I understand that firefighters have reported there have been an increase in house fires during the COVID-19 lockdowns due to women attempting to cook who normally don’t. I can’t help with the housefires but I know the struggle of trying to make a menu. Sure pizza, tacos, and peanut butter sandwiches are great but there are only a certain number of those you can eat before you can’t look another pepperoni in the face.
Making a menu can be quite simple. A meal of three items can be satisfactory. Those three items usually are a meat or a meat substitute protein, a vegetable, and a fruit. Those three items will be quite filling and nutritional. You can add a potato, bread, rice or pasta if you want more filler but it’s not a necessity. Making a five-day menu would be something like this. Start with your protein pick five different ones such as hamburgers, baked or fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, fish sticks, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Now add the vegetables such as corn on the cob, broccoli with cheese sauce, green beans, microwaved peas, and carrot sticks.
Now comes the fruit such as apple slices, jello with fruit cocktail added, grapes, canned peaches or pears, and applesauce. So, your five days look like this 1) hamburgers, corn on the cob and apple slices. You can add french fries and a dip for the apples if you like. 2) Baked Chicken, broccoli with cheese sauce, jello with fruit cocktail you can add a baked potato from the microwave if you want. 3) Macaroni and cheese, green beans, and grapes. The pasta is usually enough filler. 4) Fish sticks, peas, and canned peaches. You could slice onions and potatoes and fry them in butter and salt them to taste. 5) Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, carrot sticks, and applesauce. Add ranch dressing to dip carrots in. All you add to each is a beverage and dessert if you wish. See how easy that is?
These meals are your main meal. As long as you’re all home for the lockdown I suggest you use this as your mid-day meal. Breakfasts are usually simple; eggs, cereal, pancakes and now suppers can be simply leftovers, soup and salad or a protein smoothie. Light suppers also help with weight loss. I know when we all get back out into the world your schedules may not allow this.
Making a menu also helps with the grocery list being simplified as well as the panic of “now what do I fix?”. In days gone by families had a continual repeat of the menu so they knew which day to look forward to such as “Spaghetti Wednesday”. This can work even now but I would suggest a change for at least one day each week to keep boredom from growing. It is easier on the cook however.
At least now you have five menus you can copy, LOL!