Menu Planning
Written by admin on April 26th, 2008I mentioned a few days ago that I had planned out our menus for last week. Here’s what we had:
Tuesday 4/22: Homemade pizza, fresh salad
Wednesday, 4/23: Chicken and dumplings, fresh salad
Thursday, 4/24: Lasagne and fresh salad
Friday, 4/25: Roast (London broil) and gravy, small red potatoes, broccoli, fresh salad
Saturday, 4/26: Left over roast, macaroni and cheese, green beans (didn’t need), fresh salad
There’s so much food in the fridge for today, I don’t even have to make the mac and cheese today! It has been so very nice to have meals totally planned in advance and have all the ingredients on hand! It has helped everyone’s attitude. Having supper ready at a certain time has helped the children not graze so much; having a hot meal ready when hubby comes home has helped him feel appreciated; and not having to wonder what in the world am I going to cook??? has helped me enjoy my days much more!
So you know what I did this morning? I pulled out all my cookbooks and recipes and cooking magazines, put them on the table to help me plan a week of menus, and then back on the shelf they went — only more organized than they were before.
Here’s what’s on the menu:
Sunday, 4/27/08: Breakfast: pancakes, bacon, eggs (save several pieces of bacon for Monday’s baked beans)
Lunch: Taco soup (crockpot)
Supper: Taco salads using fresh salad, tortilla chips and leftover taco soup.
Monday, 4/28/08: BBQ ribs (crockpot), baked beans (crockpot), fresh salad
Tuesday, 4/29/08: Salmon croquettes, tabouli (apparently no one in my town carries bulgar wheat), macaroni and cheese, baked beans
Wednesday, 4/30/08: Bread machine herb + cheese bread, chicken and vegetable soup with egg noodles
Thursday, 5/1/08: Pinto beans (crockpot), cornbread, fresh salad, London broil (crockpot) and gravy
Friday, 5/2/08 — (always feels like a date night with hubby): Marinated salmon fillets (they were out — not sure what I’ll do yet), wild rice, fresh salad, carrot cake
Saturday, 5/3/08: Left-overs
I have put together in one place the recipes I’ll need for the upcoming week and I put together my grocery list while I was making my menu plans.
You’ll notice my planner open. This week I designed a daily 2-page schedule “spreadsheet” to keep track of the things that are important to me each day. For this first week, the planner spreadsheet is just hand-written, but next week I plan to type it up so I can print them for my planner. I want this week to tweak it, so no point in typing it up just yet!
One thing I did before planning my menus is to pull up on line the weekly sales for our two local grocery stores. That helped me choose the meats to cook.
Now I’m off to the local grocery stores (and to do my monthly Sam’s trip), and I’ve got my perfectly prepared grocery list in hand!
In The Garden This Week:
Queen Elizabeth closer to being in full bloom
Queen Elizabeth bud close up
Star of Bethlehem is blooming
Wildginger (Asarum) — A beautiful shade plant
The beautiful flower of wildginger (Asarum)
A baby praying mantis
The Lady Banks rose is blooming
Orson Welles said, “A third of the food we eat keeps us alive. The other two-thirds keeps the doctors alive.”
I think it’s a good choice to shop fresh and prepare meals from scratch. 
It’s also cheaper!
Have a Happy Weekend!
Lynn
The Hundred Dresses
The Family Under the Bridge
Caddie Woodlawn. With the Wisconsin big woods theme, goes along great with a FIAR study of The Raft.
A Year Down Yonder
A Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of Learning
Pocketful of Pinecones: Nature Study With the Gentle Art of Learning: A Story for Mother Culture. Sweet fictional story about a newly homeschooling mother who incorporates nature study.
Nature Crafts for Kids: 50 Fantastic Things to Make With Mother Nature's Help
The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady
The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Awakening Beauty the Dr. Hauschka Way
A Redbird Christmas: A Novel
The Usborne Internet-Linked Book of Knowledge
What Your Fifth Grader Needs to Know
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
26
PM
On the salmon… we like salmon cakes! I make them from canned salmon. Maybe that sounds yuck to you but they are tasty and I think still healthy?
27
AM
Hi Emily!
Yes, I’ll defintely use canned salmon for the salmon cakes. I always do.
I wanted to have marinated salmon fillets on Friday night — hubby and I love it but don’t often splurge like that, but Sam’s was all out except one package that was way more than what I wanted. I hate to make a trip all the way back over there this week, so I may just do something else.
Lynn
27
PM
What an inspiration Lynn! I’ve been sooo lazy about meals all the way around. I have to jumpstart myself out of the funk. Thanks for this post.
Oh! And I finally have some flowers to show you…everytime I see more I think of you. : )
Pictures coming soon…
Heather W
27
PM
Heather, I just cannot tell you how much easier it made life to plan the menus last week and have everything ready to go. Life was just smoother sailing… I hope to have a repeat this week!
Lynn