19 - Chicken Curry, Rice, Steamed Carrots
20 - Beef and Barley Stew
21 - Chili, Cornbread, Carrots
22 - Chili-dogs/Hot dogs, Broccoli, Carrots
23 - eating out for Natalie's birthday (5!)
24 - Quick Italian Vegetable Skillet, Bread
The Quick Italian Vegetable Skillet is from Taste of Home.
I have neglected this blog for a loooong time, but the other day I flipped through my planning notebook and realized that I have months and months of meal plans, so updating this blog should be almost no extra work.
My meal plans have expanded as our family has expanded, I have a plan for all three meals, three planned snack options, and two planned dessert options for each week. I did this because I've seen that not having to decide what's for breakfast, lunch, or dinner is not only a time-saver, it's a sanity saver too. It sounds like a mundane decision, but when you are feeding 6 people even mundane decisions can get stressful. As often as possible, I follow the plan. The only regular deviation is that if we have leftovers, I sometimes replace them for the scheduled lunch.
While I like to cook, feeding 4 kids means cooking a lot almost every day. It is exhausting. So I have learned to find and use shortcuts. Some that work for me are:
*Buying onions in bulk (3lb) about once a month and chopping them all - I wear a mask because the fumes are intense. I spread them thinly on a cookie sheet and freeze them overnight, then put them in a gallon bag. This is not suitable for onions consumed fresh, but for recipes calling for diced onions, this is fine and saves time.
*Rotating meat weekly - I budget $15 for meat and buy a different category of meat each week. I am still working on getting it right, but it should work out that we have extra frozen each week to use in the next week or two. Buying it like this means I can process larger amounts without it being too complicated. Frozen chicken is already done for me, so I try to do onions that week. I buy $15 of ground beef once a month, brown it with onions and portion it in half and whole pounds and freeze. It is a huge time saver both in cooking and washing up.
*Meals are non-negotiable. The kids have to eat what's served. Is this severe? I don't think so. If the food is truly inedible, that's different.
*A sink full of suds - while dinner is cooking I run a big hot sink full of soapy water. After the meal, the dishes can slide right in to soak. I rarely have time to wash dishes immediately after a meal. I like to cook but I very much dislike washing dishes!!!
