As a foodie I am ready for Lent to be over. This year, I decided to follow my husband’s family’s tradition of having fish on Friday and my tradition of having meatless soup on Wednesday. In the past, I have found comfort in themed dinners for particular days of the week and have found that they have simplified my meal planning. But in my current season of life, I am finding it confining. In the last couple of years, my menu planning has moved towards meal planning to avoid food waste. Adding in the soup supper and fish Friday to my weekly dinners makes for a little more work on my part to optimize my menu to avoid any waste.
Monday – Broiled Chicken using Italian dressing as the marinade, Basmati Rice, Sautteed Broccoli
Tuesday – Use leftover rice in Chinese Style Broccoli and Cashew Rice bowl
Wednesday – Tortellini Soup, served with a garden salad and Gluten-Free Herbed Bread Sticks.
Thursday – Use leftover chicken in a Pasta Salad
Friday – Pecan Crusted Ruffy, Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Cauliflower, and a garden salad
Saturday – I will make gluten-free pizza dough and my easy pizza sauce, and let everyone make their own pizza. Serve with a salad bar.
Sunday – 3 new recipes to be featured later.
If you need help getting started making a menu plan, you can read how I create menu plans, which includes mention of various methods I have used in the past. Another tool that is available to help is ZipList. I created a video, showing how I use ZipList to save recipes, make meal plans, and create shopping lists.
Pauline Wiles says
Thank you: great reminder that I started to create some generic / repeatable weekly menu plans, but never quite got to the point where I was excited to eat them. I do like the sound of your tortellini soup.
Crystal says
This is a great way to think about menu planning, to keep food costs down even more. I usually try to have dinner leftovers for lunch. Thanks for the inspiration!