Happy Saturday! My morning started peacefully... surfing the web at 3am, and reading blogs. {Working nights leads to some odd sleep patterns}.
At around 530, I decided that I should just give up, and get out of bed to begin my weekly ritual of menu planning and grocery list making.
I like to cook- unless I am overtired and don't feel like it that day- and I try to make sure that the three of us are eating well. Most of all, I try to make sure that every day, we sit down as a family and have dinner together- especially now that Ben is talking about his day at school, which I do not want to miss a word of- and its nice to know that every night, no matter what our schedules are like, we have at least 10 minutes to eat together.
Over the last few years, I've gradually come up with a system for meal planning. It has helped reduce my trips to the grocery store- I hate shopping- has made it easier and quicker to cook- because I always have a game plan- and saves some money.
Our menu for this week-or-so. It's a busy one. This week's planning/shopping was a little heavier duty because of the Super Bowl Party we're having tomorrow night- read, we're having friends over, none of us watch football, so we'll be watching the commercials, eating and playing with our kids.
Here's how my menu plans typically go:
Monday- meatless
Tuesday- beef
Wednesday- chicken
Thursday- fish
Friday- something fun {pizza, dressed-up hot dogs, etc.}
Saturday- something that I can spend some extra time on
Sunday- family dinner, something that tastes "homey" {meatloaf, roasted chicken, etc}
I start by writing down basic scheduling events that affect mealtimes on a blank menu page. {Ben being at school means I don't have to worry about his breakfast and lunch; me working two nights in a row means the second night needs to be a quickie meal, etc}. Keeping that close at hand, I start to scour my book of favorite recipes {happily stored in a pretty binder, like this blue one}, my Pinterest boards, email, CookingLight and the internet at large for ideas... sometimes, I just make it up.
The biggest challenge for me is keeping it interesting. Too much of the same cuisine gets old- fast. {which leads to wasted food, and more money spent on take-out}. I like to eat- and cook- Indian, Italian, Chinese, Thai, American, German, Polish, Mexican, Greek, and more! So, I do my best to make a menu plan that allows us to enjoy some variety every week. I try a lot of new recipes, and if they work well, they get printed and added to my pretty binder.
Keeping tomorrow a secret, the menu for next week is:
Monday- vegetable empanadas and side salad
Tuesday- chicken curry, roasted cauliflower, rice
Wednesday- crockpot pulled BBQ chicken, beans, coleslaw-type-salad
Thursday- Tilapia with pineapple salsa and broccoli
Friday- stuffed cabbage soup
Saturday- take-out/leftovers
Sunday- Wegmans Spicy Orange Chicken
This week is really screwy due to me working Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights... oh well.
Having gotten the meals planned, the next task was to get the shopping done- no easy feat with a toddler in tow on a Saturday afternoon. I had visions of my hubs and I splitting the list, playing with Ben and conquering the store with grace and efficiency... {HAH} Instead, I shopped and the boys went outside and played.
It worked well- Ben didn't have a meltdown in the store, and I didn't have to unpack the car.
Then, we got naptime! ...and I played around on my computer...
I love this car...
Eeeek!! I missed my nap opportunity... time for some coffee...
No comments:
Post a Comment