Notes from My Kitchen...

Regina's posts with tag: menu planning

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Week 12-18 November 2007

Nov 13, '07 7:38 PM
for everyone

I have been really lazy at the beginning of this week. I suppose it's because I had too much fun on the weekend. Thus, this laziness continues Anyway, it does not mean that we have to eat out everyday. There are a lot of prepared meat at the butcher and those help a lot to shorten the preparation time in the kitchen. Nowadays, there are a lot of healthier added value items from the supermarkets and the butchers. Nowadays, they offer products with health claim such as low fat, low salt, gluten free and so on depending on your need.

My meal plan may not be the healtiest of the meal choices but once in a while is alright. Don't get too stress out about our diet. We need to enjoy our life too. Seriously!!!

For sure, there will be no picture taken this week. I still have a lot of photos waiting to be editted. Geez... need more spare hours in a day!!! I don't want added hours in a day tho...

Here are my week dinner meals...

Monday - McDonald’s Apple Pie and Soft Serve Cone

Broken Rice with Pork Chop, Fried Egg and Vermicelli from Vietnamese Restaurant

Note: This dish is very nice eventhoug it might use cheap rice. The packet was also very cheap as I had half portion for dinner and the other half was for lunch.

Tuesday - Assorted Chicken Sausages from Lenard’s and salad

Note: The sausages were very salty but may be alright with bread. The least salty sausage was the plain chicken sausage but it didn't have much flavour.

Beneran asin banget!!!

Wednesday- Chicken Breast Snitschel from Linden Butcher (modified to Parmigiana) and salad

Note: The snitschel was very nice. I had to cut them into two due to their size. I deep fried them in hot oil, no more oil spray. It's apparently easier to cook and took shorter time. Then, I put some tomato sauce and a slice of tasty cheese. Grill them until the cheese melted.

Thursday - Chicken Enchilada from Lenard’s and Tomato Salad

Friday - Beef Patties with fresh salad

Tags: weekly menu, menu planning, menu, vegetable, meat

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Behind the Weekly Menu Plan

Oct 17, '07 12:15 AM
for everyone

I have been making and applying weekly menu plans to help me preparing dinners. I have found that the plans are helpful in a way to restrict my spending at the supermarket and to be more time efficient in the kitchen. My plans are of course still far from perfection or not really designed like the professionals.

But hey, I think my plans are still functioning (sometimes with some changes) and answer my husband’s daily questions “What’s for dinner tonight?”. My reply sometimes just a short answer, chicken or whatever I have in the freezer. Then, he would ask me further what sort. That is why I decided to re-start the menu plan again.

There are benefits by having a plan

- We will know what to buy at the supermarket and thus,

- We will stick to the budget (hopefully no impulse buying),

- We will be in track with dinner time and

- We can utilise the cookbooks too!

When I browsed the internet for the tips, hints etc, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of websites providing the info. I need to get convinced that the plan is really useful and not just a waste of time. Here are some of them from other sources and from my experience that I practically adopt them to keep my menu plan working.

Keep it simple – as long as we know what to cook and what to shop, that’s enough. The dishes do not have to be boring or repeated after two week. Look at the cookbooks or other recipes in the net for variety. Use word processor or spread sheet as it will be easier to change the list and keep the list neat and tidy.

Be flexible – change the ingredients at the last minute is perfectly fine. We may not be able to find certain ingredients due to the supply or the season. If you have knowledge on seasonal produce, apply it. Some meat or vegetables are interchangeable so change it when the produce is on sale. Get nice ready to use seasonings or spice blends/mixes, tinned or frozen ingredients as these will cut down the preparation time. Some chefs have the firm belief to use only fresh ingredients but hey, not everybody has time to prepare from scratch.

Keep track the inventories – there are times that we have dinner at a restaurant or have a take away when the time does not permit for us to cook. I realised after one month that I have enough frozen meat for the following week.

Adjust the menu according to the situation of the day – if the menu has been set for a couple of weeks, see the inventories before creating a new plan. If we have made some frozen foods as a stock for busy days, make sure that we do not forget them. Reminder from Irene, move the plan of the day to another day if we cannot make it today.

