If you follow me on Instagram, you will quickly see that I could be considered a "foodie" I don't just look at food as something I eat out of convenience or hunger. I consider food a hobby. I like to try new restaurants. I like to read restaurant reviews on Yelp. I like to cook at home. I like to try new recipes. I also like to post photos of what I eat.
When my boys were young, I started an easy way to make dinner plans for the month. Starting with the youngest, I asked for five meals he would like to have for dinner. Then I asked my oldest, my husband, and finally added my own choices. The one rule was that you could not duplicate anything already on the list. With 20 meal ideas now on paper, I was able to use the four lists and have an idea from each person each week of the month. In a typical month of 30 days, having 20 meal ideas on my list made figuring what things to make the other 10 days seem like a breeze. I would always add one new recipe every week (and many times these became family favorites). Typically we would plan on eating out or getting carry-out/pizza one time a week, so I was now up to 28 days out of 30 days with no stress of "What's for Dinner?". It made grocery shopping easier, it made meal preparation easier, it made sure we had a variety of food every single week, and it made sure we didn't get in a rut of having the same thing every single week.
Do you meal plan? If so, do you plan a month or a week at a time? Do you prefer to figure out what you are going to eat for dinner that morning (or maybe just decide what to eat when you are ready to eat)? Do your family members help in figuring out what you are going to do each night for dinner, or does one of them do the planning and preparing and you just eat what they fix?
One of the meals that I added in as a new recipe one month became a family favorite. There are several reasons I like this particular recipe. Of course it tastes great, but it also is a great meal in the hot summer months and cold winter months too. It is easy to throw together in a few minutes, makes the house smell fantastic, and it is good as leftovers (if you have any!). I hope you try this and enjoy it. Please let me know if you do!
French Dip
3-4 lb chuck roast
2 cups beef broth (I like to use the lower sodium version)
1 package Au Jus Gravy Mix
1 package Italian Salad Dressing Mix
Place the roast in crock pot. Warm the 2 cups of beef broth in microwave for 30 seconds, add the two mix packages to the broth and stir. When the powders are mixed in, pour over the mixture over the
When ready to serve, take the roast out of the crock pot and place on serving plate. Shred the meat with two forks, and place on submarine buns. Serve with a side of the juice from the crock pot. Dip the sandwich in the au jus to eat. Enjoy!
