Every once in awhile someone will ask “Hey Mavis, it doesn’t look like you are buying very much food. What are you feeding your family? Rocks? We want pictures. Oh, and can you post a weekly menu plan too?”
The thing is, I don’t do a weekly menu plan. Which is weird because I have total OCD and you would think anyone with OCD would have a menu plan. Right?
Maybe I don’t like commitment, maybe I’m lazy, or maybe I just don’t like to be bound to a piece of paper telling me what to make on any given day of the week because like most of you, we are a busy family with kids in sports, vacations on the calendar and work deadlines.
For me, gardening is a full time hobby, and I strive to feed my family as many healthy, minimally processed foods as I can, but I am human. Sometimes I’m just to tired to make dinner and crawl under the covers and go to bed. Or lock myself in the bathroom and take a two hour bath so I can read the latest book I’ve ordered off Amazon. {FYI I’m reading the Bucolic Plague right now}. In that case, then its a MYOD night {make your own dinner}.
Other times I’ll toss something in the crock pot at noon and forget about dinner until my husband walks through he door and says “What’s the deal? Are you going to feed us tonight or what?”
Then there are the days when I spend a good 6 hours cooking 8 different things to eat throughout the week. So although there is always something to eat when it come’s to dinner time, it’s just not written down or planned out.
So even though I didn’t write everything down, here are some of the meals we ate {that I remembered to photograph} over the last 2 weeks.
Waffles and Eggs – We eat this combo for both breakfast and dinner.
Oatmeal with brown sugar and milk. I purchased 50 pounds of oats for $19 back in January and we still have at least 35 pounds left.
Eggs. Eggs. Eggs. When you have a flock of 15 backyard chickens, you are bound to eat eggs at least once a day. In some shape or form.
Raisin bran muffins, or any kind of muffin in general is pretty awesome if you ask me. Save yourself some time and make a double or triple batch and freeze them.Then you won’t have to make them as often.
Bagels and cream cheese. Yes please! I typically purchase bagels from our local bakery outlet for a buck a bag.
Tuna Casserole – My husband LOVES this recipe!
Southwest chicken chili – Does anyone want the recipe? Let me know and I’ll share it.
BBQ chicken – That would be chicken + 1 bottle of BBQ sauce. 😉
While I was away, the Handsome Husband made dinner. Beans and weenies. Go.Fight.Win.
He also made weenies and apple slices. I’m so disappointed I missed it.
Corn plus 9 pieces of chicken. What the? Do all these people weigh like 100 pounds?
Spaghetti. Ahhh now this is something we eat about once a week {or more}. I typically like to make a double batch and refrigerate the rest because spaghetti makes a great after school snack.
Asian noodle salad with bok choy. The best freakin’ stuff on earth.
Radish Coleslaw. Or is it cole slaw? Hmm
Fruit salad thanks to Mr. Produce Guy.
The best chocolate chip cookies on the planet. Want the recipe?
Lime Jell-O. I have a boatload of this stuff leftover from my extreme couponing days and I”m not going to toss it. Every once in awhile I’ll make jello and pour it into serving dishes and place in the refrigerator. The kids pretty much always flip out when they spot it and it’s gone in about 10 seconds.
Clearly this is not everything we ate, but I think we are pretty normal.
How about YOU? Do you make a weekly or dare I say MONTHLY menu plan? Are you able to stick with it, or do you live on the edge like me and just make what ever you can think of.
Mavis wants to know.
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Kat says
Mavis,
Dahling…one of my most favorite gals on the web!!!
Love you to death and want to be you when I grow up…wait…I am all grown!
Can I please get your chicken chili and cookie recipes?? Please??
Thanks gal,
Kat
Laura says
Those cookies look amazing! Recipe please 🙂 I love your blog!!!
Nicole says
That Asian noodle salad looks phenom! Can’t wait to make it with the (too much planted) bok choy. A fantastic recipe I LOVE from quite a few ingredients from my garden is Nigella’s chicken and mint salad. Use green & red cabbage, throw in some bell peps & a handful of cilantro. Holy amazing! I usually double the batch.
vc says
I make a weekly menu for dinners when I’m working a lot, HH is going to be cooking, and there’s little food in the house. It helps us prepare and not pick up subs at the last minute. I don’t go into every detail, just the main dish and hang it on the fridge. We usually don’t even stick to it. Great website, thank you!
