I’ve started a new ritual: Finish-Up Friday. The intention is that I’ll finish projects and tasks that are languishing. Since I’ve got too much stuff on my plate, my goal was to remove some tasks from it by finishing them up. I was able to get a lot of sewing done yesterday and was eagerly looking forward to another amazingly productive day. Alas, it was not as productive. I’m having some trouble with my homework. I’ll write about it over on Grandma’s Sewing Cabinet when I get it worked out.
The bright spot in the day, however, was dinner. I know…it is sad when that is my highlight. And the reason it was my highlight was because of how easily it went together thanks to the meal planning guides from both Betty Crocker and Better Homes & Garden. I simply plugged in food using the Betty Crocker chart, used the Better Home & Gardens list to give me ideas and this is the outcome:
Appetizer or Soup: Skipped
Meat and Potatoes: Braised chicken breasts and mashed potatoes with gravy (Groups 3 and 5)
Green or Yellow Vegetables: Green beans with butter (Groups 1 and 7)
Salad (Raw Vegetable): Cabbage and Carrots lightly mixed with mayo and sour cream (this satisfied Group 2 because we are out of citrus)
Fruit: Tropical blend, thawed (designed for smoothies), mixed with cottage cheese (Groups 3 and 4)
Bread and Butter: Skipped bread (Group 6) but had the butter on the beans.
Dessert: The fruit and cottage cheese provided enough sweetness that dessert wasn’t needed.
So, we had six out of the seven groups with dinner. Because of the variety, dinner felt special even though it was very easy to prepare and we noticed that we could cut down on the serving sizes (I had only given us about 2 oz. each of the chicken).
Great! You are putting your research to use. And is the Betty Crocker plan based on the Basic 7 Food Chart? And going without a dedicated dessert — that’s really over and above in my book.
I note you’re taking a day to finish projects. I have started so many projects — none of which can be finished in a day. My idea is to make these projects my work and allow myself one day a week to have fun with some quickie project. But — I probably wouldn’t finish it and it would just be one more thing on the bed of unfinished dreams.
Sounds delicious!! And thats for the last post too. It is just such an ordeal to cook for a small family to get just one meal out of it, with the dishes, prep, clean-up, etc – it makes so much sense to at least double every meal that involves prep and cooking – why has it taken me so long to discover ‘feeding the freezer’???