It's been months since I've posted any menus or recipes, and I'm sure no one has noticed, but I have decided to start posting them again, if for no other reason it is an easy way to refer back when I am planning another month's menu. When we got back from camp I was excited to cook again but soon got in a rut. I realized that I didn't like the menu planning part. I actually enjoy grocery shopping, especially if I get to be alone. So I came up with a solution: plan once a month, shop every week. I bought myself a dry erase month calendar at Target and now I write down not only each daily meal but also our other commitments. Here is my menu for December. Many of these you have probably seen on my blog before. Also, most of the time I don't write down a side dish--I just alternate between a roasted veggie of some kind (asparagus when in season, broccoli, carrots, sweet potatoes, etc.). I love getting ideas from other websites and blogs, so maybe I can give someone else an idea to get out of a menu planning rut. Oh, also, I am going to put a star by the recipes that I think are exceptionally good.
12/1: *cheddar baked chicken (thanks Hollie for this delicious recipe!) and corn spoonbread
12/2: Slow cooker Sloppy joes and sweet potato fries
12/3: Pizza (I got an idea from my mom to buy the frozen bread dough loaves and use it as the crust; just let the dough rise as usual and roll it out to fit your pan or pizza stone. Also, we love Newman's Own marinara sauce on our pizza) I have instituted Friday as homemade pizza day in the Montandon house
12/4: Mexican crock pot chicken tacos
12/5: take-out for lunch, leftovers for dinner
12/6: Thai lemon beef served over rice noodles
12/7: Don't know yet
12/8: *Cheddar chicken chowder with biscuits (frozen)
12/9: Leftovers
12/10: Pizza
12/11: *Marcella Hazan's roast chicken with lemons and roasted vegetables
12/12: Take-out for lunch, church class party
12/13: Southwestern chicken and corn cakes with avocado cream (using the roasted chicken from Saturday on this and 12/14's meal)
12/14: *Sesame noodles with chicken
12/15: Potato bacon torte
12/16: Sticky chicken
12/17: Pizza
12/18: Spaghetti
12/19: Takeout for lunch, leftovers for dinner (are you seeing a pattern for Sundays here?)
12/20: Cayenne-spiked drumsticks (these are from a weight watchers cookbook and they are yummy. I couldn't find the recipe online so I will post it later).
12/21: *Creamy chicken enchiladas
12/22: *Marinated grilled flank steak
12/23: Orange chicken with brown rice (from the Best Light Recipe cookbook, will post recipe later)
12/24: Pizza
12/25: ????
12/26: ????
12/27: ????
12/28: ????
12/29: Almond-crusted chicken
12/30: BBQ Sausage (no recipe: buy smoked sausage, grill, use STUBBS and only STUBBS barbecue sauce)
12/31: Pizza
Happy planning, cooking and eating!
(16-month post for Ezra coming soon.)
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9 comments:
Nice! Actually, that does give me ideas. I've all but given up on meal planning for two people, because it's easy to throw things together. Which makes for some unhealthy meals.
Did you change your background?
Su, I did that for a while, but I have found over the years that I function best with a plan. Saves money for us, too, because now I'm not picking up 5 or 6 cans of something (tomatoes, beans, whatever) that we don't need everytime we go to the store, or produce that ends up going bad.
And no, I don't think I've changed my background since '06 or something.
I love reading your ideas. I think menu planning is fun, especially when it's 4pm and I don't have to think about dinner, I just have to make it. Thanks for posting.
I always plan meals 2 weeks in advance for our family and it does save tons of time and money. I love reading about organization. :)
Thanks for the post! I printed out a couple of the recipes with stars.
Do you also plan around leftovers?
When I read the book about how to save 50% on your grocery bill, the first thing they said to do was make menu plans for at least two weeks, and a month if you could do that. It seems like it wouldn't be that hard, but it is for me--to think ahead that far and also to factor in whatever else I am doing.
Just saw the notations for leftovers...
Mom, I usually plan a leftover day after a few days of meals in a row--especially things like soup, which always makes more than we can eat in one sitting. If it's individual chicken breasts or steak or something, we are less likely to have enough for leftovers. I also always keep a bag of cheese tortellini in the freezer and a couple of Amy's meals in case we don't have any leftovers. But that is rare. I like to plan leftover days because otherwise food gets wasted because I would rather eat something new than whatever is in the fridge.
Also, now that I have a couple months of menus done, I can get a lot of ideas off of those. Each month I have taken a picture of the menu, and I just save it on my computer. I also have a "recipes to try" bookmark on my computer, and when I see recipes I think sound good, I save them there to try later. Lately I have been going through my Southern Living cookbooks and most of those recipes are really good.
What a great idea! I will definitely be using some of your recipes! Thanks for posting.
For some reason I thought you had already changed your background, and were now changing it back... I must have your blog confused with someone els.
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