For the past, um, let’s say while, I have been
planning out our family dinners. At my best I can whip up a menu for a month in a
matter of minutes without repeating any meals. Yay me!! But with the girls
being home on summer vacation I totally slacked on planning and grocery shopping during
June. Boo me!! But now I am ready to get back to it. And I know a
few of you have asked me about my process, so I've decided to put this bad boy to use and share here weekly with maybe some tips
and for sure my menu for the week.
For meal ideas especially of the meatless variety, Martha Stewart has been my bff. I mean every category you could think of she has plotted out. Go ahead and just spend an hour browsing all the possibilities. I'm seriously obsessed. Don't judge.
I am aiming for 2-3 no meat meals a week. for the sake of my sanity, seafood is not counting as a meat.
And also I have found a wall calendar right off the kitchen, helps keep me organized and also with dinner anxiety.
Also to keep me on track and make planning really easy I follow this simple format--
- Meatless Monday
- Taco Tuesday (sometimes enchiladas, quesadillas, tostadas or burritos, basically Mexican)
- Seafood on Wednesday (shrimp pasta, salmon and veggies, etc.)
- Throwback Thursday (a family favorite, like fried chicken, lol)
- Fun Friday (whatever works, pizza, take-out, leftovers)
- ??? Saturday (lol) (similar to Friday, whatever works)
- Soulful Sunday (something really satisfying and hearty to get you prepared for the week, like chili or a roast)
The Process-
- I check my freezer to see what meat I have, then I check the sales papers to see what's on sale. Doing that helps get the ideas flowing
- Get my journal and calendar ready. I jot down the meals on the calendar and then list everything I will need for them in my journal.
- Then I check the kitchen and cross off all the things I already have from my list.
- Finally I make an organized shopping list.
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| example of menu list |
Remember this is only for dinner.
For breakfast and lunch I keep it fairly simple mostly following my family's lead. But more on that later, I don't want to overwhelm.
For breakfast and lunch I keep it fairly simple mostly following my family's lead. But more on that later, I don't want to overwhelm.
Stay tuned--
I will post up detailed menus weekly.
And the next post will be devoted to food prep.
