While trying to decide what to make for dinner I thought it would be easier to have “nights”. What I mean by that is that each night would be a different theme, like Monday is pizza night, Tuesday is ground beef night, Wednesday night is international night, Thursday is chicken night, Friday is seafood or pasta night, Saturday is sandwich with soup or salad night and Sunday would be old fashioned Sunday dinner.
This is our second week doing this and it’s working out really well. It makes it a lot easier to plan and I’m actually looking forward to cooking what I’ve picked out to make.
Here is a sample of our last two weeks menus:
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| Cheddar Burger (L),Blue Cheese Burger (m) American Cheeseburger (R), Cheddar Burger (front) |
Week One:
Monday—pizza (which I wrote about in a previous blog) pepperoni on one and sausage and onions on the other
Tuesday – Knife and Fork Burgers with Stew Vegetable Gravy (from Rachael Ray’s latest cookbook Look n Cook)
Wednesday—Pork Egg Foo Young (which I made with some leftover pork tenderloin I had from the Sunday before)
Thursday – Chicken and Waffles (Buttermilk Waffles made from scratch with chicken nuggets also from scratch with a spicy fried coating –Yum!)
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| Chicken and Waffles |
Friday – Crab cakes with Parmesan Polenta (polenta is something that I’ve been making a lot of lately. So Good!)
Saturday – Sandwiches (We had to get some lunchmeat for the week so we went to our favorite meat shop—The Meathouse- a blog on that coming later — got the lunchmeat and sandwiches for dinner)
Sunday—Sunday dinner didn’t work out the way I planned because the turkey wasn’t thawed so it was on to plan “B” – Spaghetti and meat balls.
Monday – Pizza bread, made with pepperoni from the Meathouse and bread from the grocery store – Italian bread on sale!
Tuesday Night-(My favorite night so far) Burger Night. On burger night everyone can get whatever burger they like best– American Cheeseburger, Blue Cheeseburger or my favorite Green Chili Cheeseburger.
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| Green Chili Cheeseburger |
Tomorrow night (International Night) is going to be a real experiment for me. I’m going to try Coq au Vin. That’s right – French food. Can’t wait to see how that turns out.
Since the turkey wasn’t thawed and I planned most of the week for leftover turkey I had to redo most of my menus, but that’s the fun of it. It’s still easier than not having any idea at all. So by going through the sale ads I can make menus based on my “nights”. There’s enough variety for everyone and I still keep my grocery bill manageable. Actually I think I spent less than I have in the past.
So that’s my strategy for meal planning. Do you have a strategy that you’d like to share? Leave a comment and let me know.
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