planning for guests

One my list of 210 Things to Do I challenged myself to plan ahead for guests and to not only know what I was going to feed to them each and every meal, but to also have all the ingredients on hand beforehand.   Failing to have a plan before guests arrived set us up to spend more time and money deciding what we wanted to eat and by eating out meals that we could have had at home.

My in-laws arrived last night for a 5 night stay.  I'm pleased to tell you that I have each meal planned and almost all of the ingredients on hand before they got here.  The only thing I'll need to purchase is fresh bread and fresh veggies for a couple of weekend meals.  While I like having a plan, we're always flexible to go out to eat if that's what everyone wants to do.  My in-laws aren't big eaters and normally only eat 2 meals per day (max...), so something light for breakfast and lunch is all they want.  If I make too much food it'll just go to waste.

Here's what we've got planned:

Last night:  They got in late, so we had soup, salad, bread

Today
Breakfast: fruit, muffins
Lunch: turkey sandwiches (smoked the turkey yesterday), chips, fruit
Dinner: crock-pot spaghetti, salad, bread

Friday
Breakfast: Grandparents Day Breakfast at the school
Lunch: turkey sandwiches for my FIL.  I'm planning on taking my MIL to lunch at a tea room
Dinner:  Lasagna, mushrooms, salad, bread

Saturday
Breakfast:  fruit, cinnamon rolls
Lunch: Leftovers or Sandwiches
Dinner:  Steaks, sweet potatoes, asparagus

Sunday
Breakfast: fruit, breakfast bread
Lunch: at the golf club for Mother's Day
Dinner: Hamburgers & Hotdogs, potato salad, beans, chips, fruit

Monday:
Breakfast: I'm not sure if they'll want to eat before they leave, but I'll have same type of light morning food ready for them.