Trying to get back on the menu planning bandwagon! I fell off it for a few weeks, and we ended up scrambling many times. Lots of meals I just made the others wheat-based foods and I ended up picking at veggies, and that did not work so well for me quite as often as it happened - turns out I need more to eat than carrots and cucumbers!
So here's my plan for the week - even though it's Monday already, it's worth it to plan right now.
Suppers:
Sunday - we were out all day and ended up with some cheap pizzas (I had salad)
Monday - Shabbat Leftovers
Tuesday - Scrambled eggs, Chick Pea Fritters, stir fried veggies with rice
Wednesday - Pasta with tomato sauce and cheese, salad
Thursday - any leftovers from the week, or grilled cheese and cucumber slices
Lunches will be lots of veggies, cottage cheese, egg salad, tuna, peanut butter and jelly, etc. It is way too hot to cook in the middle of the day!
Ok, I guess I should admit that I only get around to planning my menu for the week on Sunday night. AFTER I've had to scrounge around for something to feed the family for supper! One day I will learn to move the planning time up a bit...
We're still fighting off colds here, it seems to be cycling through the whole family...
So here's the plan, and it's really got to be low-intensity cooking this week. I'm already under the weather and just need to get some rest (and my morale was just destroyed by the latest horrific terrorist attack, I just can't stop thinking about it):
Sunday night: Vegetable soup and Pasta
Monday night: Split Pea Soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, cut vegetables
Tuesday night: Vegetable Soup, Rice, Scrambled eggs, ??
Wednesday night: Minestrone Soup, garlic bread
Thursday night: Whatever is left
Lunches? who knows. Maybe the kids won't be hungry? Somehow, I'm sure we'll figure it out. They can always boil up some pasta...
It's the end of the week, again! Can't believe it? You are not alone, neither can I! It's crazy how the days just keep slipping past!
And winter has crept up on us, too. Some people are even saying it will snow here on Friday night. Honestly, I don't mind if it snows on a Friday night -- As long as we don't lose power! (Because if the power goes out, I think my cholent will be ruined...)
So keeping in mind the cold we're looking at, we want to make sure to have a warm, enjoyable Shabbat. Friday night we're having some friends join us. Here's the plan:
Homemade Whole Spelt and Oat Bran Challot
Vegetable Soup
Vegetarian Liver, Homemade Chumus, Cut-Veggie Platter, Pickles and Olives
Other salads if I get to them
Oven Fried Chicken
Black-Eyed Peas (there's been a bag in my pantry for a really long time now!)
Roasted Cauliflower
Potato Kugel
Apple Crisp
For lunch, I'm putting up a Black Bean Cholent and we'll have whatever is left from Friday night.
I've got some bananas waiting to be used, so I'll make banana-coconut chocolate chip cake and popcorn for snacking!
I got sick.
I tried SO hard not to get sick, but once the kids brought a respiratory virus into the house, there was no real way to avoid it, no matter how hard I prayed and hoped it would skip me.
So I'm sick - the kind where I get feverish and can't sleep, can't breathe, headache, sore throat, and all.
So I have no idea what we'll eat this week or when we'll buy fresh food.
I think that means we're doing an unplanned pantry challenge. We're dangerously low on vegetables though, so I will have to solve that problem somehow.
(Snacks will be apples and pears - we have a bunch of those in the fridge - and popcorn)
Here's the plan:
Sunday lunch: random foods we found in the fridge plus sandwiches
Sunday supper: Shabbat leftovers
Monday lunch: Rice, red lentil dahl, cottage cheese pancakes
Monday supper: Baked Ziti, Steamed vegetables
Tuesday: Erev Yom Kippur
we'll do brunch (not sure what) and a seudah mafseket - but I don't know what that will be yet.
Wed night - break the fast
Honey Cake
Coffee
Split Pea Soup
not sure what else
Thursday lunch: Sandwiches, carrot sticks
Thursday supper: pizza/polenta pizza, oven fries, whatever veggies are left
And hopefully this won't overwhelm me while I'm sick! I do plan to put kids to work helping out!
What's your menu plan for this week?
It's already Monday night and I'm still flying by the seat of my pants/skirt as far as meals go, since I never made a plan. My days are pretty full with all that goes on already, so having a plan is pretty essential if I'm going to a)stick to my budget, b)use the food I have in the house, and c)feed my family relatively balanced meals. I know when I don't make a plan, we end up figuring out less healthy "survival" meals, and often that means when I'm out on a walk I'll pick up pitot or bread, cheese, bourekas, etc even if I had no plans to buy those things that week!
