May 9, 2014

Menu of the Week

photos via Martha Stewart

Every now and then, I complain about the energy it takes to decide what to have for dinner every night.  I hate eating the same things all the time, and I want to continue to find healthy meals that both the kids and I enjoy; so I like trying new recipes.  At the same time, I've been doing this for years now, so I do have a pretty good collection of tried and true recipes.  The problem is, they are all over the place.  I have a binder where I keep recipes clipped from magazines.  I also have plenty of cookbooks, a recipe box containing some family favorites, and I obviously also look to blogs and pinterest for inspiration.  My favorite strategy is searching this blog to see what we ate in the same month a year ago.  I'll probably still do that at times, but I'd love to pull our favorites offline.  Clearly I have plenty of ideas - my problem is figuring out a new strategy for organizing them.  Or at least...organizing the recipes that are already in my rotation.

When deciding on a week's menu, I typically choose a poultry dish, seafood, pasta, a meatless dish or two (such as soup, stir fry, eggs...), and Friday nights are almost always either Mexican (burritos, quesadillas) or pizza.  I typically plan five meals, counting on leftovers at least one night, and one night of going out or a "quick and easy" dinner (fish sticks, mac & cheese, grilled cheese...), especially if Kevin's not home for dinner.  It changes, because our schedule changes.  Baseball nights require something fast, Kevin goes out of town or has work dinners, etc.  So I need to organize our recipes into those categories so I can strategize before each week.  I'm thinking a new binder.

In the meantime, here's a peek at what we've been eating this week...

Marinated Chicken, Rice, Grilled Asparagus
Grilling season is here!  The patio table is out, and we had our first night of dinner outside.  It was awesome.

Penne with Shrimp, Peas, and Pesto, Salad, Baguette
Sometimes categories mix, like this pasta with shrimp - which category would you put it in?  Hm.  Both boys love this and ate every single bite.  I'm thinking that makes it a 'pasta', which are often sure things.  

Cream of Broccoli Soup, Grilled Cheese
My love of veggie soups continues.  The boys did well with this, although it's not a favorite.  I want to try this one next time.  

Vegetable Frittata with Roasted Potatoes and Garlic
I actually didn't have green beans, so I used asparagus instead.  I also cooked this in the afternoon so it was ready to go for our early before-baseball dinner.  It was still good for Kevin's after-baseball dinner.  

Homemade Pizza, Salad

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