| Author | Message | ||
     shh Citizen Username: Shh Post Number: 848 Registered: 5-2001 |
I'm almost tempted to do this. Anyone care to share their thoughts or ideas? It shouldn't be difficult, but I can't decide what I'm going to wear before I get to my closet, how can I plan what we'll eat days before? | ||
| Wilkanoid Citizen Username: Cseleosida Post Number: 88 Registered: 10-2002 |
Can't seriously do it myself, either. The only thing I can do is decide on one or two dishes for the week. It helps me when I'm grocery shopping. On the other hand, I know a woman who has a "meal plan" for the week. She makes a conscious choice to incorporate meatless days, fish, etc. | ||
| Soda Citizen Username: Soda Post Number: 1172 Registered: 5-2001  |
My sainted mother-in-law had a system for this. As a working mother, she was always pressed for time, and so decided to feed her family a different dinner entree for every night of the week. According to my wife, this worked pretty well, within certain limitations. Although the family knew what to expect on any given evening, their culinary tastes weren't broadened very much. Sure, the shopping was easier, but no real variety was offered. Today, the (professional) wife of my best friend has adopted a menu plan based on her desire to help her hubby and herself stay trim. She's a bit of a control freak anyhow, so this is really just an extension of her personality anyway, but she makes it work. She's collected an extensive file of very tasty low-fat recipes, and just picks seven at a time, then shops once a week for the ingredients needed. The lack of spontenaeity is a trade-off she and hubby are willing to make. --Soda | ||
| ffof Citizen Username: Ffof Post Number: 1787 Registered: 5-2001  |
Why do you think just professional women need to menu plan? Do you think that a wife who stays home is just hangin out all day waiting hand and foot on the family? Can whip up dinner on a dime? sheesh....! Some of us are actually busy with enormously active volunteer lives - probably some of those jobs are in the schools looking out for the very kids who the working mom needs to cook for that night!  May I suggest Monday - roast turkey or chicken, Tuesday - soup from the turkey/chicken Wednesday - lasagna (made ahead on Sunday perhaps) Thursday - hamburgers/hotdogs Friday - Village Trattoria. Saturday - leftovers for the kids while you and hubby go out. Sunday - perhaps a baked ham/homemade mac and cheese. Keep lettuce and baby carrots in frig for salad and always some frozen peas and rolls from Costco in freezer. Some weeks I'm organized, others not. If you have room to stock some stuff and have a busy household, planning ahead is the way to go.  | ||
| NCJanow(akaLibraryLady) Citizen Username: Librarylady Post Number: 1137 Registered: 5-2001 |
Touchy, touchy, FFoF. Soda didn't imply that ONLY professional women needed to plan..he simply stated that he knew of professional women who DID plan. Don't take offense where none is meant, there are plenty of opportunities to be offended for concrete reasons on this board. NCJ aka LibraryLady On a coffee break..or something like it. | ||
| jem Citizen Username: Jem Post Number: 863 Registered: 5-2001  |
I run hot and cold with meal plannning, but the weeks that I do plan ahead, we definitely eat better. I'm a big fan of Cooking Light Magazine, and I'll often search on specific ingredients on their website - I think you might have to be a subscriber to access the recipes - to come up with ideas for main courses, and then I shop accordingly. | ||
| ffof Citizen Username: Ffof Post Number: 1788 Registered: 5-2001 |
LL- I was pulling Soda's leg a bit - I guess it came off as touchy, but...."As a working mother, she was always pressed for time"...the implications are there! I'd like to hear from my friend Soda on this! | ||
| shh Citizen Username: Shh Post Number: 849 Registered: 5-2001 |
I used to do that Jem, before my kids dictated what I ate. I would read Gourmet or Cooking Light, or even get recipes from the Union Sq. farmer's market. These days, every meal I make I have to tell my kids (2 of em anyway) "this is it, you don't want it, have yogurt and fruit." Anyway, being a vegetarian, those choices don't work FFOF. I do eat fish, and was just thinking I could grill some fish at the beginning of the week, but what happens, I look at the paper today and read about farmed salmon and those problems. : ( Did someone from the Beef industry plant that story? Vegetarian Times is a little TOO vegetarian for my tastes, but Cooking Light might work. I should try though, we eat an awful lot of pasta. | ||
