I've done meal planning off and on for the past several years, and have done it almost every single week for the past 2 years (I plan a week at a time). I'd like to say that it helps us eat super-healthy and keeps our food budget down, but that's not always the case (although we are eating a lot better than Carey and I used to when we were first married - we were laughing the other day at the things I used to call "dinner"). What meal planning does help with is keeping me sane. "What's for dinner?" used to stress me out - now I take a little time each week to plan and then don't worry about it. I don't have a fancy system or a pretty menu board - I just keep track of each week in a simple OneNote document on my computer. I keep all my past menus, for inspiration when I'm not sure what to put on the list. Someday I'd like to have a "master list" or "recipe rotation", but this system seems to work okay for now. I do have a new goal for the winter, though - I want to try one new recipe at least every other week, and I want to use my slow cooker once a week.
I don't have a huge repetoire of slow cooker recipes (yet - I have a feeling a lot of the new recipes will be slow cooker recipes), but here are a few that I've tried and liked (click on the links for the recipes):
Beef and broccoli
Chicken drumsticks
BBQ pulled pork
Chicken tortilla soup
Hopefully by the end of winter this list will be a lot longer. Let me know if you have any slow cooker recipes that are favorites!
1 comment:
Funny how we progress over time, isn't it?? The Man and I often laugh about how few Cream-of-??? soups we go through now, when years ago, all we ever ate were casseroles and skillet meals from my three tiny Campbell's Soup cookbooks!!!
I plan weekly menus, too, but I'm old school... I use a spiral-bound notebook and pen!! ;) One side is my menu and the facing page is my grocery list. I've had lofty goals for YEARS already of creating a rotating 8-week menu as well, but that has yet to happen!!
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