Menu Planning: Zindra's Style

Menu planning is something that I love to hate.  It drives me crazy - but I love the results.  I've been doing menu planning off and on for years.  I don't know if I have found one particular style that I truly love... that's why I still find myself at odds with it when it comes time to do it.

It seems so neat and tidy on paper - but when you go to do it, you realize how boxed in you really are.  Do you feel like making Stuffed Grilled Jalepenos?  Sorry - you forgot to put it on the menu plan!  AGH!  Tonight you're having Salsa Chicken Casserole instead.  (not that it's bad - it's just not what you were craving...)

What I have figured out:
*Planning meals once a month frees up time on a day to day basis.
*It's worth it.
*You don't have to go exactly by the plan... you can switch meal nights around.
*Cross made meals off as you go.
*Plan for at least two weeks at a time.
*Take into account all activities that may be going on in the time period.
(All Stars baseball game nights - means easy early dinners or crock pot nights.)
*I only plan dinners.  (Breakfast is usually cereal, oatmeal, biscuits and gravy or an egg concoction.  Lunch is an easy to make by kids sandwiches, chicken nuggets, burritos and the like.)
*It's no harder to plan for 8 than it was for 5.
*Include a meal or two that you know you like to do occasionally... like Stuffed Grilled Jalepenos or Fondue.
*Include a pizza night or two - because you know you do them!

The idea of menu planning is lovely.  Pull a few recipes together, come up with a shopping list, shop and put it all in the pantry, pull it out when you cook it.  Where my hangup is - usually is getting it all on paper.  I know some of you read my last blog entry on planning of the days of the week. (Which by the way is going okay... got another apt today for a Wednesday... just can't win that one!)

I decided to try mimicking the days of the week idea with dinners.  They are all subject to trial and change but here goes:
Monday - Breakfast night.
Tuesday - nothing planned. (usually one night of the week we end up at a friends or grandparents.  Scheduling it in!)
Wednesday - Noodle night. (Spaghetti or the like)
Thursday - Casserole night
Friday - Fun Food night (homemade mini pizzas, hotdogs in a blanket, etc.)
Saturday - Crock pot night
Sunday - Soup night

So for this month, I came up with 4 breakfast dinners, 4 casserole dinners, 4 fun food dinners, etc.  That seemed simple enough.  This month, I didn't do it all on paper.  I used a trial at PlanToEat which is a web based program that lets you remember your recipes etc.  I've dug around all of the recipe/meal planning sites I can find... and tried them out.. none of them come close to the ease of use of PlanToEat.  (I just wish it wasn't a subscription - I'm so tired of everything being a subscription!  They also don't have smart phone apps :( )  I do have to say, I did find a free meal planner that has the same hopes, but it's just clunky (but it is free!) SayMMM.  (I imagine I'll give it a shot when my PlanToEat expires - but I don't have high hopes for it.)

I think after all is said & done the reason that the online planners are nice is because you can store your recipes there... and when you go to create a shopping list - it does the work for you.  Which is a huge time saver.  I don't revel at the thought of adding up 30 nights of recipe ingredients, do you??

How'd I get started?  I found a OAMC (Once a Month Cooking) book at the library.  The one pictured at the top of this post.  Loved the idea.  Then there are the online sites who will do the menus for you and give you a shopping list - but I wanted to use my own recipes.  I tried cooking for a couple of weeks at a time & found that I wasn't necessarily interested in cooking everything all at once - but I was interested in PLANNING it all at once.  Since then, I use some of the methods OAMC teaches - like doubling up recipes & putting the second in the freezer for later in the month.  That I realized just makes sense!

Simplifying isn't really that simple...

Recently, I got a copy of "Large Family Logistics" from the library.  I guess, thinking that we are going to be having 6 kids in the house.. that we are now technically a "large" family.

While it seems to be a good book, I'm not really sure what makes it more of a book geared any more towards larger families - than smaller sized ones...  It seems that all the info would have been helpful if I'd only had two or three kids.  It talks about planning your week - a home organization book (reminds me of flylady) - chores - routines - and quite a bit more.  (I was bummed it didn't have anything on meal planning...) It's not my favorite organization book, though, I would say that it is worth checking out...

