I find it interesting how other people decide what to eat for dinner. Those of you who live close to restaurants might decide which restaurant to choose. Other people might fix whatever sounds good at the moment. I have a friend who does meals for a month. That’s where you take one day a month to cook all your meals that last for thirty days. You keep them in the freezer and when it is time for dinner all you have to do is pop them in the microwave. Granted, it is only her and her hubby she cooks for. I can’t imagine doing that for the six of us in my family. Living on the farm, our meals tend toward “old-fashioned” cooking. I can’t run to the store for a missing ingredient every time I need something and calling for pizza isn’t an option. Yet, I wanted to become more organized. I hated the rushed feeling of not knowing what to cook.
I decided to start planning a weeks worth of meals on Saturday. That way I knew what I needed to buy at the store, I knew what kind of meat to get out of the freezer every morning, and I hoped to cut down on our grocery bill with a permanent menu. This is only my second week doing this, but I have to say, as the cook in the family, I’m less stressed. I no longer have to answer the question, “What’s for dinner?” Everyone can look on the fridge and see what we’re having.
The only thing negative about it is, I’m lazy. There are some nights were I don’t want to peel all those potatoes for the scalloped potato dish I said I’d make. lol
Tonight’s menu is fish tacos with steak fries on the side. Since I don’t buy very many processed foods, that means I have to cut potatoes, spice them, and bake them. My cod (why does that seem nasty? lol Must be because I’m an erotic author, huh?) needs to be breaded and deep fried. The cabbage needs to be put through the shredder. I made Salsa a few months ago, so I already have that made. To feed a family of six (that includes 3 teenaged boys) it’ll take me almost 2 hours of my day to prep. This brings me back to the once-a-month cooking my friend does and I am so jealous. I’d gain, at least, two hours of my day. Better yet, I could drive to the local pub 40 minutes away and grab takeout! Plus, I wouldn’t have dirty dishes to deal with. lol
I’m not giving up on doing the weekly meal planning. I think in the long run it will be better than my usual chaos. How do you plan your dinners? How much time out of the day does it take you to cook?
I can’t even imagine cooking from scratch every night. I’d be stressing about the time it took. I was just thinking about ordering pizza.
lol Order pizza for me too!
It does take a lot of time, although to be honest…there are certain things I don’t make from scratch, like cakes, pancakes, cornbread, pastas. Oh and spaghetti sauce! I can’t make that to save my life. I’m sure there are a lot more things I use.
I used to try to buy enough for atleast a week if not a month so i didn’t have to go to the store but lately it seems like a daily trip, uggg Maybe i should try a menu
I think it’s our children’s fault, Brandy. lol The older they get, the more they eat, and the more times we have to go to the store.
One of the reasons why I am trying to cut down on my trips to the store is I shop at a store that also carries household items, clothes, and shoes. I can never turn down a pretty pair of shoes. I end up spending more than I planned.
I plan my meals out every ten days. I do the shopping every ten days and have a grocery list of ingredients that goes with me. I pack my freezer so that the meats are spread out and whatever happens to be on top in the freezer is what I make that day.
I make most of my stuff by hand also, using a lot of fresh ingredients which is why I only do ten days at a time, I don’t want all those vegies and fruits going bad.
Yep, that’s what I’m trying to do, Mary. I’m glad to hear it works for you, it keeps me motivated to keep at it. I haven’t figured out how to go longer than a week, because of needing fruits and veggies. I have all this property and can’t grow a thing because of all the trees. We just don’t receive enough sunshine. (okay, it could be because I’m a bad gardener, but I blame the sun
)
We also live too far from town to have home delivery. When my kids were still living at home I used the Once a Month cooking plan. I didn’t include weekend meals, but Monday to Friday dinners were in the freezer. It worked well for us and proved to be MUCH less expensive than anything else we tried, and the food was good.
Wow! I’m impressed. My friend keeps telling me I can do it even though I’m cooking for 6, but I’m intimidated. Hm, you’ve given me something to think about. Even if I cooked enough dinners to fill up a couple days of the week it would give me a break. I might try that.
Thanks Donna! I’ll have to post in a month to tell you all how it is going.
Here’s a suggestion for some meal/entree ideas:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen-blog/
Here’s a spaghetti and meatballs recipe you might try out
http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/main-courses/spaghetti-and-meatballs/
I never know what I’m going to fix until I’m in the store trying to think of what I can make/take to work this week. I’ve got 3 standbys, but when you’re trying to cut sodium the old standbys aren’t much help
Thanks SusanL, I’ll check them out. I never add salt to my food, and it always seems like processed foods are salty…I imagine it is hard for you to find food items with low sodium.
Thanks for the links.