Meal Planning With OCD (Cookbook Edit)

I organize everything by months and seasons. That becomes harder when things overlap. Meal planning for dinner is particularly hard. It's gotten harder. Zach has gotten some testosterone. I know, he's still 8 and it's started! That means his taste buds are changing.

We are currently on the "Fall and Spring Transition" menu pictured below. We aren't fully ready to grill everything. But, I'm not making baked potatoes anymore either. We have a George Foreman grill. That means we can make the burgers inside.

The last time I made a year round menu Zach was four. It's time to redo it. I have some new recipes mixed with tried and trues. I am also bringing back old favorites. A welcome return for me is Good Housekeeping the magazine.

When we got married in 2004 I subscribed to Good Housekeeping. I loved their recipes. Especially, their "Healthy in a Hurry" recipes that later became "30 Minute Meals". When Zach was born, I didn't have time to read it. I cancelled the subscription and eventually, I tossed them. Unfortunately, I regret not copying ALL of the "Healthy in a Hurry" recipes! I had some, but I miss the rest.

From 2012 through February of 2015 I re-subscribed. That "Healthy in a Hurry" section changed names, disappeared, then came back as "20 minute Weeknight Favorites". It's modified now but still called "20 Minute Weeknight Favorites". It used to be just one recipe but now they have multiple recipes in this section. During this subscription they got a new editor. Less recipes, more fashion. It began to look like every other woman's magazine. So I stopped subscribing.

But, last week I was going through my recipe binders. Other then my recipes and family recipes, the only recipes I liked all came from Good Housekeeping. That says a lot since for two years I also subscribed to Fine Cooking!

I decided to re-subscribe again to Good Housekeeping and picked up the April issue in the meantime. It looks a little more like it used to. It also had great recipes again. But, you can't beat the peach glaze from an August 2007 "Healthy in a Hurry" recipe. It's called "Pork Tenderloin With Peach Glaze". Link to the recipe is below.

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/food-recipes/a3511/pork-tenderloin-peach/

With that, I unveil the Menues:

Fall, Spring and Summer Picnics
Day	Meat	Starch
Monday	London Broil	Pasta Salad
Tuesday	Breaded Chicken	Pasta Salad
Wed or Thurs	Grilled Chicken	Tator Tots
Wed or Thurs	Mom and Dad C.
Friday	Burgers	Fries
Saturday	Peachy Pork Chops	Stuffing
Sunday	Take Out

Fall and Spring Transition
Day	Meat	Starch
Monday or Wednesday	Burgers	Pasta Salad/ Fries
Tuesday	Breaded Chicken	Pasta Salad/ Rolls
Monday or Wednesday	Terriyaki Chicken	Rice
Sunday or Thursday	Peachy Pork Chops	Stuffing
Sunday or Thursday	Mom and Dad C.
Friday	Take Out
Saturday	London Broil	Steak Fries
Fall, Winter, and Spring Comfort
Day	Meat	Starch
Monday	Chicken Catchatorre	Spaghetti
Tuesday	Breaded Chicken	Rolls
Wednesday	Terriyaki Chicken	Rice
Sunday or Thursday	Cranberry Pork Chops	Stuffing
Sunday or Thursday	Mom and Dad C.
Friday	Take Out
Saturday	London Broil	Baked Potato/ Steak Fries
If practice is at 6pm: cut, bread and clean up chicken before. Cook & eat after.       Dinner: 5:30pm for 7pm practice, 6:30pm for 8pm practice & after practice if b4 6pm

 We eat with my parents twice a week normally. But, I like to have a backup plan. It's my mom's pasta salad recipe. "Rolls" mean Pillsbury crescent rolls. Cranberry pork chops are sautéed Pork chops with cranberry jelly on the side.

I don't collect all of the "Weeknight Favorites" recipes. I thought about it for a while. Especially after struggling to find a cookbook with the "Healthy in a Hurry" recipes. I might have found one. It just didn't arrive yet. Now that they are doing multiple recipes, I only copy the ones I might use. I copy and add them to a Good Housekeeping binder.

Edit: I found the cookbook! "Weeknight Easy"! Link is below for Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Housekeeping-Weeknight-Easy-Delicious/dp/1618371304/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523707238&sr=8-1&keywords=good+housekeeping+weeknight+easy

As the snow melts and the temperatures warm up, it's nice to have different meal plans. This is what meal planning with OCD looks like. But, the routine helps. Sometimes we just need a part of a recipe for inspiration. Sometimes, we have favorites that remain unchanged through time. Either way, it makes grocery store stock up easier knowing when a new menu will take over.