Comments on: A Seasonal Menu Plan

By: ChristineG

ChristineG — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:40:41 +0000

Fabulous post! I'm going to print this one out. I am a hopeless meal-planner...but now maybe I do see a tiny glimmer of hope.
Thanks so much for sharing your wisdom!

By: Nola

Nola — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:14:50 +0000

I basically have been working towards a hybrid of my old style (pick something for each day) vs. your style in your e-book, which is similar with some added ideas. Haven't had much time but hope to soon after we go away for a week. Its been a little crazy around here but I can't wait to finish my menu planning like how you described in your ebook!

By: Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home

Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:55:26 +0000

Mrs. Beers,
I've actually been planning on posting my tortilla recipe with a few photos of how I do it. This is a good reminder for me- thanks! Perhaps I'll get it up this week?

By: Mrs. Beers

Mrs. Beers — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:18:32 +0000

Have you posted your recipe for your tortillas? Would you be so kind to direct me to it if you have or post it if you haven't? I've tried I don't know how many recipes for tortillas and none of them are right.

By: Evelyn Wenzel

Evelyn Wenzel — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:42:39 +0000

I tried doing something similar to this in the past although slightly more complicated. I set up "types" or "groups" of similar recipes (6 I think with one being lunch or quick light dinner ideas with twice as many recipes as the other five), but didn't necessarily assign them to a day and then picked out 5 recipes for each group. Then as I went along I would date my chart when I used the recipe. My goal was to have more choices than days of the month and then at the end of the month I would copy the previous months chart and then erase any I had previously used and move ones that were waiting and not yet used to the top of the chart for sooner consideration later. This worked well for me for many reasons: 1) a lot of variety 2) fluid weekly planning (with only 2 people we often eat off of a dish at least 2 days so it's hard to say that Mondays will be this, Tuesdays will be this etc.) Instead at the begining of the week I would pick out what was sounding good (3 or 4 recipes), get what I needed to make them and then make them as needed and in order of produce that needed using quickly and/or what we feel like eating. Then if we had guests over and used up ideas more quickly I had a further back up arsenal or if we ended up going over to someone elses house for dinner or going out to meet someone I didn't end up with too much food at home that was going bad. In the end it was a lot of time at the beginning of the month to set it all up and got pushed aside. Also, when we found a CSA to join it became increasingly difficult (which probably just means that I needed to build in more repetition). I've been trying to decide how to handle menu planning in the future (I've not been doing too badly for flying by the seat of my pants lately) and am thinking maybe a hybrid of the above style and my previous setup would work best for us. Basically instead of revising it every month I would be revising just once a season, but I would have more recipes than I could use in any one given month and not assign days to the groups for more flexibility and so that there's even a little more variation than repeating all the recipes one time for each month...if that makes any sense

By: kate

kate — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:05:46 +0000

Good luck with the diet meal plan- we know how tricky that can be! Ryan's diet sounds like one we did awhile back- Wild Rose Detox (it's a candida-fighting diet). There's a recipe book you can get (though I'm sure many recipes are online) and it has some good ones, like the risotto (using zucchini for the 'creamy' texture). Also the Eat Clean diet has some good ones, but probably not as accomodating to this specific diet (includes recipes with vinegar, etc). Lindsay (Passionate Homemaking)has a great recipe called Pasta Presto (my kids hate peppers, but they eat them in this dish) that packs as much flavour as sauce, but uses sausage, peppers, feta and olives. I've made it without the olives or without feta and it's still yummy.We use brown rice pasta.

By: Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home

Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:26:44 +0000

E.E., I like a lot of variety, too. That's why I don't normally do my meal planning like this. However, I think that the one-month rotation will help, as we won't be repeating many meals within a one month span. Guess we'll see what I think at the end of 3 months, but I think it will be so helpful while being on a restrictive diet!

Also, you could always decide to try a couple new recipes each month and just mix them in among the regulars, to try to keep a little more variety in there. I bet I'll end up doing that at some point.

By: The Cottage Comtesse @ River Rock Cottage

The Cottage Comtesse @ River Rock Cottage — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 15:23:21 +0000

The recipes sound fabulous! And I love the variety. Don't you love it when you come back from retreat and you are not only energized, but you have tangible things to put into practice?

By: Shannon

Shannon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:49:03 +0000

Good Morning:) So glad you had some very nice personal time. It is so important and refreshing, isnt it?! You have a couple of new recipes for me which I'll be trying - thank you for sharing!

By: E.E.

E.E. — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:05:30 +0000

I too can relate to the seeming hours of unproductive menu planning - - plan one meal, stand staring into the pantry for 20 minutes looking for inspiration, plan two meals, stare out the window for 10 minutes... I really think maybe I should give this a try! My only caveat... Monotony. Does anyone who does this find they get bored of the same meals over and over? We like LOTS of VARIETY! Does the one-month rotation help keep it fresh? How many months do you rotate your menu plan for?

Thanks as always, Stephanie, for your great ideas and insight. :]