Category Archives: menu plan Monday

A March Madness menu plan that doesn’t have anything to do with basketball

Monday: Grilled cheese sandwiches
I’m not sure whether Poppy is very eager to perfect her grilled cheese skills or if she’s just taking advantage of the opportunity to put grilled-cheese sandwiches on the meal every week. I’m going to let her keep choosing it for awhile. We’re going to add the option of making it a ham and cheese sandwich this week.
Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner
I will be at a homeschool co-op council meeting and Poppy will be at soccer practice, so Pete and Rockford will be enjoying their pancakes solo. At least until Poppy gets home and gets a shortstack of her own.

Wednesday: Party foods
It’s book club week! We’ll be having appetizers and party foods while we discuss this month’s title.

Thursday: Shake & Bake chicken
Pete chose to learn how to make Shake & Bake chicken this week.

Friday: Pizza

Still hungry? Check out OrgJunkie for more menu plans.

Here’s my plan for teaching the children how to cook

We used to let the kids pick one meal every week, but we stopped doing that because Poppy almost always chose fish sticks and macaroni and cheese. Well, that alone isn’t the reason we stopped doing it, but it certainly didn’t help. I really don’t like fish sticks. Anyway, this week marks the triumphant return of Kids Choice Night, sort of. I’ve made a list from which the kids can choose, and all of the recipes on it are simple enough for them to make themselves:

Baked potatoes
Baked pasta
Shake-n-Bake chicken
Scrambled eggs
Grilled cheese
Sesame noodles
Tacos
Chili

They’re pretty basic dishes, and that’s because I’m trying to teach the kids how to cook. That way they won’t have to eat Taco Bell for every meal when they go off to college and I can slowly switch places with the children and play Super Mario Bros while they make dinner. In the past I’ve toyed around with the idea of putting together or purchasing a Cooking Curriculum, but the idea never really stuck. So we’re just going to dive in and make things that they’re interested in making, and hopefully they’ll pick up the skills they need as we go.

Last night was supposed to be our first Kids Cook Night, but the kids ended up going to a friends’ house and they didn’t get home until pretty late so Poppy didn’t get to make her grilled cheese sandwiches. Here’s what we’re having the rest of the week:

Tuesday: Sandwiches
We’ll be having a DIY sandwich bar. Any combination goes, as long as you don’t want anything other than ham, cheese, peanut butter or jelly. (That could go very, very grossly.)

Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner
Eggs, toast and veggie sausages. Nothing fancy this week.

Thursday: Tacos
Pete wanted to learn how to make tacos. Hopefully in a few weeks he’ll be in charge of taco night. (It may take longer than a few weeks.)

Friday: Pizza
We ordered from Domino’s last week, and the pizza they delivered was missing topping and it was doughy. We probably won’t be ordering from Domino’s this week.

Still hungry? Check out OrgJunkie for more menu plans.

Meal planning during controlled chaos

I didn’t realize this week was quite so busy until we were in it. I’m glad we aren’t always this busy. We won’t all be around the dinner table together until Thursday, but it’s still important to have a plan.

Monday: Breakfast for dinner
I had a meeting for our homeschool co-op. Rockford made pancakes and veggie sausages.

Tuesday: McAlister’s/something else
Rockford is taking Poppy and some of her friends to McAlister’s after soccer practice. Pete and I will either stay home and have ham sandwiches or go out for a burger.

Wednesday: Lasagna
Our book club is meeting at our house this month, and I’m making Lasagna Primavera. I also have a few small, frozen cheese lasagnas on hand for the kids who won’t touch the Primavera.

Thursday: Pizza
Poppy and Rockford will be at soccer practice, and I’m starting a Pilates class this week. We’ll all meet up at home eventually to have some pizza.

Friday: ???
We’re swapping kids with my sister-in-law this weekend, and I’m not sure what time we’re meeting them on Friday. So we’re flying by the seat of our pants, meal-wise.

Still hungry? Check out OrgJunkie for more menu plans.