Menu Plans for the Week 2/14/10

I thought I would begin to share my menus for the week for a Sunday post. I normally take the weekends off from blogging to thrift and spend time with the family but a menu-plan post should be pretty quick. Are you interested in this type of thing? What would you want to see besides the basics?

Lately I only shop once a week. I plan my menus on Saturday and shop on Sunday. This has changed around to fit into our ever life over the years. I used to shop on Wednesday and other months on Friday. Because my work week is so limited I try to work rather than shop. We pick up our raw milk from a farm on Tuesdays so we don't have to go to the store twice a week. I hope to eventually move to making our own yogurt, butter and whipped cream using the milk. Which means even less dairy to buy at the store. I do pop into our fabulous local grocery store Olivers on Wednesday to pick up the sales ad but try to avoid buying anything, perhaps picking up some fruit if anything. The ads are also on-line but I'm old fashion and need to look through the ads at the table with shopping list in hand.

No matter how many new cookbooks I try, I tend to fall back on Everyday Foods. It just is so simple, so tasty and I always seem to still find a recipe that I haven't tried before. You'll find that many of my menus includes recipes from this book. If you have a similar book to recommend, I'd love to hear your suggestion.

Menus:

Monday: Bean & Cheese Wraps using these better-than-wheat Food for Life Brown Rice Tortillas. We place on the table; rice (from the rice cooker) , freshly grated cheese, beans and then whatever we find in the refrigerator. This is a great way to eat up leftovers. We serve the tortillas warm.

Tuesday: Chili-rubbed Skirt Steak -pg 294 Everyday Food Cookbook. Romaine Heart Salad with Creamy Dressing (same page)

Wednesday: Easy Spaghetti Carbonara (check back Wednesday for recipe) & bean salad.

Thursday: Chicken Caesar Salad - pg 119 Everyday Food Cookbook  

Friday: Golden Spice Rice with Chickpeas - pg 142 Feeding Your Whole Family by Cynthia Lair.

Saturday: Roast Chicken with Artichokes - pg 162 -March 2010 Martha Stewart living Magazine -accompanied with with Steamed Broccoli.

Off to do my grocery shopping and enjoy Valentine's Day with my family. 

Comments

[Rachel (Hounds in the Kitchen)]

Hi Selena - I link up my weekly meal plan to Chive Talkin's Mindful Menus. We share real whole food menus and would love to have you join us.

Here's the link to last week's menus. She usually gets the mr. linky up around 8pm on Sundays. http://blog.chivetalkin.com/2010/02/07/mindful-menus--week-of-282010.aspx

[Monica]

Your menu sounds very good and I've put that cookbook on my hold list at the library. :)

[Tayla B]

Everyday Foods seems like a great cook book! I will have to keep my eye out for that one but my go to place for easy recipes is How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. It shows you how to make almost everything from scratch and I love that.

[Paula (Momma Pajama)]

I have "Feeding the Whole Family" but mine looks different. Is yours 1997? I love that book. The soups are great - the mushroom and the asparagus soups are some of our favorites. I'll have to check out the other recipe book.

[C. Dianne Zweig]

Wish you were here to plan a menu for us....... i wish I spent more time cooking and less time blogging... in the order of what I enjoy

antiquing, eating, blogging, cooking.....

cooking is last......

but I love reading about cooking...so thanks for this great post.......send over some leftovers....Dianne

[Tracey]

I like reading about meal planning. I have never done a meal plan per say as I am usually flying by the seat of my pants, or occasionally mentally plan what's for dinner over the weekends when my whole family can eat at the table together. I love to be organized, but meal planning always slips away from me when I have quick prep options. I have a huge pantry stock lacking nothing so I can usualy whip up anything at anytime...spare something that takes a certain unusual fresh ingredient, but I have all the staples. I would like to more efficiently use my pantry, freezer, and fresh items and make more variety. We aren't gluten allergic, but I am of the mind that anything a mom can do to moderate the less healthy aspects of the American diet the better, and I can appreciate reading about your unusual-to-me gluten free recipes. I also like knowing if you liked or disliked certain brands bcz it's a pain to spend the cash on an expensive organic or specialty item and find it takes like cardboard. Even though I am pretty tolerant about bland try-me items, my husband and small son are not so much. Out of all the blogs I follow, you are the only gal that has talked openly about her meal planning. I have consistently loved your blog for a couple of years now, although mostly being a reader rather than commenting. Look what inspired me to comment!? Funny. I really love seeing your thrifted finds and pictures of your home and projects.