Pondering Menu Monday

When I first tried to start a food blog last year, I participated in one of the Menu Monday linkups. Long trained by my retail manager past start, I organize our calender with our weeks starting on Monday. And I am an obsessive menu planner. So it seemed like a perfect fit.

But it stressed me out. I wanted to be able to go back and report on what we enjoyed from the planned menu. But I rarely ended up making everything on the list, especially when I thought I would. And that is when I learned that the trick with menu planning is not to become too attached to the menus.

Think of them as more general outlines of what you could eat. It serves two purposes: you don't become overwhelmed when it's 5:30 and you have a meal planned that takes an hour to make and you don't end up buying ingredients that put you over budget.

A whole separate post on how menu planning saves you money is in order. But in honor of Menu Monday here is my loose menu plan for the week, along with notes on how it adjusts.

M: pesto pasta - A few weeks back a bunch of fresh pesto was on clearance at my grocery store so I snagged it all and froze it. It makes the perfect last minute meal
T: pizza out (for a post on my local blog)
W: black beans and rice with salad - This is a Tambo Bamba mix which I am so excited about trying. I like to have a good stock of healthy mixes on hand. I pump them up with veggies. If I get lazy and make a frozen pizza instead, they keep until the next meal.
T: spinach korma - Again, there are amazing natural mixes and canned goods out there. So now I can add tofu and frozen organic spinach and eat better Indian than I can get at the two restaurants in town. This particular simmer sauce is from Seeds of Change.
F: edaname, quinoa, and shitake mushroom dish (aka the clean out the pantry meal)
S: tuna garbanzo salad see above
S: jambalaya w/salad