Menu management – if we make some dishes that require long preparation time, it would be better to prepare the food on non busy days such as on weekends for the following day or keep them in the freezer for future use. My husband and I usually bring lunch and pretty much the same as dinner. I need to make sure that the foods can still be enjoyed for the following day after reheating in the microwave. For example, I do not normally cook beef steak on weekdays. Adjust the quantity depending on how many meals to make.

Be diligent or make it as part of our life – sometimes it is hard to start a new menu because of many reasons. If there is no time to create a new menu, recycle the old menu.

I hope this sharing is useful . If you want to find more about how to do, just browse the net.

Sources:

- Own experience (no. 3, 4 and 5)

- Fixing Dinner by Sandi Richards

- Other how to make menu plan websites (most of them have similar contents anyway)

Tags: tips, weekly menu, menu planning

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Weekly Menu 24-30 Sep 07

Sep 30, '07 6:19 AM
for everyone

Another week has gone by and I start having problem in creating a menu for the following week. It seems that my brain just got stuck with the same foods. I had to open my cooking books to get the inspirations but at least those books are being used instead of just sitting on the shelves. I still have yet to include some Indonesian dishes in the menu

Just another challange, right?

Here are the dishes for this week.

Monday - Fried Udon with Chicken and Vegetables
Tuesday - Pork Braised in Sweet Soy Sauce and Stir Fry Chinese Cabbage with Garlic

Note: The dish is nice with a touch of five spice powder.

Wednesday - Portuguese Style Yellow Rice and Pan Fried Chicken

Note: The chicken was supposed to be marinated with Nando's sauce but I couldn't get it from the supermarket on the grocery day.

Thursday - Fetucinne Carbonara with Pancetta and Cos Lettuce Salad

Note: Pancetta please... not bacon.

I used a mixture of low fat evaporated milk and low fat cream for the sauce.

Friday - Beef Quesadilla with Tomato Salsa and Chili

Note: The dish is a very healthy combo meal. It has a lot of vegetables, high in protein and low in fat.

Saturday - Left over quesadilla for lunch and dinner... man... the quantity was apparently a lot and... left over fetucinne carbonara. Sunday - Canelloni with Chicken and Tomato Sauce for lunch (my in law cooked this and the food was really nice.) and Tortellini with Bolognese Sauce, Grana Padano and Crispy Hungarian Salami for dinner.

Attachment: Week 24-30 Sep 07.doc

Tags: menu, meat, vegetable, weekly menu, menu planning, grocery list, shopping plan

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Mother's Day Lunch Menu

May 12, '07 7:37 AM
for everyone

It's a Mother's Day on 13 May 2007 in Australia. Well, I don't celebrate this Hallmark day in my family but yeah, my husband's family somehow celebrates this kind of day.

My opinion is that the Mother's day doesn't have to be a special allocated day like that. The attention and the love have to be shown on any day. It's kind of ridiculous now that the day becomes commercialised.

Anyway, it's still a good day to practise my culinary skills . My plan is to cook some simple food and nice. The menu is as the following:

Scotch Fillet Steak with Garlic and Butter Sauce served with Sauteed Spinach

Grilled Chicken with Garlic, Chilli and Ginger (for Ma in Law coz she doesn't like beef that much) served with Sauteed Spinach

Puff Pasty Pillow with Strawberry Chunks and Vanilla Ice Cream

PS: Recipes and photos will be posted later.

Tags: menu, menu planning

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Weekly Menu

May 12, '07 7:02 AM
for everyone

It's end of the week again. It's the time to up-date the menu list. I'm still trying to group the food types so I can prepare them ahead but not to saturate my appetite.

Last week was a busy time for both of us and we came home pretty late most of the days. So... as expected, I wouldn't be able to follow the third week list. I still have some of the ingredients for that week in the freezer and it's the time to make those meals this week *well, I hope so*

Surprise... surprise... I still managed to bake 2 times at night. The first one was the Coconut Macadamia Cookies from Ci Irma's recipe with a mild twist and the Chocolate Chunk Cookies using Culinary Institute of America. How can you resist cookies?

From this week, I will post the subsequent weekly menu in this blog. Please feel free to peek into the list.

Attachment: Week 3.doc
Attachment: Week 4.doc

Tags: menu, menu planning, shopping plan, grocery list, weekly menu

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