4 week recipe rotation

4 week Recipe Rotation

I love to cook but my true passion (besides God!) is my family!  I love seeing them happy & one of the easiest ways to do that is to feed them delicious (& healthy) food!  I get that warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart when my Hubby & our girlies like what Mommy has made & when we are all eating together!  Family dinner is a very special thing in our family & we all look forward to being together at the end of the day!  I have always felt this way  but I cherish our family dinners even more so now because for the last 3 years my Hubby's regular work hours brought him home around 8 pm every night.  Our girlies & I made the best of the situation & we loved our time together but we reeeeeeally missed having Daddy there!  According to them, even though, "we love you very much Mommy, it just isn't the same without Daddy!"  : )  I am SO incredibly grateful to God that my Hubby now has a job that brings him home to us in time to have family dinner together every night of the week!  YAY!  So, because I love my family so much & I really enjoy cooking good food for them, I wanted a way to make it easier & more of a joy!  I can't tell you how many times I have stood in front of my pantry frantically saying to myself, "What should I make for dinner?!  UGH, why didn't I start this sooner!?".......at FIVE o'clock!  YIKES!  Not the best way to plan & certainly not the best way to bless my family & honor God in my call to be the keeper & organizer of my home!   I think I have finally found a way to be organized & bless my family in my meal planning.  Hopefully, this will also help us to be more prepared so we can be more flexible & spontaneous in our hospitality & caring for others too!

There are certainly many ways to do this but I'm going to try this method for the next month & see how we like it.  I decided to have a different theme for every night of the week & then I chose 4 meals that we already like or new ones that I think we will like for each theme.  This was an extremely easy way to end up with an entire month's worth of meals! I printed each recipe out onto card stock with the recipe on the front & every ingredient I will need to buy for that meal, including condiments, on the back of the card & then I laminated it.  Since I will be using this set of recipes for the next month & will rotate them again in the future, it was worth the little bit of extra work to me.  I put all 4 (you can do as many ahead of time as you would like!) of the Monday cards in the Monday section of my recipe file & so on for the rest of the week.  I put them in the order that I think I want to use them keeping in mind that if Monday's recipe has a lot of ingredients & might be a little more expensive, I will choose a more simple & inexpensive recipe for Tuesday & so on.  I picked a good mix of simple vs complicated & inexpensive vs expensive for the week.  After I'm done preparing that nights' meal, I will rotate that recipe card to the back of that section.  So, if I make "Beef & broccoli stir-fry" on the first Monday of the month, I will then rotate it to the back of the Monday section so that the next time I look in my Monday section to plan for grocery shopping & then again when I go to prepare dinner the next Monday, the next recipe which is "Asian chicken tenders & pot stickers or spring rolls", will be right in front & ready to use!  Having all of my Monday recipes together (& so on) will keep me organized & it gives me the flexibility to chose another recipe from that section if I decide I don't want to make what is "next" on that night.  I'm sure there will be nights that we just spontaneously decide that we want what we are "supposed" to have 3 nights from then & I will have plenty to choose from!  Although some of the recipes in each category are very similar, we will only be having one from each category every week.  So, even though Scoopie & Taco casserole are almost the same thing, it will be at least a week or more in between the two & at least a month until we make that exact recipe again.  Hopefully, this will be a total blessing to our family!

I have started a rotation to involve my 3 older girls in making dinner.  Gratefully, they are so excited & really love to be in the kitchen with me!  I'm going to let my little Ava help when there are things that she can do because even though she just turned 3, she asks to help Mommy in the kitchen all the time!  Also, since my little Anibella is completely mobile now, she gets curious & wonders what's so exciting about being in the kitchen!  She follows Mommy & her sissies into the kitchen & stands up to hold onto my leg to try to see what we're all doing!  It's so cute & I think she wants to learn to cook like all of her sissies too!  : )  (Hopefully that old saying about too many cooks spoiling the food won't apply here because there are always a bunch of us in there!) I have already taught my big girls to make one of their favorite meals so I have organized it so that their favorite meal falls on the night that they help make dinner.  Here is how that will work.......

Sunday ~  Amy
Monday ~  Abby
Tuesday ~  Amy     
Wednesday ~  Ashley
Thursday ~ Miss Becca (babysitter)
Friday ~ Abby
Saturday ~ Ashley


Monday ~ Oriental

 Beef & broccoli stir-fry

• 1 & ½ pound beef flank steak
• 2 cups broccoli florets
• Soy sauce
• Fresh garlic
• Grated gingerroot
• Hoisin sauce
• Cornstarch
• Crushed red pepper flakes
• Peanut or veggie oil 

 Asian chicken tenders & pot stickers or spring rolls

• Boneless & skinless chicken breast 1 pound/about 3 breasts
• Soy sauce
• Honey
• Ground ginger
• Garlic powder
• Progresso PANKO crispy breadcrumbs
• Sweet & sour sauce
• Frozen potstickers or spring rolls
• rice

 Sweet & sour chicken stir-fry

• Bisquick
• Pepper
• Eggs
• Veggie oil
• Carrots
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 onion
• 1 can pineapple chunks
• Sweet & sour sauce
• rice

