Menu planning

One area that P-daddy and I do not excel in is planning menus. We both eat pretty simply, and he in particular is happy to grab some fruit and veggies and make a meal of it. I'm much more of a carb-a-holic, so I need bread, rice, etc., so we've been attempting to find meals that cover both our preferences. This week, we decided to try our hand at menu-planning and see how it goes. Luckily, one of my favorite blogs talked today about just that topic, and even posted some hints and handy-dandy meal planning sheets. So we hope we are off to a good start, though we are not sure how it will turn out due to several issues.

One issue is that we don't always have a ton of variety - especially for breakfast. Both of us would happily eat steel cut oats with fruit pretty much every day, and while we have not yet embarked on once-a-month cooking, we do often cook large portions of things and eat them throughout the week. Plus, we freeze part of that for later use. This week, we are relying on some of these frozen items that we want to clean out of our freezer: black beans that we made in the crockpot, and carrot-potato stew, also from the crockpot. Plus, P-daddy made a delicious frittata today, with caramelized onions, and it smells and tastes delicious!

The other issue is my schedule - I'm teaching a summer-school class from 2-6pm 2 days a week, and even if I eat a healthy lunch before going to class, I'm still starved by the time class ends, as well as so wiped out that there's no way I want to cook (or even prepare) anything when I get home. So we are experimenting with pre-made sandwiches, which I can take to school with me and then eat before leaving campus. So our Tues/Thurs dinners might not look too dinnerish...

But here's the plan:

Monday
B: steel cut oats (hereafter and forever referred to as SCO) w/ apples, peaches, and banana
L: frittata, mushrooms, tomato, bread (home-baked by P-daddy, or sandwich thins)
D: potato and carrot dumplings, broccoli
S: yogurt, apples, cucumbers

Tuesday
B: eggs, beans, and tortillas
L: leftover dumplings and broccoli
D: BLT sandwiches, boiled eggs, carrot sticks
S: yogurt, plums, celery

Wednesday
B: SCO w/ apples, peaches, and banana
L: frittata, tomato, bread (home-baked by P-daddy, or sandwich thins)
D: brown rice, kashmir spinach, cauliflower
S: yogurt, apples, squash sticks

Thursday
B: eggs, beans, and tortillas
L: leftover rice, spinach, and cauliflower
D: BLT sandwiches (or PB&J), boiled eggs, carrot sticks
S: yogurt, oranges, squash sticks

Friday
B: SCO w/ banana (and blueberries if we make it to the store)
L: Morning Star Farms (MSF) spicy black bean burgers w/ (avocado if we make it to the store), mixed veggies
D: eat out (or order in)
S: yogurt, apples, bananas, green peppers

Saturday
B: French toast w/ fruit
L: PB&J sandwiches, carrot sticks, potato rounds
D: southwestern salad (lettuce, black beans, corn, red onion, avocado)
S: yogurt, apples, oranges, peppers

Sunday
B: toast w/ apple butter
L: taco salad
D: bao buns w/ pulled pork
S: yogurt, oranges, carrots

I'll let you know how it goes!