What this is all About

We are a mom and her daughters who like to experiment with making good meals and snacks for our families. This is mostly a collection of our recipes and thoughts on eating. Our highs and lows of trying to nourish our families.


Monday, February 27, 2012

One Week of Menus

Josie talked to me about planning a week's worth of menus, and having basically the same day each week. The purpose is to not only simplify the planning and preparation of meals, but, perhaps more importantly, to make mealtimes dependable and familiar for the family. My little experiment with yogurt reminded me that we don't like yogurt that much. Maybe someday I'll try the cottage cheese, since we do like cottage cheese. But for now I'm going to stick with some dependable and familiar meals so we can have dinner on the table each night. Referring to my previous posts about "backward menu planning," then, here is this week's plan. And if it works out well, it may be next week's plan, too. And the next week's, and the week after that, and so on. I know Dad would appreciate the continuity. He didn't really care for that yogurt experiment...

Monday
Orange Chicken
Mashed Potatoes
Broccoli, carrots and cauliflower
Homemade bread

Tuesday
Hamburger bean enchiladas
Corn
Spanish Rice
Green salad

Wednesday
Pork chops and rice
with carrots
Green salad
Peach cobbler and ice cream

Thursday
Hamburger/Pasta Goulash
Green beans
Carrot and celery sticks
Apple/orange/banana/pear/strawberry/canned pineapple fruit salad

Friday
Baked fish
Scalloped potatoes
Broccoli
Raspberry muffins

5 comments:

Josie and Wayne said...

This looks like a yummy menu. I think I might steal some of these ideas. Could you post the recipe you would use for the hamburger and bean enchilada's?
Do you mean you might have these exact same meals every week? You know when I said the same thing I mean that on pasta Monday you could have all kinds of different pasta options, etc. right? Anyway, whatever works.

Ellen said...

Well, I've heard of doing the exact same meals each week, and for a minute there, yes, that's what I meant. But realistically I'm not likely to do it. So the hamburger goulash stuff could just as easily be spaghetti or homemade hamburger helper, for example. Yes, I'll post a recipe for the enchiladas. I'll get my cookbook and post the basic one that I like, and then tell you what I'll likely do differently. :-) Comin' right up!

Unknown said...

I love it! I was thinking of doing about 2 weeks of permanent menus and switching every other week.

Ellen said...

Good idea, Talena. It's the menu planning that makes all the difference. I hope you'll share!

Ellen said...

Good idea, Talena. It's the menu planning that makes all the difference. I hope you'll share!