Hello to all! Today I wanted to answer a great question I received by email from a newbie menu planner. She asked if I’ve ever encountered a case of a wife who can’t cook and whether or not I have any helpful recipes/sites that I could recommend.
I absolutely love this question because I am that wife who can’t cook!! Seriously when I worked in the corporate world up to three years ago it was my hubbie that did all the cooking. When I came home to be a SAHM I really struggled with taking on the cooking duties. The one thing that saved my hiney was menu planning. Menu planning allowed me to assign recipes to each meal because without a recipe I’m doomed. To this day I rarely make anything from scratch without a recipe. I just don’t have that kind of confidence in myself. By spending some time with my Taste of Home magazines or their website I could select recipes that were simple and required few ingredients. I’ve had great success with the whole line of Taste of Home publications, they are without fail my go to books. In fact I’ve almost gotten rid of all of my other cookbooks as a result. The pictures in their magazines and on their website are something else and I like knowing what a recipe is suppose to look like :) Unfortunately they have just recently changed their website and it’s not as user friendly as it once was which bothers me. I’ve emailed the company letting them know my concerns but so far I’ve not heard back from them.
The other thing I might suggest is signing up with a menu planning service for the first little while until you get the hang of it. Taste of Home actually has a free one you can sign up for here and each week they’ll send you an email with a menu and recipes for the week. Here is a sample one to check out.
I’ve also compiled a list of other menu planning resources which you may find helpful as well.
So my fellow menu planners, now it’s your turn. Can you help out a mom who can’t cook by telling us the one tip/recipe/resource that you can’t live without for basic simple cooking.
Okay so moving on now I want to tell you that if you are looking for a great pizza variation you must try the Chicken Pesto Pizza. It was sooooo good, really delicious and just a nice change of pace. I used my own pizza dough recipe in the bread machine and added feta cheese as well which was a really nice touch. Yum, yum. Gosh I wish there were more leftovers.
So this week we are having:
Monday: Fuss Free Ravioli and Cheese Bake – my daughter is going to start cooking one night a week
Tuesday: Barbecued Burgers served with caesar salad
Wednesday: 5 Minute Southwest Layered Salad
Thursday: Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta
Friday: Leftover Buffet
Saturday: Steak and Vegetable Kabobs served with Ranch Potato Salad
For all of you who asked me about my price book, I’ll post later this week about it.
WHAT’S ON YOUR MENU?
Menu Plan Monday guidelines and banners here.


























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Hi Laura I am so glad you answered an email because although it is not mine I am the wife that cant cook .
I am trying to learn though slowly.
There is a great show called fixing dinners and they list many weekly menu plans. I plan on printing out 10 weeks I printed out that I like and the recipes take so they say under 20 minutes to prepare.
I also signed up for the one you recommended and I will read all the tips sometime today.
thanks for all the help
Diane
You inspired me to have pizza this week!
I’m fairly new to the whole MPM process, but I hope to make it a regular “chore”…we do too much eating out and it really affects our budget.
The Honey Mustard Chicken Pasta looks yummy as does the Pesto Chicken Pizza…I will be printing them both and adding them to my recipe binder.
Oh, that pizza sounds really yummy!
Just found your site and I love MPM. Very inspiring. My only complaint is that I now have to hire someone to keep up with all these great new recipes I’m finding.
Gosh as a mom who hasn’t cooked in 7 yrs, I’m slowly getting back in the swing of things. My best tip is drag hubby in the kitchen with you if you can it makes learning to cook a much more pleasant experience.
FWIW my dh did all the cooking for the 7 yrs we were doing the baby thing! LOL! – Now that the youngest is 2 he’s re-edu-macating me on the whole cooking deal! LOL! Its nice to have a handy man in the kitchen.
Also the 2nd tip…. If it doesn’t turn out right the first time, never fear – try and try again… I still can’t make Lasagna to save my poor life! LOL! But I’m still trying!
Oh I love the show Fixing Dinners. I believe if we are talking about the same one it is a Canadian Show with host Sandi Richard. I have a few of her cookbooks and they are fantastic.
I’ve not participated for awhile (not since giving birth to our twin girls!) but I’ve enjoyed checking out the menus week by week. It’s fun to actually post one myself again! :)
i love your site. I have been away from it for awhile, but I am back.
I think I’m going to just use YOUR menu plan for next week! All look good
Just started posting my menu plans – Have always been frugal now trying to live more naturally, and dairy free. Please come by and see my first post – comments, ideas and suggestions are always welcome – thanks everyone!
Go pick up your blog award at my web-site for all your hard work you do on a weekly bases! :)
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