Here's our last "Eat From the Pantry" menu for this month. I've learned quite a few things along the way this month.
First, I learned that it doesn't work for me to write out a list of a month's worth of meals. I tried it twice and failed to follow it evenly remotely close both times. I find that a week at a time works better for me and it's better if I don't assign certain foods for certain days. Some days I don't feel like chicken and if it's on the list, I just won't make it. :)
I also found that if I didn't like what I wrote down for the day, I was more like to crave something else and go to get it. Or there would be days we didn't know what to eat because we weren't following the list at all.
So, for this week, I wrote down some breakfasts, lunches and dinners I can make from stuff I have around. Works so much better for me to just glance at the list each day and decide what I feel like making. It also helps because if we're hungry at a weird time, I can just look at the list and pick something to make.
Breakfasts
Smoothies
Hard Boiled Eggs and Toast (x2)
Waffles and Syrup (x2)
Oatmeal
Cereal and milk
Lunches
Turkey, cheese and crackers
Soup and sandwiches
Tuna Egg Salad
P.B.&J
Hot Dogs and fruit
Snowflake Pancakes (for our theme this week)
Leftovers
Dinners
Chicken Helper
Hamburgers and Salad
Rice and Beans and Snowflake Tortillas
Pork Stir Fry (just going to wing it, I'll post about it later)
Tuna Helper
Leftovers
Leftovers
The second thing I learned is that I have to allot much more time for us to use up leftovers and anything else we might have been given. I like to cook too much, so I often over plan the amount of food we need. I need to learn how not to cook for an army... or just learn to leave enough time for us to eat it all!
I will be attaching this list to my cork board and hopefully I'll have better luck with this system. I haven't had much menu planning success lately, so it's time to find a system that truly works! What works for your family?
1 comments:
Hi Janeen! I'm doing this right now, too. It also works better for me to not assign meals to specific days. I am only doing dinners (we usually have breakfast and simple lunch foods on hand). I also agree with the left over issue--especially when the plan includes a lot of dishes I've never made before. I made up a list of about 20-25 dishes and I will make them in whatever order works for us. I separated the meat into the amounts each recipe calls for and froze it so I don't have to worry about it going bad if I don't get to it right away.The only thing I really need to be mindful of is that the produce doesn't go bad--and that my heavy cream and half and half don't expire before I get to the dishes that require them--that should be fairly simple though. It's such a relief to have a "plan" and have the groceries ahead of time rather than trying to figure out each day what I want to make and realizing that I didn't leave enough time for the meat to thaw or that I'm missing a key ingredient. It's not a detailed calendar of meals--but this is what works best for us.
Also, I made your Italian Potato Fritata a week or so ago--Yummy--thanks for the quick, easy recipe!!
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