Menu Planning

Planning a list of meals for the week is that main tool that keeps me sane in trying to feed my family fresh, healthy, wholesome, home cooked meals day in and day out. It really is a big job and can feel really overwhelming. I mean, they always need to eat again just a few hours after I fed them and often before I even have the previous meal cleaned up. EEEK! So once a week I sit and plan out our menu. Sometimes I just use ideas out of my head (scary, huh?), but usually I will use websites or blogs or cookbooks to get inspiration. I also have a ton of Word documents (that are not very well organizes) with recipes that I have cut and pasted from various places over the years. When I am feeling in a rut food wise, I will either buy or borrow from the library a new cookbook and that always helps.

My method is to sit with the computer or whichever cookbook I chose, my calendar, a pen (I like to buy a fancy one that I hide from the rest of my family) and two pieces of paper. One piece is used for writing down each meal idea, and the other is divided in half for the shopping lists. I do almost all of my shopping at two stores - Trader Joe's and Wild Oats and have a pretty good idea of what I can get where and what's cheaper where so each store gets its own list. I also look at my calendar to see what we have coming up in the week that I might need food for like potlucks or bake sales, or this week, my daughter's birthday. She will be 8 on Thursday and as is our family custom, she gets to pick the menu. Her choice for her birthday dinner is black bean burritos with green chile, salad and chocolate cake. Sweet, huh? I even offered to take her to a restaurant because we've all been sick and I wasn't sure how much we were up for, but she wanted Mama's burritos. She's smart that girl. Since there won't be any food pictures in this post, here's a picture of her.

I don't actually put a specific meal with a specific day, though I do try to choose some meals that are easier for days we get home late, but just make a simple list of meals that then gets stuck on the side of my fridge (I wish stainless steel appliances worked with magnets) so that I can look at it in the morning and decide what we will have for dinner and start on it if I need to, but at least just have the idea in my head so that I don't have to panic at 4pm when the hungry masses start circling for food. I also don't tend to plan breakfasts and lunches unless they are a special occasion, though I will usually plan 8 meals for the week and one or two will end up being cooked for lunch. Since we homeschool and my husband has a home office, we are home quite a bit and often all eat lunch together. Most days though, breakfast is usually cereal or oatmeal or toast with peanut butter and lunch is something simple like sandwiches, wraps or leftovers. Dinner is the meal that I usually "cook" for and what most of my planning is centered around.

So this week I had a new cookbook from the library that I first saw at my friend Kirsten's house and was madly copying recipes from. Then I realized that I could probably find it at the library and went back to actually socialize with my friends. OOPS! It's called Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates. I have quite a few Moosewood cookbooks in my collection and remember my mom cooking from the first one when I was growing up. This was one I hadn't seen before and it really looks great. It's divided up into whole menus designed for many different holidays throughout the year. Not just your regular old holidays like Thanskgiving (though they have some great vegetarian and vegan ideas for that) or Easter, but some holidays I hadn't ever heard of like Juneteenth (which looks like a holiday worth celebrating), and then other more generic things like picnics, etc. Lots of great looking meals and I love that it's a whole menu planned out. I don't tend to cook more than one or two dishes when just cooking for my family, but for fancier dinners I love having it already figured out for me or at least some ideas to send me in the right direction for side dishes.

Using that book as inspiration, here's my menu for this week -

• Tamale pie (not from the book - it's a recipe I originally found on weightwatchers.com and have modified to work for me. I took pictures as I went along and will be posting it this week.
• Chipotle Tofu (p. 66), rice and steamed broccoli
• Sweet Potato Zucchini hash and sauteed tempeh
  
• Calabacitas (my own recipe - it's best in summer with squash, tomatoes and corn from the garden, but it's been so cold and I wanted a taste of summer. I can make a still yummy version from store bought produce)
• Tibetan Seitan Burritos with Tibetan hot sauce (P. 288) and cucumber salad
  
• Southwestern Split pea soup (from fatfreevegan.com), kale and corn bread
• Black bean burritos with green chile, salad and chocolate cake
• Boston Bean Salad with quinoa (p. 84) and quesadillas

That's it! It's way past my bedtime! I would love to hear how you plan meals for your family.