menu plan: weeks of january 25 to february 13

Guess what? I totally said I wasn’t going to include menu plans on the blog anymore and now here I am posting about a menu plan. And I'm not even posting it in the menu section! Aren’t you confused? To be fair, I’m not really writing a menu plan. I just wanted to give you a little head’s up about what we will be eating because I might be reviewing some of these recipes the coming weeks.

I’m on a bit of a simplifying trend right now. I’m hoping it sticks. In the meantime, we are going to be cooking primarily from Cook’s Illustrated Skillet Dinners special issue that I spotted last week while grocery shopping. I spent some time with the issue this morning and have a list of fourteen recipes that I want to try. All made in a skillet. Most designed for easy weeknight cooking. Seriously. Take a look at this deliciousness.

You should probably pick up your issue. It’s available on newsstands until April. You know you want it.

Oh. And we will also be cooking from The Disney Princess Cookbook. For real. The kids think they’ve died and gone to heaven that they can make Seven Dwarfs’ Soup and Mushu’s Moo Shu. This cookbook is incredibly simple. Most of the recipes are basic, kid-friendly food for which the dish name has been changed to some Disney character or other. My philosophy on this is simple. If calling snow peas with butter “Dinglehopper Snow Peas” makes the kids want to eat them, whatever. It’s all good. And since my little kids aren't reading yet, I can add more good stuff to the recipe and still call it by the name of a princess. Win-win. 

Here’s another thought. Have you heard about capsule wardrobes? I am highly intrigued by this concept. I mean, we typically wear the same thing over and over anyway, right? Now, what about applying the same concept to your kitchen? Check out Courtney Carver’s capsule kitchen challenge. I am not sure that I am organized or disciplined enough to succeed on this one, but I really like the concept. What do you think? (While you are on Courtney’s site, check out this awesome gem of a post. I’m in.)