Menu Planning

The EE is undergoing a food revolution. The current state of the pantry proves this. It was needful. It was necessary. Hopefully, it will also be helpful! Now to be fair, we have been on the made-from-scratch bandwagon for a long time. Not to say packaged foods could never be found in our home, crackers and such abound! However, packaged meals generally had two things working against them: 1) too pricey for our modest budget, and back in the day, our budget was thinnnnn LOL 2) often contain ingredients a certain little guy couldn’t tolerate.
Fast forward a few years to a budget blessed with abundance and a little guy who isn’t so little anymore who has fewer food issues. Some of those packaged foods crept into the pantry. Then came the day of a brand name gelatin product containing copious amounts of Red Dye 40 and who knows what else. It confirmed a suspicion we wished to avoid. Rylee still can’t handle artificial products.
At the same time I had been making some substitutions in my eating to get healthy. Sounds good, right? In my zeal to do better, I pulled out some artificial sweetener for my tea and occasionally had diet soda. I was reminded rather forcefully that this has never been kind to me in the past. Yep, lethargy and headaches ensued; not precisely conducive to a healthier lifestyle.
So, where does all this leave the EE? Remember the comment about our pantry? I had an epiphany, obvious though it may seem, that we need to shift back to a natural diet and everything else will work itself out with discipline and forethought. For myself, I would rather have a small amount of real sugar or local honey in my morning tea than the fake, hard to pronounce stuff that makes me feel yucky. Rylee enjoys eating a variety of foods and truly understands some things are better left untouched because consequences can be painful (I could stand to learn from him!). Ryan will be the first to tell you a desk job and restaurant food are not the best combination, financially or health-wise. All of this and many other factors meant  frugality and ideology must find common ground.
Hence, a desire to post a weekly meal plan for the world to see. Not to say the world at large cares what we eat but it lends a moment of accountability for me to plan ahead; thus avoiding food waste, encouraging frugality, and not getting sucked into “What do you want for supper?” which invariably means takeout. It seems an obvious Step 2 to follow Step 1: The Great Pantry Purge.
Wednesday, Dec. 7
Breakfast: crispy rice cereal, whole milk, banana
Dinner: veggie plate
Supper: potato clam chowder and garlic cheese popovers
Thursday, Dec. 8
Breakfast: ambrosia
Dinner: fire roasted tomato & thyme soup with alphabet pasta
Supper: baked ham, rosemary & honey smashed sweet potatoes, green bean gratin
Friday, Dec. 9
Breakfast: cranberry pear compote and whole wheat toast
Dinner: tuna & rice
Supper: bean soup with ham hock, cornbread muffins
Saturday isn’t getting a plan because it won’t see us together much. The perfect day for grabbing whatever leftovers are in the refrigerator! The intent is to prepare supper for 4 to allow leftovers for Lee’s weekday work dinners (he much prefers it this way). I’m going to test publishing a menu on Saturday for the coming week to coincide with a jaunt to the grocery store for needed items.
Have a blessed day!