I was out of town for three days last week, so I didn’t share our menu plan. My apologies – I know some of you missed it.
My Dinner Menu Plan for the Week of January 20th
Monday — Vegetarian Tacos with Morningstar Farm crumbles
Tuesday — Left-over BBQ (from Shabbat dinner), left-over squash kugel, and mashed cauliflower
Wednesday — Breakfast for Dinner (cottage cheese pancakes with fresh fruit – I’m going to try making a batch with gluten-free flour)
Thursday — Pizza night with cut-up veggies
Friday — So far, our menu includes unstuffed cabbage & meatballs with mashed potatoes
I realize that some of you may think this plan looks overly simplistic — or that your kids/husband/self would never been satisfied with such fare.
However, the key to making menu planning work is to pick meals that work for your family.
For us, that means both foods that we enjoy (or at least 3 out of 5 of us enjoy — since we have one, sometimes two, picky family members, whom I don’t usually cater to) *and* foods that are simple to prepare.
At your house, the meals may look different, but that’s because it’s important to figure out what works for your family.
Another goal for our weekly menu planning is frugality. Simpler meals are typically less expensive to prepare – and often can be made quickly with ingredients I already have in my kitchen.
When I made this plan, for example, I made sure to pencil in a day for left-overs, since we have plenty of beef left-over from Shabbat dinner. There’s nothing quicker (and cheaper) than a meal of left-overs.
I also checked my freezer and found a pound of ground beef and another pound of ground turkey — perfect for unstuffed cabbage. My goal is to keep our grocery trip to under $50 this week, which should be doable, since all we’ll need is fresh produce and dairy.
What’s on your menu plan for this week?
Sunday – Soy taco salad w/Spanish rice and corn
Monday – Grilled chicken w/ cous cous and salad
Tuesday – Tofu stir fry and brown rice
Wednesday – Spaghetti and meatballs, salad
Thursday – Pizza for kids; Baked tilapia w/ quinoa and veggies for adults or kids that want to be adventurous
Shabbat – Going out of town
Sounds great, Liza! Especially the part about going out of town for Shabbat. 🙂
We have recently added chipotle style rice bowls to our rotation. They have been a big hit. We do rice and black beans, lettuce tomato, cheese, sour cream and avacado. Toss on some salsa and done!
I make gluten free crepes all the time now, you could wrap them around a cottage cheese filling. They also taste great with jelly, chocolate spread or even just a little cinnamon-sugar.
Ideas to make suppers: that I always use every week and obviously different supper in every week.
Stir-fry veggies with Tofu and rice
Chicken burgers with Cole slaw
Eggplant Parmesan (without Parmesan cheese)
Grilled chicken Thighs or roasted chicken thights with string beans and baked potato.
Mac and cheese with butternut squash puree and broccoli
Tuna casserole with veggies
Cut up chicken hot dog with veggies with rice
Ground beef With tomato sauce over pasta
To my knowledge Morning Star Farms doesn’t make any GF products. Please let me know if you’ve found any!
Monday was store bought tomato pie (A Philadelphia thing maybe ?) with carrots, dip and applesauce
Tuesday was hamburger soup and “find your own sides” ( I have teens; they survived.)
Wednesday will be your unstuffed cabbage in the crockpot (First time, I am excited 🙂
Thursday we have no plans yet.
Shabbat will be BBQ Chicken in the crock pot and salad ( We use bagged mixes when on sale and they were.)
Thanks for always sharing your ideas. I enjoy borrowing form others.
Menu for the week:
Sunday – Tuna Patties
Monday – Spaghetti with meat sauce
Tuesday – Homemade falafel
Wednesday – BBQ chicken wings
Thursday – Lasagna
Monday – veggie chili, cornbread
Tuesday – Salmon, brown rice, salad
Wednesday – leftover frozen chicken soup which I will “expand” to serve 4, whole wheat bread from bread machine dough
Thursday – Breakfast for dinner
Friday – oven fried chicken cutlets, salad, challah
Saturday – homemade pizza, raw veggies