I read many different blogs with many points of view about life and pick up hints for daily living, alternative thinking and a load of glimpses about how different people organize their lives. I fail miserably at organization and tend to live more of a pass then punt life. I am terribly fickle and live my days whichever way the wind is blowing. It does cut out on the stress levels if you have only a vague idea of what you want to accomplish each day rather than a plan because often things do go awry. But sometimes vagueness tag teams with indecisiveness and things I really wanted to do go undone.
Today I am jumping into the deep end of the pool with something that is as normal as breathing to most of you, but this is something I balk at all the time. I am going to try to have a real life, big girl weekly menu plan and stick to it.
For the month of September I am trying to use items from my food storage (freezer and pantry) buying only fresh produce, milk and bread as necessary. (And yes. I am perfectly capable of making my own bread but it is just not going to happen) I rustled through the freezer this morning and pulled out several days worth of meal possibilities, thought about what I could make with them and am committing (fingers crossed) to a plan. (I am already feeling a little figurative claustrophobia at the thoughts of being bound to a menu.)
I am not assigning days to this plan, but am labeling it 1-7 leaving one night this week open for The Greek Food Festival, an annual event that we will NOT miss! By planning 7 meals it gives me the option to change my mind one time, and my mind always needs alternate plans!
1. Spaghetti with bolognese sauce, side salad
2. Chicken sausage with cabbage, steamed carrots
3.Ham and cheese puff, apple and fennel salad, broccoli
4. Meatloaf, roasted cauliflower, tomato slices, jasmine rice
5. Taco salad with all the fixings (tomato, peppers, onions, pinto beans, salsa, on mixed greens)
6. Grilled white bbq chicken, green beans, tomatoes and cukes, rice maybe (who knows yet)
7. Okra perloo
Looking at this menu all I will need to buy is a fennel bulb. tomatoes, salad greens, green peppers and a cucumber.
Things to make or bake
Egg muffins (I hate breakfast but hopefully I will eat one of these each morning)
Brownies (because, well__chocolate)
Pudding (I have a ton of milk that needs to be used)
Dinner rolls (Maybe maybe not. Depends on my mood)
Today I am jumping into the deep end of the pool with something that is as normal as breathing to most of you, but this is something I balk at all the time. I am going to try to have a real life, big girl weekly menu plan and stick to it.
For the month of September I am trying to use items from my food storage (freezer and pantry) buying only fresh produce, milk and bread as necessary. (And yes. I am perfectly capable of making my own bread but it is just not going to happen) I rustled through the freezer this morning and pulled out several days worth of meal possibilities, thought about what I could make with them and am committing (fingers crossed) to a plan. (I am already feeling a little figurative claustrophobia at the thoughts of being bound to a menu.)
I am not assigning days to this plan, but am labeling it 1-7 leaving one night this week open for The Greek Food Festival, an annual event that we will NOT miss! By planning 7 meals it gives me the option to change my mind one time, and my mind always needs alternate plans!
1. Spaghetti with bolognese sauce, side salad
2. Chicken sausage with cabbage, steamed carrots
3.Ham and cheese puff, apple and fennel salad, broccoli
4. Meatloaf, roasted cauliflower, tomato slices, jasmine rice
5. Taco salad with all the fixings (tomato, peppers, onions, pinto beans, salsa, on mixed greens)
6. Grilled white bbq chicken, green beans, tomatoes and cukes, rice maybe (who knows yet)
7. Okra perloo
Looking at this menu all I will need to buy is a fennel bulb. tomatoes, salad greens, green peppers and a cucumber.
Things to make or bake
Egg muffins (I hate breakfast but hopefully I will eat one of these each morning)
Brownies (because, well__chocolate)
Pudding (I have a ton of milk that needs to be used)
Dinner rolls (Maybe maybe not. Depends on my mood)
I hear you sister. In my case I have a freezer full and nothing sounds good why is that. We have had so many store bought rotisserie chicken my husband is threatening revolt. But that and taco bell is all that sounds appealing. And I am never hungry for what I plan if I do plan. Oh I like ham too.
ReplyDeleteHope springs eternal that I can actually stick to my plan. TheHub has several dinner meetings this week so I will be solo unless Son2 and GF2 swing by. It should be mostly doable, especialy since when I am eating alone I really don't care what I have to eat.