Asian chicken & noodles

• Boneless & skinless chicken breast
• 8 ounces Fettuccine noodles
• 16 ounces frozen or 5 cups fresh stir fry veggies
• Mushrooms
• Hoisin sauce 

Tuesday ~ Italian

Lazy lasagna

• Rotini noodles
• 16 ounce Ricotta cheese
• 16 ounce Mozzarella cheese
• Parmesan cheese
• Spaghetti sauce
• Loaf of Italian bread
• Fresh garlic
• butter

Spaghetti & meat sauce/meat balls & garlic bread

• Spaghetti noodles
• Spaghetti sauce
• Diced tomatoes
• Tomato paste
• Parmesan cheese
• Ground beef OR frozen meatballs
• Loaf of Italian bread
• Fresh garlic
• butter

Pizza

• Pizza dough
• Spaghetti sauce
• Shredded Mozzarella cheese
• Pepperoni
• Black olives
• mushrooms

Ravioli & meatballs in Alfredo sauce

• Frozen ravioli
• Frozen meatballs
• Alfredo sauce
• Loaf of Italian bread
• Fresh garlic
• butter

Wednesday ~ Crock pot

Shredded chicken & rice

• Boneless & skinless chicken breast
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 box chicken stock
• Rice

 Beef stew

• 1 pound beef stew meat
• 1 medium onion
• 1 bag baby carrots
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 12 small red potatoes
• Stew seasoning packet

Potato cheesy soup

• 1 bag (32 ounce) bag of southern-style hash browns
• 1 box chicken stock
• Flour
• Milk
• Shredded American cheese 1 cup
• Shredded Cheddar cheese 1 cup
• Bacon bits
• Sour cream

Tortilla soup

• 1 pound boneless & skinless chicken breast
• Onion
• Diced tomato
• Fresh garlic
• Cilantro
• Sour cream
• Shredded cheese
• Chicken stock
• Avocado
• Corn tortillas

Thursday ~ Kid Food (with Miss Becca/Daddy & Mommy on date) 

Chicken nuggets & French fries

• Chicken nuggets
• Frozen French fries

Frozen pizza & tater-tots

• Frozen pizza
• Tater-tots

Mac & cheese & hot dogs

• Mac & cheese
• Milk
• Butter
• Hot dogs
• Mustard
• Ketchup

Cheese quesadillas on the griddle & rice

• Soft tortillas
• Shredded cheese
• Sour cream
• Salsa
• Rice

Friday ~ Mexican

Tacos/Scoopie

• Ground beef
• Taco seasoning
• Rice
• Sour cream
• Shredded cheese
• Tomatoes
• Salsa
• Black olives
• Black beans
• Soft tortillas or taco shells
• Tortilla chips
• Cilantro

Mexican chicken & rice

• Boneless & skinless chicken breast
• Taco seasoning
• Rice
• Sour cream
• Sliced Monterey jack cheese
• Salsa
• Black olives
• Cilantro

Taco casserole

• Ground beef
• Bag of tortilla chips
• Taco seasoning
• Taco sauce
• Rice
• Sour cream
• Shredded cheese
• Black olives
• Black beans
• Cilantro

Chicken Enchiladas

• Boneless & skinless chicken breast
• Red enchilada sauce 
• Rice
• Sour cream
• Shredded cheese
• Tomatoes
• Salsa
• Black olives
• Black beans
• Soft tortillas   
• Cilantro

Saturday ~ American

Tater-tot casserole

• Ground beef
• Cream of mushroom soup
• Tater-tots
• Shredded cheese

Homemade chicken pot pie

• Boneless & skinless chicken breast
• Pie crust
• Frozen veggies
• Potatoes
• Milk
• Flour
• Butter

Baked Potatoes & broccoli & corn on the cob

• Baking potatoes
• Sour cream
• Butter
• Bacon bits
• Broccoli
• Corn on the cob

Hamburgers & French fries

• Ground beef
• Beef seasoning
• Hamburger buns
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Pickles
• Mustard
• Ketchup
• Mayonnaise
• Frozen French fries
• (Charcoal)

Sunday ~ Breakfast

Chocolate Chip Pancakes & sausage & eggs

• Pancake mix
• Chocolate chips
• Link sausage
• Eggs
• Milk
• butter

Breakfast Scramblers or Burritos

• Eggs
• Soft tortillas
• Bacon or sausage or hot dogs
• Shredded cheese
• Tater-tots
• Milk

Belgian Waffles with strawberries & whipped cream & bacon

• Waffle mix
• Frozen strawberries
• Sugar
• Frozen or canned whipped cream
• Bacon or sausage

Sausage pigs in a blanket & scrambled eggs & hash browns

• Link sausage
• Crescent rolls
• Eggs
• Milk
• Hash browns

So, go enjoy your amazing Hubby & the precious little ones that God has given you!  Remember, your organizational tools are supposed to help make your life easier & be a blessing to you!  They are not a set of rules to make you more anxious or make things more difficult!  If what you are doing isn't working, try something new!  The point is to do what is best for you & your family!  Happy meal planning, family loving & homemaking!  : )