It is always horrible when you have a busy day (everyday!!) and 5 O'clock rolls around (or 6 O'clock!!) and you realize you should have started dinner already, or at least thought of what you want to make. Having a menu plan gets rid of the stress of moments like that.
It'll keep you from picking something up from a fast food restaurant, starting something and realizing you don't have some of the ingredients you need, or, if your like us, eating cereal for dinner!
This week the menu is as follows:
Monday: Grilled cheese Sandwiches with Chicken Alfredo Soup (Campbell's :) )
Bread, butter, cheddar cheese, 2 cans of Chicken Alfredo Soup
Tuesday: Bacon Potato Torte with Broccoli
2 pie Crusts: flour, salt, 2 sticks butter, water; Potatoes, Bacon, half & half, cheese, salt & pepper, egg, Broccoli
Wednesday: Leftovers (Hubby has to work until 9 pm)
Thursday: Tortilla Soup* with corn bread
Shredded Chicken, diced tomatoes, Hominy, Cheese, chicken broth, Black beans, sour cream, corn tortilla strips, cayenne pepper, chili powder, garlic salt, onion powder, butter, sugar, 3 eggs, milk, flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt
Friday: Chicken Enchiladas* (leftover corn bread)
Tortillas, shredded chicken, cheese, green enchilada sauce, cream of chicken soup, sour cream
Saturday: White Sicilian Pizza* with salad
Dough: Flour, sugar, salt, butter, water, yeast; olive oil, shredded provolone, mozzarella, grated Romano, garlic powder, basil, oregano, garlic cloves, slat & pepper, pepperoni, salad, dressing
Sunday: Family Dinner
(Every Sunday we have "family" dinner, with people who are all family... except for us... well not technically anyways, but lucky for us they've adopted us!)
*Recipes to be posted, if I in fact get around to making them! :)
The Menu Plan is not a no fail plan, but it definitely helps things run smoother. Some days we don't get home with enough time to make what is planned (or I just don't feel like it!) so we throw something quick and easy together. I assign days to meals but usually depending on how the day goes and how much time I have I switch it up, but I know that I have all of the ingredients for all of those meals!
What I do is look through my pantry to see what I have, look through the grocery store sales- pretty much I only go to Publix cuz it is awesome! (I use Iheartpublix.com and southernsavers.com for easy deal hunting, they do all of the work, it's great! ) Then start thinking of meals I can make with things I have on hand or that I can get the ingredients for cheap.
I keep my pantry well stocked with things that I know I am going to use by getting about 3-6 weeks worth of that item when it goes on sale, depending on how many coupons I have for it.
I write my menu plan in my notebook (yes, I'm THAT kind of person, you know, the kind that has like a bazillion notebooks- ok so only 3 5 subject ones right now, but I pretty much write everything down and make list after list to keep organized!)
I write down the full meal I want to make, then on the next line write all of the ingredients I'm going to need (shown above!) I then go through all of the ingredients and write down at the bottom of the page a grocery list!
This week all I have to get is a can of Hominy! Two of the meals were supposed to be made last week, but things got a little crazy because my baby girl either got the measles or had a really bad reaction to her MMR shot :( ! So I already have a lot of the ingredients that I needed. Life is Crazy all on it's own, might as well try to be prepared for the things we can be!!
Oh Reagan! Poor Livvy!! That rash looks aweful! I've never actually seen measles before, but I didn't think it looked like that. I hope she's starting to feel better now, and that you've been able to get some rest too. That look on her face just about says it all huh? Sweet little thing.
ReplyDeleteSo, I think I'm just going to copy your menu plan from now on, if you're generous enough to post it each week! Ha! I really need to get organized! My brain is permanently fried I think and with piano lessons 3 afternoons a week, dinner has been suffering severely. Who knows, maybe I can even save some money too!
Sorry to hear about your little girl! She looks miserable, and I'm sure you were too! :( I hope she's better by now!
ReplyDeleteI happened upon your blog while looking at a recipe on The Idea Room blog. We, too, are very picky eaters so I'm very interested in browsing your recipes! I have collected several easy no-fuss recipes from around the blogosphere and have saved them at www.springpadit.com. If you are interested, check out my username: mom2maddy2000. How do you organize and save your recipes? Springpad it awesome and if you have a smart phone, you can access your recipes directly while you are at the store!
Oh, and I'm glad you are a loyal Publix shopper! :) My husband is a store manager (in Florida). I, too, follow IHeartPublix and SouthernSavers...they're my favorites! I've been an avid couponer for about two years now since seeing the Coupon Mom on Oprah!
Anyway, I look forward to browsing your blog! I already "sprung" one of your soup recipes! ;)