By Sinea Pies
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| Field Greens for Salad |
Fun, if you have time and are in the mood to express your creativity through the food you serve.
Exasperating, if time and money are not on your side.
Exasperating, if time and money are not on your side.
So, how can you effectively create a weekly menu with enough diversity to have a happy, satisfied family and not break the bank? Plan with time and money in mind!
Time: identify which days allow for a meal that is more elaborate in the making and which days are going to be “hit the pavement and run”. You know those days. Evening classes for you, sports or music lessons for the kids, PTA meetings. Those are the times that quick meals are a necessity.
Money: it may be necessary to make every meal the cheapest but if you can at least work in one “nice” meal, maybe on Sunday, it provides the comfort that the other light-weight or repetitive meals may not. Grilled cheese and soup is great once a week but not 7-days a week!
Tip: reuse ingredients. By that I mean, buy a big pack and split it to use a couple of nights in a row. In the plan below, half a big-pack of ground beef will be used for Little Cheddar Burgers and half for Baked Lasagna. Big packs are cheaper per pound.
Here is this week’s Menu Plan from Ducks ‘n a Row.
- Monday Grilled Cheese Sandwiches and cream of tomato soup.
- Tuesday Fried Chicken with biscuits.
- Wednesday "Breakfast for dinner" Make Eggs in a Basket with sausage or bacon on the side.
- Thursday Lite night. Mediterranean Salad with couscos as a side dish.
- Friday No cooking. Get a great Pizza Hut pizza!
- Saturday Little Cheddar Burgers with mashed potatoes and corn on the side. (Save the remaining ground beef for tomorrow night's lasagna)
- Sunday Baked Lasagna with spaghetti, tossed salad and Italian bread
What are your menu planning secrets? Please share.
Hi Sinea! My only tip is to wash, chop, and portion the vegetables at one time, to use all week in several different dishes. We like onions, zucchini, and mushrooms. I use them in spaghetti sauces, soups, fried rice, stir-frys...Also - use a sharpie marker to label and date packages that are opened, so you know how fresh something is and when to use it by. Oh and one time I made too many spaghetti noodles and so mixed them with one egg and fried them in the pan, with cheese sprinkled on top, for breakfast the next day....yum! That's not really about menu-planning...but pan-fried spaghetti pie was such a "hallelujah" moment for me, I just had to share :)
ReplyDeleteWow....all of this is really good but I am especially impressed with your spaghetti ingenuity! Awesome idea! :)
DeleteI like preplanning my meals and also eating out once in a while too. Usually on Monday I will make a big garden salad and then make some bacon and hard boiled eggs in a separate container to add to individual salads.
ReplyDeleteYou've got me with the BACON. I think I can eat almost anything with bacon on it or in it. Great idea.
DeleteI'm making a blog visit from Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday today.
ReplyDeleteIt's a sunny and warm day in Las Vegas. I've been living on the West coast for 18 years. It's funny when friends, from Maine, will mention that they're shoveling snow I caught off guard. That's right, you're dealing with snow!
Hope you have a wonderful and delicious week!
Love this post. It really is a juggling act sometimes with meal planning and everything that comes along with it. I like to make a base meat to make multiple meals with. I did a base for Lasagna....took out a portion for sloppy joes and then the left overs we used for chili on hot dogs. It really is a wonderful thing.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, Amy. I've tried this before and it makes life so much simpler. :)
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