Remember my simplified meal plan? We used it for quite a while and it really made that area of my life so much easier. I never had to think about what was for supper or what I needed to buy at the store. It worked really well. I had to stop making smoked sausages because they gave me headaches so we changed that night to breakfast.
After a while of that I felt ready to broaden it a bit, so I have revised that meal plan and it is still pretty simple but also gives us more variation.
Monday--Bean night. When I first started making beans a few years back, my kids would groan. Now they LOVE beans and we usually don't even have any leftovers for me to work with anymore.
Most of the time I make pinto beans, but sometimes we have black beans. We have "soup beans", sometimes just with cornbread, other times with fried potatoes, or macaroni and cheese. Sometimes we load them with toppings: cheese, onions, salsa, sour cream. Sometimes we have beans and rice and cheese. Sometimes we even make bean tacos.
Tuesday--Spaghetti Night. This could be regular spaghetti with meat sauce or meatballs, it could be made with spaghetti noodles or ziti or rotini or any kind of pasta. If I really feel like cooking, I might make lasagna. If I really need a break, I might make frozen ravioli (which is really good!) Sometimes I make it with chicken or meatless. (If we're really tired of spaghetti sauce, I might make some sort of casserole.)
Wednesday--breakfast for supper.
Thursday--pizza night. Since we do our grocery shopping on Thursdays I have moved pizza night from Friday to Thursday. Yes, sometimes I still order pizza, sometimes I even get frozen pizza. Lately I've been really adventurous and have started making my own pizza again. It has been fun.
Friday--"Cookout" night. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken. Whatever you might have at a cookout. I bought a cast iron grill pan and I love it! I also make my cornbread in it. It works!
Saturday--taco night. Tacos, burritos, taco salad, etc. If we have leftover beans, I use them.
Sunday--on weeks we go to church we eat out. During this season of life, I stay home every other week for a day of rest. Then we have sandwiches or something easy that will allow me to kind of "take off" that day.
I don't stick with this 100%. There might be a new recipe I want to try or something else we might be wanting to have. But during this season of life, this menu plan is working for me.
2 comments:
I love your menu plan! I need mine to be super simple too! One thing that I am loving is to make pinto beans overnight in the crock pot and to eat those for lunch the next day with nachos, cheese, green onions, etc.. Then, for dinner, we have beef burritos with beans. I had no idea that making my own beans could be so easy. When I am cleaning our supper dishes at night, I put the beans in the crock pot, cover with water, and turn on low. Usually around 5 am, I roll over in bed and smell my crock full of cooked beans! Tammy inspired me with her post here about beans in the crock: http://www.tammysrecipes.com/node/4082
Yes, Christine, I do the same thing. Beans are probably THE easiest thing to make! I love Tammy's posts on beans. She makes them look SOOOO good! She was the one that "taught" us to put all the toppings on them! lol
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