Cooking meals for your family...please help!

[Anonymous]

Hello. I am staying at home with my 8 month old joy. I think I am finally ready to start cooking real meals, rather than doing simmer sauces and taco kits every night. to the moms or dads who regularly cook for their families, would you please give me an idea of what your weekly menus look like? I can find recipes on-line, I'm just in desperate need of some ideas for menu planning!

My husband thanks you in advance!

[Anonymous]

Roast chicken and steamed green veggies are staples at my house many nights. There's a lemon oregano chicken with warm arugula and baby red potato salad on line at Martha Stewart that takes about 10 minutes prep time and an hour or so baking in the oven. Very simple and delicious.
http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/recipes/roasted_chicken_potatoes.html

There's a great crab cake recipe on Williams Sonoma as well, again very little prep time.
http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/crab-cake-salad.html

I do steak once a week. Again very easy. Salt and pepper, or nothing, and grill. Again with steamed veggies. Sometimes I'll add some sort of potato for husband, but I don't eat that.

And a pasta dish. Those prepackaged spinach and cheese tortellini are great with pesto, either store-bought or homemade, and a green salad.

[Anonymous]

Homemade pizza using Trader Joe's dough-in-a-bag. Add wine and salad.

Chili and salad.

Roast chicken, rice or polenta in the rice maker, salad or veggies.

Broiled shrimp (really quick!) + starch + veg.

Penne pasta tossed with braised broccoli, onions, garlic, tomatoes & sausage.

Pork loin roast.

Salmon fillets cooked in the microwave with a little olive oil spray, lemon and herbs.

[Anonymous]

(1) Peppers, onions, tomatoes, sauteed with garlic and crushed red pepper, add Tofurkey vegetarian Italian sausage, voila-- sausage and peppers.

(2) Saute spinach and mushrooms in olive oil, toss with pasta, add feta on top

(3) seared tuna. I get these from Harris Teeter for $6/lb and they cook in 5 minutes.

(4) dinner salads with some kind of protein

(5) vegetarian chili. I make it in advance.

(6) Baked Spaghetti squash served with either pasta sauce or a mixture of spring veggies plus Parmesian cheese

(7) Stir fry

Good side dishes: sweet potatoes with sour cream to dip; steamed broccoli; baked acorn squash; cous cous;

We still do the easy things like tacos, quesadillas, and simmer sauces or pre-made Indian sometimes.

[Anonymous]

If I was home all day I would do slow cooker/crock pot meals - so easy and many healthy ones out there. We do it a lot on the weekends.

My mom does a really easy and light chicken pot pie that is awesome and freezes really well - she makes them all the time for us - buy the premade frozen pie crusts, mix different frozen veggies (green beans, lima beans, carrots, peas, etc. are good) with a can of reduced sodium/low fat cream of celery soup, combine with cut up chicken and bake.

[Anonymous]

I like to do a chicken noodles soup and freeze some too. The kids really enjoy it.

My husband likes w/ bread and some salad.

[Anonymous]

I love to cook, but it took me a while after my twins were born to get back on track for meal planning. Here's what has helped me:

1. A well stocked freezer and pantry.
2. Planning weekly meals every Sunday. Dh travels and I work PT, so our schedules tend to vary from week to week. I plan meals to make sure i have leftovers the nights Dh will be out of town.
3. Grocery shop every week based on my meal plan for the week
4. Make double batches of pasta sauce, chili, casseroles, etc. to always have some back up plans in the freezer

Menu for this week is:
Monday- turkey taco casserole - prep night before, assemble and bake time 50 minutes
Tues - parmesan crusted flounder, rice, asparagus (fridge to table in 45 minutes)
Wed - tortellini and fresh veggies with marinara sauce
Thurs - leftovers
Friday - take out pizza night
Saturday - roast beef
Sunday - TBD

[Anonymous]

When you look up recipes online, do a search by the amount of time it takes to make the recipe. But as for the menu, it depends on your family's tastes. Just try to pick out ahead of time so you're not running to the store all the time.

Meat, chicken, fish with a steamed veggie with olive oil and some garlic are staples in my house...I like butternut squash, sweet potatoes, and green beans fresh. Keep lots of frozen bags of spinach.

When I have time I really like to make Asian/Thai food.

I try to make a few vegetarian meals as well. Indian lentils or carribean black beans.

Once in awhile I get really good cheese and we have it with crackers, olives, maybe some hard meats, etc.

I try to stay away from pasta because I always feel hungry afterward.

[Anonymous]

I am a working mom with a 3mos old and a 3.5yr old, and I cook a meal from scratch 6 nights a week. I have healthful fresh, quick meals down pat. Additionally, my nursing baby has an egg and dairy intolerance, so I cannot cook with those two ingredients, making it a bit of a challenge. Lucky for me I work from home, so I can do some meal prep in the middle of the day. I do not make this introduction to myself to be smug, just to serve as inspiration that with some planning and choosing of simple meals, it is possible to cook a good dinner each night.

