Sample March Menu

Sometimes I love planning the week's menu. Most of the time, I wish I could just use someone else's menu and I liked everything on it and my grocery store had all the ingredients to boot. So, I thought I'd post this week's menu, because it cost me $76 and was all fresh. Of course, I have friends who feed their families for $25 a week and I wish I could do it. $76? It's a leap for me so I'll take it as a small victory. At the beginning of the week, my fridge was chocked full of fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and breads. I know I'm not the only person in this world who inevitably throws out seemingly half the stuff that she initially had grand ideas for.

Well, I'm impressed with myself this week and I don't care who knows it. It's the end of the week, and I've actually used just about everything in my fridge that I had an idea of. I can't believe it. And I even made pretty good food this week. Really, I just want to be a good cook for my family. A healthy cook, an economical cook, with some comfort cooking thrown in.

I posted some of the recipes I used if they were keepers. The mac and cheese not so much, so it isn't here. But find your favorite mac and cheese recipe and use it. I'm still looking.

Monday
b: fruit parfait (vanilla yogurt, strawberries, granola)
l: grilled cheese, salad
d: blt's, salad, strawberry shortcake for dessert

Tuesday
b: lemon poppy-seed pancakes
l: spinach wrap with hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes, drizzled with vanilla yogurt
d: fonina baked pasta, asparagus

Wednesday
b: cereal
l: leftover pasta
d: spiced pork chops, artichokes, roasted vegetables

Thursday
b: granola, honeydew
l: hummus wrap with roasted vegetables
d: savory shrimp fajitas

Friday
b: oatmeal
l: turkey sandwich
d: pizza with tomato, basil, and provolone

I think it worked this week because I was disciplined enough to start dinner in the morning. Morning, bring out any frozen items that need to thaw. Mid-morning to afternoon, chops vegetables and prep. Late afternoon, final clean on daily grunge in the kitchen and set out all items to cook with, begin marinades, etc. By 5pm, I was just throwing stuff together and cooking. Maybe that's how I accomplished minimal cleanup after dinner too. I'd been prepping and cleaning all day. It just felt way less stressful.

My weekly menus follow a similar format each week. From the Food Nanny, I like how she has a comfort food night, mexican, italian, american, asian night. That gets me started. Next, to cut down on food cost, I don't do meat every night. At least one meatless night. Maybe more if I'm feeling more frugal.