DeleteI couldnt stick to a meal plan if my life depended on it!
ReplyDeleteI take my hat off to you for giving it a go but encourage you to only stick to it if it serves you!
It will be interesting to see how it goes. Honestly it feels rather confining.
DeleteGood luck.
ReplyDeleteI don't go down the meal plan route either. I tend to cook what I feel like at the time (or decide I HAVE to feel like something which was on a really good special).
I also cook in bulk and either live on the same thing for a week or (more sensibly) put meals in the freezer for lazy/uninspired nights.
I could easily eat the same thing for several meals in a row, but TheHub is very funny about "used" food. I have to reformat leftovers so he doesn't know he is eating the same thing again.
DeleteI am vegetarian and my partner is not. He also believes that veggies are the garnish you put on the plate to make the meat look better. So two meals are required almost every night. Fortunately he likes leftovers.
DeleteI am not sure I could/would do 2 meals every night. You are much kinder than I am.
DeleteMy plan works fine. I have food. I look and see what there is that is already cooked and eat that along with vegetables. I don't blame you for feeling claustrophobic. Run! Like Kylie, I could not stick to a mean plan if my life depended on it! Don't be bound by something that stresses you.
ReplyDeleteIt will not really stress me, but I don't like feeling bound to anything and this makes me feel like I have to do it. I know it is just food though so if I go off course no one will care.
DeleteClaustrophobia is stress for me!
DeleteYou had me at chocolate. 😂
ReplyDeleteI try to plan, but I am horrible at it. I keep a mental idea of what I have and periodically do an inventory. I'm always in awe of someone like Carol, (ctonabudget), who can plan a month at a time.
I am bad at it too. I never even know Tuesday afternoon what might sound good Tuesday night for dinner. TheHub, on the other hand, would love to know what we are going to have for dinner 3 nights before Christmas so he can plan his fall eating schedule accordingly.
ReplyDeleteHa, I just posted a meal plan. I'd started it a few days ago and have already changed it twice to reflect what I actually made! >:O For me, I feel like I am working a plan if I think about what I want to make and keep in mind what I have on hand to use up. But those are usually pretty loose -- so I'll feel successful if I make tofu stir-fry or pasta w/sausage and peppers because my real goal was to use the sliced peppers. Honestly I think I am somewhat better at "following" a meal plan if I don't write it down or announce it, just keep it in my head. But. My head is crammed right now and I'm not the only cooking, so down it goes!
ReplyDeleteI always know what I have on hand and can throw a dinner together in 15 minutes if I have to, but I am trying this anyway. I am always the cook but this week I am also the sole diner until the weekend. I guess I will just see how it goes.
DeleteIf you enjoy cooking (and I think you do), you'll probably find a rigid meal plan confining. But I like your idea of just listing meal ideas without assigning them to specific days. You can use up what you have for your Shelftember and still have the freedom to decide what you want to cook at the last minute.
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I like structure (in theory) and I don't particularly like cooking. I particularly hate it when I have to decide what to cook THAT particular evening. Having a weekly meal plan done in advance helps me relax and actually allows me to feed my family better meals than if I have to scramble for an idea at the last minute. We'd end up having pasta or rice at every meal with some kind of plain meat otherwise (or take-out!). Nothing wrong with that but it's also boring. Since I'm not a foodie who can come up with an idea for a dish out of nowhere, I like knowing in advance which recipes I will be using. But instead of rushing to buy ingredients for them, I just substitute what I already have on hand.
I haven't had a meal plan for a while now, due to the hurricane preparations and then the hurricane itself, so I actually look forward to reinstituting some structure by coming up with a meal plan... tomorrow. Good luck with your experiment!
I do like to cook and I find all meal plans confining. I do understand how it can make mealtime easier, but for me cooking is a place I unwind and I tend to find if I feel bound to specifics I get a little resentful. I hope since I am trying 2 things I have never made before it might take some of the sting out of following a plan.
DeleteI'm with Natalie and if there's not a plan, take out will probably win. Since you are one of those people who enjoy the process of cooking, that's a whole other ballgame. However, I do know you like a challenge and I'm sure you'll do well with this one. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI do like a challenge, but this is going to be an odd week (didn't know how odd until last night) so I am not exactly sure if I will be successful or not.
