Menu Planning

Every week I sit down with my favorite cookbooks and plan out the weekly meals for our family. I've tried to streamline this process by saving my weekly lists and then compiling a month of meals and then repeating those meals for several months to create a sort of seasonal repetition. But ultimately I keep returning to the weekly creation process.

One time my sister even gave me months and months of meals listed out and I still wasn't able to simply bring her meals into our lives wholesale. Somehow I have to make it my own and it has to fit my palate at the time, the season, what I already have in the refrigerator, pantry and freezer.

What's funny about it is that my lists aren't that dramatically different from week to week. What's also funny is that I insist on trying things on a regular basis that I know my kids won't want to eat. I have a theory that if I keep pushing these things at them that eventually they will like everything.

Right now, the kids essentially don't want anything that is complex or too mixed up like soup or chile. They gravitate toward purer, simpler foods like peas (on one side of the plate) and grilled cheese (on the other). To get a square meal, I often throw frozen peas or corn on their plates if we are having a vegetable that they won't eat (like salad).

This week my list went like this (minus a couple that we didn't have because we went out of town):

Bean and Potato Tacos with Brocoli (I had a new tortilla maker and made flour tortillas from scratch with very disappointing results--I need some more practice).

Roast Chicken with Potatoes and Braising Greens

Chicken Chile (Saved out some chicken for the kids to eat plain with veges)

Spaghetti with Clam Sauce

Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese

And the winners with the kids were: Spaghetti with Clam Sauce and Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese.

Recipes to follow.