Menu Planning

Me: "I'm hungry. What do you want for dinner?"
Derek: "I don't care. What do you want?"
Me: "I don't care. We don't have anything laid out."
Derek: "Okay."
Me: "Okay."    (15 minutes later)  "So...dinner?"

If you're anything like me, this is a typical conversation in your house.  It's annoying, really.  And this exact conversation is why we end up with pizza, McDonald's, or Arby's two or three days a week.  (Franklin, 1; Petersburg, 0. There's no fast food in Franklin, so this whole eat-really-poorly-all-the-time isn't even a possibility. You eat well or nothing at all.)

I've tried to combat this issue by forming a menu every month, and it works! (As long as you follow it.)  It allows us to know what we're having every day, so we can go to the store and pick up anything we need or lay out meat from the freezer the evening before so that the conversation above doesn't happen.

January's Meals.  You can see that I switched certain days around as needed.  The green stars are first time favorites to try again.

At the beginning of every month, I sit down, break out my cookbooks and magazines I subscribe to, and hash out a meal for every evening of the month.  I generally allow 1-2 days per week for leftovers and get any requests from Derek.  I record the meals in a regular wall calendar and hang it up in the kitchen near the refrigerator. 

The cookbooks/magazines used for this month.  The blue notebook is my grandmother's recipe book.

I begin with an empty calendar.  You can use any type of calendar--wall calendar, dry-erase calendar, chalkboard calendar.  It really doesn't matter.  I have an elephant calendar from my Christmas stocking. (I love elephants!  That's for another day though.)

I first go through and mark off any days that I know we won't be cooking at home, or I know that we're cooking something special.  For example, every other week on Thursday we eat at my in-laws' house, so I mark that on the calendar.  If we're having something special for a birthday celebration, or if I'm getting together with friends for dinner, I mark that on the calendar.  In June, you'll see that there's a whole week when Derek was on his own because I was out of town.  I mark that in the beginning too.  This makes it much easier when I'm actually putting meals on certain days.

I just use a regular wall calendar.

Next I begin searching through my cookbooks, online cookbooks, and magazines for recipes.  I'm always wanting to try new recipes, so this is the perfect time to look for them.  Once I find a recipe I want to use, I mark it on the calendar.  It doesn't really matter what day you record it; just whatever/whenever feels right to you.  If it's a new recipe, I make sure to include its location on the calendar so that I can find it later.  For example, on the calendar below I listed Simple Stromboli on February 5th.  It was a new recipe, so I included its location.  "BHG 15th" means the Better Homes & Gardens, 15th edition cookbook.  It's found on page 246.  This makes it really easy to locate later.  Similarly, "TOH" means Taste of Home, and "pinned" means it's on my Pinterest account.

 

Once the calendar is full, I create a grocery list.  This list is sometimes for one week at a time, and other times it's for two weeks.  It just depends on if we will have the opportunity to go to the grocery store.  This list is entirely based upon what we're going to be eating.  If it's not on the menu, we generally won't buy it.  For example, if we get to the store and I see that shrimp is on sale, I still don't buy it if it's not on the list.  This has helped to reduce how much we're spending on groceries and use the boxes and cans that are in the pantry that always seems to get pushed back and never used. 

 A peak into part of Grandma's recipe book.  I love her handwriting.

Do you make any type of menu?  How do you deal with the indecisiveness of  what to have for dinner?

Honor Flight

I've always been incredibly close with my grandparents.  There was only a field separating our house from theirs when I was growing up, so most days were spent with them on the farm.  Grandpa was always my hero.

I can remember going to Washington, D.C. for the first time when I was in 3rd grade with a family friend.  As we were walking into the Air & Space Museum, a reporter and camera man stopped us outside and asked to interview me and the other little boy for the evening news.  Their question: who is your hero?  My automatic response: my grandfather.

We spent many summer days riding around in the dump truck, fishing for bluegills and catfish, eating fish sandwiches at the Korner Shop, and visiting the Senior Citizen's Center where I was formally known as "Jim's Little Helper".  I thought he was the coolest person on Earth and always loved to hear his stories.

My Senior Prom

Among Grandpa's favorite stories to tell included his time in Cuba during WWII and the period of time when he was assigned to march at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  Over and over he would reference words in Spanish that he had learned and his girlfriend, Violeta, that he'd met during the two years spent in Cuba.  Over and over he would talk about the two little girls who ran up to him for a picture as he was marching at the Tomb.  I loved hearing these stories (and still do).

Grandpa in the middle with his brothers

He lived through the Depression, served our country during the second World War, raised a family, and worked harder than I ever imagine I'll have to in my life.  It's no wonder why I consider him to be my hero.