One thing that really hit home with me again while reading it - that I have heard before was:
1.  Plan your days.  Gosh this seems like such a silly thing to do - but I thought I would give it a try.
Monday - Laundry day (uh, do laundry)
Tuesday - Kitchen day (bake, clean, etc.)
Wednesday - Office day (organize desk, pay bills, etc.)
Thursday - Town day (apts, shopping etc.)
etc.

I imagine that I'll be switching things up a bit.  But, today while at an OB apt, they asked me when I wanted my next apt (in 4 weeks).  I said, could it be on a Thursday?  Well, I gave it a good effort - but the only midwife available is the new one that I didn't really connect with - so I took a Tuesday - so that I could catch up with another midwife that I haven't yet seen this pregnancy.  I tried :D

Then, the ultrasound people called and gave me an apt for my 20 week ultrasound... for a Friday. Oh well.

Later, I called to get Josiah an apt for his knee.  They say it's just "growing pains", but because of some odd bone growth that Rod had as a teen - I really would like to have a knee doctor look at Josiah's knee (in case something hereditary is going on).  So I called to get a "referral" apt, and the receptionist asked which day - I said "Thursday" and voila! we have our first Thursday apt.  I guess third try is a charm?

What's the significance of this... training your brain that certain things happen on certain days of the week, to give your brain some scheduling peace.  I think the real point of the author though, is that our grandmas seemed to have more time - without all of our modern conveniences.  Getting back to doing things the way that they "used to be done" will help us get our stuff done in an organized peaceful manner.  Well, I guess I'll try it for a few months and see how it goes...

My Bloghop contribution :D

Hello -
I almost forgot to post my freebie bloghop contribution!!!  I was so focused on getting it all done, I almost forgot to post a link.  Phew!  The bloghop is now over, but I'll be leaving my freebie up for a little while longer.

Click HERE to go to my design blog & pick up my freebie...
Get it while it's hot!

My First Blog Hop Contribution :D

Many of you know that I love digital scrapbooking and have been doing some designing.  Part of that was due to an Art of Digital Design class that I took earlier this year...  Our class is doing a freebie blog hop - where you can download freebies that are made with our Kimono collaboration kit.


It starts at midnight Eastern time TONIGHT!  Come on over to my design blog... to get my freebie and join the hop (9pm Pacific!).  Zindra's Design Blog


Below are pix of the papers and the element that make up the Kimono kit....

Are you ready for a Japanese Kimono themed Blog Hop??  Tonight at midnight Eastern time, the Art of Digital Design blog hop goes live!  There will be freebie quick pages galore, all of them created using papers and elements from the Kimono Kit (see below!), which is for sale right now at Jessica Sprague's website. 

All of the proceeds of the sales will go to the Red Cross to benefit those who suffered due to the Japan earthquakes. You are able to purchase the kit at 25% off until Sunday, June 5th, midnight eastern, after which it will be sold at full price.  So go grab yourself some digi goodness, knowing that you are doing a good thing at the same time! Happy scrapping...see you there!

Be sure to come back here - to my blog to get the Quick Page that I made with this kit!

Swing Batter Batter Swing!

It seems that Baseball has been the highlight of my Spring this year!  Well, it seems that I can stay awake for nothing else!

Pregnancy - at least the first trimester - doesn't treat me very well.  Well, at least it seems that way.  It's been nice that Rod's been home, unemployed, because I haven't had to worry so much about what I'm getting done or not getting done.  But - it's interesting to see how much isn't getting done - because Mom's not the one doing it...

Jaden is playing his very first year of baseball.  He's on the Mudcats.  Well, I have to say, that I never wanted any of my kids to EVER play on the Mudcats!  The two years that Josiah played Minors - the Mudcats were our opponents - and they were the team that always had the kids stealing bases when they shouldn't and took advantage of everything... when it just wasn't called for at that level.  Last year, Josiah was put on that team and we had him switched off.  The coach came up to Rod one day and said something about it - but we didn't really explain.  Josiah's a good enough player that everyone would want him on their team... Rod just shrugged it off.

