weekly menu-panning
hey all. i have been wanting to write about meal planning for awhile. i am a huge fan of it. if for some reason i can't or don't meal plan and make a corresponding grocery list, i feel lost and a little frantic throughout the week. some people are great with making up dinners on the fly, but i am not. and when i have to, i usually fall back on all the comfort foods, which is not so bad but not as healthy as i'd prefer. you know, meatloaf, spaghetti, stuff like that. although i do fill these classic comfort foods full of veggies. but anyway, it just works well for me to meal plan. then i make a grocery list based on what we need. and hubby goes grocery shopping. we do this weekly. it just works better for us to do it weekly, too.
when i thought about writing this post i though maybe i would include some fun weekly meal planning template or something like that. but, this blog, and the reason that i write on it, is because i want to reflect what is real, and not just what looks pretty. sometimes they are the same. sometimes they are not. meal planning for me needs to be simple. and after talking with a lot of other busy parents, it needs to be simple for them, too. so i will just replicate here what i do for myself. i am really a big fan of old school pen and paper. i like to write stuff down on paper, with a pen. but that's not always the easiest way to go when i am walking through the kitchen and pantry, and reviewing recipes on my pinterest app.
so typically i go through pinterest quite a bit pinning new recipes to try. for some reason i get these epicurious emails with different recipes and i have used and liked a lot of those. i have and use the america's test kitchen app a lot. and then i have several recipe books, but really only use a few. randomly i will see a recipe i want to try on Facebook or from a friend. oh and one of my friends made a text message group, just a few of us, where we post what we are making for dinner mostly along with the recipe. she started this because i was looking for more vegetarian recommendations and she was looking for more meat recommendations, hahaha! i don't always use recipes, some stuff i just make up, but i really get bored with eating the same thing over and over for dinner, so i really enjoy trying new recipes.
after i go through and pick out about 5-7 dinners, i then make the grocery list based on the ingredients needed. usually, the ingredients for most of the recipes i choose we already buy or have on hand. sometimes it will require something new for us. of course first i go through the pantry and fridge to see what we have, what we need, and what other foods we will need for breakfast, lunches, snacks, etc.
and i literally just did this about 5 minutes ago, and i had my laptop and phone. on my laptop i had pinterest up and decided what recipe i wanted to use, and while i had the recipe up i put it on a list (on notes) in my phone. sometimes i do it all on my laptop since my notes is connected to the cloud and will transfer to my phone, and sometimes i do everything on my phone switching back and forth between the recipe and notes. i'm sure there's some fancy app that you can use to do all this with, and maybe i will look for something, but it's low on my priority list. oh, and i don't always use an app for recipes, sometimes i am looking something up old school in a recipe book! then i send the grocery list to hubs, and i write down our weekly menu on a giant calendar in our kitchen. i don't assign a certain meal to a specific day of the week just because sometimes i may wake up in the morning or go through the day and change my mind, or not feel hungry for that particular meal, or maybe the day is really busy and i don't have time to actually cook the meal i pre-assigned. so it works well for me to have a little flexibility. if it happens to be a rough day, or if it was busy or whatever, then i can choose something else from the menu for that week. that isn't always going to work if it's a meat that needs to be thawed or something, so i do have to plan a little ahead if i want to cook something with meat that is in the freezer. and if for some reason i change my plan, then it's not a big deal to put the meat back in the fridge until the next day.
so, some tips. i really like to mix it up, i have made recipes for italian, persian, indian, moroccan, vietnamese, thai, chinese, japanese, korean, cuban, and arab food. i have tried certain types of african recipes, white people casseroles, pacific northwest style, vegetarian, some vegan, very meat heavy, and even a french recipe for soup! i'm sure not all of these are 100% authentic, but what can you do. if i try something and it turns out to be a dud, then i delete it from my pinterest board or make a note in my recipe book. that hasn't happened too often thank goodness. surprisingly most of the basics of all of these foods are pretty similar; some sort of bean, lentil, onions, potato, meat, vegetable. for example, you use cilantro a lot in mexican food. and thai food. and vietnamese food. and indian food. you might use carrots in vietnamese, thai, chinese, japanese, korean, cuban, and american comfort food all in very different ways. you may use rice in a persian recipe, vietnamese, thai, chinese, japanese, korean, cuban or arab recipe. i tend to use basmati the most, and find that it actually goes quite well with a stir fry! so having some basics on hand will get you through a lot of different types of meals! i always plan to have some of these basic ingredients on hand all of the time.
