Menu Plan Monday

One thing that I try to consistently do is menu planning. I HATE hearing "what should we have for supper?" so if we menu plan once a week, I only have to hear it once! Menu planning helps keeps grocery costs down and helps a busy household stay organized. It also helps me survey what we have on hand that needs to be used. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of menu planning.

My friend Jessica once told me that my menus, pre-Lucan, were pretty ambitious. I will agree with her. Much of my cooking now is for things that can be prepped during naptime and then assembled with one hand later on. I also try and take into account what Lucan likes and can manage to eat. Spaghetti is hard. Too many beans, too many days in a row leads to some horrid diapers. Lu hates green peppers. I don't think that he's a fan of lettuce either. Or meatloaf. Obviously I'm glad that Lucan isn't too bad of an eater all in all. Because if I had a truly picky eater, I'd probably cry at every meal.

Game plan for this week. Eat out of the freezer. Which goes against my stockpiler/hoarder nature. True confession: there are still a few things in my freezer I made before Lucan was born when I thought that I would never be able to cook again. I know. Those things should be tossed. But we are eating out of the freezer because we got notification that a side of beef would be ready. Cue panic as to how we are going to be able to fit a side of beef in our freezer. Pan camera to Lance who's brain is frantically calculating the average size of a side of beef and what things are the biggest that we need to eat. Bring focus back on me whose solution is to make three loaves of banana bread and freeze them :) I know, not exactly helping. But our goal is to keep eating out of the freezer to make way for a side of beef.

Monday: Navy bean soup
Tuesday: Eat out for delayed Valentine's Day celebration - Sam & Gabes!
Wednesday: Campanelle with Mushrooms and Kale
Thursday: Small group nite - freezer food - old crusty lasagna?
Friday: brunch food (waffles, eggs and hasbrowns)
Saturday lunch: Hickory park (L & K), freezer casserole (parents and Lu) - we have ISU basketball tickets and my parents will be taking care of Lucan.
Saturday supper: cashew chicken stir fry and pot stickers
Sunday lunch: flour tacos (ambitious, but since my parents are in town, I'll have an extra set of hands)
Sunday supper: pizza and popcorn