Menus

Every so often, I am asked what an average weekly menu plan looks like here at my house. (Incidentally, the people who ask usually aren't people who frequent our table often and so I can't help but wonder if they are only asking because they think they would like what we eat.) I don't typically know off the top of my head-- that's why I write out my menus-- and so the people who ask don't really get an answer.

Until tonight.

Here is the menu I made on Monday morning before my afternoon shopping trip, and it is a pretty typical week-in-the-summer (no soups or oven-intensive foods) dinner menu:


Monday
hamburgers on wheat buns
salad

Tuesday
baked tilapia
brown rice pilaf
salad

Wednesday
cheddar & tomato egg casserole
salad
fresh pineapple

Thursday
Carina's birthday dinner @ Mom & Dad's
(bring muffins)

Friday
cheese & bell pepper quesadillas
salad
baked tortilla chips

Saturday
sandwiches
(Daniel out all day with leadership training)

Sunday
whole wheat pasta w/ sauteed veggies
salad


As you can see, I don't make complicated or large meals. This is for a couple reasons, the top 2 being:

1. I don't have time and my children's attention spans can't handle complicated meal prep.
2. Around here, more usually means unnecessary calories and bad-for-you foods. I generally don't do starches with dinners unless it's part of the main dish (i.e. hamburger buns or pasta). My husband doesn't do manual labor and so I can get away with just passing him the salad bowl again.

I don't write out breakfast and lunch menus because we eat the same thing almost everyday. (And I wonder why Gabriel likes routine so much!?) It isn't that I don't enjoy cooking and being creative, because preparing food is actually my favorite household job and I could spend far too much time pouring over cookbooks in planning every single meal. The problem is that I am not a blessing to my family when I get too focused on meals and cooking/baking. I've learned that not only do my kids prefer eating the same simple foods over and over again in order to have my attention a bit more, my husband does, too.*

For breakfast, I serve either Cheerios with bananas & milk or good old fashioned oatmeal (made with milk and sweetened with wonderful NY maple syrup) with raisins. Occasionally, I make pancakes if Daniel's day-off happens to coincide with a simple morning schedule.

For lunch, we eat PB&J almost daily. Sometimes I get desperate to use the ridiculous amounts of eggs in our refrigerator and so I make egg salad sandwiches instead. When Daniel's home, I make 4 identical sandwiches and serve them with some sort of fresh fruit.

And that's really just about it.


*Edit: I am by no means trying to insinuate that women who spend a lot of time on meal preparation aren't being a blessing to their families. In fact, I look forward to the day when I have older children who can take the younger ones outside to play, thereby affording me the chance to devote a bit more time to recipes I am aching to try my hand at. And, believe me, I do love an occasional opportunity and cause to bake a 5-step cheesecake. All I was saying is that for now and for us, I generally have to put gourmet creations on hold because it's just where we're at.