Dropped by Pauline’s blog, Writing Down the Words, this morning where the discussion was about food, eggs in particular, and our individual reactions to the presentation imperfections of food. It’s a really enjoyable post so I recommend you dropping by and giving it a read. Her post got me for some reason thinking about the weekly menu at my house – if I be so bold as to refer to it as such.
I began to wonder if my eating habits themselves were also considerably weird as compared to other folks or if some folks were dietary creatures of habit just as I am. For years, with little variation, I pretty much eat the same things week in and week out. I live alone so I obviously will have a more limited menu than those of you with house mates, spouses or larger families. But a number of you are also single or widowed so you may also have a more limited menu as I do.
For the last four or five years I can honestly say the following dinner/supper menu has been followed week in and week out with only the noted exceptions:
Monday – Fish w/Rice (either catfish fillets or salmon patties)
Tuesday – Open Night (soup or eggs & toast or pancakes – always something quick and easy)
Wednesday – Open Night (same as Tuesday although I often bake myself a batch of pie crust – yep, love the stuff)
Thursday – Steak w/Rice (t-bone or porterhouse or filet mignon or whatever is usually on sale at the store)
Friday – Fried Chicken only (fried wings or fried legs or fried chicken tenders or grilled breasts)
Saturday – Steak w/Rice (same as Thursday)
Sunday – Cornish Hen w/Rice and Gravy (one whole Cornish hen – yum, yum)
Special dishes that may be substituted from time to time in one of the ‘open nights’ if the mood hits me might be a Macaroni and Cheese Casserole, Cube Steak with w/rice and gravy or Pork Chops with w/rice and gravy.
Obviously this menu routine can be interrupted by going out for dinner but normally I don’t eat out but maybe once every two weeks or so. And let me, in my case, emphasize the word routine because this menu of mine never changes, either with regard to content or sequence other than noted above.
I should note that for breakfast I always have one piece of buttered toast (usually rye) and for lunch I usually eat two or three hand fulls of tortillia type chips. So dinner/supper is my only “real” meal of the day.
So….like me, do you have a ritualized weekly menu or have you been set free to enjoy the many bounties that this earth provides?
Roberta Smith said,
November 5, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Alan, Good basic food works well for me and that’s what you have on your menu. Sounds great, sounds yummy, but where are the potatoes?
Rain said,
November 5, 2009 at 5:14 pm
My menu varies more than yours but has a lot of the same things on it. When I like something, I like it and what that is doesn’t change much over the years. I do the same thing when I go out to dinner– tend to order whatever I liked the last time and that might stay the same for years until the restaurant tosses it out for some modern twist at which time I might look for another restaurant. This year I discovered the improvements in slow cookers and that changed how I do a pot roast– which with potatoes and carrots is on the menu for tonight.
Anne Gibert said,
November 5, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Alan, I thought you might be interested in a short excerpt from my mother’s memoirs describing meals in New Zealand where she grew up. The time is early 20th century.
“The meals were breakfast, lunch and tea. Midday dinner on Sundays was always a roast which we put in the oven before we went to church. The temperature of the oven could be controlled by dampers and tested by the feel of the hand. Tea was a high tea, with a week’s menus made up in rotation like this: rissoles, smoked fish, tripe, shepherd’s pie, steak, casserole of dried beans and bacon, crayfish, whitebait, fried fish, cold meat and salad, curry, oysters.”
kenju said,
November 5, 2009 at 11:52 pm
If I lived alone, my diet would be much less varied than it is now. I could eat the same meals every day and seldom vary from that and it wouldn’t bother me to do it for years.
Alan G said,
November 6, 2009 at 7:53 am
Hi Roberta…
I guess I am a ‘meat and rice’ man as compared to a ‘meat and potato’ man. Although whenever I eat out I seem to always order a side of some type of potato. Think my favorite potato is probably the “twice-baked” but I’m too lazy to take the time to prepare them I suppose.
Betty said,
November 6, 2009 at 4:49 pm
My weekly menu never changes, either. And, like you, dinner/supper is the only “real” meal I eat. But, those meals consist of a variety of meats, pork once, chicken twice, fish once, beef once or twice and sometimes I substitute ham for one of the beef meals. I always have veggies and rice or potatoes. This means that my grocery list is the same week in and week out, and also makes it real easy to see when the grocery store raises the prices.
pauline said,
November 6, 2009 at 5:10 pm
How interesting – I don’t think I eat the same thing two weeks running, never mind two days in a row. I grow a garden, put up my own vegetables, use meat as a side dish and love to mix up my meals. I may eat pancakes or eggs for supper while leftover spaghetti or stew (or pie!) becomes for breakfast.
letspaintnature said,
November 6, 2009 at 9:55 pm
wow! I though of my meals for the last 7 days and it’s not as healthy as yours! I need to give up fast food forever…it’s a killer.
joared said,
November 7, 2009 at 5:49 am
Think my meals are pretty healthy for me and may be a bit routine at times. Plan to write about that later as part of an upcoming piece, so am not going into it here.
Annie said,
November 8, 2009 at 9:44 am
I live alone and eat a lot of leftovers. Cook up a big batch of something and then just keep eating it until it’s gone. Usually alternate between some kind of rice and veggie thing (with added cheese and egg for protein) and a taco salad (salad greens with salsa-vinegar dressing plus corn chips, refried black beans fried to crumbly texture and grated cheese). I’m addicted to the taco salad so I eat it a lot, to the chagrin of those around me who must put up with the resulting ‘musical toots’.
But breakfast never varies: coffee and toast followed an hour or so later by oatmeal. Like a hobbit, I eat two breakfasts. Lately I’ve been experimenting with lunch too, but supper is the main meal. After twenty odd years as a single parent I grew to hate cooking, it was always done under pressure of clamouring hungry kids with picky tastes. So when I was back to single, I spent a period of time eating nothing but snacks and peanut butter sandwiches. I am proud of myself that I now actually cook, however badly.
Cop Car said,
November 15, 2009 at 9:50 am
Alan G–Twice-baked potatoes don’t take long the way I (usually) do them. I bake the potato in the microwave for 6-8 minutes on high, then brown under the broiler element in my toaster oven. Hunky Husband grooves on them.
Cop Car
P.S. Twice-baked potatoes is a dish that we learned to cook in home economics back in the late 1940s.
P.P.S. Although you and I had traded comments at Ronni’s, I should let you know that it was Joared who steered me to your blog.