September is approximately half over, which means my attempt to successfully carry out a month-long menu plan is half over too. I’ve been pretty pleased with how everything’s gone so far. My only current worry is that the end of the month will roll around and I won’t remember to make a menu for October. I know I could re-use September’s menu, but when I reorganized my kitchen and laundry room I noticed some things I should really try and cook next month, mostly pastas and grains. When I made my September menu, I started by looking at the non-perishables I had on hand. There are a few things I’d like to make again, but I’d like to have some variety in October so I’m planning to make a new menu.

• My primary motivation with my menu was to reduce the number of restaurant meals we were eating because there was no dinner plan in place and we needed dinner. So far this month, we’ve only been out once, and we made that decision based on the heat and humidity and not because I didn’t have something ready to cook.
• I haven’t stuck to the plan 100%. My plan for Saturday was to make chicken parm, but I realized I only had meat sauce. Since I didn’t feel like making sauce again, I defrosted one of the containers of meat sauce I made during the first week and we had pasta and salad.
• Forgetting to defrost things has been my main problem. I don’t like to defrost meat in the microwave so I’ve tried to take it out the night before to defrost in the fridge, but I’ve forgotten a few times. Each night before bed I set up the coffee maker and run the dishwasher, and I’m trying to get in the habit of looking at the menu at that time too, so I can take things out of the freezer if needed.
  

  Photo credit: Pexels

• I’ll need to make some more changes before the end of the month. For example, despite all my reviewing, I planned ground beef meals two nights in a row (shepherd’s pie and Salisbury steak meatballs for this weekend). I’m not sure what I’ll do yet. I have a few days to figure it out.
• It takes a lot for me to eat vegetables. I’ve always liked salad but I’m getting a little bored having it every night. A few months ago I got a Pampered Chef vegetable steamer and I love it. It’s really easy to make vegetables this way. I’ve been surprised by how much I like carrots and broccoli. My steamer’s similar to this (not an affiliate link). I hate to say I paid a lot more for mine!
• Planning around our activities has been successful. Emma started dance on Monday, and though Bob took her, I had some work to do and it was great to have dinner in the slow cooker and ready to go. Thursdays are also busy, so soup and sandwiches works well because it’s fast and simple.

I haven’t taken photos because my cooking’s not photo-worthy. But here are some recipes for things I’ve either made or will make this month. With one exception these are all things I’ve made multiple times in the past.

Asian five spice meatballs I use 93% lean beef. They come out really well.

Pioneer Woman Salisbury steak meatballs. Bob loves these. I use the very lean beef and cut way back on the amount of butter because I don’t want us to die. It still comes out really good.

Crock pot lemon garlic chicken. We have this over orzo and I love it. It’s Monday’s dinner and I can’t wait. I saute the chicken in olive oil instead of butter.

Skinnytaste crock pot honey sesame chicken. This is also a repeat meal. It’s so good.

This is the only thing I haven’t made yet: Blackened chicken and cilantro-lime quinoa. There are lots of great recipes on TakeThemAMeal.com.

Since the weather’s cooling (finally!) I’ve been going through my clothes and am seeing I really need to rethink my 33 pieces. That story’s coming on Friday.