Menu Planning

My husband doesn't know this yet (hi honey!), but I've made it a goal this week to not eat out for a single meal. Our finances, while ok, aren't where I'd like them to be, and eating out is getting cut from the menu for the next 6 days (yesterday was Day 1). I have a lot of food in my pantry and fridge, and along with the new kitchen appliances I got for my birthday I think I can manage to use up all my ingredients creatively.

Did I tell you about my new appliances yet? No? They are already starting to revolutionize my cooking. My new slow cooker helped me make my own chicken broth last week, and the ice cream maker has produced a beautiful batch of honey ice cream. The food processor is the only one I haven't tried yet (there are so many attachments...) but I'm going to give it a whirl tonight to help make dinner.

This week has the potential to be culinarily unsatisfying (like the frozen pizza last night), but with a little bit of effort I think it will be great. To help me along, I'm working on developing a menu plan, at least for dinners. There are any number of menu planners available online, but I think my plan will be to work with an old-fashioned white board on the fridge. Simple, cheap, and completely editable. But since I'm not set up with that yet, I thought I would share my dinner plans with all of you!

Monday: Creamy Cauliflower Soup, from Annie's Eats, with homemade croutons (and maybe biscuits!)

Tuesday: Pork Roast with Apples made in the new slow cooker

Wednesday: Spaghetti with homemade sauce

Thursday: Steak, creamy garlic shells, and salad

Friday: Chana Masala, our favorite indian dish

Saturday: Our fake hormel-based cincinnati five-way chili

Many of these are our basic recipes, and I'll eventually want to break away from that. But for now, in my first week of menu planning, it's simpler to start with what I already know and can do without too much stress. From there I'll branch out to newer and exciting things. Like this Blueberry Brie Galette recipe. Or perfecting this absolutely yummy Orange Chicken recipe.

Or maybe I'll just forget about dinner and make this instead.

- Cait