This Week’s Menu
I’m intrigued by the whole process of deciding what to cook for dinner. Many take the approach of “what do I have on hand” and some of those only do so an hour before they plan to eat? Others may go to the store every couple of days to buy for the immediate future. Some purchase prepared, ready-to-eat foods or frozen, throw-in-the-oven type foods. Some purchase kits or mixes that they can assemble and bake. Some buy the staples and prepare a meal from memory – no recipe needed. And still others, actually prepare meals from recipes most nights.
I fall in this latter category the majority of the time. I’ve been known to rely on a frozen bagged entree here and there, and frozen pizzas too. But for the most part, I look through my recipes each week deciding what to cook for the next week ahead. I usually do this Thursday, and shop Friday. And while I do have a list I rotate through, it is not as helpful as it seems.
This week’s selections are:
Saturday - Kielbasa and Sauerkraut (slow-cooked) with roasted red potatoes, and broccoli
Sunday - Slow-cooked Beef (using stew meat instead of a roast this time), carrots and potatoes
Monday - Spinach and Swiss quiche with biscuits (a throw-in for the kids)
Tuesday - Tamale Pie
Wednesday - (night off from cooking; eating pizza at church)
Thursday - Herb Parmesan Chicken (my sister’s recipe, which I’ve made once before, and then not successfully) with corn and carrots
Feel free to share your process, a week of meals in your house, or your favorite family dishes.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
I have found that ‘fancy’ meals are not well-received meals in our house such as your quiche. Sounds great, but I would work hard to make it only to have dinner time battles.
I tend to try to plan a week in advance though sometimes I have to buy food every few days just because of food quality and it lasting.
I’m at the store every few days for bananas, yogurt and bread as well as maybe some other items such as blueberries, milk, etc. Olivia eats through yogurt like crazy but if I buy too much then it goes bad. It can be used as a breakfast item or a snack item or a food item to compliment another meal.
As for meals itself. We rarely used the frozen stuff (except fish sticks) because of the processed factor. We’ve even cut back on frozen pizzas.
My kids love tacos made with lean ground beef, reduced fat cheese (Olivia doesn’t eat cheese), hard taco shells. Easy to whip up! We always add a bag of veggies (steamed are the best and we buy tons of bags of veggies). If it’s summer then it can be fresh veggies. Olivia loves to have mexican rice with this as well.
They love sloppy joes (sometimes I get by with lean turkey) made from a packet of seasoning and lean meat of some kind. Whole wheat buns, Annie’s mac n cheese (Olivia loves this), frozen veggie and often a yogurt or applesauce. I need to find out how to make the seasonings to save a lot of money on the packets of seasonings. Oh I do this in the crock pot.
They loved turkey kielbasa with rice and veggies. Sometimes mashed potatoes or home made fresh fries (Kurt makes the very best baked french fries).
I recently made baked ziit in the crockpot thinking that they’d love it. Not so much.
Christian’s favorite meal is spaghetti and meatballs. Whole grain noodles, homemade (in the crock pot/without a recipe) sauce. Sometimes with meatballs (usually homemade from my mother in law or frozen from Market Day). If they get garlic bread then we make it from the fresh loaves of bread from krogers. Kurt loves me not buying much frozen stuff at all.
Fish sticks, Annie’s mac and cheese, veggies. While kurt and I will have salmon or tilapia.
I recently made an italian vegetable soup without the pasta and the kids loved it. Slow cooker and awesome. i never got any because between Kurt taking it to work and the kids enjoying it (with some Late July brand round crackers) they gobbled it down.
And chili. They love mommy making chili in the crockpot especially coming home from church to have it. I don’t follow a recipe and always change it. Last time I made it more mexican like with corn, etc. Yummy. Kurt couldn’t get enough of the frozen leftovers when he returned from traveling.
I do like to make a chicken dish with a light breading though I haven’t done that in a while. Olivia doesn’t care much for meat (except taco meat) and sometimes she just can’t handle having chicken. I love the chik steaks from Market Day…they are wrapping individually so I don’t make too much. I always make too much and have a ton of leftovers in the fridge.
Oh they enjoy having sausage and eggs for dinner sometimes too.
It’s sloppy joes for dinner tonight though not made in the slow cooker. That is as far as i’ve gotten with the planning this week.