If It's Monday, It Must be Muffins: Meal Planning IV

When I first wake up in the morning, I don't want to waste time dithering over options, so for breakfast we rotate through a simple, predictable selection of foods. Generally it looks like this:

Breakfast Rotation

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
Muffins: blueberry, Pumpkin, Lemon  poppy   seed, Oatmeal Applesauce Pineapple, etc. Or Scones (variety)	Cold cereal	Puff Pancakes OR French Toast (griddle or  oven)	Oatmeal OR Granola/ Yogurt/ Fruit	Scr. Eggs + tortillas, bagels, or toast	Pancakes + bacon	Bagels + yog. OR W.W. Cinnamon Swirl bread

Fruit (or orange juice some days) is usually freely available to supplement the above.

For lunch we follow a similarly simple plan, but I build in a bit more flexibility. Also, left-overs are always fair game for lunches in our home, though premium ones have to be divvied up fairly.We usually put out fruit and carrots at lunch, and the girls like to make quick side salads.

Here's a list of our typical lunch fare:

•  Soups (most often canned, though occasionally homemade)
•   Pizza (frozen; or homemade crust; rice crust; English muffin, Fr. Bread, bagel pizzas)
•  Tortillas + cheese, ham, and/or humus
•  Sandwiches – PB/J, or meat
•  Grilled cheese made on the griddle. Kids esp. like these made with mozzarella cheese, cut into strips, and served with spag. sauce for dipping
•  Macaroni or other pasta
•  “Griddle” = anything that can be easily cooked on that surface. Usually eggs, hash browns, etc.
•  Hard boiled eggs + fruit, cheese cubes
•  Cheese and crackers and humus + fruit smoothies
•  Baked potatoes with broc/cheese, chives, etc.
•  Frozen fish, lasagna, chicken nuggets 
•  Egg/hash brown/cheese brunch-type. casserole
• Cheese strata (12 slices w.w. bread, buttered, sandwiched with 2 c. cheddar cheese. Mix tog. 4 eggs, 2 2/3 c. milk, salt, pepper, and 1/4 t. dry mustard, then pour over bread. Bake 45 min at 350 until puffed and set.) 
•  When my young children were young, I sometimes assembled individual ice cube trays filled with fruit and yogurt, plus a few cheese cubes. Children can spear fruit with toothpicks and dip in yogurt.

My general advice is similar to that for making a dinner master plan. Brainstorm lists of food you like to make and can do so quickly, then put them into a pleasing arrangement. My daughter, Amanda, 14, the most organized one in our family, got tired of our sometimes spur-of-the-moment lunch decisions, and so she is the one who put together our current lunch plan, and posted it on an inside door of a kitchen cabinet. :)   


Hope you find some of that helpful!