I have been seriously menu-challenged for the past few weeks. Every day around 5:00 I get a sinking feeling in my gut. Darn, I did it again. I completely forgot that I am solely responsible for getting dinner on the table by 7:00. Grrrr. I hate it when that happens. Every.single.day.
What happened? I used to be so organized about meals, planning up to one month ahead of time. Oh well, no use analyzing what went wrong, I'm not really interested anyway. I just want a solution please and thank you.
What's the solution? The crockpot! But there's a problem there. I HATE cream of mushroom soup and any recipe that uses it. It's looks icky, smells icky, tastes icky, feels icky, and IS icky. So many crockpot recipes require cream of mushroom soup.
What's the solution? A Year of Crockpotting! This gal is a genius. She made a new year's resolution to cook in her crockpot for 365 days straight! She is on day 213. She posts the recipe that she cooked the day before, pictures and whether it was a success or a flop. The best part is......she doesn't use cream of mushroom soup! The second best part.....they cook gluten free! What a jackpot!
I sat myself down this morning to make up a menu for the next two weeks, based solely off of Stephanie's Crockpot recipes. There were tons to choose from, it didn't take me long at all to choose fourteen. I picked a bunch of asian and a bunch of mexican recipes. I am so excited to get started tomorrow.
I made up my grocery list and got everything I am going to need for the next two weeks. It felt so good to go in there with a plan this time instead of just winging it. I ended up saving about $50 off of what I have been spending on shopping trips the past two months or so. Having a menu plan really does save a good bit of money. I had to buy at least ten bottles of stuff like cooking sherry, sesame oil, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard, etc. And I still came in $50 less! I need to remember what a savings using a list is. I'm excited to see how much I'll save next pay period, now that my cupboard is stocked with ingredients.
So, I am going to post my menu through Sunday, and on Monday I'll post another week's worth of menus. Go check out A Year of Crockpotting!
Friday: A-1 and Dijon Steaks
Saturday: Salsa Chicken
Sunday: Roast chicken with potatoes and carrots (My own recipe)
Make sure to check back in on Monday to see what I'll be cooking for the next week!
7 comments:
wow, what a great write-up, thank you!
I'm so happy that I was able to be of some help to you and your family.
xox
steph
Very smart! I think I will need to start doing the same thing more often when (hopefully) we have more little ones (only one right now!). Thanks for the post.
You are kidding me.
I'm so excited. I love my crockpot! I'm headed right over to check it out! Thanks!
I cook in my crock pot all the time and I love the Crockpot365 blog. Also try the Fix It and Forget It Lightly cookbook. They have lighter recipes and many don't use cream soups. I've tried several and enjoyed them all.
Sounds like a really great solution for you! It will be nice to do it in the morning and not have it nag you all day. I'll bet your whole day is going to go better!
I love that crockpot blog you mentioned. Steph is my hero some evenings!
:)
Love your blog, too!
Can't live without my crock pot, it's a life saver!
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