I promised you when we tackled menu planning that I’d come back to the subject periodically to make sure those of you who need Baby Steps can continue to get nudged in the right direction. Next Monday I’m going to give you another nudge, so this week be thinking:
- Have I made any positive changes to my menu planning system recently?
- Have I fallen off the boat (easy to do in the summer!)?
- How is my system (if I have one) working for me now?
- If you have no system, imagine what it would be like to walk in the door from work/walk into the kitchen after playing with the kiddos all day and KNOW what you’re going to have, and even have the meat thawed in the fridge ready to go…
- What is one goal I can set for myself to make menu planning work better for me/my household?
Looking forward to next week’s Monday Mission, a revisit to menu planning and an exploration of ORANGE super foods! See you then!
If menu planning, especially keeping all the meals nourishing, seems daunting to you, you may want to check out a menu planning weekly helper like the ones at GNOWFGLINS. You’ll get recipes, shopping lists, and even “what to do when” guides.
I am a guest lecturer and partner with GNOWFGLINS eCourses, so I will earn commission from any sales made starting here. Of course, the courses are also an awesome way to learn to cook real food, so I’d gab about them anyway.
Thanks for this nudge in the right direction. The encouragement does help.
Given the chaos in our life right now, I signed up for a session at one of those bulk meal stores. At least that gives us some ease for dinners and sometimes lunches. I’ll add in vegetables from our farm share to each meal.
It’s not the ideal situation that I’d like to have, but I think it will help us to work towards the ideal.
Jendeis’s last blog post..Forecasting
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I can’t wait for next Monday to come. Meal planning is something I have really been trying to work on and this week I consider to have had a success in that I went from either ordering out, eating breakfast for dinner, or something quick for the kids and nothing for me, to having cooked a full meal for the entire family both Sunday and Monday. When you are working on this, I would love to hear if you have any ideas for working moms, or what your opinion is on cooking in bulk and freezing for the future for easy preparation (something I have recently become interested in trying).
KissyKat’s last blog post..Sequence
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Katie Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Excellent topics – I’ll address one or both in next week’s posts! Thank you so much for the comment!
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The only things that I make in bulk and freeze ahead of time are chicken stock, homemade tomato pasta sauce, and lasagna-type dishes. Everything else seems to lose flavor as the time passes.
One way to add variety to menu planning, without having to worry about thawing meat is to add a few “go-to” vegetarian meals to your menu ideas. My family is not vegetarian, but we have a few vegetarian meals a week. They are usually much easier and faster to prepare, and are usually cheaper! We got started by checking out a few vegetarian cookbooks from the local library.
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