I posted last week what our menu for the week looks like and I'm going to do it again this coming week. Planning our menu was essential when I was working outside the home 4 1/2 years ago. Working in a medical clinic you never knew what time you would be home, especially in the winter. So having meat thawed and items in my pantry were a must if we were going to have a healthy meal. Now that I am staying home menu planning is still essential, for sanity reasons, but it has now become something I enjoy. I enjoy trying new recipes and putting together healthy meals that my family will enjoy. Even though cooking dinner is always crazy with hungry kids hanging on my legs, I now have time to do some prep work during naps or put a dish together to be slow cooked in the oven. So here is how I plan our menus. None of this is earth shattering or inventive but maybe it will give you "non-planners" some new ideas.
*I really enjoy reading food blogs and searching allrecipes for new recipes. Mels Kitchen Cafe, Vittles and Bits, and Eighty Twenty are some current blogs I follow. I also hop over to Meal Make Over Moms and Tasty Kitchen too. When I see something I like I'll bookmark it for later when I want to throw in a new recipe for the weekly menu.
*I grocery shop once a week. I sit down the day before and plan our menu and make my shopping list. I use Grocery Gadget to make my shopping list on my iPod. It is compatible with most mobile platforms and has been well worth the $4.
*I have a running list of the meals we like to eat. I also have listed next to it the ingredients I will need to buy if it is not an essential item I always have on hand. This makes coming up with meal ideas and making your shopping list much easier. My mom keeps her meals listed on index cards in a little box and are then divided into categories (chicken, beef, sides, etc.) That way she can easily flip through the box and see what sounds good.
*I always keep our kitchen stocked with the essentials. The essentials for us are basically anything I will need to make our breakfast and lunches, snacks, drinks, spices, condiments, flour, sugar, and frozen veggies. (There are much more but you get the idea) When I run out of one of the essentials I automatically write it down or add it to my shopping app if the iPod or iPad is right next to me so I won't be caught without it in the middle of cooking.
*I often freeze our leftovers if it is a large portion. When I make lasagna I split the ingredients into two 8x8 dishes (one to cook and one to freeze) instead of a 9x13 since we can't eat that much in a couple days. I also freeze soups and chili in quart freezer bags. Lay them flat and they stack nicely without taking up very much room. Having a frozen meal in the freezer is so handy on busy nights! Our Carne Asada, Meatballs, and Meatloaf we ate this week were all in the freezer ready to thaw and heat.
*I have started to move all my recipes to evernote. I can access my recipes from any device connected to the internet. This also means I can use the iPad as my recipe book. Phillip got me an under the cabinet iPad holder here and it works great!
Like I said none of this is life changing ideas but it works great for me!
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