I recently mentioned that my office moved and my commute time doubled. While I get home only a little later than I used to, I am exhausted when I walk in the door. I’ve done informal menu planning for a while now and it worked, but I feel the need for something more organized and structured. I can’t always run errands on my way home or during my lunch break, so I’m hoping that with this dinner menu I put together, we can streamline our menu planning process.
I’ve noticed that although we do like variety, we don’t usually have it in our dinner plans. I’ve come to accept it and actually don’t really mind it. It’s easier for me to plan for the week and there aren’t any surprises. Of course we can change it as we need to.
I made two menus. One for DH and I and another one for the kids, since they usually eat earlier than us and eat more simply. What I like about this menu is that most of it comes from our freezer. If we don’t end up using some of the ingredients we bought we can just keep them for the following week.
Kids Dinner Menu
Sunday- cheese blintzes or scrambled eggs (if no Shabbos leftovers)
Monday- chicken nuggets
Tuesday- pasta
Wednesday- fish sticks
Thursday- pizza
Adult Dinner Menu
Sunday- frittata (if no Shabbos leftovers)
Monday- salmon
Tuesday- chicken stir fry/ chicken fajita
Wednesday- chili and rice
Thursday- Morning Star burgers or nuggets
In order to make weekend shopping easier, I created this “recipe” in my Ziplist recipe box so I can easily add the food I need to buy for the week with one small click. Before I go shopping I delete all the items we already have and I’m ready to go!
My Weekly Shopping List
Materials
Weekly staples:
- Apple juice
- bananas
- cereal
- cucumbers
- eggs
- frozen corn
- frozen peas
- frozen pizza
- frozen veggies
- milk
- waffles
- yogurt
For lunches:
- bread
- cream cheese
- salad
- apples
For dinners:
- cheese blintzes
- chicken nuggets
- fish sticks
- Morning Star burgers or nuggets
- pasta
- stir fry/fajita veggies
- vegetarian chili
- whole wheat couscous
- whole wheat wraps for fajitas
My list doesn’t include many snacks because that’s usually the one thing we are very well stocked up on. Thank you Costco. They might not have the best prices all the time, but with limited time, I prefer buying things in large quantities.
What does your weekly menu look like? Do you have a weekly shopping list you use? What items do you have on it?
Until next time,
Shaindy
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