Two Week Menu Planning with Themed Nights

This ain't a sponsored post, yo. 

Before I had my baby, I daydreamed about how great my life would be as a SAHM. One of the things I was excited about was having the energy to cook every night--HAHA! That was a stretch at first, but slowly I'm getting into the swing of things. What's helped the most has been using the Food Nanny's "Nanny Plan". If you've watched her show on BYUTV or read her cook book you'll be familiar with the Nanny Plan. If not, this is the basics. Sit down, plan out a theme for each night of the week. Then make a two week menu plan and shopping list. Doing it two weeks at a time is much easier actually! I can carry over ingredients and look at patterns of when we have certain meats (like not having chicken too often, it's my fallback).  Anyways, here's what my daily themes are:

Traditional Sunday Dinner
Mexican Mondays
Meatless/Breakfast Tuesdays
Italian Wednesdays
Comfort Food Thursdays
Grillin' Fridays
Date Night Saturdays

First I made a table in a word document. with all my days. Then I started looking through recipes on Pinterest (see above links for the pinboards!). I selected recipes for each day and started making my shopping list in the same document. Then came the shopping trip. It took a little while and the end bill was higher than what I'm used to, but I also got a lot more food. Experts say you save money by shopping bi-weekly too. Here's what my two weeks looked like

Traditional Sunday Dinner

1. Chicken Piccata This was the plan, but plans change! We got invited to dinner both Sundays so I didn't make this, although I plan to. I think it looks delicious!

Mexican Monday

1. Fish Tacos with Lime Cilantro Rice, using these two recipes combined

2. Chipotle Pork Tenderloin with Butternut Squash Tacos (I used sweet potato instead)

Meatless/Breakfast Tuesday

1. Sweet Potato and Brussels Sprouts Skillet

2. Egg Topped Twice Baked Potato  We ended up having leftovers instead. This meal is a great one to plan in, since I didn't have to get any extra ingredients and potatoes keep well!

Italian Wednesday

1. Pastichio (Greek Style Lasagna)

2. Bow Tie and Italian Turkey Sausage Skillet (I used pork sausage)

Comfort Food Thursday

1. Paprika Chicken

2. Alice Sprigs Chicken  and Brussels Sprouts (I used up all the mushrooms in the paprika chicken last week, forgetting I needed some for tonight's chicken. It was still good without the mushrooms) 

Grillin' Fridays

1. Grilled Chicken Thighs (Marinated with this for 2 hours) with Rice Pilaf

2. Tri-Tip Steak with Pappy's Seasoning, Kings Hawaiian Rolls, Cheesy Potatoes

I really think using "The Nanny Plan"/ themed nights has taken a lot of the stress out of "what's for dinner?" I'm on my second round of the Nanny Plan and it's working great! I hope you find some inspiration!