Kristin says
I am a big menu planner. Four or five years ago I didn’t really think about dinner until my husband got home from work, which made for some frantic scrambling. I don’t remember when I started menu planning, but I started being really anal about it when we joined a CSA. Planning helps me make sure everything gets used in a timely fashion. It has really helped eliminate waste in our house – we know exactly what food we have on hand at all times because we only buy what we need for the week’s recipes. When I sit down to plan, I make a list of what’s in the crisper, freezer and pantry and endeavor to use as much of what we have as possible (my husband built me a searchable database of all my recipes, which speeds up the process). I try to build a little flexibility into the schedule – there are occasionally days when we just give up and order out, so the menu needs to be reshuffled. It does take work, but I love my menu system and I wouldn’t have it any other way!
Preppy Pink Crocodile says
I don’t do a monthly plan but I do try to do a weekly plan. And once in a blue moon, I even manage to do a bi weekly plan. I base it on what I have in my freezer and what is on sale that week, protein wise. I don’t always stick to it but it helps to make sure I am not running to the grocery store every day because I have all the necessary dinner ingredients at home. Which in turn, REALLY cuts my grocery bill way down.
KK
Preppy Pink Crocodile says
Oh and I just planted radishes today. I can’t wait to try that radish recipe!
KK
Jen J says
We menu plan, but in a very casual way. I basically decide what we are having for the week, write the big list of meals down, figure out what we have on hand and what we need. Then it’s over to the internet to see which of the three grocery chains has the best sale for what we need that week and off to the store I go. If I leave the kids and HH at home I even manage to stay within budget. I guess why this works for us is because I look at the list the night before and if I’m feeling really committed to something I pull meat out of the freezer to defrost, if necessary. Otherwise, it’s a glance at the list in the morning, pull together anything that needs to go in the crockpot (if that’s the cooking method), then pull it all together at dinner time. No set meal for a set day. It’s the perfect combination of OCD planning and flying by the seat of our pants.
Love your blog! You have inspired my husband to start a container garden and inspired me to try new meals out on the family (haven’t found one yet we didn’t devour!). Luckily my teens are real veggie fanatics, so they will try anything. Yay for not having picky eaters!
Stacy says
Chocolate chip cookie recipe please! I am obsessed with finding the perfect one- and those look pretty perfect!!!
oregon mom says
I bake cookies for the baseball team my husband coachs and chocolate chip are always a favorite…..recipe if you please. Thanks from me and 15 teenage boys!!
D'Anna says
We used to do menu plans but the stockpile is comprised of stuff that can be used in multiple dishes we make so really all we have to do is step into the garage. With all of the marked down proteins, free starches and super cheap cans of veggies/beans/sauces the meal plan is endless.
I miss your extreme couponing but I do not miss the ration of lip you took for doing it so well.
Kim says
Mavis I think everyone is interested in what
You are cooking for your family , your garden
Is amazing but I need more girl!! post more photos
Of the end result
Jessica Nagel says
I don’t believe in menu planning. I used to do it and I just spent way too much money and never got around to eating everything. I find that menu planning will cause people to stress out, buy way too much food, and spend way too much money. I find it’s best to just buy what’s on sale and do what you can with that.
I buy beans and oatmeal (amongst other things) in bulk from the LDS cannery so I tend to eat a lot of beans. Also, Kale and spinach is so cheap out here in MD at the farmer’s market, I eat *a lot* of greens. Beans and greens, haha. I’ve gotten pretty good at making them in different ways so I don’t get tired of them.
lindasue says
Chili and cookie recipe please. And thank you!
Holly H says
Chocolate chip cookie recipe – please Mavis! These look fabulous!
Ashley says
I plan 4 meals for the week (weekends we wing it our grill out and something always comes up once a week where we end up no being home for supper). This probably sounds weird, but planning the meals and making my grocery list is my favorite part of the week (stay at home mom….). We eat much healthier and our groceries are a lot cheaper when I have a list to stick to. Before I planned meals, there was too much produce waste and too much running to the store for last minute items. Plus, I like to prep for dinner as much as possible while my kids are eating lunch, so I have to know the night beforehand if something needs to be thawed. I think meal planning is something that either you thrive on, or it just isn’t your style. As long as dinner is [usually] on the table, you gotta do what works for you!
And I’d love the recipe for the chicken chili, too!
Lana says
This is going to sound odd.. but I am a working mom with two older kids and love the idea of menu planning and one stop shopping focusing on what we have…but found I actually waste more food & energy. What happens in my case is with all my good intentions and preparing -our life, kid sports and events change in what seems like an hourly basis-likewise our tastsebuds and nutritional needs planned for that day have shifted . Also, I did a lot of coupon early on for dried goods and most of them just sit in my pantry because we want to eat fresh. In the end, I plan the night before what we will eat the next day of- based on our schedule and what is available seasonally and what I have at home . It is an added step, and I do stop more frequently for produce at the store ( I do have a garden as well) but it works and my family eats everything I put in front of them -. BTW , breakfast for dinner rocks!
