Sunday, January 5, 2014

A gluten-free weekly menu template for 365 days


BIG BIG BIG THANK YOU TO my sweet friend Jaime who kept my blog post open when it first went live (and therefore had a copy of the text) after I accidentally deleted it via my smarty-pants phone, which is obviously still smarter than I am! THANK YOU JAIME!!! You rock star You!

Okay... back to our regular programming...Let's try this again, shall we? 

Right before the holidays I upgraded to a smarty-pants phone. Something I had avoided for years mostly because I didn't want a more expensive cell phone bill. I knew I would love the ease and versatility of a smart phone, I just hated the thought of spending so much money on a device that I rarely, if ever, would actually use for phone calls. I actually avoid most of those at all costs!

But, as I suspected, I love the phone. Now, I barely spend any time on my netbook. Which can be a problem when you enjoy writing and online journaling.

Soon after getting the phone I discovered blogger had an app, so I had to try it. I'm hoping it will give me the opportunity to blog more often in 2014. Granted the posts may be short and sweet and with a few less pictures and even more grammatical errors (you're welcome!)

And since simplicity is one of my favorite things, it might just work swimmingly!

Over December I started getting really serious about making a weekly menu and being as frugal with our finances as possible. Actually, the frugality started a few months prior... but now groceries are getting into the act full swing as well as everything else!

At any rate, I realized that creating a menu every single week can be overwhelming to me...so after reading a few blogs and books on frugality I realized I could make one weekly menu that we could basically follow all year long. Flexibility is key. Foods can always be rotated and changed...but just think: the entirety of 2014 menus in one go! For me it has been such a huge weight off my shoulders.

As you will see below it's really just a template for creating easy meals any day of the week.

Simply come up with 8 - 15 of your favorite meals that you make really well and that your family loves and create different variations that be used in rotating weeks. I'm going to write more about this method in the weeks to come, but here is our basic template we've been using the past few weeks.




A Gluten-Free Weekly Menu Template for 365 Days:

- Sunday: roast or casserole or large amount of protein to use with several meals + green veggie.. [ie - roast chicken & green beans]

- Monday: soup [in cold months] or salad [in warm months] + gf bread or starch

- Tuesday: international [spaghetti, lasagne, tacos, stir fry, curries, etc...]

- Wednesday: tuna salad or salmon cakes or other easy fish entree + veggies + starch [bread or crackers for salad/sandwiches]

- Thursday: breakfast for dinner [oatmeal, fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage]

- Friday: FREE SPACE FRIDAY

- Saturday: leftovers or burgers/hotdogs or homemade pizza or quiche.


What's on your menu this week?
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