| ffof Citizen Username: Ffof Post Number: 1792 Registered: 5-2001 |
So take out the meet part and substitute frozen vegie burgers for the hamburger night and fresh fish on the roast chicken night. My point is that it's not so hard to plan and shop ahead. At least we have Freemans so that you can always pop in for the fresh fish to go a long with the preplanned part of the menu. | ||
| Soda Citizen Username: Soda Post Number: 1173 Registered: 5-2001 |
Shh: Be encouraged. It only takes a REASON to want to get so organized, such as A) a lack of time to spend ambling slowly through the supermarket aisles, pondering possibilities, or 2) recognizing that only a disciplined approach to shopping will achieve whatever nutritional goals you've set, Etc... FickleFinger: No offense taken, and no disrespect intended... My mother-in-law ran a women's dress shop (7th & Jackson in South Philly), and had to feed three kids and a husband who worked nights. The aforementioned Professional Woman (also a fish-eating vegan) is a pediatric cardiologist & empty nester, married to a globe-trotting cardiothoracic angiographer. Food is secondary in her scheme of things, yet eating at her table is always a treat. She's shown me tha heart-healthy food can be delicious, varied, and satisfying. My own stay-at-home Mom learned from her own mother, who loved to cook, and I cook for my wife (also a "professional woman") several evenings every week, usually using whatever she's shopped for the previous weekend. --Soda | ||
| shh Citizen Username: Shh Post Number: 850 Registered: 5-2001 |
Ffof, understood...but those choices are a little, uhm, boring. I mean, I have almost all those ingredients on hand at all times, that's kind of what I'm trying to avoid. I know you weren't necessarily meaning those specifics, but I don't think it's as simple as, "it's Tuesday so we're eating veggie burgers!" When I go grocery shopping (which is not on any specific day, just when I realize I need something) I have meal ideas in mind, but I don't plan it out for each day. I guess like any organiztional plan, it can be easy, you just need to keep at it. | ||
| jem Citizen Username: Jem Post Number: 864 Registered: 5-2001 |
Cooking Light has plenty of vegetarian, pasta, and fish recipes, and most of the recipes are pretty quick and simple to prepare. Like I said, I'm a big fan of that magazine. Yeah, it's tough when the kids are calling the culinary shots. I remember those days. Hang in. At least yours will eat yoghurt and fruit - better than a steady diet of pasta or breaded fish sticks or hot dogs and pizza. | ||
| gozerbrown Citizen Username: Gozerbrown Post Number: 289 Registered: 3-2002 |
I'm surprised my husband hasn't posted to this one. Before we married, I was pretty "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants" in terms of meals. I thought he was a little anal by doing a meal plan. But let me tell you, after doing it for the last 4 years, I can't imagine not doing it. We shop once a week and strategically plan certain dishes depending on how long they'll stay good for. (For example, we often have fish the day that we go grocery shopping because it's best the first day.) Also, if there's a chance we need special ingredients that won't keep for the whole week, we'll plan those on weekends when we have the time to run to the store quickly. In terms of boredom, I was really concerned about it in the beginning. But we have a big file of recipes that we'll go through to come up with ideas or we'll print stuff from the internet. I guess some of the spouse's anal ways have rubbed off on me! | ||
| shh Citizen Username: Shh Post Number: 851 Registered: 5-2001 |
Agreed. At this point the only fish th 5 yo will eat is SHRIMP TEMPURA (and yes, tons of pasta with butter and grated cheese), and my 7 yo will not eat pasta, except for certain kinds of mac and cheese. I try to keep a supply of matzoh ball soup on hand for her, though lately she devours Tabachniks split pea. (Frozen, from Pathmark.) Maybe I'll get Cooking Light and have them help me pick out recipes. | ||
| shh Citizen Username: Shh Post Number: 853 Registered: 5-2001 |
That's the problem with fish. Sometimes I'll decide to make it so I shop that day for it. Anytime I've had some extra (like when we buy salmon or tilapia from Costco) I wrap it really well and freeze it, but when I go to use it again, I get kind of skeeved by it. (OK, maybe it got lost in the freezer for a few months. ) Anyway, I do keep frozen shrimp on hand most of the time, and that doesn't gross me out as much. | ||