I use the crockpot at least 2-3 nights a week-make this your friend. I also make a big pot of soup at least 2 nights a week.

To help keep me organized, I do my meal plan on a calendar, planning lunches and dinner, this makes it so that we do not have to go out to eat with 2 small children in a moment of desparation. Here is what dinner looks like this week:

-Easy Cassoulet with crusty bread-crockpot meal
-"fried" chicken with Salad (I pan fry the chicken in olive oil, coated with a panko mixture)
-Slow cooker lemon chicken-crockpot meal with Asparagus on the side
-Butternut Squash soup with crusty bread and avocado salad
-Japanese style Beef Curry with Rice and Salad-crockpot meal

To Save Time:

Luckily I do not work Mondays, this is my grocery day. I head ot the store with my list and when I get home, I "prep" all of the food I can. For instance, I wash all fruits and veggies. For broccoli heads, I wash, cut the florets off, and put them in a ziplock. Same for green peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, or anything else that can be prepped for the week. If a recipe called for cubed chicken, I debone and cut the chicken up and put in a bag for later use.

For emergency meals, I also have some freezer meals that I've made in bulk from a book called "Cooking for the Month". Most of these have dairy, so often these are just for my family while I eat something really boring.

**If you are planning on having more children, I suggest you get a system down now, because it does not get any easier with 2. I find that with 2, I simply cannot "wing" it any longer, because everything is so unpredictable now.

[Anonymous]

I followed my mom's lead and made a "master menu". It has 5 or 6 weeks of meals. When I made the menu, I tried to do a balance of different proteins for each week (chicken, pork, beef, seafood, meatless). About one meal a week has a starch (rice, pasta or potato), as starchy foods just bloat me. I also put the meals with more prep/cooking time on the weekends, ones that make good lunch leftovers early in the week, super quick on Thursday nights when DH goes out after dinner, etc. It has helped me space out our favorite meals so I don't get tired of them. DH would eat the same thing every week and be fine. I get bored easily and need variety in my dinner.

The menu also lists the major ingredients for each item, which helps me make my grocery list.

This week:
Spaghetti with marinara and shrimp
Meatloaf, broccoli
Chicken roasted w/ grape tomatoes and olives
"Mexican skillet", salad
Black bean soup, salad
Fish, snow peas
TBD

[Anonymous]

My menu this week.

Mon- Pasta with baked chicken, grape tomatoes, red onions, havarti cheese, brie cheese, salt, pepper, olive oil, touch of red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and fresh basil

Tues-Salmon marinated with Soy Vay Sauce, roasted asparagus

Wednesday-Stirfry with mixed presliced mushrooms, fresh broccoli, frozen stir fry vegetables and tofu. soy sauce and wasabi as sauce

Thurs- stuffed eggplant from America's test kitchen 30 minute meals

Friday-whole foods gorgonzola buffalo burgers and microwaved sweet potatoes

Saturday- Bolognese sauce from Marcella Hazan's cookbook. Phenomenal, but very time consuming.

[Anonymous]

I use washingtonsgreengrocer.com to deliver a variety of vegetables every week, and as it varies, so do our meals. And, we keep a lot of frozen meat (chicken and buffalo mostly) and pantry goods so we can improvise.

I love to cook, but things get busy. So, once or twice a week, I try to make something exciting and new, but for the middle of the week especially, I like things that don't require too much active time and that can be eaten as leftovers for another meal so that it doesn't become drudgery. Additionally, I always consider whether I can make extra to freeze for lunches or particularly busy nights when I just don't feel like cooking.

Some of our most common no-thinking meals:

Big salads with some kind of fruit and nuts, eggs, or grilled chicken or buffalo (often make extra on other days)

Pulled buffalo in the crockpot

Spice-rubbed meat of some sort with a starch and a green vegetable

Frittatas

Bean soups made in the crockpot with a ham bone and sometimes some canned pumpkin and often kale

Vegetable stews in the crockpot with a base of either chickpeas or squash

Pureed vegetable soups with a salad or a green vegetable as a side

Roasted chicken with some veggies of course

Pasta with a tomato-based sauce, often with onions, garlic and mushrooms and, occasionally, if I am feeling gluttonous, sausage

Home made pizzas

Stir-frys

Tacos

Chili

[Anonymous]

LOTSA chicken.

LOTSA pasta with pesto.

LOTSA sausage (they love it!!)

LOTSA eggs for dinner. Hey, it;s good for them.

Salmon once a week.

And I do soups they like...

[Anonymous]

This is a very helpful thread.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks to you all! This is so helpful. Also, my apologies for posting in the wrong place. I didn't realize that there was a whole Food forum.

My husband is as excited as I expected him to be. Now, I am off to the grocery store and the kitchen supply store.