I'm a very big menu planner. I'm a WOHM to 3 boys with 136 acre ranch with 12 horses to keep up with. 40+ hours of volunteering a week, every week, minimum. I literally plan everything. I plan for a month at a time and try to buy for as much of that at a time as I can, usually I can afford about 3 weeks of it, sometimes more. I shop every two weeks. We're in the boonies and I don't like to drive an hour to the major stores. I try to plan for one new recipe every week and at least one crock pot recipe every week, sometimes two. Love the Slow Cooker bags. My biggest goal is to stay below our grocery budget. I don't necessarily cook for the month, but do things to help me out for the month. I'll buy the family pack of ground beef and cook the whole thing. Then strain it, cool in and freeze it 2 cups at a time (about 1 lb) in freezer bags for taco's, sloppy joes, or cowboy beans. I'll slice my round steaks for my stroganoff and other dishes. I cook my italian sausage, slice it and store it in freezer bags in the right amount for my red beans and rice and spaghetti sauce. The amount of time it saves me is incredible. When you come in the door from work and have laundry and a house to clean, 4 hours of homework, dogs and horses to feed and still have dinner to cook it's nice to know you can throw a bag of precooked ground beef in the micro for 1 1/2 min , grate some cheese, chop tomatoes, onions, lettuce and cook some shells and you have homemade taco's. In less than 15 min. When I cut veggies for my roast (crockpot)I just keep on cutting. I set up 5 bags and 1 container. The container is for the morning and the bags go in the freezer. It only takes a couple extra mins to chop those veggies and saves a ton of time when running out the door in the morning. The kids also like knowing that they can look at the menu on the fridge in the morning and know what's for dinner that night or the rest of the week. Something to look forward to if their favorite food is coming up.

During your visit, it would be fun to throw a big cooler in the car on Saturday morning and take a food shopping trip to Allentown. You could fill it up with enough goodies for the whole week. IÂd recommend this route: 1. StravinoÂs (no web site - 269 5th St, Whitehall 610-432-255) for Italian deli items and excellent bread and cold cuts. 2. Less than a mile from there is Soumaya Middle Eastern bakery (no web site - 264 Fullerton Ave., Whitehall 610-432-0405) for freshly baked pita bread (with zataar on Saturdays), baklava, hummus, baba, tabouli, etc. Their meat and poultry items like shawarma are only fair  itÂs a bakery and thatÂs their specialty. 3. The main street in front of Soumaya leads directly to the Elias Market (no web site - 101 W Tilghman St, Allentown 610-776-1030), a Middle Eastern/Hispanic market thatÂs treasure trove of ME spices, hard-to-find produce, Bulgarian feta, Greek yogurt and items you wonÂt find in most grocery stores. 4. Next door is the Elias Fish Market (no web site and doesnÂt open until 10 A.M.) with the freshest fish for miles around. Note: Most fish are only sold whole and the lower prices per pound reflect this. You can have them filleted but have to buy a whole fish. The striped bass/rockfish are great and will save you a trip to New Jersey. 5. Next stop would be the Allentown Fairgrounds Market (website if you Google it  17th & Chew St.), which is a typical PA indoor market with produce, butchers and poultry purveyors, bakeries and prepared foods. One spot not to miss is DanÂs in the center of the market for their chicken pies. 6. If youÂre ready for lunch, The Ritz BBQ (no web site) next to the market is a bastion of home cooking with the PA version of BBQ (ham BBQ platter pictured below), hot beef or turkey sandwiches with gravy, old-time milkshakes and malts, and excellent pies. 7. Another alternative also only a couple of blocks away for the best burgers in the valley is WertÂs Café (no website - 515 N 18th St, Allentown 610 439-0951). Their specialties are stuffed burgers, hand-cut fries and masses of thin onion rings. Those items are wonderful but itÂs better not to venture into the dinner menu. 8. On the way back, IÂd include a stop at Crystal Springs dairy store (no website - 3550 Bellview Road Schnecksville) to pick up dairy products from the herd behind the store and a container of their pepper cabbage. IMO, they also make the best shoofly and custard pies in the area. I have included a link to a trip report I wrote on another site that included some of these places. If you search those forums for "Poconos", youÂll also find some restaurants closer to where youÂre staying. Here is a link that might be useful: Lehigh Valley food shopping

I'm cooking for 40 this year. Most years it's 30-ish, but this year is my parents' 60th anniversary (they were married on Thanksgiving Day) so the whole family will be here. We're having: 2 large turkeys Bread stuffing - some in the birds, extra baked separately Mashed Potatoes Turkey Gravy Sweet Potatoes - some roasted with garlic and rosemary, some candied Sauteed canned mushrooms - a family must have! Steamed whole green beans Corn for the kiddos Cranberry sauce - canned jellied and homemade whole with orange Assorted homemade dinner rolls Desserts: Pumpkin pie - 4 Pecan pie - 2 Custard pie - 2 Apple galette - 4 Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting decorated to look like their wedding cake Dinner is being served at 1:00, and I have out of town family staying with me so I anticipate some will hang around until 10:00 or so. I will bake a ham to slice for sandwiches in the evening along with leftovers from dinner. I'm tired already!

Just reporting back to let everyone know how the lunch went. Despite on and off showers, the temp was great so we were able to sit out on the deck, half of which is covered so we were dry and comfortable and enjoying the outdoors. Friend brought a hot appetizer with melted cheese that was delish. I had a Latin salami slices with cucumber slices; roasted red pepper hummus with pita chips, smoke gouda and jarlsburg cheese with crackers, and a dish with celery and carrot sticks. Lunch rec'd all kinds of compliments...grilled chicken breasts marinated in a lemon BBQ sauce and I served it with quinoa pesto (found it at TJs). Lentil salad with carrots and celery. Haricot vert with fennel and toasted pecans in a lemon dijon sauce (Martha Stewart). I sliced up a whole wheat ciabatta bread and had an herb package from which to make a dipping sauce with EVOO. For dessert I made a mixed berry crumble (blue and rasp) with choc chip ice cream from a local creamery. Coffee and tea. The beauty of it was that most of the cooking was done a day ahead so I was able to enjoy the company on the deck and not be a slave to the kitchen in prep.