Menu: Aug 12-19; Everything is Fluid
Don't you just love my bad alignment in this picture? It's readable though, and I'm a bit wibbly today, so you get what you get sometimes.
You may notice there are 8 days in this instead of 7. The last couple weeks, we've done the menu plan for the week first thing in the morning, and then been stuck trying to remember what was for lunch, dinner, and our to-do list for the day. I wrote it down so I wouldn't HAVE to remember! Mr. Moon suggested re-drawing the lines and adding another Sunday at the top. Then I could erase last Sunday, write this Sunday's information in the top slot with changes as necessary, and we could go ahead with the rest of the planning. I like the way this man thinks! So I set it up.
I was a little sad to lose even the 1/8 inch that we lost in each row, it makes writing three lines in the dinner column a little difficult. On the other hand, the lunch column doesn't HAVE to be half of the meals column, so I could make the dinner meals a little wider.I just have to keep telling myself, everything is fluid. Try something, don't like it, try something else. Try something, like parts of it, keep those and tweak the rest. Try something, like it, keep it. Repeat. This may work great for us now, but perhaps not always. When it doesn't work, we'll just have to try something new. That's life in the real world, I guess.
You may notice our project section is sparse. We have two pretty big projects going right now: the garden and the garage; besides trying to get our room in order. And by "in order" I mean "in some sort of organized fashion that can be maintained." Or else we will have to designate a day each week to laundry, both washing/drying as well as folding and putting away. We keep ending up with baskets of laundry at the foot of our bed, cluttering up the room, and the desk keeps getting trashed but half of that is laziness, not actually a system problem.
Still, it's about time to re-up the project list from our master plan, get some idea of what we have in the future plans, and get them started.
What's to eat this week?
Today was supposed to be panzanella, but we ended up opting for grilled cheese and pasta salad instead because I realized that what we were about to make for panzanella was almost exactly like the pasta salad already in the fridge. We are headed to the east side of Washougal tonight to get some less light-polluted skies and watch the Perseid meteor shower, so I made up some roast beef & provolone wraps for a picnic dinner.
Monday, the 'Rents are out of town until eveningtime on Tuesday. Mr. Moon and I have some steak to use up for lunch or dinner, and leftover enchiladas to eat. I've found that by writing "Leftovers" on the menu, I'm virtually guaranteeing that two things are going to happen:
If the 'Rents get home in time for dinner, they can make themselves a salad with the fresh produce Pops is picking up on the way in. (Chuck's Produce has 10% off Tuesday for seniors, so we're sending him there this week since we have a pretty big list.) We will have veggies for sides with our chicken wings, regardless of what time they get in.
Wednesday, I know we'll have leftover chicken due to the huge pack the wings got frozen into. I've been wanting a curried chicken salad wrap, so that's what I'm having for lunch. Mum is going to make a big pot roast dinner, which Pops has been looking forward to, and I have really been looking forward to green beans almondine so that's DEFINITELY happening.
Thursday, a late day at work for Mr. Moon, so we want dinner ready whenever anyone is hungry, and something we don't have to cook after he gets home from work. I saw a recipe for soup that has tomato, zucchini, white beans and basil, so I'm throwing that in the crockpot for a hearty vegetarian meal that won't heat up the whole house to make.
BCuT's are a good go-to lunch for us. Lettuce and I don't agree, so I started putting Cucumber on a BLT instead of lettuce. Bonus, I ran out of mayo and hadn't made any yet when lunchtime came around last week, and just put my sugar-free yogurt ranch dressing on. Delicious!
I've been craving home-made pizza lately, but we keep forgetting to put it on the menu. Mr. Moon has quite a bit of time off this week, so we're taking advantage with a nice homecooked, if labor intensive, pizza for all on whole wheat crust, with my homemade tomato sauce. Yum!
I've also been craving Salade Niçcoise for weeks, and the one on the menu at Mr. Moon's work is taunting me. Problem is, at $15 a plate, I know I can make it cheaper and likely more enjoyably at home. Very excited for that.
Mr. Moon and I realized that even when a lot of our meals were cooked in individual portion sizes (like enchiladas or lasagna or even pasta) with individual tastes in mind, our menu plans have had the 'Rents' tastes in food in mind much more than our own. In some ways we're eating better, in an effort to get them to eat better. In some ways, we've lost a lot of creativity and excitement (and spiciness) that we've been missing. So we're making an effort to ensure our menu plans include opportunities to spice things up, literally and figuratively, especially when we're eating at wildly different times anyway. In that vein, we had ceviche on the menu this week, but decided we would wait until we had money to splurge on some super-nice fish instead of the bargain stuff we have available right now. But the chicken wings and Niçcoise salad are a nod to that effort.
Sunday is another nod to the effort of not just writing "leftovers" on the menu. I know there will be leftover Italian soup, and if not there are cans that need to be used up. I also know there will be leftover pot roast, so we might as well pull it into shredded beef and make some sandwiches out of it. Soup and Sandwich sounds like a nice, enticing dinner, right?
