July 3rd - July 9th Menu

I didn't make any of the recipes I'd planned last week. Instead, I ate leftovers and miscellaneous things from my freezer and fridge. My poor freezer was bulging with food so I made reducing it's contents and cleaning it a priority. It worked out well and I had plenty of time for more important things.

The next couple of weeks at work will be hectic. We had one person give notice last week then not return for her remaining shifts so there's been some scrambling to fill those. I love that we're down a person and it's Fourth of July weekend. And the boss is going on vacation next week so we'll be down two people that week. The good news is we're training a new person. I don't think she'll be ready to work alone for awhile so we'll just have to muddle through all this the best we can and try to maintain our sanity.

I'm very nervous and a little excited about starting back to college. I haven't been in over 20 years so I'm not sure what to expect but people I know in similar situations have told me it's much better later in life. I hope that's true. To help with my lack of basic math skills, I've been working my way through a textbook and workbook and using the videos at Khan Academy. Sal has a way of presenting difficult concepts in such a way that they're a little less difficult and his vision of a quality education for all is pretty impressive!

Okay, so on to the menu for this week. I work tonight so I'm taking a simple meal of turkey, swiss cheese, avocado and tomato on half a whole grain ciabatta roll and a few bell pepper strips with jalapeno ranch dressing.

The rest of the week I'll have, in no particular order:

Grilled or broiled NY strip steak with steamed asparagus and buttered red potatoes

Rosemary chicken with zucchini and red potatoes served with a salad

Chunky vegetable hash (South Beach recipe) with a scrambled egg

Beef brisket with Vegetables Alfredo over a little Dreamfields pasta

Leftover night, when I eat whatever is lingering in the fridge

Dinner out one night

I've received a few emails lately with questions about how I keep track of my menu for the week. Well, since I cook for just myself more often than not, it's no big deal if I vary things and prepare a meal not on my menu. However, since the menus are thoughtfully prepared with my blood sugar goals in mind I try to stick with what's on the menu and to do that, I need the menu where I can easily find it. So, I looked at a lot of different forms and picked the second one from The Project Girl. I don't care if I eat steak on Monday or Thursday or chicken on Tuesday or Saturday as long as I have the menu easily accessible. And it is. It's posted on my fridge each Sunday and here's this week's.

Meals are listed on the left and a shopping list is on the right. When the new week's menu is ready I put the old one in a binder so I can refer to it later for meal ideas. I've used this system for several months and really like it.

Join Laura and the crew for Menu Plan Monday and share what's on your menu for the week.

And have a great Fourth of July!