Saturday, March 31, 2018

Meal Planning Moment

Rereading my old blogs, I got inspired to continue my meal planning tradition of sitting for a moment with my recipe box and pulling out 5-7 main dishes to cook over the next week.




Many years ago I made a recipe card for even the simple dinners we eat, not that I needed to follow the recipe for it, but more as a physical note of the meal.  Once a week, usually Saturday morning while everyone is sleeping or doing their own thing, I sit with my recipe box (and my calendar for the next week) and pull out the cards of the dishes I want to make and keep those cards out, either on the counter or in a cabinet, but somewhere I can flip through them.  I fill up the grocery list on the productivity app my family shares, and by Sunday night I usually have all the ingredients I'll need for the week.  Having that list of meals plus their ingredients on hand makes getting dinner on the table easier.  I tried assigning a meal to a certain day of the week, but I prefer to just cook what I have time for as each day comes.  Some days I'll have more time than others, so I just cook the meal that seems to fit in best at the time.  It saves so much time.

When I'm done with the cards for that week, I file them in the back of their category leaving me with the cards of dishes not recently prepared.  Yes, I do try new recipes, and if there's one that will make the cut into our rotation then I file into my box!

The calendar sits with me so that I get a realistic view of who will be home for dinnertime and which kids need hefty pre-game meals.  

These are just the main dishes; don't be alarmed at the lack of veggies!  I usually make either an Arabic style salad or roast some vegetables, or both.  

This week we travel Friday, so I'm not going to have as full of a list.
~ Zesty BBQ chicken (crock pot or Instant Pot) for lunches
~ Meatloaf      (won't be needed)
~Musaka
~Homemade Lasagna
~ Chicken Shawerma

Nope, we're not vegetarian.




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