Time for my weekly menu planning! I'm so curious to hear how many of you out there do weekly menu planning! What's your strategy?
This week, we really need to use up some things from our freezer, so while I cannot call this a full pantry challenge, I am trying to keep my supermarket purchases really basic this week.
Here's the plan:
Sunday
Lunch: Rice, Tofu, corn, assorted leftover vegetables
Supper, Baked potatoes and sweet potatoes, hard boiled eggs, carrots, roasted kishuim, and some figs
Monday
Lunch: Random things from the fridge that need to be used up (potatoes, veggies, polenta, yogurt...)
Supper: Shabbat leftovers
Tuesday
Lunch: Sandwiches, carrot sticks, apples
Supper: random freezer findings
Wednesday
Lunch: Random freezer findings
Supper: Baked Ziti, make-your-own-salad
Thursday
Lunch: Any random leftovers from the week
Supper:Pizza (homemade), salad, steamed veggies
This is not such a detailed menu, but hopefully it will do! It's time to do a good freezer cleanout in any case!
How's your menu for the week shaping up? Do you find menu planning saves you money? Do you waste less food?
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?
It's summer, which is the time of year I always get cooking burnout.
(I think I mentioned it recently on this blog, actually!)
In summer, I just want to drink cold drinks, have some ice cream, some watermelon, maybe a granola bar, and call it a day.
But somehow that just doesn't cut it for growing kids, and to be honest, if I keep that up too long, I don't feel so good either.
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| make your own salad |
So we have to cook sometimes... Whenever possible, I plan to cook at night, like the black bean meatballs will have to be made on Tuesday night.
Here's this week's supper plan:
Sunday: Random - Pitot and Spreads, Vegetable lo-mein, and apple-pear crisp with ice cream
Monday: Whatever was left from Shabbat, plus a fresh salad and some steamed broccoli/cauliflower
Tuesday: Roasted Vegetable Gazpacho, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, make your own salad
Wednesday: Rice, Stir-Fried Vegetables, Black bean "meatballs" in sweet and sour sauce
Thursday: Pizza (quick and easy crust!), Steamed Broccoli/Cauliflower, make your own salad
And that should help me keep suppers on track this week! What's your summer cooking look like?
