A week at a glance

It's Saturday morning and I'm sitting down to make our menu, grocery list, and plan for the week.  It's become a habit and a time I actually enjoy.  I'm not kidding when I say this has been a mind set change.  Habits take time to form, so my encouragement is to start small and build up.

Funny though, habits are formed.  I sit down with my computer and my hubby casually in passing says, "What are we having for dinner this week?".  And I usually always respond with, "I'm not sure yet."  For it's a process, that's for sure.

I find I have naturally started to put meals into categories in my mind.  Fancy, guest, fancy guest (sorry, Friends reference).  My categories are usually as follows:

• Mommy needs to be home to cook it meal (this may be to try out a new recipe or do one that you know will take a little extra love (time)
• Crockpot meal (probably needs no explanation - I will say that I've been on a mission and have found some pretty great recipes)
• Casseroles / ready to go (these are prepped on the weekend)

I don't have them organized in any other place but my head, so don't be too impressed.  I may someday though put the recipes together like this just so it's even easier to pull from each week.

To find recipes in these categories, I'm sure you all already use the methods I do.  Old cookbooks, family favorites you already have, Pinterest (I'm publicly professing my love for Pinterest! www.pinterest.com), and some great recipe sites (like www.allrecipes.com, www.tasteofhome.com, etc.).

I really love recipes that don't have a ton of ready made stuff.  I figure if we are going to do all of this work, I want to know all that's going into the food.  Also, we have a few restrictions and your house most likely does, too.  You'll find my recipes won't have any MSG or fish at all.  But you will find that we love cheese and carbs!  Just the way this house rolls.  You can mix and match once you find recipes that work.  It really helps keeps the weeks fresh and new.

I'm not going to lie though, sometimes we'll have plans on a Sunday (which I try to keep at a minimum) and I won't have time to plan very well or even get to making a grocery list. Those weeks I just fall back on ones that I know really well and "wing it" (no not chicken wings) at the grocery store.  It's really my version of living on the edge.  Don't be jealous.  I'm wild!  When I wing it though, I still keep in mind my categories.

So this past week's menu looked like this:

• Saturday - Tortilla soup - new recipe so I wanted to try it out (tried the new Swanson's infused chicken broth)
• Sunday - Made a crockpot recipe that my mama gave me for Baked Potato topping (required me making a white sauce before putting in the crockpot and it was new so tried on a Sunday) - by the way - soo..... good!
• Monday - Leftover Tortilla soup with rice (really hearty dish, so stretched)
• Tuesday - Took the leftover sauce from the Baked Potato dish and mixed it with Penne pasta for a casserole ready to be heated that night by daddy.
• Wednesday - Leftovers of the pasta dish (see how I made one thing stretch to 3 days!)
• Thursday - Crockpot shredded beef (for tacos).  Nanny put it in the morning.  So easy, just a chuck roast with one of those Campbell's slow cooker packs (I am in love with those things).  I'll get a pic the next time we do one.
• Friday - Leftovers of the shredded beef tacos

I even have some more of the shredded beef and some potatoes, so I'll be baking the potatoes and heating up the shredded beef to top it.  Sounds nummy.

So that's kind of how a week looks for eating.  I'll be discussing each week, the prep work, etc. but hopefully this gives you a good idea of how thinking ahead can help you make your life easier in the long run.

Until the next time we meet!