Monday, October 5, 2009

Stocked Up And Planned Out

I did something this weekend that I haven't done for quite a while. I made up an extended meal plan. I was feeling as if the freezers and pantry were stocked up and wanted to see just how well-stocked we are. I also wanted to plan specific (easy) meals around the day of and the days following my surgery on the 15th. I now have complete meals planned for the rest of October and main dishes roughed in for November.

Now, I used pencil and paper instead of chisel and stone, so I still have some flexibility. It will be easy enough to replace one chicken dish with another chicken dish if the mood hits me. I tend to overcook a little, so I planned for at least five nights each month to be "clean out the fridge" nights. If for some strange reason there are no leftovers on those nights, we always have eggs in the fridge for a quick sandwich or "breakfast for dinner" meal.

The summer months saw us going out to eat far more than usual (and far more than planned in our budget) so I've planned for only one restaurant meal in the next two months, on Shane's birthday. We'll also be eating away from home on the night of my daughter's wedding reception (they married in July in a simple ceremony, but are having their marriage celebration this month).

Planning meals for a week was been difficult for me lately, so you'd think planning for a couple of months would have been daunting. It wasn't, though. I was in the right frame of mind, had a free couple of hours and it all just fell together for me this time. Come December, I'll probably be doing well to get a full week's worth of suppers planned, but it's a good feeling to know that for the next several weeks, figuring out what's for dinner is going to be a no-brainer.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't have the freezer space for this but it is something that I would love to do. Whenever I do something to make my life easier, I'm so thankful that I'm a planner.
I'm sure that your surgery will go well. Take care and lots of wub!
SonyaAnn

Unknown said...

Oh I tried, really I did, but when I'd used "chicken" 10 times in the space of a fortnight I gave up:) I can deal with being repetative just so long as I don't have to see it written down in front of me;) I'll maybe give it another go before I'm back to work though.

Annie Jones said...

SonyaAnn: We have two fridges with the freezer over the top and also a medium-sized chest freezer, so we have plenty of room. Too much, sometimes.

Oh, thanks for the "wub". I need all I can get. :)


Leanne: Would you believe I only have 7 repeats in that two month cycle? Well, not counting the clean out the fridge nights. I'm too hooked on trying new recipes to repeat meals very often. It's a sickness...LOL!

Lisa B. said...

Wow! Are you going to share that meal plan with us? hehe

You'll be in my thoughts, let us know how your surgery goes.

BTW, can you still not access my blog?

Annie Jones said...

Lisa: If I do share the meal plan, it won't be today...LOL!

I still can't add your blog via Blogger's blogroll function. For some reason, it always defaults back to your old URL. BUT...I was able to add it under my Websites List in my sidebar. I think that's the best I can do. Hopefully that will keep people moving your way. :)

Wanda said...

Sounds good! For some reason, I haven't been able to keep with a menu plan for a long time. Tonight I WAS planning to make chicken smothered in broccoli-cheese sauce, with noodles, but since I had quite a bit of sour milk, I decided to make pancakes for lunch, and have enough pancake batter left for dinner too, now. I'm not really a fan of pancakes, but it had been SOOO long since we had them, they really hit the spot with both of us. It was satisfying to use up half of my soured milk, too.

Annie Jones said...

There you go being thrifty again. :)

I try to use my soured milk in pancakes or baked goods, too.