I really enjoyed having a menu last week, and, honestly, that surprised me. I had always thought of creating a menu as an insanely time consuming project and I thought that planning dinner on the fly was freeing. How wrong I was, and it only took one week of planning to convince me. First, I created my menu within minutes. I did a quick survey of my pantry and freezer and that was it. Granted, I didn't make anything new or exciting, but old family favorites that I knew would be appreciated. Second, both my sanity and my budget were preserved as a result of my menu. No last minute panic as the clock ticked toward dinner time, and when I dashed into the commissary (ONCE!), I knew exactly the 2 or 3 items I needed.
I'm going to branch out a little bit this week, and I've issued myself a challenge: make a whole week's worth of meals that are vegetarian without my family noticing the absence of meat. I must exclude tonight from this challenge, as I need to do some shopping and haven't been able to today due to my little boys' colds. The shopping will either be tonight after dinner or in the morning, so in the decade's long tradition of treating colds we're having homemade chicken soup tonight. After that, I've tried to plan a week of meals that are colorful, flavorful and interesting enough that the meat won't be missed. Here's the plan:
Monday: Chicken soup with lots of garlic and onion to fight the nasties making their rounds in my house!
Tuesday: Baked potatoes with various toppings: vegetarian chili, cheese, sauteed onions, sour cream and steamed broccoli. Also, beer cheese soup.
Wednesday: Veggie fajitas with corn on the cob and Mexican rice.
Thursday: Homemade cream of mushroom soup (I've wanted to try this for a while) and our family's favorite spinach-blue cheese- pecan salad.
Friday: Hummus and baba ghanoush with flat bread and roasted vegetables. A side of Mediterranean olives.
Saturday: Impossible vegetable pie and individual baked sweet potatoes and a variety of toppings (butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, marshmallows) and steamed broccoli.
posted by Reese
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I love doing baked potato bars, so yummy! Have a wonderful week.
ReplyDeleteYou are so good! I REALLY should start doing this too!
ReplyDeletevegetarian lasagna is pretty good! I have been planning my menus for years, the only problem is this; I will plan a menu for two weeks, but the dishes are not dictated by day. I am one of those horrible people that try to pick their clothes out the night before and by the time morning has come- no longer in the mood. I have the same paralles when it comes to food.
ReplyDeleteSounds good! Whenever I do a meal w/out meat, my husband always gives me a hard time--he says he's joking, but I think he really misses the meat!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the baba ghanoush. It was interesting to read on Wikpedia.
ReplyDeleteGood for you! in planning a menu. It is one of my favorite things to do. It is so helpful for our families, their health, our sanity, and the wallet.
I have been wanting to incorporate more vegetarian dinner nights. Don't think we could go all the way ,yet...