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Making an EASY Menu Plan that Actually Works for Busy Families

The idea of having a weekly menu plan seems like a real good one.  That is, until you actually sit down to create one.  Week after week.  Month after month.  After awhile you're just staring at your blank piece of paper, wondering if driving through McDonald's every night wouldn't be so bad after all.

What would you do if I told you that you could EASILY come up with a whole month's worth of dinner plans without burning up any of your precious brain cells?

Today, we will do it together and by the time we're done, you will be congratulating yourself for being so very clever. Grab a cup of coffee, or some sweet nectar of your choice, and let's have some fun.

First, take out a couple of pieces of paper.

Next, start writing down broad categories of meals (all you really need is 7):

• Crockpot meals
• Ethnic
• Grilled Foods
• Soup N Sandwich
• Seafood
• Breakfast for Dinner
• Gourmet
• Try Something New Night
• Eat Out Meals (yes, this is a category)
• Paper Plate Meals (also a category)
• Leftover Meals (a very important group)

Now, see if you can come up with at least 4 individual meals within each category.  For example:

Ethnic:  Tacos, Spaghetti, Pizza, Enchiladas, chicken stir-fry
Breakfast for Dinner: Waffles, Pancakes, Breakfast Casserole, Bacon and Eggs

This is getting really cool because, if you just take the above categories, with 4 items each, you already have enough meals to cover almost two months!!  You're off to a great start.

Now, here's how to start plugging the meals into your family calendar.  Take (or make) a blank calendar page.

First, you'll take a look at standing obligations that affect your family dinner: piano lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Soccer on Fridays.  Volunteer at the Homeless Shelter on Wednesdays. Etc.  Write them in.

Next, working across the top of the calendar, begin assigning meal categories to days of the week.  For example, If you are home all together on Monday nights, that would be a perfect night for a Sit Down Meal on Real Plates.  Write that category above Mondays.

On Piano nights, I used to assign Crock Pot Night and Sandwich Night - both are quick and easy with little clean-up required.

On Sport Practice night, I might assign Drive Through (Oh. Yes.) It makes me feel better to plan this into my menu than to feel like a loser because I can't do any better than this.

Saturday nights might be a perfect Breakfast for Dinner night.  My family would love it if I made waffles EVERY Saturday night, so no creativity is even required!

Once you have a category for each day of the week, you will then work your way DOWN the calendar.  Take your four individual dinners and throw them under each category.  So if Mondays are your Sit Down meals, you take your Baked Chicken and Rice, your Beef and Cabbage Rolls etc. and plug them into the individual Mondays.  Right now you are simply penciling in your ideas, so you don't have to be too picky until the next step.

Once you have a meal penciled in per day, you can start to refine and perfect your masterpiece.  If I see that on the first Wednesday I am grilling chicken, I could grill up some EXTRA chicken for Thursday's Chicken Enchiladas.  So I start moving the meals around into an order that makes the most sense.  A huge pot roast on Sunday might make great BBQ sandwiches on Sandwich Night, so I'll put those two meals into the same week.

If your family has several favorites, don't be afraid to repeat them often.  The idea that you have to magically come up with 30 different things each month is completely unnecessary.  And you don't have to stick to your plan like a religious zealot.

A menu plan gives you options and TIME, because you'll have general ideas right at your fingertips. 

How many meals did you come up with?  Did you think of some interesting categories?  Why not share your ideas and recipes!  Leave a comment and/or link to your menu ideas so we can all be inspired!

Laura, my favorite Organizer, hosts Menu Plan Monday every Monday.  It's a great meme to be involved in because you'll find excellent recipe ideas and meals that work for other busy families!  Go check it out!

POINTS: This is a big one and worth a whole gob of points.  So I will give you through Wednesday to complete it, and award 100 whoppers for it!  So worth it.

Rachel Anne's Chicken-Veg Medley

There are a bunch of variations on this theme, but if you stick the word "medley" in the title, it always works.  I usually use rotisserie chicken for this...because I like EASY.

Step 1: Dig in your vegetable bin and see what you come up with.  My favorite meals start with a bit of onion and red pepper...and since you are making a medley, you only need small amounts of each vegetable: zucchini, carrots, broccoli, green beans...all are excellent candidates, use what you like.

Step 2: Slice up your veg and sautee them in a some butter or olive oil.

Step 3: Make some rice or pasta.  What do you have on hand?  Cous-cous works great, and I've been known to make packages of Lipton's Side dishes in a pinch.

Step 4: Add cut-up chicken to vegetable mix and heat through.  Season with your favorite seasonings. (A jar of pesto is awesome to have on hand to stir into your chicken/veg mix if you are serving this with pasta.)

Step 5: Make a bed of your rice or pasta, add the chicken/veg medley on top, serve with a side of toasted bread!

