Menu planning
Jun. 9th, 2007 08:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serenecookingThere's a bad, blurry picture of last night's dinner here. I decided to put up a picture every day, and just my luck to take bad ones last night. :-)
Some folks have asked me about the menu-planning process, and here's what I wrote about it on one of my lists (that list is focused on no-added-fat vegan foods, and that's what the "McDougall" reference is):
In case it will help anyone else, here are the steps I take to make the list:
1) Make a list of simple McDougall meals your family likes. (Sometimes, I just make a list of 10 things we don't mind repeating, but this time I felt like doing a bigger variety.) For us, we can always go for spaghetti, taco salad, udon soup, or anything with Isa's chickpea gravy on it.
2) Go through and mark the days when you have time to do something new or more elaborate.
3) Put the simple stuff on the other days. Try to vary it a little -- spaghetti one day means probably not lasagna the next.
4) For the days that you plan to do new or elaborate stuff, here's the fun part -- get out your cookbooks, check the fatfreevegan site, look in this list's archives, etc., and find something yummy you've been wanting to try. Personally, if we like something, I move it to the next menu I'm working on, too, so we can start adding it to the rotation. The chickpea gravy was like that. It was an experiment that went so well that now we try to have it every couple of weeks -- it would be more often, but there's so much other yummy stuff to eat. :-)
5) Make another pass and add fruits or carb sources or leafy/dark/colorful vegetables to each menu. I usually see if there are veggies in the recipe itself, then add some if there aren't. I try not to be too specific on what veggies we will eat, because we have a good source for a variety of produce in season.
6) Every week, when I'm checking out the menu for the week to come, I add some advance-preparation notes. Here's an example for next week:
Week of 6/4
Friday [*]: Whole-wheat spaghetti w/tomato sauce and mushrooms, steamed asparagus
Saturday: Street fair with Guy
Make for tomorrow: Baked tofu
Sunday: Peanut noodles from Vegetarian Times (includes veggies & tofu), cucumber salad
Buy for tomorrow: corn tortillas, stuff to make salsa, avocados
Week of 6/11
Monday [*]: Tacos (soft corn tortillas, TVP, fresh salsa, guacamole)
Buy for tomorrow: Garbanzos, veggies, check gravy recipe to see if anything else
Tuesday: Potatoes w/chickpea gravy, steamed veggies
Buy for tomorrow: Udon, bok choy, tofu, onions if necessary,
Wednesday: Udon with tofu, bok choy, onions
Make for tomorrow: batch of seitan
Buy for tomorrow: veggies for soup, potatoes if necessary
Some folks have asked me about the menu-planning process, and here's what I wrote about it on one of my lists (that list is focused on no-added-fat vegan foods, and that's what the "McDougall" reference is):
In case it will help anyone else, here are the steps I take to make the list:
1) Make a list of simple McDougall meals your family likes. (Sometimes, I just make a list of 10 things we don't mind repeating, but this time I felt like doing a bigger variety.) For us, we can always go for spaghetti, taco salad, udon soup, or anything with Isa's chickpea gravy on it.
2) Go through and mark the days when you have time to do something new or more elaborate.
3) Put the simple stuff on the other days. Try to vary it a little -- spaghetti one day means probably not lasagna the next.
4) For the days that you plan to do new or elaborate stuff, here's the fun part -- get out your cookbooks, check the fatfreevegan site, look in this list's archives, etc., and find something yummy you've been wanting to try. Personally, if we like something, I move it to the next menu I'm working on, too, so we can start adding it to the rotation. The chickpea gravy was like that. It was an experiment that went so well that now we try to have it every couple of weeks -- it would be more often, but there's so much other yummy stuff to eat. :-)
5) Make another pass and add fruits or carb sources or leafy/dark/colorful vegetables to each menu. I usually see if there are veggies in the recipe itself, then add some if there aren't. I try not to be too specific on what veggies we will eat, because we have a good source for a variety of produce in season.
6) Every week, when I'm checking out the menu for the week to come, I add some advance-preparation notes. Here's an example for next week:
Week of 6/4
Friday [*]: Whole-wheat spaghetti w/tomato sauce and mushrooms, steamed asparagus
Saturday: Street fair with Guy
Make for tomorrow: Baked tofu
Sunday: Peanut noodles from Vegetarian Times (includes veggies & tofu), cucumber salad
Buy for tomorrow: corn tortillas, stuff to make salsa, avocados
Week of 6/11
Monday [*]: Tacos (soft corn tortillas, TVP, fresh salsa, guacamole)
Buy for tomorrow: Garbanzos, veggies, check gravy recipe to see if anything else
Tuesday: Potatoes w/chickpea gravy, steamed veggies
Buy for tomorrow: Udon, bok choy, tofu, onions if necessary,
Wednesday: Udon with tofu, bok choy, onions
Make for tomorrow: batch of seitan
Buy for tomorrow: veggies for soup, potatoes if necessary