Thinking it Through

I've been working this morning on thinking it through.  What I mean is, imagining how I'm going to use my food items from start to finish.  I bought a pork roast and a large roasting hen on my last shopping trip and both of those items are more than one meal for my family.  We all know that we should be saving and eating leftovers but what I'm trying to do is more than that.  If you read my menu you will notice that we had roast pork and rice and gravy one night and pork fried rice the next.  Not an accident.  Tuesdays are busy for me so on Monday I roasted my pork and made two and a half times more rice than I needed.  Rice is dirt cheap and keeps well so I always make lots but this time I had a specific plan in mind.  Tuesday night all I had to do is pull out my wok and chop my pork and dinner was ready.  My chicken will be roasted tomorrow and after we eat all we want I will have enough to shred for quesadillas and bones with dark meat to freeze and then boil for soup.  Now, that said, I am just not one of those people who can cook all day on Saturday and have freezer meals for the week.  If you are, that's awesome.  I'm not.  For one thing, my family is not really into casseroles.  You will probably notice that there are rarely any on my menu.  My husband and my son just don't like their food mixed together.  For another, now that Caleb is in school Saturday is really the only day we all have together.  I would hate to spend all of it in the kitchen.  Besides, we'd starve during football season.  What does work for me is taking a little extra time on Monday, Thursday and Friday to help me deal with Tuesday and the weekend.  I hope you will look at your family's schedule and pay attention to what nights you have a little extra time and what nights you have no time at all.  Getting into the habit of building your menu around the rhythm of your family life will help you stick to your plans.  To help you get started, here is a list of things I always double up on and store the difference.

rice
pasta
veggies
biscuit dough
breakfast breads
rolls

Let me know what works for you!!