Welcome back to menu planning! For those of you keeping track at home, the monthly menu plan for January 2014 looks a little different from those I’ve published in the past. Instead of sticking to my old, black refrigerator, my menu planning board has found a new home in our temporary apartment while we hunt for the perfect house in our new town. Neither the apartment nor the fridge is very big, but they work, and I’m just fine with that. (Mostly)

The wonderful thing about menu planning is that you don’t have to cook in a gourmet, designer kitchen or even plan to stay in the tiny little galley kitchen very long (hopefully!). You can be organized and plan healthy meals no matter where you cook them!

Okay, on to the menu plan!

Week one featured some finger foods on New Year’s Day, a trip to my favorite pizza parlor in memory of my Grandma, and some creamy chicken taquitos and soups. (If you haven’t discovered Seeded at the Table yet, you really should take a peek at this fun blog with lots of great recipes. The taquitos is one of my favorites!)

Week two offers up lasagna roll ups, chicken squares, tacos, salmon, biscuits & gravy, chili, and meatloaf. (Yes, winter is upon us, and I am turning to some of my favorite cold-weather comfort food this week.)

In week three, I turn to more cold-weather favorites, especially fried chicken. (My husband told me this week that he could eat my fried chicken every day of the month and never get tired of it. This, I doubt, but it’s nice to know my cooking is appreciated!) Other winter-weather favorites this week include spaghetti and meatballs, jambalaya, poppyseed chicken, chicken fajitas, and easy beef stroganoff. (By the way, if you’re looking at the picture of my menu plan, you will notice that it shows spaghetti and meatballs twice this week. That is one of the problems with leaving the list of meals on the fridge. Children come and adjust the plan! Yeesh!)

In week four, I turn to calzones, hamburgers and hot dogs, chicken & wild rice soup, tater tot casserole, roasted chicken, hearty steak pie, and chicken pot pie. Yum. Yum. Yum.

To wrap up the month, we’ll be eating fried fish, beef stew, tacos, fried chicken (there it is again!), homemade pizza, and cheesy chicken and rice bake. If there’s one thing I love about winter, it’s all the comfort food we get to enjoy. And as you can tell from this menu plan, we’ll be comforted. A lot. 🙂