Back to Jaden.  We've finally got used to the fact that he's a Mudcat.  And he doesn't know why we had a problem with it in the first place.  (The Mudcat - I realized after all these years... is a CATFISH. UGH!)  Oh, he's got such a long way to go in the land of Baseball... but he's doing it so whole heartedly that it makes up for all of the skill!  I think he's somewhat behind physically because of his eye sight.  And right now he's eyepatching and wearing eyeglasses that skew his vision (in the name of making it better in the long run.) But he's having a bit of a hard time to say the least.

This last Wednesday was his last game.  In it, he his twice (woot woot) and didn't need the T.  He was first baseman, pitcher and outfielder.  Rod has him on film... playing with dirt in the outfield :D  Oh to be 8 again!
He can hit, throw and catch - just about as well as any kid on his team.  Way to enjoy your first year Jaden!!

Josiah & Jedediah are on the Pirates.  Let me say that I L.O.V.E. their team.  They've only won 4 or 5 games and then gotten a couple of more through the other team forfeiting.  But... they have the best coaches that a mom could ask for.  The first week or so - I had Rod go talk to Coach Justin about the language on the team... and he told him that if the kids' language didn't improve that we were pulling our boys... Well, needless to say, it was fixed pretty quickly.  Josiah & Logan are the team captains.  The tallest and the shortest kids on the team :D

Josiah pitched every other game this season.  I watched him his his first (over the fence) homerun ever.  Boy that boy is enthusiastic!  And there's nothing quite like the smack of a ball going over the fence!  I was also there the day that he pitched a 14K game.  (Struck out 14 kids out of 18 available outs.)  He got balls from both of those games.  He also played 3rd base.  Which he's really good at.  Just didn't seem like there were many plays at the base for him this season.  (One of the dads from the opposing team bought Josiah a king sized hot dog when he hit that awesome home run.  Should have gotten a picture!  Silly me!)

Josiah & Jedediah's coaches started something new... they got a Pirates flag... and brought it to each of the games.  I really appreciated it because I always knew what side of the field I was supposed to sit on :D  The kids enjoyed it because they ran it around the field when they won a game...  Good times.  (This picture is of the day where the Seahawks mascot came to visit...)

Jedediah started out the year as a really strong hitter.  Something happened along the way where he just wasn't as confident.  It seems that he's going through what Josiah went through for the last two years... everyone knows he can hit - but just can seem to get it off of a kid pitcher.  That's not to say that he didn't get on base and score .. he did.  Just not quite to what he would have like to have done.  He also played mostly outfield (older kids usually play the bases b'c they are better).  And boy did Jed save the team a few different times with his great catching of fly balls.  He really excelled at that this year.  (When I was a kid I wanted nothing to do with fly balls... to afraid of getting hit in the face!)

All in all, it was a really great season.  A bit short feeling with so many games canceled due to rain or overly wet fields.  There's something a bit odd about seeing a guy with a leaf blower out on the field trying to get it dried out enough to let the kids play!!!!

What do the rest of us do doing all of this?  Julia always is great at meeting the sisters of the boys who are playing - so she has lots of baseball friends that she goes & plays with.  Rod & I are usually sitting on the bleachers with Jevonna... oftentimes taking pictures or eating garlic fries (which set well with me for about 1/2 of the season.)  When Jaden was with us for the Pirates games, he was often off playing with Julia.  Or sitting next to Grandma, Granddad or Garrett.. or off to the snack shop to buy candy.  Josiah & Jedediah only got to go to a couple of games of Jadens because of scheduling conflicts.

So the season is now about wrapped up.  After the 15th Josiah will be trying out for the 11-12 All Star team - and it looks like Jedediah may try out for the 9-10 team.  Hopefully it'll be a bit warmer the week of games in July...