Menu Planning Again

Menu planning worked pretty well last week, so I'm going to try it again this week. I have a couple of carry-over from last week. I also have a couple of pantry-based dinners for this week, in case life happens and I have to move something around. Menu planning only with fresh food would leave me with food wasted in the fridge, which is not exactly the point.

I had a brainstorm, which probably isn't unique to me, that I should keep something ready-to-go in the freezer. I can leave an opening in the plan, and fill it with the freezer meal, if I have something ready to slide into the plan. I need to clear out my freezer a little more before I do that, so in the meantime I'll combine Operation Food Clutter with menu planning and just push things back if I need to.

In case you're curious (I'm sure you are!) this week we will be eating:

Saturday: Black bean soup, salad, cornbread
Sunday: Dinner at Mom's
Monday: 10 Spice Veg Soup that I didn't get to make last week, but we love it!
Tuesday: Spaghetti
Wednesday: Tea: Sweet Potato Bites, Spanikopita, cream cheese tea sandwiches, and shortbread cookies out of the pantry
Thursday: wagon wheel pasta (barbecue sauce, pasta, beans, cheddar cheese)
Friday: make pizza at home

I went grocery shopping again. Fewer stores, but I still was out for three hours. I hope I can cut it down in the future, but it still has to be less than running out to the store several times a week. Most weeks I won't need to go to both Target and Costco.

We took down Christmas decor, and we got rid of a small box of decorations no one loved. At the end of the day, we really no longer wanted the silver garland, or the trees in the kids' bedrooms. Next year we'll decorate their rooms differently. The ornaments they didn't want (and that were homemade, and not really donate-able) were cycled into decorations for gifts. We'll add pompoms or flowers to gifts this year, in lieu of bows, and hopefully those will be passed on. I'm trying to make good use of the things that can't be donated. My problem is that I am then collecting these things in the time between when I decide to declutter then and when I actually move them out of the house.