I’ve been working on having more family dinners. Some weeks are more successful than others, but after several weeks we usually manage three. Once it was four, and we were all sort of impressed with ourselves. As if to show us we’re new at this, the universe conspired the very next week to have us count up exactly zero family dinners. Choir and theater performances, meetings and sleepovers all piled up, and it was two kids eating here, one kid eating out, and parents eating late.

Back in this post, I talked about how some reading, and having a weekly plan, helped to get us all to the table. The week we had no family dinners? No plan was made.

So, Sunday will be the day I post the plan for the week. I’ll actually type it up, and other people will read it. Saturday, I get a score!  It’ll be a way for me to set aside time to reliably make a plan, and to evaluate what is working and what isn’t.  As a bonus, all you Cheepsters get to watch!  Sometime soon I’ll put something ridiculous like ‘homemade ravioli’ on the plan, and imagine the suspense of waiting to see if I pulled it off.  It’ll be like Scandal, with a short white girl that’s much less stylish playing the lead.  And a tall beardy-headed guy playing Jake. And only dinner at risk, not national security. But maybe I get a white hat?

These plans will follow the weekly plan I’d posted earlier. That’s pretty much always in my head when I’m sorting out a week of meals. It will vary depending on what’s in my fridge/freezer, and what’s on sale.

I’m also not going to list everything–I’ve always got fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and frozen vegetables.  When we all sit down, my goal is for the plates to have: meat, cooked vegetable, raw vegetable, fruit, starch.  So if you look at the meal and think, “Wait, roast pork? That’s not a whole meal!”, you can mentally add those things. Or hell, I can just make up an abbreviation for it. CVRVFS. No. That looks like something the gynecologist would tell me needed a follow-up pap in a month.

It’ll sort itself out.  Let’s go. First public CheepieAustin Weekly Meal Plan:

Mon:  pork fried rice, broccoli, apples, spinach salad

Tue:  leftover posole (from the weekend), cornbread, avocado, grapes

Wed:  baked chicken thighs, pasta with garlic and oil, carrot and celery sticks, steamed spinach

Thur:  Refrigerator Buffet! (need a refresher on this? check here)

Fri:  Octoberfest party with friends

Saturday and Sunday are still not included, because we’re all over the place those days. We might meet friends, go out, smoke BBQ for 20, there’s no telling. My goal here is the weeknight family dinner, so I’m sticking to that.

This is a light week, really. I’ve got leftovers on Tuesday and Thursday, and a night off built in.  Let’s see how I do.

Cheep Cheep!