Menu Planning

When I was a kid we went to the commissary (military version of the grocery store) once a month. My mom had a cart, I had a cart and it took most of the morning getting everything we might need to consume and/or use in that month. The reason we could do this was because my mom planned the menu a month in advance, she would write down what we were having each day and put it on the fridge. Which was genius cause no one ever asked her "what's for dinner?" we just looked at the sheet.

It's definitely a money saver to go to the commissary once a month rather than going to the grocery store once a week. Also, I'm lazy. I don't want to have to go to the grocery store once a week. Cause then I see that Gelato is on sale, and I end up buying 3 things. And really, I don't need 3 things of Gelato in my house. So it's better for the budget and my waistline to make 1 trip once a month...minus the time in the middle of the month where I will have to go to the store to get things like vegetables and other things that would go brown and yucky before the end of the month.

So since we're getting to the end of the month, a commissary trip is getting planned. I sat down with some of my cookbooks I got for the wedding, and went on www.cookinglight.com to find some recipes. My husband and I (while picky eaters) also like to eat "healthy" and on the lighter side. That website is good for finding dinner recipes that are under 400 calories, and for recipes of traditional really yummy things that they substitute "healthier" things to make it better for you. Using those resources, I came up with a menu.

Our summer menu lineup:
Mondays - Pasta
Tuesday - Mexican
Wednesday - Sandwiches/Paninis
Thursday - Chicken
Friday - Pizza
Saturday & Sunday - leftovers

The pizza will be homemade, I got a recipe for dough and sauce. But Pizza is Kenny's absolute favorite food, and I wanted to have the tradition where Fridays = pizza days. So it'll be a different kind of pizza (pepperoni, pesto with chicken, etc.) depending on what we have.

As far as the leftovers go, most of the recipes make at least 4 servings. There are some that are easy to half down to 2 and some that aren't. So for the ones that aren't, we'll just plan on having leftovers during the weekends when its hectic.

This lineup will change as the weather changes. Once it's not hotter than Hades, we can start adding in soups and more casseroles.

And yes, when I am gone for those 10 days - Kenny chose to have lean cuisines for dinner.