Menu Making ~ Part 1

I am getting ready to do our two week grocery list. I say two weeks, but I really try to make it last between the times we get paid. I get paid once a month and Klint gets paid every other Friday, basically two weeks. I tried to start doing menus when we first got married and did pretty good with sticking to it (for awhile), but when we first go married Klint was the only one working and I was in my masters program so we were kind of stuck to the center aisles for the things we could afford. I tell a story about one time when Klint was in his second tax season he called and asked me what was for dinner. We had a pound of hamburger meat (it was fairly cheap) and a box of Great Value shells and cheese (couldn't afford the real stuff). I threw the two together in a pot and called it "Tax Season Surprise." It was a hit with Klint and I thought it was tasty too. I like to tell the story to remind myself of how things used to be and where we are now. I still make Tax Season Surprise, but we have more money now so I can chop up onion and put that in it...he he!

From my menus I make my grocery list. I will do a post about that later. When I get ready to do my menus I think about several things.

1. What does Sophie like to eat? This was never an issue when it was just Klint and I. I will eat just about anything (except lima beans and butter beans) and Klint will eat anything (except maybe brussel sprouts). Sophie is our picky one. She didn't start out that way. She would, at one point, eat whatever we put in front of her. Now she is a carb aholic. Loves bread, noodles, rice and all things carbs. She is a cheese muncher, any kind will do. She is also a junk food craver (not that we have too much junk food in the house). So, all of these factors do pose a challenge. She also loves to change the rules on us (what child doesn't?). She will love broccoli at one dinner and then hate it the next. She will want nothing but tomatoes at dinner and then not touch them the next night. I refuse to be one of those parents that makes two different meals every night. That is why it is so important to try to factor in something that she will eat.

2. What is something healthy that will not make Klint's blood sugar rise? I often think about the year right after Klint and I were married and how unhealthy we ate, but really it was all we could afford. We ate everything canned (sometimes frozen veggies if they were cheap). We ate a lot of hamburger meat because it went along way and was cheap. We ate a lot of Hamburger Helper (once again, cheap!) We just didn't eat healthy. I often wonder what we would have done had Klint been diagnosed with diabetes during that time. The cost of medicines is huge. The cost of healthy eating is expensive and I honestly thank God that he waited to put that on us. We would have made it, but it definitely wouldn't have been easy.

All that being said, we do things to help Klint and in turn it helps me and Sophie. I don't use a lot of canned vegetables unless it is in soups or casseroles and then I try to find low sodium or the Campbell's Healthy Request as pictured below.  We eat brown rice. OKAY, I admit sometimes I have a weakness and eat white rice, but it is rare and only with certain things like stir fry. We eat whole wheat bread. That is a fairly new thing. I would always get White Wheat, but I am just not convinced that it is as good for you as regular whole wheat. We also eat whole wheat pasta when we can. I wrote a little about that in a previous post. You can see it here. As far as meat, I try to avoid a whole lot of pork because of cholesterol. We eat a lot of chicken and the occasional dinner with fish. I'll try to do a more specific post on diabetic cooking and diabetes later.

These are two cans I had in the pantry that I used the other night. Great Value also has the same thing and much cheaper!

3. What is EASY? Isn't easy the name of the game? I love easy! I love cooking in one dish! I love my crockpot! (I wish I had a shirt that said that.) I use it like two or three times a week! I love casseroles! I love things that you throw together and it comes out tasting like a million bucks! Pinterest has been super helpful in that. (I know! Enough with the Pinterst!) I also love Kraft Recipes! Kraft offers a two week menu.  I don't use these because they often have like frozen pizza night and I try to do avoid things like that. They offer diabetic recipes. The ingredients for their recipes are healthy and inexpensive. They do ask for you to use a lot of Kraft products, but you can substitute. They also have a feature where you type in what you have and it pulls up different recipes. I also love that when you find a bunch of recipes you can add them to a shopping list and it makes your grocery list! AMAZING!!!

4. Will it taste good? Another story time: Klint is such a good husband and this story is the proof! We got catfish fillets on sale one time (right after we were married) and I didn't want to fry them because a: I was trying to be healthy and b: I didn't know how to fry fish (and still don't!). I found a recipe for Dijon Catfish Fillets. Don't say it....looking back now the title in itself should have given me a clue, but being young and inexperienced, I made it. The smell was unbearable, but I soldiered on and baked it!!! Klint came home and was so sweet. He didn't say a word about the smell. He just acted eager to try it. I pulled it out and it looked like moldy fish. It was yellow with brown spots from the oven and I wish I could even describe the smell....nothing has compared since! I put it on the table and dished it up. Klint ate it and I tried. I gagged with every bite. Finally, I just asked Klint, "Why are you still eating this??? It is horrible!" He said, "Well, I didn't want to say anything, but it is pretty awful!" We laughed and tried to give it to the dog. He wouldn't come near it! That was one of the sweetest things to me that he tried to eat it even though it was the worst. We ended up having DQ Blizzards for dinner that night! So much for being healthy, huh?

Mine did not look this good!

When I look at a recipe the first question I ask is, "Does it have dijon mustard in it?" He he! Not really, but I do run over the ingredients. Anything that I might have to buy for just one recipe and never use again I usually steer clear of. Like recipes with curry are a big NO because I will never use the curry again and we don't like curry! I also try to find things that will produce leftovers. Klint takes his lunch to work and I try to when I can. We also have leftover nights at our house at least once a week. So leftovers are a must.

That is pretty much the basics of my menu making. I will post my menu for the next two weeks sometime tomorrow night with the links to the recipes. If I don't have a recipe for it (something I just know off my head) I will try to get that posted too. Just give me some time to work the kinks out! Happy reading (and eating!)