No Recipe For You!

Lunch: Chicken Mac and Cheese
Dinner: Pork Chops with Stuffing and Salad

Ok, I have no recipe for you today. I’ve already given you both of today’s recipes and yesterday’s recipes. While I do try to come up with interesting and varied menus, I also tend to repeat favorites. Coming up with weekly menus is actually a lot of work. I came in with a fairly sizable repertoire of recipes, but when you’re cooking 9 meals a week, every week, even a sizable repertoire isn’t enough. You have to research new recipes (and yes, it require a lot of research) to find new ones that will fit a budget, be able to be made in bulk and be guy-friendly. When you’re planning menus, you also have to take into consideration what else you’re making that week (so you’re not making chicken for lunch and chicken for dinner or having potatoes three nights in a row), the ease of preparation (if I have to grill, then side dishes must be simple because the main dish takes so long to prepare. If I’m making something for lunch that requires prep the day before then I need to make sure the dinner the day before doesn’t take long to prepare so I can prep for the next day’s lunch) and how many people will be eating that day (things that are more expensive to make should be made on days when less people are eating). With all this, it can take me several hours to come up with a week’s menu and that doesn’t even include making my grocery list (which is usually 2 pages, single spaced). Well… I’ve just finished my menu and now I need to get together my list.