Weekly Menu - about

Every week I do a weekly menu to figure out what we will be eating for the coming week.  I start the menu on Monday and end it on Sunday which may seem odd but it works for us.  I usually just put the meat product or the pasta product and I don't usually put the sides dish or veggies.  But, I do serve veggies for anyone who is concerned that we are strictly carb carnivorous! 

The sides are usually the easiest part for me.  If we have fresh veggies on hand, we have fresh veggies.  If we don't have fresh veggies, we usually have a selection of frozen veggies.  My absolute favorite frozen veggies are the ones that you microwave right in the bag.  I love those because there are so easy and they don't create any dirty dishes for the dishwasher.

Sides are almost as easy.  We do a cycle of pasta, egg noddles, couscous, mashed/baked/sliced/instant potatoes or beans.  Once in a blue moon we have rice.  Since I am not a huge rice fan, it is only on occassion.

I look in the fridge, freezer and cabinets and figure out what we have on hand and what needs to be purchased.  I usually grocery shop on Tuesdays, except for the week that I skip grocery shopping and the week that I go to BJ's Wholesale Club.  I go to BJ's on whichever day of the week we can get there; yes, I am wild & crazy like that.

You will see that I sometimes have to adjust the menu midweek.  Sometimes I have an ingredient go bad, sometimes I have a recipe go bad, sometimes I don't end up with as many servings as expected and sometimes we have company or end up going out.

I once got this great little magnet pad from Betty Crocker that I write our meal plan on, and keep it on the fridge.  This is what our meal plan looks like, very basic:

Monday -
Tuesday -
Wednesday -
Thursday -
Friday -
Saturday -
Sunday -