So - in an effort to make tomorrow an easier day, and to save me the panic and "survival shopping", I will plan my menu now:
Sunday - already over, I don't even know what we had (in my defense, half the family had some minor stomach bug and weren't even hungry)
Monday - more of who-knows-what, and Shabbat leftovers for supper
Tuesday:
Lunch: Rice, lentil patties, salad
Supper: Split pea soup, Baked Ziti, steamed kishuim
Wednesday
Lunch: Split pea soup, banana muffins, baked apples
Supper: Felafel
Thursday:
Lunch: all the leftovers from the week
Supper: fresh dinner rolls, sloppy sams, roasted vegetables
How do you stay on top of feeding your family? How many meals do you cook every day?
Planning for Rosh Hashana
I'm beginning my Rosh Hashana menu planning now, because I plan to make double this Shabbat and freeze, so a couple of meals for the holiday will be well underway. So far we have guests for 2 lunches for Chag, but none this Shabbat
So far, here's the plan for this week's cooking - I need to use up some of what is in the house before we go and get more. So here's what I can make right now using what I've already got, and hopefully there's enough here to freeze some to make Yom Tov easier!
Butternut Squash and Apple soup (making a huge pot!)
Vegetable soup
Spicy Roast chicken
Vegetable-Noodle Kugel
Roasted eggplant and kishuim
Something with beets
Apple Cake
If I find more I can make, I'll keep you posted. Going to start my chopping now!
Last week I didn't plan out my menu very well, so my meals were haphazard and all over the place. Not *such* a terrible thing, especially in the summer, as long as everyone was able to eat! So, despite not planning well, we managed!
But I figured I can do better. So here's the plan for this week (no idea if I will actually stick with it) --
Lunches: Sandwiches, Stuffed baked potatoes, pancakes, and salads
Suppers:
Sunday: Embellished Shabbat Leftovers
Monday: Baked Ziti and salad
Tuesday: Sloppy Sams on homemade dinner rolls (using my favorite bread recipe), salad
Wednesday: Quick pizzas, home-fries, carrot sticks
Thursday: Leftovers from the week
Snacks: fruit (I'll have to keep looking for fruit deals!), popcorn, muffins, granola cookies
Do you like to plan your meals for the week?
I'd love to hear your menu!
Just a quick note about what I'm serving this Shabbat. It's Thursday night and I should really get things going!
What are you serving for Shabbat?
I'm showcasing the organic zucchini I got (for cheaper than the regular kishuim at every store I checked), and organic corn on the cob I scored for 6 shekels/kg!
Baking:
Fresh Challot (if I actually get around to making the dough, otherwise I have a few emergency loaves in the freezer
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Some sort of muffins
Friday night:
Vegetable soup with noodles
Spicy Roast Chicken
Oven-baked Rice
Corn on the Cob
Roasted Zucchini
Roasted Butternut Squash
Salads
Lunch:
Black Bean Cholent
Oven fried shnitzel
Salads
Corn on the Cob
Potato Kugel from the freezer
Cake (brought by guest)
Seudah Shlisheet:
Challot
Spreads
Cucumber and Carrot sticks
Potato Salad
Pasta Salad
Grapefruit
Apple Cake (from the freezer)
And now I must get to work!
I keep shoving things into my freezer and it's time to use some of it up.
In reality, my pantry shelves are getting a little bare, but I have too much in my freezer, so I'm hoping to get away with minimal shopping this week.
(Full disclosure, I will buy a few things - fresh milk and some fresh produce, plus I really am low on olive oil so I need to restock that, and perhaps a couple of bags of pasta and cornmeal, since I'm out of those essentials...)
So the plan is to do a mostly pantry challenge week - so we use up things that have been hanging around for a while. In light of that, I'm not planning a menu, I'm just going to have to see what I find in the freezer and fridge to use up and DO it.
I'll try to blog some interesting menus during the week! I know there's a strange mix of stuff in my freezer!
Anyone else doing a pantry challenge?
I'm actually sharing a picture of my ridiculously over-full freezer for all of you to see. PLEASE don't jump down my throat if you see something odd or completely junky in there. Yes, even here, we occasionally succumb to temptation and buy the junk! Please be kind to me when I just bared the contents of my normally private freezer.
(I feel so exposed.)
So far, I have not cooked anything for Pesach.
I have not experimented at all to make up any new recipes for pesach, though I DO plan to. Just right now we are really eating chametz, chametz, and more chametz! (yes, we have too much flour in the freezer, didn't I mention that earlier?)
But I am sure some of you are more organized, and are busy prepping your menus, writing your shopping lists, trying to calculate just how much potato starch to buy this year, or trays of eggs...
So here are some of my favorite Pesach recipes!
Mandel Bread
Pesach Rolls
Carrot Muffins
Cashew Butter
Brownies
Banana Cake
Potato Kugel
(Oops, they are mostly dessert. Um, well, what can I say?)
There will be more coming. Just give me at least another week.
