This is probably one of the most difficult questions that I am faced with everyday! :) And I usually postpone coming up with an answer until about 4 or 5pm so then it's usually thrown together and nothing too amazing.
So, I'm making a meal list and maybe even go as far as putting them on the calendar and making grocery lists.
I'm also reading through the FLYLADY website and incorporating a bit of her organizing/cleaning routines.
Any tips & advice on these topics is most welcome!
YAY for a more organized life!
4 comments:
When you make a lasagna, make 4 of them and freeze 3 of them... same for pizzas, meatloafs or other casseroles. It's helpful to have *something* in the freezer for nights when you realize you have one pickle, some outdated mayonaise and one wizzened up potato to make dinner with. Another thing which is nice to do ahead is meatballs. Make them up into balls with whatever recipe you use, freeze them on parchment (uncooked) and then store them in ziplocks. You can take out as many as you need for a "meatballs and gravy" night. If you really want to make it easy on yourself, make sure to buy a couple packages of gravy mix to keep in the cupboard. It's not easy to keep up to the dinner demands no matter what stage, but these things helped me so far.-j
I *love* the Sink Reflections book by Flylady! Made my life so much simplier! Happy reading!
~OJ
I found it helpful to have a few nights that always have a similar menu from week to week. For instance, Monday nights are pasta nights (usually spaghetti, with salad and broccoli) Wednesdays are often soup nights (at least in the winter) and Saturday evenings are usually BBQ'd hamburgers or turkey burgers. I try to add variety the rest of the week, but this gives me a few nights per week when I don't have to "THINK"
I do a menu plan about 90% of the time (just laziness keeps me from doing it 100% of the time), and I try to do it 2-3 weeks at a time and try to do a different meal for every day in those weeks, so that when that cycle is over, if i am too lazy to make a new meal plan, i can just repeat the same one (or just start on it again until I get around to doing a new one).
We also leave our weekend meal plan empty, mostly so Alf can enjoy some creativity and make whatever HE wants to).
Also, we get different food magazines, have had subscriptions, etc, and when we find meals we like, we add it to an organized list broken into categories, so that I can just refer to the list when I'm making my meal plans. That way, the really hard 'work' (other than actually cooking it) is just compiling all the recipes, and makes the meal planning merely a look and pick exercise :)
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