another thing is, especially if you come home from work and make dinner, or you are preparing dinner with children hanging on your legs, is to choose a recipe that won't take tooooo much time, save those for the weekend. healthy, fairly quick and uncomplicated, that's what i look for.
ok, what i do in general is to pick one thing for dinner that i know my son will like. he's in this picky eating phase right now. and then i choose something that is pretty standard for us every week (this is usually burritos, in some form or another). i try to mix in a few meatless meals. i choose a red meat and a chicken dish and depending on what kind and if fish is on sale at the grocery store i will do a fish. oh, and i usually do a soup once a week. so my menu for the week may look something like this:
- mushroom pasta with spinach
- peruvian cilantro chicken soup
- smoked sausage and cheese orzo skillet
-greek turkey meatballs
-lentil quesadillas
- skillet beef and broccoli ramen
these are just the main dishes. i almost always have a salad of some sort, or fruit, or bread, etc. but because i can do this pretty well now, i don't have to write down what i'm going to make on the side. if you are new at this, or just need it all written out, then do what works for you! for some guidance, with the soup dish i will usually make biscuits, or we will have french bread, or some persian bread. with the peruvian cilantro soup i will probably make a side dish of rice because it sounds like a yummy combo to me. for the lentil quesadillas i will probably make a a fruit salad, or have a plate of different kinds of fruits. it just depends on what sounds good to me, what we have in the kitchen still, and how much time i have. oh and how the kids are doing. sometimes i don't get to make a salad at all because the littles are acting like crazy people!
ok, so here are a few different sample meal plans for a week.
-cream of potato soup with fluffy biscuits, green salad
-panko crusted cod with homemade tartar sauce, coleslaw, sweet potato/regular potato fries
-pizza! homemade or semi-homemade
- steak, veggie and potato sheet pan
-chicken adobo with rice, salad
-cilantro lime grilled tuna with avocado cucumber salsa, rice, pineapple chunks
-crispy bean, cheese and rice burritos, salad
-greek lemon chicken and potatoes, tomato and cucumber salad
-roasted chickpea gyros, homemade potato fries (baked) with feta
-zuppa toscana soup, biscuits
-chili verde with pork shoulder, tortillas on the side
so i have linked most of these recipes from my pinterest page. i can attest to the deliciousness of these recipes. and they are not too difficult to make! i have a variety of different recipes on my pinterest page, here, if you want to check it out. i may update or completely re-do the recipes tab that i have on this blog, depending on what i can make work the best so that it's easily searchable and organized. but anyway, hopefully this is helpful! meal planning really makes it so much easier, as far as i'm concerned!
when i thought about writing this post i though maybe i would include some fun weekly meal planning template or something like that. but, this blog, and the reason that i write on it, is because i want to reflect what is real, and not just what looks pretty. sometimes they are the same. sometimes they are not. meal planning for me needs to be simple. and after talking with a lot of other busy parents, it needs to be simple for them, too. so i will just replicate here what i do for myself. i am really a big fan of old school pen and paper. i like to write stuff down on paper, with a pen. but that's not always the easiest way to go when i am walking through the kitchen and pantry, and reviewing recipes on my pinterest app.
so typically i go through pinterest quite a bit pinning new recipes to try. for some reason i get these epicurious emails with different recipes and i have used and liked a lot of those. i have and use the america's test kitchen app a lot. and then i have several recipe books, but really only use a few. randomly i will see a recipe i want to try on Facebook or from a friend. oh and one of my friends made a text message group, just a few of us, where we post what we are making for dinner mostly along with the recipe. she started this because i was looking for more vegetarian recommendations and she was looking for more meat recommendations, hahaha! i don't always use recipes, some stuff i just make up, but i really get bored with eating the same thing over and over for dinner, so i really enjoy trying new recipes.
after i go through and pick out about 5-7 dinners, i then make the grocery list based on the ingredients needed. usually, the ingredients for most of the recipes i choose we already buy or have on hand. sometimes it will require something new for us. of course first i go through the pantry and fridge to see what we have, what we need, and what other foods we will need for breakfast, lunches, snacks, etc.
