Lately I've been in a cooking rut. My use of the word lately probably isn't accurate, because this rut has lasted several months. You know what I'm talking about. I never know what to cook, and when I do, I prepare the same meals over and over again. By the way, the rut applies to every meal, not just dinner. At some point my children will start picketing my use of PB and J. I've had enough exposure to know that the appropriate thing to do in this situation is to develop a weekly meal plan, but just between you and me, laziness is preventing me from doing that. If you are in the rut with me, I just found a website that I think will give us the direction and motivation needed to become well oiled, meal planning machines. Go over to Meal Planning Magic and check out the ideas for starting a basic meal plan, freezer cooking, and making life easier in the kitchen. The Resource Guide on the site is definitely the place to start. It has links for information on the topics I mentioned, plus it features help for folks with special dietary needs, such as gluten free, vegan, and vegetarian. If you aren't used to meal planning, I hope you feel inspired. If you do plan meals weekly, what's your system?
Menus are great when you have time to put them together. I always liked the Women's Day Magazine because they did a month of Dinner Menus with the recipes. Mostly I did the same thing every week. When my 3 sons were at home, I would make a different big pot of soup every weekend. That gave us two meals a week. Friday was Pizza night from Sam's Club. (18 in supreme for less than $10.00, Tuesday night was spaghetti/pasta and one day a week I broil chicken in the oven. All evening meals were served with salad (which they ate because they didn't know any better). I filled in the rest with whatever was on sale.
ReplyDeleteI just found another blogger Seven Matters who does simple menu plans and gives recipes. Take a look. I'm going to do her sweet and sour meatballs this weekend.
ReplyDeletehttp://sevenmatters.blogspot.com/search/label/Menu%20Monday