Yeah, so I haven't been cooking much, what with the crappy weather coinciding with the blues and the total failure of the grocery pixies to come and drop off ingredients in my refrigerator. But I'm going to get it in gear this month, starting with an idea I read somewhere for how to save money on groceries - plan out menues for a whole month, so that you can minimize waste and maximize the usefulness of leftovers.
I'm not going overboard, but I did sit down this morning and come up with 20 of my favorite recipes that are going to be the backbone of this month's menues. I've got a vegetarian meal, a soup, and something that makes lots of leftovers each week, plus two days each week for using leftovers up or going out for a treat. I've got rough ideas for side dishes listed (which ones get a fresh vegetable, which a frozen, which a salad, which don't need anything extra). Should make grocery list preparation a bit easier for the next few weeks.
So, without further ado, here's the plan (minus the side dishes):
Week 1: Vegetable lasagna, California pot roast, roast chicken, Crock-Pot chili, and tomato gorgonzola soup.
Week 2: Broccoli mushroom spaghetti, pork roast, sloppy joes, chicken tetrazzini (with leftover roast chicken from week 1), pork salsa soup (with leftover pork from the roast this week)
Week 3: Vegetable fritatta, goulash, chili beef noodles, homemade pizza, lemon chicken rice soup
Week 4: Huevos Gretcheros*, beef Burgundy, pork tenderloin, Crock-Pot beef carnitas, pork wild rice soup (with leftover pork from the tenderloin)
It will be interesting to see how long I manage to stick with the plan (I give it two weeks until real life intervenes and I end up eating nothing but peanut butter for another week), and whether twenty recipes are sufficiently varied to keep from getting boring. I have a lot more recipes I'd like to include, so I figure I can swap out some of the heartier ones for more summer-friendly recipes when the weather starts to warm up. Because as much as I'd like to, I don't think we're going to be digging out the grill to make any yakiniku in February, and my grandmother's spaghetti sauce is a waste of time unless you use fresh tomatoes that are actually ripe.
So, what are your favorite standby recipes? How do you plan your meals each week/month/year? Talk amongst yourselves :)
* Basically, scrambled eggs with ham and cheese (and whatever else I feel like throwing in), wrapped up in tortillas, covered with salsa and baked until they're all heated through and the cheese is melted. Not quite huevos rancheros, not quite egg burritos, they're my own recipe, and they're never the same twice.
Monday, February 02, 2009
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3 comments:
I'm a man of action and mystery. I don't plan ahead - I just go for the excitement and adrenalin of extreme cooking.
The bumpersticker on my pantry says "No Menus - No Peas". Planning ahead is for wimps.
As the kids chant "What Do We Want - Dinner! When Do We Want It - Now!", I stand at the stove mixing leftovers into the aptly named "Greasy Grimey Gopher Guts."
If the kids are hungry, then they will eat. What doesn't kill them will build character (and postpone the inevitable). Suffering is important if they want to write poetry, the great American novel, or country songs.
The Iron Chefs have nothing on me. I once made a 3-course meal out of nothing but blue cheese and ketchup. You should try my basil ice cream or my pizza with cucumber and apple.
As Kenny Rogers tried to say in the Gambler:
Now evry chef knows that the secret to survivin
Is knowin what to throw away and knowing what to keep.
cause evry meal's a winner and evry meal's a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.
I also find my inspiration in the importal words from Star Wars. Ss he was teaching Luke about the powers of the Force, Yoda spoke:
Cook or Do not cook. There is no try.
Yoda tried to steer Luke away from Dark Side. However, I prefer thighs to breasts.
ha - mlf said it all, but my man does not like surprises. So, I do plan ahead, that time is well spent, cause I don't have to think what to cook: just look onto my list. The creativity does not go down the drain that way, leftovers leave enough room for all kind of conconctions.
Sorry to interrupt the party - but I'm a planner. I have 4 very different, very picky eaters. Leftovers are not usually popular and so I have to have a plan when I go to the grocery store or else I end up spending $400.00 on a(n approximate)week's worth of groceries. Unfortunately I can't use the tried and true "Eat what I make or go hungry" routine because one will head straight to MCD and the other one is diabetic (with lots of meds) and elderly. I have some neat menu's that I refer back to from Woman's Day (A few years back) if you are interested in seeing some unique combos. I think I should have turned the "menu planning" portion of my week into a college thesis. It definately is worthy....
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