Weekly Menu

We had a meat-free week last week and all have lived to tell the tale.

Here's the menu:

Monday:  Bacalhau à Bráz (cod with potatoes and egg). I know it looks kinda gross, but it's actually yummy


(not my photo)

Tuesday: Baked Salmon, busy mixed green salad with seeds
Wednesday: Shrimp and portabello mushroom risotto
Thursday: Roasted veggie and spinach lasagne ( yes, with mascarpone!)
Friday: Pizza

By Saturday I had heard more than a few comments about how everyone was dying for a good steak, so I went to the butcher Saturday afternoon and picked up almost 1 kg of steak to grind and make burgers. We had two nephews and a baby neice in the house, so simple burgers were in order with 6 kids to feed.

Sunday: Thai coconut peanut chicken over rice

So it wasn't exactly meat-free, but we held off until Saturday and it's something I'll be happy to repeat.

Meal Planning- Another Gargantuan Post

The biggest problem I had with menu planning was inspiration. Whenever I asked what I should make for dinner, I always got "I don't know- anything!" Arrrgggghhh. I hate that. 

 We've been using this new system for all of this school year and it has made life so easy.  I only have to think about what to make for dinner once a week (Wednesday), and groceries are also geared toward our menu and thus a lot less expensive.

The basic system is this: everyone has one night of the week to choose what we all eat for dinner, and the dinner has to be something we all like to eat.

Monday: Moojie

Tuesday: Zita

Wednesday: Freddy

Thursday: Me

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Pai

Sunday:  Misc- this rotates between rotisserie chickens from a nearby restaurant, left-overs, something insprired by a cook book, random rquests,  no dinner at all due to heavy and long tea times at the grandmother's house, or it can be a make-up night for anyone who for whatever reason missed his or her night.

Here's the new board that Freddy, Zita and I completed last night. It replaces a generic list that I had up on the kitchen wall.

The envelope on the left hand side has meals not yet chosen. Under each day, the person resonsibe for that day needs to hang up his or her choice for dinner. When the week is over, everything we ate that week gets put in the 'X' envelope. I have a sneaking suspicion that Moojie will be getting steak out of the 'X' envelope more than he should since he always asks for a good steak.

The success of the system depends on having all of your familiy's dinner options written up. I have about 50+ dinners that all five of us will eat. Not just will eat, but like to eat. If one single person doesn't like something, it's not in the rotation. I'm lucky that my kids eat just about anything, but even picky eaters can get a decent list going.

It's hard to think of everything all at once, so write up the list over a few weeks, and get out visual cookbooks to look at with your children. What you put in rotation should be practical. Fancy and difficult stuff is not on the board.

I have a deadline of the morning school run for putting orders in. After that- too bad! They can make it up on Sunday or lose the day. Freddy in particular takes this all very seriously and loves to pick on his night. He wakes up elated every week on "his day."

This is sounding way more complicated than it is, but the bottom line is, responsiblity for planning the weekly menu falls on everyone, no one can blame mom for a lack of decent meals, and every single night we eat something that all 5 of us enjoy.

Meal Planning

Freddy's home sick today so he's helping create a dinner plan board. I already have a good meal planning system, but the black and white print out on the kitchen wall was temporary until we figured out a better way to display it.

I've printed out a few menu items, and Freddy is cutting them out so we can laminate them and then hang them on the day we'll eat them. We also need to get a board going, but that should be fun and doable. Freddy is loving the one-on-one time and so am I.

Stay tuned...

Update: the board was hijacked by Zita who in the short time I was away with moojie at the doctor, got a kitten calendar on it, and made it an organizational board for her own room. Must remember to leave projects out of sight.

Weekly Menu

Monday: Burritos

Tuesday: Salmon, spinach, salad

Wednesday: Shepard's Pie ( I double the amount of ground steak for Monday's burritos and put half aside for shepard's pie), Salad

Thursday: Carrot soup with sweet curry, grilled chicken, white rice, pineapple and red pepper salsa* on side

Friday: Pizza

* the kids were all skeptical of the salsa, but all took a "thank-you bite" and wound up eating more.

Weekly Menu

Here's last week's menu:

Monday: ginger teriyaki steak, green salad

Tuesday: baked breaded fish fillets, green beans

(I use boneless fresh fish segments, and take off the skin myself. Next I dip each fish portion in eggs, salt, pepper, and a bit of milk. Lastly, I roll each in a bread crumb mixture with lemon that I make in the food processor, and then bake)

Wednesday: Veggie Burritos (filling: corn,roasted red peppers, broccoli, onion, tomato, black beans, rice, cheese)

Thursday: Veal baked in puff pastry, green salad

Most butchers in Portugal have some version of this. Our local butcher does a shredded roast chicken version, and the veal version (below). The butcher assembles them fresh every morning and I don't have the processed food guilt that frozen food causes. Just pop them onto a baking sheet, brush a little egg on top- or forget to and do so unevenlly half way through the baking process as I did- and let them cook for 30 minutes or until golden brown. One can assemle these at home too, but buying them ready-made is worth  the time saved.

Friday: pizza :)

Weekly Menu

I forgot to post last week's menu, which was simple and easy.

Monday. Burgers* with no bun, cheese omelette, salad

Tuesday: Fresh tagliatelle with pesto, salad

Wednesday: No dinner! No Portuguese grandmother won't let anyone leave hungry and since we left Vasco’s grandmother’s house at 7pm, no dinner was necessary. 

Thursday: Carrot and leek soup, crusty olive bread, cheese** 

Friday: Pizza (3 personal size: 1 pineapple, 1 pepperoni, 1 cheese)

Saturday: BBQ chicken, roasted peppers from Zita's garden (see above), corn, roasted potatoes

Sunday: Once again at grandmother's until late. Kids didn't need dinner

*I choose steak from the butcher and ask them to grind the meat and shape the burgers.

** the stinky soft kind that you spoon out

Meal Planning

One of the most difficult parts of household management is meal planning.

I have a simple menu planning system that will have to be a post on its own, but for now I’ll leave you with last week’s dinner plan.  Please bear in mind that most of these meals were chosen by the children.

Monday: Steak, salad, rice*

Tuesday: Chicken Chouriço, rice, salad

Wednesday: Salmon baked with spinach and puff pastry, rice

Thursday: Chicken Tikka Masala and broccoli, rice 

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: Ricotta and Spinach Tortellini

Sunday: Shrimp in garlic butter sauce, rice

*It’s the law of the land 

Do we normally eat so much rice? No. Only when I typed this up did I realize we were out eating all of China in rice consumption. This week we’ll  take a break from  rice.