Menu Planning 101

So for the month of June I've created a meal plan for the entire month just to make it easier on myself each week for grocery shopping.  I got tired each week trying to rack my brain thinking about what the heck am I going to cook and the weekly menu got a little boring.  Following the example from a few mommy friends from an online community I frequented I decided to create a menu plan with the usual things that I cook and to add one new dish to try out for the week.

To start creating my menu plan I did a spreadsheet and first listed all the foods I normally make in each different types of proteins ie. poultry, pork, beef, and fish/seafood. Then I numbered my spreadsheet 1-30 and began plugging each type of dish spreading out the days of the different type of proteins ie. one day would be chicken, next day would be beef, etc. 

Since I grew up learning how to cook large batches of meals, dinners usually last at least 2-3 days, 2 days if we end up eating the leftovers for lunch the next day.  With the menu plan I just filled up each day with a meal just to cover all bases even if we end up eating out one night.  Since the plan started a week ago, so far so good and it did make for easier shopping. 

I will post the menu plan for the month in another post some other time just to provide an example of what I've done.  Also, I'll post the recipes for the meals I have prepared and any pictures I would have remembered to take.  This is my first time creating a menu like this so let's see how it goes.