I am currently in the process of trying to dig myself out of a cooking rut. Meal planning is often where I get in trouble. Without a plan we have no groceries and without grocerious we have no dinner.
Except Mac n' Cheese. There's always that.
So in an effort to save my family from highly processed un-food, I've been trying to make things easier on myself in the meal planning department. I tried, several times unsuccessfully, to make my family come up with things they want to eat. They all stare at me blankly like they've never heard of food before. And then this idea came to me: assign a theme to each day of the week! I've tried this before, but this time I got a little more creative. Here are our new kid-tastic themes for the "Dodds Diner" (yes, we're very cheesy around here):
Sunday: Crock-Pot Cafe
Monday: Mystery Monday (something new, or miscellaneous)
Tuesday: Little Italy
Wednesday: Beef. It's What's For Dinner.
Thursday: The Chicken Dance
Friday: Fiesta Friday
Saturday: Souper Saturday (soup or sandwiches)
At some point I want to put up a diner-style "Dodds Diner" chalkboard that says "Special of the Day," and has a place to post the daily theme and write in the menu for the day. Sounds a little crafty for my normal style, but I have a vision. The kids think this is AWESOME by the way. Something about calling it "Chicken Dance" day...
By the way, have I mentioned that Jameson loves to do the chicken dance? Hi-lar-i-ous! But I digress.
Now that I have a starting point for my meal planning we're making progress, and I'm trying a few new recipes 'cause I was in a boring food funk. But I could use some more good recipes to try! If you feel so inclined, please share your absolute favorite recipe (or two) in the comments section. I am short on "Beef. It's What's For Dinner" recipes, so if you have one that you love please share the yum.
P.S. If I make your recipe and we like it, I'll post it on my recipe blog! How's that for notoriety?
5 comments:
Cute idea, Angie! We have a chalkboard "Bon Appetit" with the meals listed for the week. My kids look at that as the last word on what to expect, so I have to stick to it!
Good luck! I'll send you some recipes. For your beef, check out my crock pot roast on my blog. Its so easy!
You are so cute! Have you ever tried the small pork roasts that come in a 4-pack at Costco? They are so moist and yummy. My kids love it! You just stick one in a crock pot for a couple hours and voila, you have your meat! Very easy.
You have a recipe blog? I love to read recipes. I am not sure if I could limit myself to only eating chicken on a certain day but it's got to be better than what we currently do: Eat whatever Mom feels like fixin'.
I love your ideas! I'm probably going to steal them cause I've been struggling with menu ideas. I've tried themes, and such (last week was "Fast food from home" and included fish sticks, corn dogs, orange chicken and rice, and other such "healthy" items.) But I LOVE your idea-so consider it stolen! Anywho, have you ever had stuffed rolls? Here's the recipe:
6-12 Hard rolls hollowed out
1 lb ground beef
1-2 small cans of cream of mushroom soup
1 cup celery finely chopped
Onion flakes to your tastes
Cut small holes into the side of the rolls and with a spoon hollow out the middle (I love eating the soft insides!)
Brown the ground beef and drain. Add the celery, the cream of mushroom soup, and the onion and let simmer until the celery is soft.
Using a spoon, fill the rolls with the mixture and wrap each roll in aluminum foil. Bake in the oven at 350 for 20-30 minutes.
Just give me a call if I haven't given you very good instructions!
Sorry for commenting twice, but I wanted to let you know that these also freeze really well so you can make double, triple and so on batches to have on hand. They're really handy to have a few in the freezer to pull out for lunch or a quick dinner!
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