How many Menu Plan?

[NotKateHepburn]

Dena,

If you don't mind me asking, how much does MasterCook run? And where does one find it? How easy is it to upload your own recipes into it? How accurate are the shopping lists when you load your own recipes?

I'd be willing to spend money on a good program to help me stay organized in the kitchen. I'm not a big fan of cooking when I have to, only when I want to. If I have something that helps keep me organized, it would make it more fun to me.

Hey Andrea, it runs from 9.99 to around 20. Not sure what the difference is. I bought mine from Amazon and I'm not sure but I think you can find it at places like Target.

Its very easy to add your own recipes. You can even add photos. The Your Cookbook part of the software lets you add up to 12,000 of your own. You can even keep a running account on whats in your pantry. You can then search by adding what you have, say chicken, tomatoes and rice. It will search every recipe that includes those three things. Gives you nutrition value and cost too if you take the time to input prices when you enter your stock the first time. Really cool.

The shopping list is very accurate. Saves me from impulse buying. I've been known to do that a few times.

It is fun if you like food and cookbooks lol. I like both... a lot!

As for all the work planning and bulk cooking. It's not too hard. I use a kitchen aid mixer to make all the dough...it even kneads it for me. The rest is done with a food processor and plopped into a freezer safe bowl. The broth pretty much makes itself, as does the sauces. I make the sauces in a crockpot. No stirring or forgetting.

With as many kids as I have (5 of them being teenagers) it's easier to plan ahead than throw something together. I make BIG meals.

[KarenC]

Karen,

I LOVE Thai food, but I've always been very apprehensive about trying to cook it at home. I'd lvoe any more pointers you could give.

Andrea,

We bought several Thai cookbooks, but the easiest one to use is "True Thai" by Victor Sodsook. It was published by Morrow. We've had it for a while so I have no idea if it is still in print. He is a native Thai chef, but has written the book for American cooks. He does give substitutes for a lot of things, although there are some things you just can't substitute. We live in a large multicultural metropolitan area so there are ethnic grocery stores of nearly every kind within a 10-40 minute drive, so don't have much trouble finding anything, but those who live in smaller cities might.

The best tip I can give is to make the curry pastes and other sauces/condiments yourself. The difference in taste is just phenomenal. Another tip is that if you do have an ethnic grocery store close, shop there. They always have better quality stuff than what the supermarket carries in its ethnic food section, besides the fact that they are usually cheaper as well. Dh and I found a new oriental market a couple of weeks ago that is closer, albeit smaller, than the one we usually go to. We got a bunch of canned, jarred, frozen pantry items and our total was under $12. The cans of coconut milk were $0.40-0.60 cheaper (multiple brands) than the grocery. I got 2 cans of 1 of the mid-range brand and they were so much better than the watery stuff our grocery carries. The milk was viscous and the thick cream was on top like it is supposed to be.

Karen

[LittleFox]

I admire everyone's meal planning skills (or at least everyone's aspirations)!

What I usually do is have a list of meals that I can make on any given night and we choose one the day before so that I can defrost the meat or do any prep work. Then when I don't have the ingredients for that meal, I cross it off the list. When my list is all crossed off we go to the store! Sounds primative but it sure helps when the kids say "What's for dinner? or they say (often) "there's nothing to eat around here". This also helps with keeping the budget down. Sometimes there is steak on the list... and other times it's just hotdogs and macaroni and cheese. I buy special items but only if it is something that I normally buy and I freeze it... like chicken.

Anyway... I have a question that is related to this topic. How do you get your family to eat left-overs? I seem to be the only one in the house that thinks the spaghetti the next night is worth eating!

[AuntDee]

We have no problems with leftovers. Many foods taste better after a day of chilling and the flavors can meld together. Chilli, soup, spaghettie sauce for example. I usually make enough for two meals, but I don't always serve it the next day (where it seems like leftovers) but wait a day or two, unless we specifically want it the next day. If I know we won't be able to eat it in a day or two I freeze it for the following week. the second meal isn't always the same as the first time the menu is served. The first night we have meatloaf/gravy and mashed potatoes. The second time it is served the meatloaf gets a bbq sauce and the mashed potatoes become potato cakes (add a little flour, an egg and seasoning and fry). If I have roast beef/ gravy and mashed potatoes the second time it is hot beef sandwiches or I make beef tips and gravy (beef is cut into small squares and cooked in the gravy) and served over hot noodles. It is now beef tips and gravy over noodles. Sounds like something entirely different. Some times the leftover beef and gravy get put in a pot with some beef broth, noodles tossed in and now it is beef/noodle soup. One thing I found is if I am going to serve it the second night I always try to vary the vegetables and bread that are served with it. And a different type of salad. A tossed saled one night and a jello the next, for example. Biscuits in exchange for garlic toast. Left over chilli becomes chilli mac when served over macaroni. Takes creativity.

[havanaholly]

Leftovers? What are they? I raised three sons and both DH & I love to eat, so I have to watch our portion control. Sometimes we'll bring home "go boxes" from eating out, and they become ingredients in a new dish.

When whole fryers go on sale I get three HUGE meals out of one.

[pixiedrea]

Last night I went to the grocery... and I did pretty good! Several pounds of chicken wings get divided into their own bags, spices are added, then they get dropped in the freezer. Stew beef was on sale, so I bought the family sized pack of that and divided. I can make carne guisada, beef tips over noodles/rice, beef stew or something else from that. I learned that if you buy the super-sized regular ground beef and divide it up, it's MUCH cheaper. Then, after you cook it and drain the fat you just rinse the meat a few times and it becomes LEAN (for the low price of FAT).

The best buy I made was the pork shoulder that was on sale for 69 cents a pound! I got two of them, each about 10 lbs. I trimmed away the skin/fat which is good for seasoning beans, cleaned as much as I could from the bones, then used the bones to make a good pork broth.

I've now got about 2 months worth of meat in the freezer, which means it'll be much easier to cook. I bought things I know we'll use, plus a few things that were on sale cheap enough to inspire a meal.

There are several Asian food markets within almost walking distance, so I'm going to give Thai a try.

And I never have an issue with leftovers, my hunny is like a hoover!

[havanaholly]

One of the reasons I got catfish this week is that I have some sundried tomatos from another couple of meals and Mr Food did fish with a sundried tomato sauce/ pesto I want to try.

[Lisa_F]

Anyway... I have a question that is related to this topic. How do you get your family to eat left-overs? I seem to be the only one in the house that thinks the spaghetti the next night is worth eating!

We kinda had the opposite problem in my house, DH and the boys loved leftovers. Many times I'd deliberately make enough to have leftovers for the next night but I'd find the dish/pot/pan empty by the next morning. Since I never seemed to get the hang of cooking just enough for one meal on some things like chili, spaghetti, stew & soups (always cooked for an army!), what I did was buy lots of single serving little reusable freezer containers. Then after everyone had dished up their plate and had their fill, I would fill the little containers & pop them in the freezer. Since they were just single serving size, they were perfect for taking to work for lunches (DH & I still do this) or for nights when I didn't want to cook, everyone just picked one of these containers & microwaved them. Worked like a charm.