Penelope says
Monthly plan. I plan from my pantry and I coordinate meals with days according to our schedule, so if I know we have something scheduled during dinner prep time, I’ll do it early or make a crockpot meal . I also shoot for prepping a meal early in the day so if things go awry, as they so often do, the meal is already to go anyway.
That said, I do have a couple of meals that I use as floaters, where in a pinch I can sub those in. And for those days that I know will come up, I try to have one or two frozen type meals per month hanging out in the freezer that can thrown in the oven in a hurry. Breakfast for dinner is awesome!
Like last night, 2 yo plays stomach flu again. So I drop some frozen french fries and fish in the oven. Quick, not overly offensive in the nutrion area, and everyone gets fed without me leaving the little one for too long.
Wynne says
I do a weekly menu plan so that I know what to get at the grocery store and use up what I have on hand. Since you buy less, often driven by sales, maybe you don’t need a menu plan as much. I’d be curious to see what else you buy in bulk, besides the 50 lbs of oats, and where you get it.
Heather says
I don’t really plan ahead too much as I know that I want to have a meat, a veggie and a salad for a dinner meal. Sometimes it’s not a meat, but meatless…other times its a soup or a chili. So, I know that a salad is easy, a veggie is whatever goes with whatever meat we have. We are a family of 2 adults and a 4 yo, so meal planning is quick…I only really need to cook 3 to 4 large meals a week (so basically every other day) and then we eat leftovers the rest of the time. Lunches are left overs for the hubby and I like a salad for me, so my little one will have a salad and fruit too. I used to stress out about making a meal every night, but then I realized that we had a lot of leftover food and we don’t like to refreeze our food so its eat or toss. Making less big meals helps us out.
Mindy says
I’m all over the weekly planning. I don’t do a specific thing for each day of the week, but I have a running menu on the fridge that I can look at every morning and plan accordingly. In fact, I’m working on the next one today so I can hit up the grocery store on the weekend to fill in with missing ingredients. I post our weekly meal plans, if anyone is interested. It includes, make-what-I-know dinners, new recipes from our newspaper and cookbooks, and, of course, Pinterest must tries. I post the keepers on my blog and have them all on my, “Pinterest Recipes I’ve Tried” board, as well anything non-Pinterest on my, “My Kitchen Creations” board. You’ll find your posted recipes on my other food boards. :o) I’m definitely tryin’ the radishes soon.
Dawn S says
I would love the chili and cookie recipes! The pictures of them look good enough to eat!
Thanks!!!
Leanna says
Nope, do not really plan unless I am hosting a family party or get together. I usually ask my guys an hour or so before dinner. What sounds good? We all hardly ever eat the same thing so I am basically a short order cook. For instance last night I had salad. My oldest had “poor man’s spaghetti” no sauce just coconut oil and parm cheese. My youngest had a grilled cheese sandwich. My hubby was too full from his outing with the oldest (Wendy’s – yuck).
Have a great day!! Will be sending you a gnome soon. Found one yesterday just need to get it packed up and shipped.
suzanne says
Mavis, I don’t think you are normal at all. 😉 With the exception of your readers of course as so many familys eat highly processed food, fast food and take out. My own mother thought a home cooked meat came from a can, box or freezer. I don’t really meal plan as it’s just me and HH. I enjoy cooking more in the winter and use fast, easy and healthy foods for summer. Still made from scratch tho.
Ellen says
Mavis,
I would love to have the chili and cookie recipes. I am by myself now and am trying very hard to get away from processed foods but much easier to do if there is a plan or something already cooked. I have a big bunch of rhubarb in the garden and having been printing your recipes for that like crazy. thanks for your wonderful blog and great stories
Stacey says
I usually do an informal weekly plan. During the school year, my husband and I both work during the day, I take online college classes, and I am the bookkeeper for our local water company. The meal plan helps when I need to get dinner ready quickly, rather than having to take the time to think about what I need to do. We live 40 miles from the nearest grocery store, so I can’t just run to the store quickly to get a missing ingredient, and my meal plan involves ingredients that I have on hand. The 20 minutes on the weekend to make up a meal list is worth it! Of course, my plan is often changed, but I have it to turn to when I’m too busy to think about what to make.
Amanda says
Can we get recipes for it all? Everything looks so good.
Deb says
My Sweet Wife or SW for short makes a plan for the entire month. We get paid at the beginning of every month and only once a month. We still are able to feed our 5 grandchildren, have our family birthday partys; which happen at least once a month. We have chicken and a very small garden, but enjoy bbq, and fresh fruit and veggies from our children, co-workers and or local farmers markets.
aussiebushgirl says
Question. How do you stay so slim on such a carb-dense diet? 😉