We are all back to school and routines now. The calendar is full and busy, but manageable. I have to admit, though, the 
extra-long holiday weekend last week messed me up in one area – Dinner.
Don’t misunderstand me – an extra-long weekend is always a good thing! I just felt unprepared for the week. We had plenty of food, but as I discussed with my teenager, everything was “Some Assembly Required” food. We often survive busy school nights on weekend left overs, so we got into trouble when there were NO weekend leftovers!
So I tried a new strategy yesterday, menu planning on a larger scale than ever before. Considering this week’s menu plan and the contents of my kitchen, I wrote down 11 food items to make in one Sunday afternoon. Here is the list:
- Oatmeal-butterscotch-dried cherry cookies, for lunches and for care packages for two beloved college students
- Banana bread, also to eat and send away, and to use up the overripe bananas in the freezer
- Peach and plum crisp, for Sunday dessert
- Hard boiled eggs, to peel and have on hand for snacks and quick breakfasts
- Tuna salad – all protein for me for lunches this week
- Egg casserole, for the high-schoolers to heat up in the morning before school
- Bread crumbs, for the meatballs and to have on hand
- Meatballs, for a new recipe later in the week
- Pork Roast and broiled potatoes for Sunday dinner
- New recipe, Cheddar and Bacon bread, because let’s face it – you can’t go wrong with cheese or bacon!
- Browned ground beef, for taco casserole Tuesday.
What I learned from this process:
- I enjoy cooking, and I’m so glad I dedicated some time to making delicious, convenient and nutritious food for all of us this week. However….
- Five hours in the kitchen was a VERY long afternoon, and then there were still dishes to do after dinner. Next time I will cut back on my expectations and the allotted time.
- Start with clean counters and an empty dishwasher. The clean counters are obvious, but the empty dishwasher would have saved me clean-up time.
- Line up everything needed on the counter, with recipes, pans and ingredients, to make sure you have everything you need.
- Make double batches. A double batch of anything is no more trouble than a single batch.
- In addition, double up your prep. I used my Cuisinart and chopped onions for 3 recipes all at once. Not one tear shed! I used my food processor to shred 2 pounds of cheese and to pulverize the bread into crumbs, too.
- I will ask for more help, either with cutting / chopping, or with clean-up.
- I am already thinking about what to make the next time I do this, probably in a couple of weeks.
If your weeknights are busy, considering cooking meals on the weekend to eat during the week. Make your plan, lay out your supplies, crank up your favorite Pandora channel and get cooking!
One, can I have your recipe for taco casserole? We’re trying to do “taco Tuesdays ” this year.
Two, how big is your freezer? Do you have a separate stand alone freezer? Trying to decide if it is worth it for us…we have at least one 2-3 power outage each year.
Hey there! First, here is the link to the casserole: http://www.ortega.com/recipes/taco-casserole_45 . Yesterday, in my cooking marathon I browned the beef and added all the other stuff. Tomorrow, I just need to layer the shells, meat mixture and cheese and bake it.
Two: we just have a normal sized freezer, on top of the fridge. I know people with the extra stand alone freezer, but so far we don’t need one. We use the one we have really well. I recommend shelves if you don’t have them, and we also use white bins like these: http://www.amazon.com/IRIS-Mesh-Basket-White-Large/dp/B000MUNCN0, to hold smaller items. I have one bin with small packages of meat, one with bags of frozen soup, and one with bags of frozen vegetables. All of those items don’t stack well, so we fit a lot more in the freezer by using the bins.