December 2011: Menu Planning

Having gone through my food stores to see what I still have on hand, I made up a rough menu for the month of December.

Since I chose to shop local, I decided to only shop for this coming week and not to do a lot of stocking up unless stuff was on a good sale. Having done my menu plan and knowing what I have on hand gave me a pretty good idea of what to put on the list.

Rather than give you a precise schedule of what I put on what day of the week, I'll just give you a list of what we plan on having for dinner. Because I often change it up a bit, but usually pick something on the plan since I have the ingredients handy. :)

• Pizza X 2 (purchased 2 GF crusts for me, regular deli pizza/making wheat crust for the fam)

• Sandwiches for supper X 2 (Udi's bread for me, 100% Whole Wheat without hfcs for the fam)

• Black Beans and Rice for the fam(because my allergies acted up for some reason when I was cooking this, I made a pot of GF Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup for myself and to share for lunch this weekend)

• Beef Stew with GF biscuits if I can find a good recipe to use my Namaste or Better for Batter flour mix in...or just with garlic toast (regular for the fam/Udi's for me).

• Roast Duck (in the freezer that really needs to be used), Beets (from the garden--Must Harvest!), Pie (made from Butternut Squash from the garden--> GF Crustless Pumpkin Pie style)

• Beef Liver (that I have yet to figure out how to cook, lol), Homemade Mac and Cheese of some sort because I doubt the liver will go over well (hehe), Broccoli, Potatoes?

• Regular Spaghetti (read: the kids want tomato based, not white sauce or chicken spaghetti, lol)....something else for dh and I, probably leftovers from another meal

• Chicken Fingers and fries (maybe--if I can suck it up and buy the mega-spendy GF ones....or maybe I'll eat leftovers and the kids will get cheap ones--this is planned for a Family Movie Night instead of the usual *yawn* pizza )
• Beans (cooked w/Ham Hocks) and GF Cornbread
• Salmon Patties or Loaf and veggies, maybe some sort of pasta
• Chicken/Turkey Soup X 3 (especially w/the abundance of turkey bone broth and the illnesses going around!)
• Enchiladas (need to make corn tortillas w/the Masa Flour I purchased-way less additives than storebought corn tortillas and since the Masa is made of white corn, I think it's less likely to be GMO)
• Hamburger Stroganoff and veggies(sauteed green beans/onions/mushrooms)
• GF Chicken Spaghetti-knockoff from Pioneer Woman's recipe

Breakfasts will be what's left of the cereal, Bagels from the freezer, eggs and bacon, pancakes, Oatmeal/other hot cereal.
The kids generally eat school lunch, and dh and I generally have leftovers for lunch. I may also have a nut-butter sandwich and an apple or whatever I happen to find around the house. :-)
Snacks are: Carrots, Apples and Cheese, Oranges, Popcorn, Granola Bars, Chex Mix (that I need to make from cereal left from last month), and maybe some Muddy Buddies/Puppy Chow made from Chex as a treat. Monster Cookies, when I get around to making those. Pudding cups or homemade tapioca pudding or maybe rice pudding.