First Menu Plan Monday

I've been planning my menus for the past few months, but this week is my first chance to participate in Menu Plan Monday, now that I finally have a site of my own! I haven't yet mastered creating menu plans based on the sales, although we do buy all our meat on sale. We have a standing chest freezer that I usually go to for that week's meats, and I go through the fridge to see if anything needs to be used.

I generally plan my menus based on what we have around the house, rather than deciding what we want to eat and then shopping. I keep a few vegetables on hand (onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, celery--in season), and buy extras like lettuce or jalapeños if we have a little wiggle room in the budget. For side dishes, we usually eat frozen broccoli or frozen corn, or biscuits if we're having soup.

I have three goals when planning my menus:

1. Serve a variety of tasty, reasonably healthy meals.
2. Don't let food go to waste.
3. Create enough leftovers to provide Hubs with lunches throughout the week.

As you can probably guess, goals 2 and 3 tend to conflict with each other! It's always disappointing to find a tupperware with two-week-old soup moldering in the back of the fridge. Especially if you've run out of leftovers and sent your husband off to work with hot dogs and popcorn. Although he probably doesn't mind!

Anyway, thanks for letting me participate in my very first MPM, and here is my first contribution! Let me know if you'd like me to post any recipes.

Monday: Barley Risotto with Shrimp and Peas, courtesy of Martha Stewart (one of the few recipes of hers I haven't botched hideously). The shrimp I picked up at a great sale at Safeway, of course!
Tuesday: Yummy Potato Casserole. This recipe came from my mother and is very easy to make--potatoes, cheese, sour cream, and whatever else you have on hand to throw in.
Wednesday: Indian Chicken Curry II from Allrecipes.com. I chose this recipe because I need to finish off the yoghurt before it goes bad, and we love this dish. I'm using chicken leg quarters this week, because we barbecued the last of the chicken thighs over the weekend.
Thursday: Meatloaf, my husband's favorite, which he requested.

I usually don't plan meals for the weekends because there are often "leftover leftovers" to finish up. (Hubs works a four-day week, so for us, weekends include Fridays.) I also don't like to cook and make a big mess when Hubs is around, because his "dirt-dar" goes off at the appearance of a single dirty dish. This weekend, we're having a few friends over for dinner, so we'll have to work up a menu for that after we know who's coming (one of the invitees has dietary restrictions). Hubs likes to cook for company, so we'll plan that meal together. Maybe I can convince him to make his prize-winning cheesecake, although that might be too rich depending on the main course. I'll keep you posted, and thanks for stopping by!