and i literally just did this about 5 minutes ago, and i had my laptop and phone. on my laptop i had pinterest up and decided what recipe i wanted to use, and while i had the recipe up i put it on a list (on notes) in my phone. sometimes i do it all on my laptop since my notes is connected to the cloud and will transfer to my phone, and sometimes i do everything on my phone switching back and forth between the recipe and notes. i'm sure there's some fancy app that you can use to do all this with, and maybe i will look for something, but it's low on my priority list. oh, and i don't always use an app for recipes, sometimes i am looking something up old school in a recipe book! then i send the grocery list to hubs, and i write down our weekly menu on a giant calendar in our kitchen. i don't assign a certain meal to a specific day of the week just because sometimes i may wake up in the morning or go through the day and change my mind, or not feel hungry for that particular meal, or maybe the day is really busy and i don't have time to actually cook the meal i pre-assigned. so it works well for me to have a little flexibility. if it happens to be a rough day, or if it was busy or whatever, then i can choose something else from the menu for that week. that isn't always going to work if it's a meat that needs to be thawed or something, so i do have to plan a little ahead if i want to cook something with meat that is in the freezer. and if for some reason i change my plan, then it's not a big deal to put the meat back in the fridge until the next day.
so, some tips. i really like to mix it up, i have made recipes for italian, persian, indian, moroccan, vietnamese, thai, chinese, japanese, korean, cuban, and arab food. i have tried certain types of african recipes, white people casseroles, pacific northwest style, vegetarian, some vegan, very meat heavy, and even a french recipe for soup! i'm sure not all of these are 100% authentic, but what can you do. if i try something and it turns out to be a dud, then i delete it from my pinterest board or make a note in my recipe book. that hasn't happened too often thank goodness. surprisingly most of the basics of all of these foods are pretty similar; some sort of bean, lentil, onions, potato, meat, vegetable. for example, you use cilantro a lot in mexican food. and thai food. and vietnamese food. and indian food. you might use carrots in vietnamese, thai, chinese, japanese, korean, cuban, and american comfort food all in very different ways. you may use rice in a persian recipe, vietnamese, thai, chinese, japanese, korean, cuban or arab recipe. i tend to use basmati the most, and find that it actually goes quite well with a stir fry! so having some basics on hand will get you through a lot of different types of meals! i always plan to have some of these basic ingredients on hand all of the time.
another thing is, especially if you come home from work and make dinner, or you are preparing dinner with children hanging on your legs, is to choose a recipe that won't take tooooo much time, save those for the weekend. healthy, fairly quick and uncomplicated, that's what i look for.
ok, what i do in general is to pick one thing for dinner that i know my son will like. he's in this picky eating phase right now. and then i choose something that is pretty standard for us every week (this is usually burritos, in some form or another). i try to mix in a few meatless meals. i choose a red meat and a chicken dish and depending on what kind and if fish is on sale at the grocery store i will do a fish. oh, and i usually do a soup once a week. so my menu for the week may look something like this:
- mushroom pasta with spinach
- peruvian cilantro chicken soup
- smoked sausage and cheese orzo skillet
-greek turkey meatballs
-lentil quesadillas
- skillet beef and broccoli ramen
these are just the main dishes. i almost always have a salad of some sort, or fruit, or bread, etc. but because i can do this pretty well now, i don't have to write down what i'm going to make on the side. if you are new at this, or just need it all written out, then do what works for you! for some guidance, with the soup dish i will usually make biscuits, or we will have french bread, or some persian bread. with the peruvian cilantro soup i will probably make a side dish of rice because it sounds like a yummy combo to me. for the lentil quesadillas i will probably make a a fruit salad, or have a plate of different kinds of fruits. it just depends on what sounds good to me, what we have in the kitchen still, and how much time i have. oh and how the kids are doing. sometimes i don't get to make a salad at all because the littles are acting like crazy people!
ok, so here are a few different sample meal plans for a week.
-cream of potato soup with fluffy biscuits, green salad
-panko crusted cod with homemade tartar sauce, coleslaw, sweet potato/regular potato fries
-pizza! homemade or semi-homemade
- steak, veggie and potato sheet pan
-chicken adobo with rice, salad
-cilantro lime grilled tuna with avocado cucumber salsa, rice, pineapple chunks
-crispy bean, cheese and rice burritos, salad
-greek lemon chicken and potatoes, tomato and cucumber salad
-roasted chickpea gyros, homemade potato fries (baked) with feta
-zuppa toscana soup, biscuits
-chili verde with pork shoulder, tortillas on the side
so i have linked most of these recipes from my pinterest page. i can attest to the deliciousness of these recipes. and they are not too difficult to make! i have a variety of different recipes on my pinterest page, here, if you want to check it out. i may update or completely re-do the recipes tab that i have on this blog, depending on what i can make work the best so that it's easily searchable and organized. but anyway, hopefully this is helpful! meal planning really makes it so much easier, as far as i'm concerned!
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