I enjoy curling up in my favorite living room chair, perusing old cookbooks and magazines for recipes to try or adapt. It’s a sort of Saturday evening ritual that I’ve missed the last couple of weeks.
Instead I’ve been planning menus on the fly, sitting right in front of my computer. It’s not that bad, really. It’s just that I feel a lot less creative this way.
What do you think? Have I been stuck in a menu-planning rut?
Monday
B: Green Smoothies (why smoothies?)
L: Tuna apple salad, green salad, glass of kombucha
D: Salmon patties, roasted broccoli, glass of raw milk (why raw milk?)
Tuesday
B: Scrambled eggs (from pastured hens!), cortido, apple slices, glass of raw milk
L: Sweet potato latkes, mixed greens, glass of kombucha
D: Giant green salad, glass of raw milk
Wednesday
B: Coconut Milk Smoothies
L: Curried lentil soup, apple slices w/nut butter, glass of kombucha
D: Stir-fried veggies over cauliflower “rice,” green salad, glass of kombucha
Thursday
B: Omelets, grapes, glass of raw milk
L: Giant green salad, glass of kombucha
D: Steak bites, sauerkraut, carrot sticks, glass of raw milk
Friday
B: Coconut Milk Smoothies
L: Leftover lentil soup, apple slices w/nut butter, glass of kombucha
D: Spaghetti squash & marinara sauce, green salad, glass of kombucha
Saturday
B: Green Smoothies
L: Meatballs & marinara sauce, green salad, glass of raw milk
D: Asian-grilled tilapia & cauliflower “rice” in lettuce wraps, glass of raw milk
Sunday
B: Green Smoothies
This post is part of OrgJunkie’s Menu Plan Mondays. For more menu ideas, go check it out!
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I menu plan every Saturday morning 🙂 Sometimes I feel like I’m in a rut, but planning in front of the computer isn’t all that bad. You have bookmarked recipes don’t you? Who says your whole menu has to be planned out from your cookbooks 🙂 I’m sure you’ve found tons of recipes on line you want to try. So change it up a bit, plan from your bookmarks instead! 🙂
Amanda
Amanda — I do have bookmarked recipes. But not as many as you’d think! I’m fairly creative when it comes to cooking and mostly look at recipes for ideas. I don’t have a slew of cookbooks, but the ones I do have are fairly inspiring. Plus I enjoy curling up in my living room chair, feeling leisurely. I just don’t feel the same sitting in front of my computer.
What’s in the coconut milk smoothie besides coconut milk?
TrailGrrl
I think anything that stifles creativity tends to cause problems. So, look for a way to revive that. Why not try a week WITHOUT recipes?
I often cook without recipes, by looking at what we have in the freezer or cabinets. I plan ahead the meals for the nights when all three housemates will be home, or we have guests coming. Often I pick a main meat or vegetable and then think what will go well with that. So I might put a roast into the crock pot, then look around for vegetables — do we have potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, mushrooms, garlic, etc.? — and add those.
I make cobblers by cooking a fruit filling, adding some kind of spice, then a basic crumble topping. This weekend I happened to have a couple Golden Delicious apples and some little Granny Smiths. So I bought a bag of caramel candies and made a caramel-apple cobbler. Big hit. The main dish that night was venison stew with hominy.
Elizabeth Barrette
Elizabeth — Oh, I hardly every USE recipes. I just look at them to get inspired! It’s actually the hardest part about posting recipes to this site to me; I’m always struggling to translate the amount of ingredients I add into measurable, repeatable quantities.
TrailGrrl — Whatever inspires us! That’s usually banana, berries, sometimes pineapple, kale, you name it. Check out the post on smoothies I linked to in this post to find out more ideas.
I have been so stuck the last two weeks with our menu planning… and it’s making me feel so very lazy! I too sit down with my cookbooks and plan Saturday night – I think it’s because we’ve been gone that last two weekends, and I haven’t had my “happy” time! 🙂
Meg
Meg — There’s always this coming Saturday, isn’t there?