Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Meal Planning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at PhotobucketI don't understand how I could love to cook so much but still hate to plan the meal. I have to go the grocery store today and I have started my list. I am wracking my brain trying to come up with meals for the week. Should we have chicken? No, we just had fried chicken last week. Well maybe if I make it another way?? Ok. Definite maybe. How about pork? Nah, just had pork "steaks" and ribs. Well I could get a pork roast. Ooh maybe with some garlic and apples...in a slow cooker.

This is what I go through every week. I have covered all the basics and meals in this house have consisted of: beef, pork, chicken. Corned beef, ground beef, roast beef. Pork steaks (I hate the bone in a pork chop), pork loin, ribs, sausage. Fried chicken, chicken and rice. I have about 1 1/2 pounds of shrimp in the freezer. I could make scampi. Oh maybe with some linguine. Stuffed peppers sound good. Maybe I'll make those.

We go through about 10 pounds of potatoes a week. If you have ever seen my son, Austin eat you'll know that is not an exaggeration. Beans, macaroni, rice, couscous. All consumed in this house. Thank goodness my kids love their vegetables. I'm talking any vegetable except eggplant (fools that they are.) I can put cooked carrots or lima beans in front of them and they're asking for more. They're all good eaters including my husband. I have even managed to convince them that cooking with anchovies is not the same as anchovies on a pizza. They now know that when you "melt" the anchovies in a hot skillet they take on a nutty flavor and not a fishy one. So, I really shouldn't complain. They'll eat anything I put in front of them.

I love to cook meals for my family. But
I have to stay within a budget. I try to be creative. I try to mix it up. I don't even mind the planning of the meal so much. It's that lingering fear in my head that they're going to say: Chicken again?

9 comments:

Supermom said...

You might as well make chicken. Everything else just tastes like chicken. :)

You are blessed with such good eaters. My hubby will eat anything. But my son...another story.

I've got chili with red beans and huge chunks of beef stew in the crock pot today. The dog is going to go crazy.

blessings said...

Everynight somebody complains - no matter what I make. So now when they ask what's for dinner, I just tell them, "Something yucky that you won't like." =) Blessings... Polly p.s. thanks for the link to miss 6 pack's blog!

Julie said...

Oh - I love to cook, but part of that fun for me was the planning. Now, when my children were young and I put all of this thought and planning into it all only to have them complain every single night ..well that got old and soon I hung a sign in the kitchen that said,
"What's for dinner? ~ FEND FOR YOURSELF!"

Dena said...

Hi Julie,

I'm with you - after a while I feel like it's just the same old same old - especially when my 12 year old says "Do I have to eat all of my chicken?" And it's a pork chop! Half the time my hubby and oldest son are not hungry or have already conspired to get fast food together! You are so lucky to have good eaters! PS - thanks for the name game tag, that was really fun :)

Dena

Rhoda @ Southern Hospitality said...

Hi, Julie, thanks for stopping by to see me. I just started my new job a month ago & am really enjoying it. I'd rather not say the name of it, but it's a privately owned asset management company. We own some smaller companies, real estate, food & manufacturing companies, that we manage & it's fairly small. It's great so far!

So glad to meet you...I'll have to come back when I have more time to visit. Thanks so much!

Rhoda

Back Through Time said...

Hi
I found you through counting your blessings, you always seem to write interestings things! I am new and wanted to say HI!
Michelle

Emily said...

Your kids do sound like good eaters-but why oh why don't they like eggplant? Could you fry it? Everything tastes good fried.

Are your family willing to try vegetarian cooking/items?

Nunnie's Attic said...

They're meat eaters! Now that's not to say they don't flip for homemade sauce and macaroni or giambotte which is a bunch of summer vegetables in sauce (easiest way to explain it.) But on any given day they want meat of some kind. And forget tofu. Unless it's floating in hot&sour soup from the Chinese restaurant they won't even look at it!

JANET said...

I know what you mean about meal planning and trying to find something different to cook! My mother was super organized at that. She planned her meals a week ahead and marked new recipes in her cookbooks to try, then wrote the "results" by the new recipe. Some are marked "try." Others are marked "good," and a few are crossed out!
Anyway, have you tried catfish? You might want to check some of the recipes over on my blog.
Glad I found your site!