Need new recipe ideas or tips on meal planning? Come join us at orgjunkie.com for Menu Plan Monday!
---------------------
What's on your menu this week? Trying any new organizational systems to get your groove back? Any big conversations about home management you're having with your partners or families lately?
You may notice there are 8 days in this instead of 7. The last couple weeks, we've done the menu plan for the week first thing in the morning, and then been stuck trying to remember what was for lunch, dinner, and our to-do list for the day. I wrote it down so I wouldn't HAVE to remember! Mr. Moon suggested re-drawing the lines and adding another Sunday at the top. Then I could erase last Sunday, write this Sunday's information in the top slot with changes as necessary, and we could go ahead with the rest of the planning. I like the way this man thinks! So I set it up.I was a little sad to lose even the 1/8 inch that we lost in each row, it makes writing three lines in the dinner column a little difficult. On the other hand, the lunch column doesn't HAVE to be half of the meals column, so I could make the dinner meals a little wider.I just have to keep telling myself, everything is fluid. Try something, don't like it, try something else. Try something, like parts of it, keep those and tweak the rest. Try something, like it, keep it. Repeat. This may work great for us now, but perhaps not always. When it doesn't work, we'll just have to try something new. That's life in the real world, I guess.
You may notice our project section is sparse. We have two pretty big projects going right now: the garden and the garage; besides trying to get our room in order. And by "in order" I mean "in some sort of organized fashion that can be maintained." Or else we will have to designate a day each week to laundry, both washing/drying as well as folding and putting away. We keep ending up with baskets of laundry at the foot of our bed, cluttering up the room, and the desk keeps getting trashed but half of that is laziness, not actually a system problem.
Still, it's about time to re-up the project list from our master plan, get some idea of what we have in the future plans, and get them started.
What's to eat this week?
Monday, the 'Rents are out of town until eveningtime on Tuesday. Mr. Moon and I have some steak to use up for lunch or dinner, and leftover enchiladas to eat. I've found that by writing "Leftovers" on the menu, I'm virtually guaranteeing that two things are going to happen:
- The leftovers will not get eaten.
- The 'Rents will make a dinner that is completely bad for you; will go out to dinner; or else not eat entirely.
If the 'Rents get home in time for dinner, they can make themselves a salad with the fresh produce Pops is picking up on the way in. (Chuck's Produce has 10% off Tuesday for seniors, so we're sending him there this week since we have a pretty big list.) We will have veggies for sides with our chicken wings, regardless of what time they get in.
Wednesday, I know we'll have leftover chicken due to the huge pack the wings got frozen into. I've been wanting a curried chicken salad wrap, so that's what I'm having for lunch. Mum is going to make a big pot roast dinner, which Pops has been looking forward to, and I have really been looking forward to green beans almondine so that's DEFINITELY happening.
Thursday, a late day at work for Mr. Moon, so we want dinner ready whenever anyone is hungry, and something we don't have to cook after he gets home from work. I saw a recipe for soup that has tomato, zucchini, white beans and basil, so I'm throwing that in the crockpot for a hearty vegetarian meal that won't heat up the whole house to make.
BCuT's are a good go-to lunch for us. Lettuce and I don't agree, so I started putting Cucumber on a BLT instead of lettuce. Bonus, I ran out of mayo and hadn't made any yet when lunchtime came around last week, and just put my sugar-free yogurt ranch dressing on. Delicious!
I've been craving home-made pizza lately, but we keep forgetting to put it on the menu. Mr. Moon has quite a bit of time off this week, so we're taking advantage with a nice homecooked, if labor intensive, pizza for all on whole wheat crust, with my homemade tomato sauce. Yum!
I've also been craving Salade Niçcoise for weeks, and the one on the menu at Mr. Moon's work is taunting me. Problem is, at $15 a plate, I know I can make it cheaper and likely more enjoyably at home. Very excited for that.
Mr. Moon and I realized that even when a lot of our meals were cooked in individual portion sizes (like enchiladas or lasagna or even pasta) with individual tastes in mind, our menu plans have had the 'Rents' tastes in food in mind much more than our own. In some ways we're eating better, in an effort to get them to eat better. In some ways, we've lost a lot of creativity and excitement (and spiciness) that we've been missing. So we're making an effort to ensure our menu plans include opportunities to spice things up, literally and figuratively, especially when we're eating at wildly different times anyway. In that vein, we had ceviche on the menu this week, but decided we would wait until we had money to splurge on some super-nice fish instead of the bargain stuff we have available right now. But the chicken wings and Niçcoise salad are a nod to that effort.
Sunday is another nod to the effort of not just writing "leftovers" on the menu. I know there will be leftover Italian soup, and if not there are cans that need to be used up. I also know there will be leftover pot roast, so we might as well pull it into shredded beef and make some sandwiches out of it. Soup and Sandwich sounds like a nice, enticing dinner, right?
Need new recipe ideas or tips on meal planning? Come join us at orgjunkie.com for Menu Plan Monday!
---------------------
What's on your menu this week? Trying any new organizational systems to get your groove back? Any big conversations about home management you're having with your partners or families lately?
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