Elapsed time: 30 minutes, tops.

What I like about this is that you can serve it up so the little kids can separate out the things they like: they don't have to have it layered or mixed together.  My zucchini lovers pick all the zucchini for their plates, leaving the broccoli and onions for someone else.

Don't have chicken? Substitute ham, smoked sausage, turkey, roast beef....

What are YOUR "default" dinners?  This one is definitely mine.

New Recipe Round Up

Before we get to Today's Small Thing, let me announce the winner of the Starbucks gift card:

Tracey (Pink Monkey) at Aloha Monkey!  Congratulations, Tracey...email me with your address and enjoy a cup or two of coffee on me!

Did you get to read all the great money saving tips in the comments and coffee links from Friday?  I hope you'll take a few minutes to get all the way through the links...they were all inspiring!  Melissa even had to pop back in for a second round of coffee to get her awesome tips in!

Now, all that frugal inspiration made me realize I could take a few more steps to save some dough for my family.  One of the best things I'm considering is getting rid of my phone land line...using more grocery coupons, and making my own bread.  Notice how most things in this world come back to food?  Yeah, I noticed that, too.

Speaking of food, since Monday is often the day that many of us get our recipes together for the week, I thought I'd challenge all of us to try a new recipe.

Don't panic! You don't have to try and come up with something TODAY!

But sometime this week, before next Monday, our Small Thing will be to create some kind of culinary delight that you have never tried before.  I don't know about you, but if earning some points will get me out of my skillet rut, I'm all over that.  A great place to start looking for something fabulous to cook is at Menu Plan Monday.

POINTS: 40 for trying a new recipe

ADDITIONAL 20:  for posting your recipe on your blog or in the comments.  If you blog about it, be sure and let us know so we can see what recipe you rounded up!  You can do it any time this week.

Making An EASY Menu Plan that Actually Works for Busy Families

The idea of having a weekly menu plan seems like a real good one.  That is, until you actually sit down to create one.  Week after week.  Month after month.  After awhile you're just staring at your blank piece of paper, wondering if driving through McDonald's every night wouldn't be so bad after all.

What would you do if I told you that you could EASILY come up with a whole month's worth of dinner plans without burning up any of your precious brain cells?

Today, we will do it together and by the time we're done, you will be congratulating yourself for being so very clever. 

First, take out a couple of pieces of paper.

Next, start writing down broad categories of meals (all you really need is 7):

• Crockpot meals
• Ethnic
• Grilled Foods
• Soup N Sandwich
• Seafood
• Breakfast for Dinner
• Gourmet
• Try Something New Night
• Eat Out Meals (yes, this is a category)
• Paper Plate Meals (also a category)
• Leftover Meals (a very important group)

Now, see if you can come up with at least 4 individual meals within each category.  For example:

Ethnic:  Tacos, Spaghetti, Pizza, Enchiladas, chicken stir-fry
Breakfast for Dinner: Waffles, Pancakes, Breakfast Casserole, Bacon and Eggs

This is getting really cool because, if you just take the above categories, with 4 items each, you already have enough meals to cover almost two months!!  You're off to a great start.

Now, here's how to start plugging the meals into your family calendar.  Take (or make) a blank calendar page.

First, you'll take a look at standing obligations that affect your family dinner: piano lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Soccer on Fridays.  Volunteer at the Homeless Shelter on Wednesdays. Etc.  Write them in.

Next, working across the top of the calendar, begin assigning meal categories to days of the week.  For example, If you are home all together on Monday nights, that would be a perfect night for a Sit Down Meal on Real Plates.  Write that category above Mondays.

On Piano nights, I used to assign Crock Pot Night and Sandwich Night - both are quick and easy with little clean-up required.

On Sport Practice night, I might assign Drive Through (Oh. Yes.) It makes me feel better to plan this into my menu than to feel like a loser because I can't do any better than this.

Saturday nights might be a perfect Breakfast for Dinner night.  My family would love it if I made waffles EVERY Saturday night, so no creativity is even required!

Once you have a category for each day of the week, you will then work your way DOWN the calendar.  Take your four individual dinners and throw them under each category.  So if Mondays are your Sit Down meals, you take your Baked Chicken and Rice, your Beef and Cabbage Rolls etc. and plug them into the individual Mondays.  Right now you are simply penciling in your ideas, so you don't have to be too picky until the next step.

Once you have a meal penciled in per day, you can start to refine and perfect your masterpiece.  If I see that on the first Wednesday I am grilling chicken, I could grill up some EXTRA chicken for Thursday's Chicken Enchiladas.  So I start moving the meals around into an order that makes the most sense.  A huge pot roast on Sunday might make great BBQ sandwiches on Sandwich Night, so I'll put those two meals into the same week.