| growler Citizen Username: Growler Post Number: 291 Registered: 11-2001 |
We do weekly menu planning each week. Thankfully we have a large library of cookbooks to choose recopies from. On Sunday we sit down, pick 5 or 6 recopies, make out the list and head out with the family. We make time each night to make each dinner. Now these are not 20 step meals mind you. We make sure that each one can be prepped within 30 minutes or so and ready to eat within 30 minutes of cooking. We have anything from Meatloaf to Artichoke and Parm with Spirals, Fondue is a big hit (very quick), to grilling fish (even in Winter), to chick nuggets in the oven. And when the Farmer's Market comes around, we shop there every Monday for all our veggies, cheese and stuff. Each meal makes lunch for the next day so it's very economical for us. And I feel it teaches our daughter a good lesson on cooking, eating fresh food and family time together. | ||
| greenetree Supporter Username: Greenetree Post Number: 1953 Registered: 5-2001 |
The Spouse is the cook & she plans that day or the day before. Our schedules are slightly different, so most week nights I'm on my own. My "plan" consists of which flavor lean pockets & how much edamame is the freezer. If I'm at work past 6:30, I wander around the floor raiding candy dishes. If I'm not feeling like candy, I call ahead to Bill & Harry's. So, you could say my weekly meals are "organized" & I never worry about what to cook.  | ||
| Lizziecat Citizen Username: Lizziecat Post Number: 123 Registered: 5-2003 |
I plan according to what looks good in the market when I'm there. I usually shop two or three times a week. We eat out a couple of times a week, too--usually Chinese or Mexican. Lately I've been cooking dinner for my son's two little girls on nights when their mom and dad have to work late, and they only eat two kinds of food--red and white, i.e. chicken and/or spaghetti, and everything with ketchup. I'd forgotten how limiting it is to try to cook things that kids will eat and adults won't hate. Roast chicken, chicken fingers, spaghetti with turkey meat balls, spaghetti whith chicken and tomatoes (red), and always strawberries and fresh tomatoes. Forget any green vegetables. Although they were willing to try spinich pasta once, they said it wasn't as good as plain. | ||
| gretchen Citizen Username: Gretchen Post Number: 88 Registered: 8-2001 |
I menu plan for the week. I sit down with Bon Appetit, Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, and a cookbook or 2 (the New Basics and Marc Bittman's How to Cook Everything) and try to plan 6 "main dishes". Then I grab whatever other vegetables and fruit look good at the store, and I know I need everything else--milk, juice, eggs, bread, etc. Now, this might sound really anal, but sometimes I even make an overall plan for the month--spacing out "takeout", pasta, chicken, fish, meat, etc. I find that this makes the weekly planning even easier. I'm more focussed. We can't afford to eat out and get takeout all the time right now, so I try to schedule other break nights, like sandwiches or (my personal favorite) "breakfast for dinner". We usually eat fish on grocery store day, because I don't like it sitting around. If I don't make a menu plan I start getting that dreaded "what's for dinner" feeling at about 3 in the afternoon. My husband is home for dinner every night and we eat together as a family, which is what inspires me to actually cook something "real". On the rare nights that he's not home the kids eat the usual kid junk and I eat popcorn and ice cream after they go to bed. My kids (ages 2 and 5) are decent eaters--not great. I find that they can always find something on the table that they like, and I think it's good for them to be exposed to a variety of food. They know that if nothing's to their liking they can have yogurt. If I make a spicy curry or something I'll stir-fry some up for them without sauce, and they can always eat rice. I highly recommend meal planning. I think it saves a lot of money in extra trips to the store, and it takes away much everyday stress. | ||
| shh Citizen Username: Shh Post Number: 854 Registered: 5-2001 |
Gretchen, what you say makes absolute sense. I even follow that to a certain extent. I guess a big part of my problem is that being a vegetarian, I don't always have a main dish. I generally cook one thing, and try to serve salad with it. I guess my best solution is to sit down and revisit all those cookbooks on my shelves. Haven't really done that in some time. |
