Monday, September 5, 2011

PLANNING OUR MENU

With our big family Yellowstone/Island Park trip over, and my N.Y.C. trip past and the antique/crafts FLEA.O.LOGY market done, I guess I will get back to menu planning.  (I did try 9 new recipes in 3 days last week end :)

As I am planning my menus for the week, I use 9 categories to include variety and ease.  These are my categories.

1 Meat with sides
2 Casserole - pasta, rice, beans
3 Crock pot, Homemade Soups, Chili, meats
4 Pick A Can - canned soup, canned chili, cereal, Spagettios...  You pick, you prepare, you eat.
5 Easy - paninis, sloppy joes, sandwiches...
6  Requests
7 Left Overs/Planned Overs
8 Breakfast for Dinner
9 Sunday Dinner

I try to plan about 2 weeks of menus at a time.  It makes grocery shopping easier.
I usually make a list of what I am planning (and if there is a new recipe, where to find it).
I adapt my list to my day.  An easy day may suddenly change, leaving me with no time to cook the planned meal.  I just pull an easier/faster meal from what I have already scheduled.

(New topic)  I have tried a couple of recipes lately that have been a disappointment.

One was "Brookies".  (Betty Crocker Supreme Bars Cookie Brownie - Did not care for these.  Needed to cook almost 20 mins. longer and they were still not done, but we had to leave for church.  They were heavy and the flavours/texture were not defined.)

I also made baked spinach artichoke dip with a new recipe that used pureed white beans instead of cream cheese   What a waste of all my ingredients, including 2 cans of artichoke hearts :( 
Don't you hate when that happens?

I will post other failures, and my successes in my posts this month.
I am heading to the laundry room for WHAT I BUY WEDNESDAY.

3 comments:

Melanie said...

Did David and Lindsay turn you on to the name Brookies? I never make those with the prepackaged Betty Crocker mix. I started out with a boxed mix of brownies and a premade bag of cookie mix, but have ended up using my own recipes for both. It's turned out much better.

Also, the twenty minute baking time is actually slightly shorter than brownie baking time.

We love these at our house! I think it just takes a little tweaking. Because really, what's better than a cookie and a brownie?

PS... I love your menu planning system (numbers 1-9). I'm totally going to be instituting that.

Unknown said...

I SO HATE it when that happens! I hate wasting. Great idea. I also hate going to the grocery store seems like every day to get something for dinner. Hope your time in NY was great!!

Lindsay Quinney said...

I have GOT to be better at planning my meals.

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