If your family has several favorites, don't be afraid to repeat them often.  The idea that you have to magically come up with 30 different things each month is completely unnecessary.  And you don't have to stick to your plan like a religious zealot.

A menu plan gives you options and TIME, because you'll have general ideas right at your fingertips.

How many meals did you come up with?  Did you think of some interesting categories?  Why not share your ideas and recipes!  Leave a comment and/or link to your menu ideas so we can all be inspired!

Laura, my favorite Organizer, hosts Menu Plan Monday every Monday.  It's a great meme to be involved in because you'll find excellent recipe ideas and meals that work for other busy families!  Go check it out!

POINTS: This is a big one and worth a whole gob of points.  So I will give you through Wednesday to complete it, and award 100 whoppers for it!  So worth it.

These Cookies are too pretty to eat, but somehow we manage

Wednesday night was our annual Cookie-Making Party.  Actually, it's a Cookie-Decorating Party.  In the spirit of fun competition, we gather to create the Best in Class in categories we make up as we go along.  My son-in-law, Robert, smoked us all last year with a 3D Christmas tree.  He was a rookie trying to make a name for himself, and we were stunned by his raw, newcomer talent.  We kept that famous cookie in the fridge for close to 9 months, a petrified testament to Cookie Greatness.

I won "Best Use of Shading" with this snowman. 

Em won the "Ethereal Theme Award" with her angelic creations.  Love the hair.

G.T. got the "Academic Cookie Award" with his slope intercept equation.

Elle got the "Best Use of a Classic Theme" with this fireplace scene.

Rob tried to top his 3D tree this year, but got overly ambitious and it backfired on him. 

Tough break.

Tom had a migraine and was unable to participate in the festivities, but he occasionally called out encouragement as the competition tightened.  Secretly, we were glad he couldn't pull out one of his "Best Contemporary Designs," as he has in the past.  It leveled the playing field just a bit to compete without him.

Here's the recipe we use, same as always.  The buttery cookie base is just perfect for the sweet almond-y frosting.  You will be in Cookie Heaven.

Have a great Christmas, and I will be back on the 26th!

The Secret Ingredient to a Gazillion Quick and Delicious Meals

OK, maybe not a "gazillion," but enough meals to make your family think you're an amazing magician in the kitchen! I love to impress my hungry, fork-stomping brood with my ability to whip up an impressive dinner in a matter of minutes.

I've already shared my Rotisserie-Chicken love affair with you. And now I spill the beans on my other paramour, the smoked sausage.

Simple, elegant, and good gracious! It's PRE-COOKED! Move over hot dogs, there's another chopped, pressed meat in town.

I like the Skinless variety because it's, well, skinless.

So get your apronon and try a few of my favorite ways to use this edible chameleon.

Sausage and Vegetable Medley

Start (pretty much any) meal preparation by sauteeing up some onions. Throw in some red or green peppers in for color. At this point, your family will be drooling in anticipation, because they can tell you're working on something good in there. While that is starting, slice up any other veggies laying around (you know you have some!) like zucchini, broccoli, carrots etc. and toss those in. Add sliced smoked sausage at the very end, and voila! A colorful, flavorful dish to serve over rice.

Variation: 1)
Serve the above next to couscous. I love couscous because it only takes 5 minutes.
Variation 2)
Serve over Ramen noodles (cook according to pkg, and then drain like spaghetti. Yum!)

Red Beans and Rice

You CAN make this from scratch, but why?

There are many mixes like this, but here's one brand I've used.

NOTE: I add 1/2 cup rice and 1 cup water to the mix so it's not too spicey. Add sliced sausage during the last 5 minutes and serve with chips and cheese.

Sausage and Pesto, with Pasta

Start up your onions and veggies, like in the first recipe. Add sliced sausage. Cook up some pasta (ziti, penne). Toss all together with prepared Pesto to taste. To this you can add feta cheese, slice olives, etc.
You might want to serve this on some nice china with crusty bread. It's so good your head will explode from all the compliments you'll receive.

Breakfast for Dinner

This is an actual monthly menu category. Sausage can be substituted for bacon or ground sausage patties, etc.

And the simplest of all meals:

Easy: sauteed onions and sausage, served on a toasted bun with melted provalone cheese.

Easier: microwaved sausage served on hot dog buns

Easiest: eat sausage directly from package, skip the bun. (Not recommended.)

For more recipe ideas, Eckrich has plenty. AND they have printable coupons! Go getcha some!

This week I noticed that my grocery store had their store brand for "Buy One Get One Free" and since they have a long refrigerator life, you can stock up on an extra package or two. Perfect for having on hand during the holiday rush of activities.

For more Works for Me Wednesday ideas, go visit Shannon!

Best and Easiest Pot Roast

Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

I've always made Pot Roast for my family, and I'm a big believer in the Crock Pot.  But the most compliments I ever receive from my family on my Pot Roast is when I make it with this magic ingredient:

Thanks, Fam.  Love you, too.

