Yay! I did it… my first big project of the year. I actually finished the Meal Plan that I’ve been working on and I wanted to share it with you. I know it’s not perfect and I’m sure there will be some changes made to it but it’s a place to start and I’m happy with that. These were inspired by The Dinner Calendar written by Fannie Merritt Farmer in 1915 but they have some modern recipes, most of which can be found on the blog. I love that I can pull/print recipes one time and be able to use them again and again over the next few months! The kids are also working on a list of muffins, oatmeal, quick bread, cookie, and dessert recipes as an add-on to this meal plan.

Why plan for the week or month when you could plan for the years to come all at one time? We have been using this for a week or so now and it has helped tremendously! I’ve also been able to simplify my Cozi calendar by using this meal planner… so nice!

---

Perpetual Meal Plan – Spring 2024

---

I’ll also share the Word versions so you can edit them to your liking and both PDF versions if you just want to print them off as they are. I also plan to put out some more seasonal versions but we have a HUGE house project we are working on that needs to be completed before I can get the next ones finished.

Our daily breakfast and lunch menus stay very similar and I have just listed them as we have our routine. We will just choose the number of the date for the dinner meal which may or may not match up with the day of the week…you can totally disregard the days of the week listed on the left side if it confuses you. I just kept them as some of my kiddos are very adamant about their weekday breakfast schedules.

You will notice that I have ‘veggies’ and ‘fruit’ listed as we will just be using veggies and fruits that we have on hand or that we have from the garden. We almost always have fresh seasonal fruits and veggies on hand for snacks and such. Many times you can find frozen fruits and veggies for a reasonable cost as well.

There are a variety of meat dishes listed as well. Some of the proteins may be swapped out for different meals depending on what we have in the freezer. I often use venison in place of beef or pork when I happen to have it on hand. The important thing is to make this work for you and your family! Feel free to swap out meals and sides as you please… this is just a helpful guide to get you me started.

I don’t have a lot of the dishes listed as keto or low carb but we automatically make substitutions to recipes when needed to keep them where we need them to be for the carbs. Mr. Awesome and I don’t always have dessert either but when we do I make the salted caramel cupcakes he likes or I just try a new recipe.

Another item not noted is bread. We have been making our own sourdough bread for a while now and it is usually available for any and every meal or snack. I have only listed bread when there is a specific recipe I want to use for a meal.

I’ve also included some special meals as well as notes for special holidays… not an ‘all-inclusive’ list but some fun ones that we might try to incorporate into our meal schedules to keep them from being ‘too predictable’. This is a rotation schedule for three months, winter months, so we shouldn’t get too bored with this.

We did have some fun trying to think up some ‘special’ recipes for Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, and Leap Day! Not all of the suggestions made the cut like Pond Water Smoothies or braised duck hearts… but we think the ones that did make the cut should be interesting to try!

The desserts are merely ‘suggestions’ as to what my family has requested and they will not be made all three months… I will pick and choose a couple each month to make to keep everyone happy.

Overall, I think that these will be very helpful for our family and this is something that my kiddos can refer back to when they get older and have families of their own. I’ve been working on integrating this menu into our Cozi calendar and that’s been a chore but it has been going more quickly once I got the first month in. It’s crazy to know that I already have 1/4 of the year’s meals planned out!

Here is the pretty cover sheet:

Here is the Winter PDF:

You may find this weekly planner helpful when using the menu plan as well:

This should be the Word version that you could edit if you like:

Here is the Blank PDF version to print and make your own:

Here is the Blank Word version:

Please forgive any spelling errors as I’m about to go cross-eyed from staring at these for so long and the baby is waiting for me to get in bed with her so I’m trying to get these up on the blog while I can!

Don’t forget to check out the Printable Libray for more resources to help you with your daily life.

I really hope these can help someone out there! Have a blessed day!

Here’s a sneak peek at part of what I’ve been up to this week:

Hoping these don’t have to be redone before we are through but this will provide a little privacy while we have the rooms torn apart… can’t wait to get this project completed!