Question on meal plans

[Guest guest]

Hello all, I have been inspired to try out all kinds of recipes from this group

but I don't have access to my printer at the moment. This should get fixed soon,

so in preparation of this, I wanted to ask how all of you plan your meals?

 

There are 2 adults and 2 preschoolers in my family and I am at home. You would

think meal planning would come easy, but it doesn't. It is one area of life that

I struggle with, although I am a fairly organized person!

 

There is not enough flexibility in our lives to do a meal plan for an entire

month, sometimes we plan the week (which usually works well) but then we slack

off the next week.

Do you print out the recipes you like and try them out the next week? Do you not

plan at all? I guess I am looking for some easy tricks to keep track of my

groceries, recipes and stuff in the fridge and freezer!

 

Thanks a lot!

Andrea

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

In the past the only time I ever got so organized as printing a menu

plan with the days of the week was when I was sharing cooking

responsibilities. I used to write down an intended meal for the days

I cooked, and the other cook did the same. So we would look up at the

weekly menu plan on the fridge and just prepare what we had said we

would. This actually worked out really well except occasionally

somebody would use some ingredient needed for a 'scheduled' dish

before we had time to prepare it.

 

Lately I cook from what ingredients are available. First we look in

the garden, second the freezer, third the pantry, and lastly we shop

for whatever is in season. Also, we tend to shop for whatever

ingredients might be missing to make a dish with the available

ingredients. For example the other day I saw some kale/ricotta mix in

the freezer, we had lots of tomato puree from our summer tomatoes, so

voila! just had to buy lasagna noodles and lasagna got in the menu.

 

We eat a lot of rice and beans, and a lot of greens. I do not feel

right if I do not have some beans soaking....and I have to have green

every day. This does not get repetitive because we rotate both our

rice and beans, so we have for example black beans and red rice, white

beans and purple rice, chick peas and brown rice, so on and so on. On

the greens you can vary a lot too. First we use what we grow, after

that rotate collards, kale, gai lan, bok choi, chard, broccoli,

cauliflower, etc etc. Sometimes we vary grains and use quinoa instead

of rice. After a few of these we want to change and do tacos, or soup

and salad, or sandwiches, pizza, you name it. Sometimes one of us

gets into a real creative cooking mood and experiments, other times,

nobody feels inspired so we go for the simpler stuff, but it is all good.

 

 

 

, Andrea Robertson

<andreagall wrote:

>

>

> Hello all, I have been inspired to try out all kinds of recipes from

this group but I don't have access to my printer at the moment. This

should get fixed soon, so in preparation of this, I wanted to ask how

all of you plan your meals?

>

> There are 2 adults and 2 preschoolers in my family and I am at home.

You would think meal planning would come easy, but it doesn't. It is

one area of life that I struggle with, although I am a fairly

organized person!

>

> There is not enough flexibility in our lives to do a meal plan for

an entire month, sometimes we plan the week (which usually works well)

but then we slack off the next week.

> Do you print out the recipes you like and try them out the next

week? Do you not plan at all? I guess I am looking for some easy

tricks to keep track of my groceries, recipes and stuff in the fridge

and freezer!

>

> Thanks a lot!

> Andrea

_______________

> Need to know the score, the latest news, or you need your

Hotmail®-get your " fix " .

> http://www.msnmobilefix.com/Default.aspx

>

>