Why do I insist on spelling out a menu for each day's dinner?
Wouldn't it be just as easy to sort of mix and match, putting together a week's worth of ideas and then just deciding at the moment what to make?
Maybe for some people it is, but if you have a busy household, try to follow the Christian liturgical calendar, and also have a tendency to space out over a good book or phone conversation with a distant friend, my way might be for you!
Remember, you don't have to make the same menus I do.
Get your family to help you make your very own menus. As you do this, your creative ideas will flow, and you will finally put to good use those ideas you have as you are reading cookbooks or magazines.
Next week is a good example of why I like to assign a specific menu to a specific day, going so far as to write in my menu plan what is going on that day.
Tuesday the 17th is St. Patrick's Day, and also a day I will be out in the late afternoon, not coming back in the door until 5:30.
I'll be making what I always make on this day — Corned beef dinner and Irish Soda bread. But, I spell it out on my menu, because if I don't have cabbage and red potatoes and buttermilk, then this simple dinner will not come off!
Wednesday the 18th is Will's birthday. I have to remember to ask him what he wants for dinner, and I have to schedule baking a cake. I also have to get Bridget from choir practice to dance practice and won't be home until 7:15!
Thursday is the Feast of St. Joseph. This glorious saint, wonderful protector of the family, of virgins, of the Church, of the soul — intercessor to God for all our daily needs — deserves a proper remembrance! I want to prepare for that.
But it's a day when I have a CCD class in the afternoon and Bridget's dance class from 6:00 until 7:30 with a half-hour drive each way! And wait! I have to be at a committee meeting at 7 pm in the next town!
Great! I'll bi-locate! I can do this! Not!
Friday we will have a Lenten supper with friends. Again, simple — but I better be ready! I'll be gone all morning with Bridget's orchestra.
And this schedule only represents the ridiculous activities of one child! I remember when I had five children playing soccer (three on travel teams), three in dance (obviously they overlapped 🙂 blah blah blah…. 🙂
What do you do about games, meetings, classes, and errands? You've got to have a dinner schedule!
I know that Saturday I won't want to be cooking anything complicated. It wouldn't do to be stuck with a more elaborate idea on that day.
Sunday we will have a family visit for Sunday dinner. I want to make a ham and the leek pie that came out so well on the Feast of St. David (patron of Wales). The ham and the pie crust are in the freezer, but I have to put leeks on the list.
Sure there can be interchangeability, both in the days and in the dishes. Just because you said salad doesn't mean you can't do green beans!
But if you have it written out according to the other things you have to do, you will feel so much lighter! You will be dancing with joy! Try it!
Now, we went over all of that already. You can find all the posts and documents on the sidebar under Happy Home: Food!
But we didn't talk about breakfasts and lunches.
But I see this post is already getting long. So I will leave you with two things.
My pancake mix that makes fabulous biscuits as well; and a big Sunday breakfast casserole that will give you leftovers for early in the week — if you aren't blessed with a horde to demolish it on the spot!
These recipes will appear in my Breakfast Recipes document on the sidebar, after I'm done talking about breakfast in my next post!
And here is a picture of my lovely mother (Habou, we call her, although her name is Elizabeth, long story) on Sunday morning:
LeeAnn says
Lovely photography, as always!The grandmother in "The Trees Kneel at Christmas" by Maud Hart Lovelace (of Betsy-Tacy) is called Habou, too. Is it an Eastern Christian thing? Breakfast here is eggs, cereal or fruit/fruit smoothies. I don't bake much any more because of certain food intolerances in our family, but I do like to make smoothies. I can throw all kinds of healthy things in there without anyone noticing. :)Your master bedroom post inspired me to spruce up my own, very neglected master bedroom. I just put all the clothes and random stuff away, dusted and tidied up, but it was like a new room. My kids walked in and thought I'd moved the bed! No, just the clutter. Thanks for being inspiring.
Rachel says
MMM, those oranges.. and those rolls. I made a pan of homemade mac & cheese. They ate it all. If I make the powdery stuff, I have to throw some out, always. It was so delish with the grilled burgers.We want to hear the story of Habou. Trust me, we do 🙂
Pippajo says
My first order of business in my efforts to reclaim my house from the mess accumulated during my illness was to strip my bed and launder the linens. My second order of business was to plan my menu for the week. You are right. It helps immensely. And, without realizing I was doing it, I plan according to how busy I will be and how much prep time I will have. I plan easy things for Mondays (giving piano lessons) and Wednesdays (church) and something I know I'll be tempted to order in so I make sure to make it instead (like pizza or cheesesteaks and fries) on Fridays and Saturdays.I was feeling a little overwhelmed by it all today so what did I do? I ran back through your posts in your sidebar and gave myself a little refresher course. Thank you!I don't plan or make breakfasts on weekdays yet; we're still in the tea and toast or oj and cereal stage of life. I'm working my way up to cooking in the mornings. I hate mornings! But I never used to cook breakfast on the weekends either and now I do that with moderate regularity! It's progress, right? Yikes, this comment is loooooooong.Please post the story of Habou (I like how that rolls off the tongue) soon!
Lawler Family Stalke says
I'm not really sure… if your voice is in my head, either you're stalking my thoughts or I'm thinking about stalking you so much that it has broken into my free time. Either way, I'm ok with it!Just checking in…PS. Food posts are torture for those of us stuck at school.
Songbirdtiff says
I'm in awe of how you keep everything together. You are superwoman!
Amy says
Thank you, thank you for posting about this. I have to buy 6 dozen eggs a week for my 7 kids too! I am definately trying the breakfast casserole tonight. I doubt there will be any left though with the appetites around here! Thanks for keeping my motivation up!