Due to an overly full freezer; a wonderful array of fruits and veggies from Bountiful Baskets; and an amply stocked pantry we decided to not do an official menu this week but rather 'use up' what we had on hand.
We still needed a few items from the grocery. Milk. Cereal. Toothpaste and the like, but... overall, we planned to simply 'wing it' with groceries we currently possessed.
This was all fine and good. Great really.
Except......
Without my menu - I. was. floundering. Guess I've grown accustomed to 'planning out' our weekly meals.
Monday arrived. No plan for breakfast - cereal and poptarts became the plan. :-)
VBS all morning for the little girls.
Home for lunch.
I went to the fridge to view my menu.
AACK!
There wasn't one.
Oh yeah. We are clearing out our fridge, pantry and freezer.
A quick scan of the fridge. A moment of thought as I considered what might be in the freezer.
And...... blueberry smoothies, banana bread, and salad erupted as our lunch meal.
It was quite good. Removed some leftovers from the refrigerator. Used up some yogurt and frozen berries. Was healthy to boot.
Ah, next... Dinner.
Yes, this meal too came together fairly easily (although, I cheated a bit: We had originally thought we were having guests so I had 'pre-planned' this meal. They cancelled so we simply had the meal anyway.)
I will admit -- even though it's worked out fine; meals have been prepared; food has been used -- it adds a bit of stress as I 'ponder' what to make; spend time thawing b/c no plan was in place.
I guess that just means I need to make a weekly menu plan based on what we have NOW and move forward.
Better get on that seeing it's now Thur and I've continued this 'fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants' approach most of the week. :-) But... we've not gone hungry, we've continued to 'use up' some food, and it's all been good and healthy fare.
Can't complain - but I have to admit, I prefer having a plan of attack. So... next week I'm going back to my menu planning before the week starts.
Liz, I can totally relate to this. In my first marriage I wrote up menus on Saturday morning and did the shopping based on the plans. Then always knew what's for dinner each night after work, and whoever got home first would start the dinner. My second husband is a "seat of the pants" guy who loves spontaneity. After 33 years I am still finding some nights when I go to the fridge, stare at bounties of food, and wonder "what's for dinner?" But he has been so resistant to the idea of menus planned ahead, I have adapted to his way. I love all your posts! Hugs, Chris
ReplyDeleteI am with you Liz, I do so much better when I have a meal plan. Through a friend I did learn this tip, you can take all of the ingredients you have on hand and google them with the word recipe behind and see what you come up with. We have done that many times, dinner time saver. My friend was having a party once and googled blue cheese, walnuts, blueberries, anyway she ended up making one of the best dips I have ever had. Also, she got this tip from a friend whose son did it all the time and he was a chef.
ReplyDeleteLifefullyloaded - I have heard of this but thought it was a special site you had to go to. I will now try to just type in the ingredients. I do that to some degree but more for the 'main dish' and then jut fudge it with the rest. LOL! Good tip, thanks for sharing.
DeleteChris - it is amazing how we can adapt, isn't it? Fortunately, hubby is on board with the menu plan. He actually likes it better than my 'fly by the seat of my pants' approach. But.. we tend to like 'new and different' recipes so we end up needing to buy lots of 'new stuff' each time we go to the store. Need to thin out.
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