I heard of a woman once who was tired of asking her husband what he wanted for dinner and getting the response, "Whatever." "I don't know." "You choose." "Something." So she started making dinners ahead and freezing them labeled "I don't know" et cetera. Then, depending on how he answered, she'd go to the freezer and pull out what he asked for.
I can totally relate to this woman. I'm tired of deciding what to make for dinner or at least coming up with options based off what we have because it looked good while I was at the store.
So what I do now is use a 3 week schedule.
Week 1
Monday: spaghetti with meat sauce
Tuesday: meatloaf and potato
Wednesday: tacos
Thursday: homemade pizza
Friday: soup and sandwich
Week 2
Monday: pork with fresh veg
Tuesday: chicken breast with squash or sweet potato
Wednesday: hamburgers
Thursday: lasagna
Friday: pasta with chicken
Week 3
Monday: enchiladas
Tuesday: sloppy joes
Wednesday: breakfast (choose from: pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon, eggs, biscuits & gravy)
Thursday: baked ziti
Friday: fish fillets with fresh veg
Sides can vary from salad or canned vegetables, couscous, rice, etc.
Lunches, Saturdays and Sunday dinners are leftovers, sandwiches or frozen pizzas. Sundays always have a brunch.
This has made my life sooooo much easier. It also helps to save time and money at the grocery store since I stick to the list, which is no longer ambiguous.
mmm. can i come eat at your house?
ReplyDeleteyes. enchilada night is a good night to come because it makes a lot. and they're really super good. :)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great system for you, Bonnie. No more mystery! And three weeks is long enough that you won't get bored, I think. We did a recipe based system for several years. And once I got the hang of it, it worked nicely for us. Now I am trying to do more ingredient-based planning, which is only slightly different. Still just involves sitting down and thinking for a bit, and you know how hard that can be for a mother of little people. But I'm getting there, slowly. Some weeks are better than others. :-)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great plan! I have strongly considered doing this because it is so hard to come up with dinner ideas.
ReplyDeleteI have been doing this for 3 years and it makes a HUGE difference in both what we eat and what we spend. I only plan 2 weeks and then I take an inventory and see if I can come up with 5 meals for the 3rd week, which I almost always can. But they are usually interesting soups or pastas!! the goals is to shop when there is absolutely nothing left, whcih I have actually become pretty decent at!! but yeah, I love my system, plus when I didn't work, I could do all sorts of stuff from scratch with was awesome. Like potatoe pancakes and stuff. But it is so helpful because you look at it in the morning and then all day you think about loaded potatoes for dinner (that's tomorrow for me).
ReplyDeleteAnyway, good job!! Let me know how it goes and if you have some good recipes I can add to my monthly schedule.
That's a great plan, I can barely plan a week with morning sickness and a toddler! ;) My friend and I have exchanged some delicious, cheap and easy recipes lately, let me know if you want to throw something new into the mix.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to try something new. especially if the ingrediants aren't too expensive. please send me good recipes.
ReplyDeleteSure thing! I'll email them to you now.
ReplyDelete