Monday, May 11, 2009

Menu Planning

Menu planning is never easy, unless you have a good system in place. I'm still working on mine. my goal is to be able to plan out a full weeks menu using up food item I already have on hand and only having to buy a few things at the grocery, plus restock. So far I haven't gotten this down to a science, but I'm working on it.
My biggest obstacle in this challenge is me. I love to cook whatever floats my boat at the time. However, that can be very very $$$$ and wasteful. So I'm working on changing my bad habits in this area.
In order to help me plan and FOLLOW said plan I'm going to start posting my menus for each week and then do a follow up to see how well I did. Remember I'm just getting started and I'm terrible at following rules, even the ones I set for myself. But I'm trying to do better.
So here are my menus for this week.

Monday
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs w/ green onions and bacon ( which I had but no green onions)
Lunch: Bacon Cheese Burger (sans bun) with pork skins
Dinner: Pork Fried Rice and salad (I already know there will be no salad I don't have any lettuce)
Snacks: 1/2 cup yogurt with cranberry sauce

Tuesday
Breakfast: Toasted Flaxbread with cream cheese and tea
Lunch: Tuna Salad with pita chips ( I bake my own with lc pita)
Dinner: Cranberry Roasted pork roast, snap peas w/ toasted sesame seeds, sliced cucumber
Snacks: peanut butter and celery or just a few peanuts

Wednesday
Breakfast: Blueberry breakfast smoothie with flax seeds
Lunch: Left over tuna in lettuce cups
Dinner: Mexicali Chicken, refried beans and small salad
Snacks: Boiled egg and/or an oz. almonds

Thursday
Breakfast: Breakfast cookie and iced coffee
Lunch: Pizza Dip and Chips
Dinner: Parmesan Crusted Tilapia, cucumber,onion and tomato salad
Snacks: 1/2 pear and peanut butter sauce

Friday
Breakfast: Salsa Eggs with crispy ham strips
Lunch: Meatballs with veggie sticks and cheese dip (homemade not the store bought stuff)
Dinner: KFC Grilled chicken (everyone needs a night without cooking), sausage cheese stuffed zucchini ( will post recipe on my other blog later)
Snacks: Cheese stick or almonds

Saturday
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and bacon
Lunch: Left overs
Dinner: chicken legs, chili beans and squash with onions
Snacks: 1 cup cheese popcorn (homemade) to go with a good movie

Sunday
Breakfast: Breakfast smoothie with kale and strawberries

Lunch: Chicken salad pita sandwich with cucumber slices
Dinner: Taco salad or tostadas
Snacks: Breakfast cookie or 1/2 yogurt with a spoon of s/f orange marmalade

I've made my grocery list with these foods as my goal and for the most part I have almost everything I need except veggies. I made a heavy menu so I had options in cutting it back making lighter meals and still stay within my menu. I am not going to be strict about which day I have which menu, just as long as I stick to these meals, no going to the store to make something else.

Wish me luck!

2 comments:

~Oct said...

That menu looks very nice, Vikki. :)

Vikki said...

Thank you Tracy. I've made my grocery list and it's pretty small. yeah!~
Have a wonderful week and thanks for stopping by.
Vikki
PS. any more news on Dad?