A Time to Plan

I haven't been doing this for months and months, I think since our schedule got off track somewhere around April '10, but tonight the Lord prompted me to start planning our menus again.

I grabbed my trusty binder, headed over to Crystal's to print a planning sheet, then sat down and had our week planned in under 10 minutes! My trusty red binder contains all my recipes printed from the internet along with tips for planning, cooking items completely from scratch, and all of my previous monthly and weekly menus. I was able to plan so quickly by simply going through the pages that had been hastily tucked into the front of the binder over the past year; family favorites that we haven't had for awhile and a standard that we never tire of.

Menu planning is also a bit easier right now because I am only planning dinners (the larger meal at midday) since Dear Sons and I are on a diet and will be having our meal replacement shake for two meals (in this case breakfast and supper), while daughter likes to make breakfast for herself and Dad.

So what are we having this week?

Sunday: Chicken Salad on croissants with fruit salad
(recipe from Southern Living Cookbook)
Monday: Mulligatawny Soup with Na'an bread
(recipe from Sunset, copied while we were at my aunt's house)
Tuesday: Quinoa with Chicken and Black Beans
(recipe from Allrecipes.com)
Wednesday: Veranika with Rye bread and veggies
(recipe from my Mennonite cousins!)
Thursday: Meatballs & mushroom gravy over rice with vegetable salad
(meatball recipe from Alton Brown)
Friday: Curry Chicken Pot Pie with salad
(based on recipe from Alton Brown)
Saturday: Homestyle Brown Rice Pilaf with individual meat loaves
(pilaf recipe from Allrecipes.com)
Sunday: Crock Pot Oriental Beef and Broccoli over rice
(recipe from Biggest Book of Slow Cooker Recipes)

I will try to post recipes and photos this week to add to Our Favorite Recipes.