{I first published this as a Google document, mainly because I wasn't going to have any pictures to go with it, and you know I like posts to have pictures. My thought was that this should be something easy for you to print out and put in your menu binder. But now Google has messed with things, so I'm just posting it.}
Go here for Worksheet I.
Go here for Worksheet II.
Rachel Meyer says
I know this is an old post, but you said I could comment on old posts.
What do you do if one family member writes out a menu that other family members hate? Do you add it to the rotation and make the other family members learn the discipline of eating “yucky” food? Do you put a special notation and make it only rarely, compared to menus everyone enjoys?
Or, to make it even more complicated, what if another member simply cannot eat the food? For example, I get sick if I eat spicy food, but my husband likes it. Do I make two meals? Or does he save spicy food for restaurants?
What if you like to eat different types of side dishes with the same main dish? Do you make multiple entries for it? Can I use some kind of generic wildcard entry, like “vegetable,” or do I need to make an entry with green beans, another with broccoli, or do I just pick one and eat it with that meal each time?
I have a lot of difficulty with meal planning. I’ve been working on making a personal family recipe box for a long time, but I haven’t gotten very far because I want to have the recipe for each one in the box and can’t ever decide which version will be THE recipe. I mean, once I put a meat loaf recipe in that box, there’s a chance that we’ll never try any of the other great meat loafs out there!
Leila says
Actually quite a few questions here, maybe answered in subsequent posts I wrote on this topic… but I’ll give it a crack.
Getting input from family is to help you make your menus. Some people do like some things that others don’t care for, but there are ways around that, and the purpose of the exercise is to get ideas!
I also can’t take spicy things, but many in our family really enjoy spice. We don’t usually go there (because I’m the cook!), but I can offer a bottle of hot sauce and spicy chutney and spicy salsa for when I make things more mild, and have leftovers myself when I do add some heat to the dish.
Spicy food does become the attraction of a meal out for those people! Similarly, if many didn’t care for fish, the one who does could certainly order it at a restaurant.
But there are some fish dishes that aren’t abhorrent to the fish dislikers, and they can also have extra helpings of potatoes or other side dishes on that night.
Try to make those menus with several side dishes, and as I point out, it’s really helpful to write down “broccoli slaw” and “oven fried potatoes” on your menus, rather than just “veg.” That’s because you need to train yourself to think in menus. Once you have that down, you can rely on yourself to come up with a vegetable or a salad — but it’s still worthwhile, because it helps with your shopping.
So, for instance, if I am going to serve meatloaf, I know I will also serve peas, mashed potatoes, and apple sauce. It’s just what we like to eat with meatloaf. That’s *my* family’s “meatloaf menu.”
It means that when I shop for that week, I will be sure to have everything I need for that particular entree. Also, it prevents us from getting in a rut — like always having salad or always having corn. And it makes side dishes more interesting, I think — taking the focus off the meat.
But if your family likes it with Italian vegetables (like onions, peppers, and zucchini) and a salad, then put that in and shop for those things. The day may come when you realize you don’t have enough lettuce for that salad, and then you can break out the peas from the freezer and the applesauce! Likewise, you may have had peas with your roast the day before, so you might serve it with carrot sticks and guacamole. But your mind is thinking in menus.
The recipes will naturally evolve. Just make the best meatloaf you know how. When the day comes that you have meatloaf you like better, use that recipe instead. You can’t just not eat meatloaf! Just do your best! Once I realized that you know what, we just like our brownies like this, it was easier to commit. You can always change later 🙂
You also need to cook by “best method available” — not necessarily recipes. We don’t really need recipes for green beans and beets and sauteed spinach. We need a method that brings out the best in each thing we are cooking. To find the method, do try the cookbooks I posted about here:
http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2013/12/cookbooks-in-life-syllabus-library/
And read the comments as well.
Amy says
So, I’ve got a great list of meals my family will eat. You were right, that wasn’t so bad!