Kind of a boring post about meal planning.

Last Sunday I wrote about my new two-week menu plan and had a few inquiries re recipes and how I chose to set it up. It’s definitely a work in progress, but here’s a little background…

• Ruthie has Taekwondo on Mondays and Wednesdays. We don’t get home until after 5pm, so I made Mondays a crockpot meal and Wednesdays a George Foreman grill meal – both are super easy for nights when I don’t have a lot of prep time.
• On Thursdays we host a small group from our church community after dinner, so on this night I scheduled quick one-dish meals that are easy to serve and easy to clean up.
• On Fridays I’m usually exhausted, which makes me more tempted to spend money on take-out or eating out. So on these nights I rotate spaghetti and nachos, which is pretty much all about opening up cans and boxes. These are also easy meals to push to the weekend should we have something more exciting come up.
• Tuesdays are the only night I have time to prep dinner at dinnertime, so these meals are a little more labor-intensive (though still easy).

In regards to the actual meals I chose, I put a little thought into those as well.

• I started by listing the meals I make often because everyone likes them.
• Then I coordinated them so I could be efficient with perishable ingredients. For instance, I use sour cream for a Friday and Monday meal, and cilantro for a Tuesday and Thursday meal.
• Then for extra credit, I kind of did a themey sorta thing. For instance, Monday’s meals are both served with corn tortillas, Wednesdays is grilled meat, Thursdays are main dish salads, etc.

I figure once I have the routine down, I can easily swap in different meals when the seasons change or if I get bored. Or I may blow it all up if I have a mid life crisis. But for now, it seems to be working.