Skip to main content

Menu Planning

Wow, I've really bee slacking on updating here.  Along with the regular family stuff and household duties I am honestly finding that menu planning is taking up a great deal of my time.  I used to just plan dinner for the week.  Now I am planning breakfast, lunch, dinner & snacks for the entire week.  I am constantly searching for ideas online, flipping through cookbooks and magazines and putting together meals that I think that the whole family will enjoy with a new "test ingredient" thrown in here and there to make things interesting.  Something else I have to consider these days is that my hubby is now on a carb-counting diet to help control his diabetes.  I am onboard with his carb diet and it is great for the entire family yet it adds that much more stress to managing the menu just right.  It all takes up a lot of time!  But I know that his health... our family's health... is so worth the effort!!  So as I was prepping lunch for the kids today I thought "There has got to be a better way!".  I need a game plan.

The solution is quite simple.  I reflected back to my years of running an in-home childcare when I created rotating weekly menus for the kids.  I will adopt that method and create a 4-week menu for my family that can be rotated.  This way things won't get boring and I can always have the option to substitute a different side dish... perhaps something that's in season.  So this will be my new plan to work on these next few days.  Wish me luck!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mango-Avocado Salsa with BBQ Chicken

One of my favorite foods in the whole wide world is avocado. It's a great thing to love because they have nearly 20 essential nutrients, including fiber, potassium, Vitamin E, B-vitamins, and folic acid. The only thing that I need to be careful with is that they are loaded with calories as well. One whole medium sized avocado is a whooping 250 calories! I was recipe searching back in April and came upon a mango-avocado salsa that I just had to try. We've had mango salsa many times before, but adding avocado was a whole new ball game. It was quite simple... cubed avocado, mango (I used frozen), and tomato, plus some diced red onion. Mix it all up and there you go. I served it over BBQ grilled chicken. Usually we have our chicken smothered with BBQ sauce, but this time I only marinaded it in some Budwiser brand BBQ sauce. Millard put it on the grill and held off on the extra sauce. It was a good choice. Our sides were sauteed a mix of fresh and frozen peas and asparagus.
2 comments
Read more

Greek Pita

Keeping up with healthy eating is not an easy task. We have been eating reasonably well, but it is tough to break old habits. I caved once in the past bit and grabbed Burger King for dinner for the family. This past Friday evening was beautiful and I really didn't feel like attempting some big meal. I had already had thaw ed some boneless, skinless chicken breast and thought that some sort of sandwich would be ideal. We had all the fixin's for a Greek Pita so that's what I did. I love my Wolfgang Puck Panini Maker and use it for almost everything including to grill chicken. I didn't add any seasoning... just threw them on two at a time. I got together all of the ingredients: Whole Wheat Pita Pockets, diced onion & tomato, sliced black olives, feta cheese and lettuce. For lettuce I always use my lettuce spinner that I bought at Costco some time ago. Christian absolutely loves when I call him to spin the lettuce out. It's like a toy to him. I also used...
1 comment
Read more

Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken

Made the below recipe for chicken tonight. It was yummy! It has been a long day and I totally forgot to take pictures of the chicken, but I wanted to post the recipe so that I wouldn't loose it. Grilled Honey Mustard Chicken Ingredients 1/4 c Dijon mustard 1/3 c Honey 2 tbs Light Mayo 1 tbs Steak Sauce 4 Chicken Breasts (4oz ea) Directions 1. Preheat the grill for medium heat. 2. In a shallow bowl, mix the mustard, honey, mayonnaise, and steak sauce. Set aside a small amount of the honey mustard sauce for basting, and dip the chicken into the remaining sauce to coat. 3. Lightly oil the grill grate. Grill chicken over indirect heat for 18 to 20 minutes, turning occasionally, or until juices run clear. Baste occasionally with the reserved sauce during the last 10 minutes. Watch carefully to prevent burning! Nutritional Info: Servings Per Recipe: 4 Amount per serving: Calories: 253.5, Total Fat: 3.9 g, Cholesterol: 68.4 mg, Sodium: 564.6 mg, Total Carbs: 24.4 g, Dietary F...
2 comments
Read more