December 2008 Menu

My husband thinks that I make many simple tasks more difficult than necessary. I totally disagree with him on this but for this December menu I would have to agree. I have been monthly meal planning now for a year an a half. I have a lengthy eight page entrée list with ingredients listed. I could have easily cut and pasted from my existing list and used a new recipe once a week to keep things fresh. But NOooo, I decided again try 13 new recipes (partly in the spirit of seeking new crock pot recipes) and as if that wasn’t enough work, I came across this blog: http://www.catholiccook.blogspot.com/ and I thought how cool it would be to work in the Saints on the Church calendar into our menu. I love creating opportunities for religious education with my kids (and me, the convert) and what a perfect pairing, right? Ok, so if you haven’t thought that I am a complete obsessive compulsive dork at this point, now you MUST. I tried as much as possible (I gave up on some as you can see) to have an ethnic dish that matched the Saint of the day. My proudest match is on Lazarus’s day we will have Live Longer Casserole, a favorite of my husband. It was kind of fun to shout out, “I need a Dominican Pork recipe idea.” I actually utilized the advanced search options at some recipe sites where you can select the cuisine (German, Spanish, Mexican, etc) for the first time. We will definitely be introducing some new vegetables thanks to St. Dominic of Silos so it’s all good.

So if you are new to monthly meal planning and want to get started, I am happy to email you this word document if that is easier for you. I also urge you to get your menu started asap. It takes time and if you get it done early you can tweak it.

You should be able to double click on the smaller images to enlargen.

The recipes for December can be found here: http://jennshomework.blogspot.com/2008/11/december-2008-recipes.html