A few months ago, Grandpa was introduced to the Honor Flight program which takes Veterans on an all expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. to see the war memorials.  The Veterans go and return all in one day, and all accommodations will be made for those Veterans who have special needs.  He was hooked.  This was the first time Honor Flight had come to our area, and he wanted to go on the trip.  He had been to Washington, D.C. many times and was even stationed there for a while, but he hadn't been able to go back since the WWII memorial was constructed. 

Grandpa on the far right in uniform with his brothers & sisters

At 92, Grandpa doesn't get out of his house and do much anymore, but he was incredibly excited for this trip.  He needed a guardian to go on the trip, and Mom was afraid she wouldn't be able to push his wheelchair all day.  The trip was the day after school ended, so I volunteered to go as his guardian.  For months, whenever he'd see me, he'd mention the trip that was getting closer and closer. 

Finally, the day came for us to leave on the trip, and he was ready.

We met at 7am and traveled with about 20 other veterans on a chartered bus to DC where we spent the day visiting the war memorials.  It was a beautiful, clear, and sunny day.  There were other Honor Flight programs visiting as well, so we had the opportunity to meet other veterans from around the country.  We had specific times to be back to the bus, but we were able to go and look at what we wanted at our own pace.

We started at the Korean Memorial, and on our way out toward the Lincoln Memorial, a group of kids on a school trip from California surrounded Grandpa.  I didn't really know what to expect at first, but each student came up and shook Grandpa's hand, thanking him for his service.  Each student was SO sincere as they took his hand and looked him in the eyes to thank him.  It was incredible.  This was the beginning.

We made our way around the area and back to the bus so we could head to the WWII Memorial.  Unfortunately,  there were some bus issues throughout the day (a bird had gotten stuck in the exhaust somehow which made the bus break down), so we decided to walk to the WWII Memorial instead of riding there.  It's not a far trip for most of us, but when you're in your 80s and 90s on a 90 degree day, the walk there and back can be a little daunting.

As we moved closer to the memorial, I noticed flags.   There were tons of American flags being held along the sidewalk, kind of like what you see along the sidewalks of a town on patriotic holidays.  I pointed them out to Grandpa, but he didn't really know what they were for either.  As we walked a little closer, we could see that there were people holding them.  A motorcycle group lined both sides of the sidewalk, each person holding an American flag.  We began our walk through the 100 or more people gathered in the group, and as we walked, each member stopped us to shake Grandpa's hand and thank him for his service.  This continued with every member in their group and every Veteran in ours.

We reached the end of the line only to discover a mass of people leading up to the entrance of the memorial.  I wondered if there was a special event going on that day that I wasn't aware of and if I should find a different way around to enter into the memorial.  As I pushed Grandpa forward, the crowd separated into two lines around us, and everyone began clapping and cheering.  There were thousands of people along the sides of the walkway looking and cheering.  Most said something specific to Grandpa; others shook his hand.  It finally occurred to me that they were here for all of the Honor Flight veterans.  Some were there with their families.  Others were there as school groups.  There were people who just looked like tourists and other people dressed in suits.  There were some people who were in costumes (who were later jazz dancing in the area) and some in motorcycle gear.  They all stood together and cheered as we made our way through into the memorial.

We toured the memorial, took some pictures in front of the West Virginia pillar, and explored for a little while.  Grandpa had the opportunity to talk to people from all across the country and tell his stories.  He was asked by kids in several school groups to take his picture with them (all the while I'm thinking, "These kids are so nice. I can't imagine my students being this respectful and asking for pictures."), and he was able to meet Senator Bob Dole. 

We were able to catch a bus to take us back to our regular bus, and we all rested for a while under some shade trees.  The nice comments and greetings continued while we were waiting outside of our bus, and we had the chance to talk with some New Jersey folks on an Honor Flight trip before getting on the bus to head home.

Each veteran received a packet of "mail" with letters, cards, and pictures school kids from the area made for them.

The day was incredible.  It's amazing to see your personal hero treated as an all-around hero by SO many people.  I think all of the veterans had a great time on the trip despite some unexpected bus problems.  I hope that Honor Flight does some more trips for Veterans in this area because the statistics are staggering for WWII and Korean veterans (1,300 die every day in the US).

If your family has a WWII, Korean, or Vietnam veteran, I strongly suggest looking into the Honor Flight program.  It is truly a remarkable experience that your veteran deserves to have.

Everyone's looking great at the end of a long but wonderful day!

For more information: www.honorflight.org