Time for the week’s menu plans! This week I have been impressed with how blessed we all are to live in a society where we can choose what we want to eat for each meal. Even those who are considered poor have choices here. And even the most meager sounding choice, like between a can of baked beans and a can of green beans, is a blessed choice of what to eat. I have visited places in the world where people had no choice but to go without food and to accept what ever someone decided to give them. Those people feel blessed by that gift too. I don’t want to take for granted the extreme blessing of having choices in what to eat, and to know that my family never goes hungry.
This week the menu includes:
Breakfasts :
oats and dried fruit
cereal and milk, fruit
toast, sausage, orange slices
apple slices baked on toast with cinnamon
Lunches:
homemade cream of tomato soup and crackers, cheese and grapes
sandwiches
noodles with pesto
Suppers:
tuna casserole, fresh lima beans, homemade bread
spaghetti and homemade sauce
salisbury steak and mashed potatoes
Pork loin cooked on the grill in foil – this is my contribution to the family Labor Day picnic
beans and cornbread, salad
egg salad sandwiches, fresh spinach salad
Do you plan what you will eat for the week? How do you go about it?
About Sylvia
Well, I’ve planned a two week menu. My dh has given me £140 and asked me to make it last for a fortnight. The meals I’ve planned are a bit repetitious but they are (hopefully) nutritious and we won’t go hungry. Food is expensive here in our shops in the UK and I have to constantly be on the lookout for a good deal.
Breakfasts:
Porridge oats/honey (from my friends bees!)
OR toast and marmite/marmalade, Jam or honey
Crunchy nut cornflakes/weetabix and grated apple served with organic milk.
Lunches:
Tuna, cheese and salad sandwiches with homegrown lettuce leaves and an apple
(Rosie will have a cooked lunch at school)
Dinners:
Jacket potatoes with salad, baked beans and grated cheese.
Chilli with brown basmati and salad
Spaghetti bolognaise
spaghetti and meatballs
pasta, tinned tomatoes and grated cheese
Spicy chicken cous-cous
Vegetable curry
Wow, that is expensive, Yvonne. Your menu sounds good though. I hope you find lots of deals this week!
I used to shop weekly, and then I pushed it to 10 days. But I am thinking I may try to push it into every 2 weeks, or 2 times per month. Maybe rather then calendar weeks, I will do dates such as the 15th and the 1st and then plan all meals for those days in between. I find when I do one major trip I buy less, as every time we run in we end up spending more. The exception to that would be a quick run in between only to buy items greatly reduced by sales, as I also do not want to miss out when items I normally use are on sale on one of my off weeks.
I do not have it all set up yet. I just think with a newborn baby weekly shopping may become pretty tedious.
So this time I only have 10 dinners, but I plan to fill in the extra few days with items in my pantry, and the extra items we picked up.
So here we go:
1. Chinese Pepper steak with steamed rice
2. Hot ham and cheese sandwiches with salad
3. Coconut chicken over couscous
4. BBQ pork chops, baked beans, and baked potatoes
5. Coney Island Chili cheese fires (carried over)
6. Chicken nuggets with potato wedges and veggies
7. Fish filets with krokatten and a veg
8. Harvest apple salad with chicken
9. Baked potatoes with quark and rolls
10. Homemade macaroni and cheese with veggie
That sounds like a good plan. Good job!
I am really liking this new posts on cooking and planning….I usually plan my menus around the Grocery store weekly sale page….I focus on the front and back page where the biggest savings are found…..I would like to extend my weekly shopping trips to every 2 weeks though….I guess I need to work on that. Thanks for this post….very inspiring!!!
I would love to be able to go every 2 weeks! I hope you can do that. I have no storage space for food in this house, but in the past, in different homes that’s what I did.
I need to sit down and to this today, thanks for the reminder.
You’re welcome!
I plan weekly for dinners only. In fact today is planning day.
I love doing my menu plan! I do it for a month because I shop monthly.e I hate the shops I would rather be at home baking, sewing, knitting, embroidering gardening…………………..anyhoo, it really helps to know where I am going with the meals for my family!
However this month I am going to do a menu plan for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner instead of just dinner!!
I am looking forward to working on it!!
oxoxo
We raised 6 children, and through the years, I shopped for groceries only as often as my DH got paid, so sometimes it was monthly, and sometimes it was every two weeks. Two years ago, he found out his company was going to be closing, so I changed my approach. I had always been storing as much food as I could, but now my focus was on really stocking up. We also expanded our vegetable garden. And we have an unheated greenhouse for fresh green things through the winter (a la Elliott Coleman’s book.) I don’t plan much more than one or two days ahead on what I will cook. I look at what is on hand. We also have a couple of milk goats and I made cheese and trade fresh milk for fresh eggs. I make all of our bread (I am NOT a super woman ~ truly ~ these are habits developed over many long years). Now that DH is retired, I only shop once every two months. Instead of looking OUT for what to cook, I look IN. Ok, what is in the garden that needs eating (or preserving) right now? What is in the freezer? What is on the shelf that needs using before it expires? Are there any leftovers that need using up? I work on the food project nearly every day. When I do shop, I don’t shop like I used to. I think in terms of stocking up. When I find a good deal, I get a LOT and preserve it (like recently I found wonderful beautiful cheap celery, so got several, sliced and froze them in 3 cup batches.) It is hard to explain… I also belong to a small food co-op and get bulk items there, like whole wheat and RealSalt and Sucanant. I love your blog!
Marvelous tips, Yolanda! Thank you!