Seriously, McCormick's Slow Cooker Pot Roast seasoning might be loaded with MSG, but who really cares when your family asks for seconds?  Now I just buy several packages at a time and don't worry about having to follow a recipe.  I add some veggies, and I must say,

IT'S DELICIOUS!

(You could even hide the package and pretend you made it from scratch....they'll never know.)

Get-Real Menu Planning for Busy Families

There are many elaborate menu plans I see that I just know won't work for my family. They include things like "Roasted Leg of Lamb with Braised Asparagus and Cherries Flambe for Dessert."

Riiiiight.

I've found that I can easily come up with a month's worth of dinner ideas out of stuff I already know how to make.

First, I start by brain-storming. I list broad categories of dinners, like: Italian, Crock-Pot, Grilled, Mexican, LEFTOVERS (yes, it's a category), PAPER PLATE MEALS (you gotta get real), Gourmet (I'm putting this in for you "Foodies"), Soup N Sandwich, Breakfast for Dinner, etc.

Then, I think of as many meals as can that fit under each category.

Italian: Spaghetti, pizza, manicotti, baked ziti, stuffed shells from Sam's, etc.

Crock Pot: Pot Roast, Barbeque Chicken, Beef Stew, Italian Chicken

Go ahead! Take out some paper and try it. I'll bet you can come up with a BUNCH!

Each Category really only needs 4 items because.....

Then, I look at our Family Calendar. I start plugging in the standing activities we have that affect our dinner times. For example: for many years, we had piano lessons twice a week from 5:30-6:30, which meant that we either had to eat early OR late. On Wednesday nights, we have church. Sports might be on another night. I take a blank calendar page and write these activities across the top. I put in my work/volunteer schedule: On Thursdays I work all day at Junior's school after I've served at the homeless shelter.....(cough)

Then, I take a blank calendar page, and working across the week, I start assigning the broad categories to days of the week.

On Piano nights, I assigned Crock Pot Night, and Sandwich Night--both are quick and easy with little clean-up required.

On Sports Nights, I might do Drive Through Night (Oh, didn't I tell you? That's also a category! I just like to plan it in, rather that use it willy-nilly)

On Monday nights, we are all home together so I plan a nice, sit-down meal. Gourmet perhaps?

On Saturday nights, I might do Breakfast for Dinner, because you never know who is actually going to be home: waffles are always a hit.

I actually found that I could come up with TWO MONTHS worth of dinner ideas by doing it this way. And even when I don't stick to the menu plan, just having it posted up on the refrigerator helps jog my memory when I'm in a pinch, which it often. It also helps me remember to thaw things out ahead of time and start early enough in the day so I don't have mutiny on my hands when 6:30 rolls around and the troops are starving. Voila, Dinner is Served.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes!

More Apronons

One of my Company Girls, Grace, gave me this link to Shannon's (Rocks in my Dryer) giveaway of a perfectly darling Apronon.

I think we should all sign up for one, right now. Connie, at Smockity Frocks is a very talented lady and you can order one if you don't win the giveaway.

What's an Apronon?

When we were little, my sister, Katherine, used to ask our Mom,

"What's an Apronon??"

She couldn't figure out what Mom meant when she would say, as she began to prepare dinner, "I need to get my apron on."

As a result, we still call aprons, "Apronons."

When my girls and I make cookies or lefse, someone goes looking for the apronons, which are hanging on a nail in the pantry. When I am cleaning up a messy kitchen with greasy slop, I reach for an apronon. And I always wear an apronon when making spaghetti, so it won't splatter onto my clothes. The men in our family even put on apronons when they carve the turkey at Thanksgiving, or clean up the holiday dishes.

I like wearing apronons. I only have a few of them, but they serve me well. Mine are the kind tie around your neck and back, and are made of sturdy material. My sister has a darling collection of kitschy apronons, and has used them for decoration in her kitchen. It looks great!

You know, when I tie my apronon I feel a kind of connection to my Mom and Grandmothers, who always wore their apronons not just for cooking, but for cleaning as well. Generations past also had housecoats, or housedresses: loose comfortable dresses that women wore while they did their household chores. They weren't nearly as attractive as the apronons, they were more like apronon's Ugly Cousins.

You can buy some super cute apronons these days, and I highly recommend going out and purchasing one or two. Mine are the practical kind, made for barbequing and tough enough that a man won't feel awkward wearing them. I do like my man to feel at home in an apronon.

But I think I'm going to upgrade my apronons to something a little more feminine, something June Cleaver would wear. I'm still inspired to take my business here at home seriously enough to invest in what I need to feel professional.

Professional AND cute. Look at this one I found at wrapables.com:

Apronons are just the thing.