Taco Tuesday never worked for me, and I never knew why. I love a cute theme. I love menu planning. I don’t know why I struggled sticking to a structured menu plan every week. Maybe it’s the rebel in me, but I never got the hang of themed meal nights, until I adapted it to my goals for feeding my family and fit it into our schedule. Even if it wasn’t quite as nicely alliterative as Meatless Mondays. Here is the framework that has been working for us lately. 

Sunday: Fancy Sunday Lunch

Monday + Tuesday: Roast

Wednesday: Beans

Thursday: Tofu &/or Pasta

Friday: Pizza

Saturday: leftovers, freezer dinner, or snack dinner

Here is an example from last week:

Lately we’ve been having “fancy Sunday lunch”, which my young children love. They set the table, sometimes make a little table decoration, and love that there’s usually a large loaf of fresh sourdough ready to rip into pieces and smear with rich, salted butter. I also use it as an opportunity to serve seafood. I love seafood and often list it as a goal to serve more often, but also forget to actually do. Fancy Sunday Lunches are working for me right now for a couple reasons.  I do our grocery shopping early Sunday morning, so the fish is fresh and if I use it the same day I bought it, it doesn’t get forgotten. Also, I usually have a bit of extra time or extra hands since my husband doesn’t work on Sundays. I like doing a big meal in the middle of the day, so that there aren’t extra dishes to wash late at night when we’re all tired and need to get ready for the week. We usually eat leftover pizza, random leftovers, or something easy from the freezer on Sunday evenings. Fancy Sunday Lunch is festive and is a chance for me to try out recipes that don’t fit the weeknight dinner mold. Sometimes they need a little more time or a little extra attention. It’s my time to play in the kitchen and make something I’m excited about. 

I work Monday and Tuesday evenings, so I’ve started making something during the day on Monday that will last everyone two nights. Often it’s a roast of some kind or a large amount of shredded meat. If we’re really lucky, there’s also a bit extra to go into my husband’s lunches for the week. 

Wednesday I’ve started cooking an interesting bean dish. Beans are one of my top foods for many reasons. They’re cheap, they’re nutritious, and they’re versatile. Doesn’t get much better than that. Now I just have to make them delicious. We often have the beans with leftover roast, bread, yogurt, fruit, and make do with the odds and ends around the fridge. 

Thursday is an interesting new experiment in my life. I’ve made Thursday Tofu night. I like the idea of tofu for many of the same reasons as beans. It is endlessly versatile. It is the blank canvas of food. A flavor sponge. You can make it taste like anything you want. I have always been a bit intimidated by it, for some reason. It usually goes over well (as long as I don’t accidentally make it too spicy like the honey sriracha version I did last month). It is particularly great for my 1 year old, because it is squishy and easy to eat. 

Friday has been pizza-movie night in my house for over a year now. Often homemade, sometimes take out, sometimes just a couple frozen pies. It’s usually easy, and something we all look forward to. I try to vary the shape and flavor combinations when we do homemade. Pizza pockets, pizza rolls, and naan pizzas are great alternatives to a standard large pizza. My current favorite flavor is anything with caramelized onions or jalapenos. If I really have my act together, I’ll make a slow fermented dough that sits in the fridge overnight. That way Fridays are especially easy, and the flavor is much more complex.. 

Saturdays and Sundays are for leftovers and freezer clean outs. I purposefully leave days to eat leftovers, otherwise they won’t get eaten. Food waste is obviously a huge problem both environmentally and budgetarily. I typically keep a couple easy meal options in the freezer (think Trader Joe’s orange chicken, pad thai, or chicken nuggets) to make sure we have something when there aren’t many leftovers available. Snack dinner is also a house favorite on the weekends. It helps clean out the fridge and the pantry. I always have half a box of crackers, a hunk of cheese, fruit, and some roasted veggies that need to be eaten. I can round it out with yogurt and nuts or seeds. It works for us to leave Saturday more open, because we are often out and about. That way, if we grab something to eat at a restaurant, there isn’t food going bad at home that was allotted for that day. 

I don’t think this menu plan format will work for us forever, but it is working for this season of life. During the summer I’m sure we’ll want more picnic friendly meals and more no cook/salad-y options for this air-condition-less house. This menu plan framework is unusual, but it seems to help me lately. Make your menu planning work for you! I started by writing down my food goals for my family, and then made the framework around that. It can include budget goals, nutrient goals, flavor goals, kid preference/food exposure goals, or convenience goals. There are so many options out there that I don’t think we need to be limited to Taco Tuesdays. Happy cooking!