Sunday, February 28, 2010

March Menu

This month I'm determined to do a better job with our eating habits. February was crazy for us with all the birthday parties and everything. I hate to admit it but we ate a lot of McD's and Little Ceasars pizza (Little Ceasars just opened in our Publix shopping center so it's still a novelty.) But, John and I are tired of eating kid food! Plus we're gearing up with kids activities this time of year. Kaity is currently taking ballet on Wednesday evenings. Will is thinking about tap dancing classes. He loves to dance and I think this would be a great outlet for him. And, he wants to do swimming which would be two days a week. We'll wait on swimming till after the youth fair is over, but that's the end of March! He's decided not to play t-ball or soccer this spring even though all of his classmates are playing. However, last Friday he told me he wanted to play soccer because Dalton was playing. I think this is probably a no for him only because John and I value our Saturdays in the spring. So, with all that in mind, I sat down last night and created a menu for the whole month of March. I've already grocery shopped for the first week so we're at least committed to that.

A couple things - Friday nights I've just declared breakfast night, so you'll see a theme. Whatever we're having on Monday, I'm going to try to prepare it (or some of it) on Sunday. More intensive meals are saved for the weekends. And, I'm trying to use my crockpot at least on Wednesdays.

*I marked which dishes are new for us.
**Added the sides in just for Erin.

  1. Monday (4-H meeting) - bean soup (crockpot) and bread
  2. Tuesday - tacos
  3. Wednesday (ballet) - chili (crockpot)
  4. Thursday - chicken pot pie*
  5. Friday - pancakes and sausage links
  6. Saturday - ham & macaroni and cheese and green beans
  7. Sunday - stroganoff and salad
  8. Monday (Kaity late dentist appt.) - sausage spinach casserole
  9. Tuesday - pork chops, au gratin potatoes, green beans
  10. Wednesday (ballet) - chicken & dumplings (crockpot)
  11. Thursday - pigs in a blanket, chips
  12. Friday - sausage gravy and biscuits
  13. Saturday - hamburgers, chips, baked beans
  14. Sunday - stuffed shells, salad, garlic bread
  15. Monday - chicken picata
  16. Tuesday - A1 and dijon steak* (crockpot), rice pilaf, broccoli
  17. Wednesday (ballet) - broccoli and cheese soup* (crockpot) and bread
  18. Thursday (fair board mtg) - pot roast (crockpot), carrots, potatoes
  19. Friday - waffles, bacon, fruit
  20. Saturday - BBQ pork, corn pudding, salad
  21. Sunday - steak, squash, salad
  22. Monday - Cuban pork roast*, plantains, rice, black beans
  23. Tuesday - chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, green beans
  24. Wednesday - meatloaf (crockpot), mashed potatoes, green beans (sides leftover from Tuesday)
  25. Thursday - corn chowder*, bread
  26. Friday (youth fair) - no meals at home
  27. Saturday (youth fair)
  28. Sunday (youth fair)
  29. Monday (youth fair, quick dinner) - BLTs, french fries
  30. Tuesday - spaghetti, garlic bread, green beans
  31. Wednesday (ballet) - fried orange shrimp*, rice, plantains
Please ask us how we're doing on this. We're going to try to stick to it this month, but something always comes up. Plus I'm sure I'm missing some calendar items that will interfere with the menu. Hopefully, it will force us to take our lunch more rather than eating hot dogs for dinner and then having nothing for lunch.

5 comments:

Erin and Luke said...

what about veggies? You only listed the meats. Do you just decide that week what you are going to have or not really do these? I get tired of eating the same veggies and could use some ideas.

Emily said...

A lot of those are one dish meals, but we eat a lot of canned green beans and frozen broccoli. I'm going to try and add in some salad also. John prefers to have something green, so we don't usually eat corn or stuff like that. We'll probably have squash once or twice and corn pudding. And, a LOT of mashed potatoes. I'll go back and add some of our sides.

Gallagher said...

I wish I could do this, would like to plan a month ahead, but seems like I can only take a week or day at a time. Let me know how it goes. My new idea is to take a BOGO skillet meal, add a bag of frozen vegetables to it, it makes a bigger healthier dinner and it is easy to make. So I see you have real meals planned for Wed.? Does that mean no more small group? Subway is semi healthy :) Hope to see you guys every now and then.

Unknown said...

I have just had the same experience....all of a sudden I don't want to do kid food anymore, it's been one too many years....so we are making a veggie chart. When the kids hit 30 veggies for the month, we are going to take them out for a treat (not necessarily food...maybe bowling night?!)

The newest issue of Clean Eating magazine had a ton of awesome, pretty quick recipes you may want to try...some were kid friendly. There is a 2 week menu planner and shopping list, too.

Eating Well mag. also had some good food idea this month...with a section on recipes for baked breaded fish (tilapia), something my kids thought we be good. (Baked onion rings were in there, too)

However, I liked your menu list...I might give it a try :) Thanks for doing all that work!

Now I'm hungry :)

Emily said...

Tara - We're still planning on coming, which is one reason every Wednesday is crockpot. But, you know how those go...we make it about 50% of the time. :-)

 

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