Before I Begin: A Few Quirks of My Menu Planning

Here are the factors that shape my menus:

1. I have a small child. On the one hand, I work to broaden her palate; on the other hand, I try to have at least something in the meal that I know or suspect she will definitely eat!
2. My husband is lactose intolerant. These days, I'm either choosing dairy-free recipes or experimenting with dairy substitutes.
3. I try to cook seasonally when possible. This means my recipes tend to have ingredients that are all naturally available at the same time of year (though I do cheat shamelessly in service of quirk #1).
4. We are a meat-light household. I'd go vegetarian, but honestly, no one in my household can do without bacon. Still, my husband and I seem to prefer our meat servings at about half the size of those of most people we know. We eat at least one meatless meal a week, and I tend to do a lot of soups and stews to stretch the meat out - partly for savings, partly for the environment.
   
5. I am a solar oven hobbyist. Thus, I use a lot of crockpot recipes, and occasionally adapt an existing recipe to the solar oven.
6. I participate in a CSA. Every week in the spring, summer, and fall, I am smacked upside the head with a new box of farm-fresh vegetables. In CSA season, my menu planning is driven almost entirely by what's in the box, in good part because we've already paid for it!

That should about cover it.