gianna won't eat most grains at all - no bread, no noodles except spaghetti and MacsNCheese and no veggies usually. Connor? Yeah... he'll eat apples & bananas, oatmeal, meat - but no potatoes or broccoli, he will eat corn, mixed veggies and that's about it. Life is hard..... 

Once a Month Meals is a membership based Menu Planning service where you have your choice of 9 different kinds of meals like: Paleo, Traditional, Gluten Free, Vegetarian & REAL FOOD! Lol! There's even a Baby Menu! 

They just started a new planning service called: Summer Instant Pot Mini Menu - so if you like Pressure Cooking this menu will be perfect for you! You will find delicious recipes like: Instant Pot Tender Braised Short Ribs, Buffalo Chicken, Honey Pork Chops, Garlic Brown Sugar Chicken & Marinated Steak. Sounds nummy right?

So, now that you've chosen your menu - now is the time to tell the database how many people you are feeding and then you have the option to have a shopping list created for you, prep day instructions & cooking day instructions prepared, labels and more. Another bonus to their program is that if there is something you already know wont work with ultra picky husbands kids you can swap out a meal and create your own custom menu.

Once a Month Meals planning service is $16 a month - or you can purchase a whole year at a time. If you aren't sure if you want to invest in the whole year why not just start with a month and see how it goes? It's very easy to do and I'm sure you'll love the program as much as I do!

Watch to see how I do with my new menu planning adventure. I'm actually going to use it to prepare some yummy deliciousness for the freezer for this fall. Preschool homeschooling starts up this year and it will be so nice to have a few meals in the freezer that I can pull out, pop in the crock pot or the oven and just go about our day....

Please note: I am an affiliate with Once a Month Meals and receive a small amount for each membership purchased through my affiliate link. Each little bit goes a long way toward our budget and is great appreciated. All comments and thoughts above are my own.

Cooking with Whole Foods ~ Review

Cooking with Whole Foods DVD's
by Chef Rachel
$21.95 for a 2 DVD set

Whole Foods Cuisine with Chef Rachel features:
• Four complete menus
• 19 recipes
• Eight cooking techniques
• Two gluten-free grain dishes
• Sweet desserts without refined sugar
• A delicious caffeine-free coffee alternative
• Downloadable recipe booklet. . . . and more

Rachel makes cooking with unrefined whole foods easy and fun. Her simple step-by-step recipes will quickly have you on your way to making the most delicious meals you have ever tasted! Whether you’re a novice or an experienced cook, this two-DVD set will show you how to improve the quality of the foods you purchase, prepare and eat. You will also learn how to present them beautifully to your family and friends.

My Thoughts:
The Cooking With Whole Foods DVD set is a great tool for anyone interested in nutrition, learning to cook and healthy foods. It's ideal for newlyweds, kids that are interested in cooking, husband and wife teams that like to cook together and singles that want to improve their diet through healthy cooking.

Chef Rachel creates several different dishes in 4 segments that you can do one at a time. The recipes are easy too and you will learn techniques that perhaps you wouldn't use normally or teach yourself but will find helpful with cooking in the future.

DVD 1 includes the following recipes:
Menu 1:  Blanched Vegetables,  Spicy Peanut Sauce, Cashew Dill Dip, Honey Mustard Chicken, Fennel Crisps, Fruit Gel
Menu 2: Herbed Meatballs, Better BBQ Sauce, Coleslaw, Poached Pears

DVD 2:
Menu 3: Broccoli Avocado Soup, Tuscan Chicken, Sweet Potato Fries, Date Nut Truffles
Menu 4: Smoky Simmered Salmon, Quinoa Tabouli, Whole Boiled Greens, Sauteed Greens, Brewing Teeccino

You can see that some of the ingredients are a little unusual - but most of them are things you will have around the house. Some of the recipes and techniques you'll use over and over such as Honey Mustard Chicken (this would be a great recipe to use for homemade chicken nuggets for kids), Herbed Meatballs, Sweet Potato Fries and the Salmon would be a great dish for company or a special dish just for you and your spouse or your best friend's birthday.