DeleteI'll be interested to read what you think. I like a loose plan. I list 4-5 dinners for the week (no night assignments) and then we have a few open spots for whatever strikes us. I make sure at least two things are new, so the fun for me is finding ideas on Pinterest that work with what I have in pantry and freezer.
ReplyDeleteI went into this week with just one true plan:go to the Greek Food Festival. Other than that I had no plan. I always know what I have available, but generally have no idea what is going to happen to it until I begin cooking. This feels very restrictive to me but I will see where it leads.
DeleteI cannot come up with a meal plan. It sounds like a good idea but it just doesn't happen. I finally gave my husband a sheet that had all of the entrees I could think of as well as an asterisk for those that took at least 24 hour notice and he picks what we will be having for supper. Trying to decide what to eat is 80% of the battle for me! Good luck.
ReplyDeleteWhen we were very young and very strapped for cash I had to make every bite count and I planned and planned. Then our situation changed and I did not have to be as stringent. I have always loved to cook but I love unrestrained cooking best and found I really like not following a plan. TheHub on the other hand is a true accountant and is already bugging me about what we are going to have for dinner next week.
DeleteDo you cook every day? Can't remember how large your family is, but I tend to cook bigger meals on Friday/Saturday/Sunday, and then have leftovers the rest of the week. By Thursday, we're often into freezer meals. I try not to make the meals totally repetitive, but if we're having grilled chicken with pesto pasta on Saturday, I'll serve the grilled chicken in tacos later in the week. But, every week I know which ingredients I'll need, how many times I need to properly cook, and how many meals are in the fridge.
ReplyDeleteIt just depends on the week if I cook or not. There are several take out options near our house that are not fast food places, so if we want Persian, Thai or even a vegetable plate, we hit one of those. Then there are weeks I cook every day. We are empty nesters so most of the time just TheHub and I are the only ones I cook for. A couple of times a week Son2 eats here with or without GF2, and at least once a week I have Mom over. (Mom eats like a little bird so she adds nothing to the meal prep) Whenever there is a good sale on ground beef or chicken (particularly whole fryers) I buy a lot and process and pack it into meal size freezer bags, so I always have seasoned cooked ground chuck and packs of stewed chicken in the freezer. Those are what I use as a base to make very fast meals on the fly. There are meals I actually plan in advance, but they are generally things like fish that I buy fresh the day we are going to eat it. We do have leftovers, but I have to reformat them into something different because TheHub does not like traditional leftovers.
DeleteI wish you well, but I hope you won't be hard on yourself if the plan doesn't work out.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
I am very forgiving of my shortcomings, especially something like this that is just food.
DeleteI hate menu planning too, refuse to do it. I often just make supper from whatever happens to be in the fridge/freezer. We usually decide that morning...unless I happen upon a sale on something then maybe the day before. Sometimes its the little things in life like deciding that day what to eat that makes you happy. Good luck to you though
ReplyDeleteWe will see how it works. It is so against my nature but I am giving it a try.
DeleteWe don't menu plan... sshhhh.. but we don't eat as well as you do either!
ReplyDeleteThe first two weeks of September we were buying the bare minimum in groceries, so I did some cupboard diving to be creative in our cooking. Actually used a bit of the quinoa sitting up there! I could get used to it with the right spices...
Quinoa is good for us but requires a lot of outside flavors to make it taste like anything.
DeleteI think my guilty pleasure is living an unplanned life. Don't get me wrong, I do have a purpose to my days, but I truly enjoy living in the moment. There are things that I have to plan into my day which I do, but I relish that time that is uncommitted where I can free style.
I don't really plan either. I kind of look at the freezer the day before to see what is available. I love to cook but am a bit lazy about dinner time. I wonder why? Good lick with your plan I am with you if it fails, heck I am with you if it succeeds.
ReplyDeleteYou are not lazy then, just tired because you have worked like a Trojan all day!
DeleteI can never stick to a meal plan! I have tried, but it doesn't work for me. I prefer knowing what I have on hand and then, going from there. But, I do love reading other people's menus!
ReplyDeleteI am always so impressed that people can actually follow a menu. I am pretty bad at it!
Delete