The benefits of planning a weekly menu

I thought I’d share how I go about planning the menu and grocery list for the week. But first, I’d like to give you some of the benefits of planning a weekly menu:

·         After a long day at work or play, all you have to do is look and see what you’re having for dinner. With the recipe already pulled and the ingredients in the pantry, cooking the evening meal is a snap. No decisions to be made. Just follow the pre-planned instructions.

·         You and your family enjoy a well-balanced meal at least three to five times a week and have family time in spite of busy schedules.

·         You will have more free time because you will reduce your trips to the store and increase the efficiency of meal preparation.

·         Your overall grocery bill will be less per month because un-necessary impulse spending will be reduced when the number of trips to the store is decreased.

So here’s my method for meal planning. I do this every week, the same way. Even my planning method is consistent. Consistency in my methods is what simplifies my life and makes me efficient in my daily activities. If some of this is too simplistic, I apologize, but lest I lose someone by skipping a step, I thought I had better start from the beginning.

I open my ‘brain’ up with both front and back sides of the book lying open. On the front of the right page, I list the days of the weeks. The back of the left page will be used for my grocery list. I check the calendar to see if there are any special events to be considered when planning the menu. Wednesday night Bobby and I have French class, so a “to-go” type meal will be needed so we can eat in the car as we head across town to class. Now I start filling in my plan for dinner each night, looking up the recipe as I go. I write the location of the recipe (book and page) with the menu. I note the ingredients and add any needed items to my grocery list. Dividing up the grocery list into sections helps make shopping more time efficient. I have produce, meat, canned, dairy, frozen, and personal columns.

That’s it. Impressive, right? Well, not all that impressive, but it does keep food on the table and that makes my family happy and decreases my stress level.

I’ll share an actual menu plan, complete with recipes next time. Hopefully you’ll find, like I have, that a little of planning once a week can save you tons of time in the long run.

First Ever Post

So, this is a little strange. Never really thought I'd be blogging, but here goes.

I had this crazy idea the other day as I was playing around on my boards on Pinterest. I was thinking about all of the fun food items I was adding and thought I should maybe systematically go through and cook each item pinned. Then I had this really crazy thought that maybe, just maybe I should document this task with pictures and post them on a blog. Now I'm really tripping. I don't even have a camera to call my own and on top of that, I'm not even a photo bug. But I tucked this idea away into the back of my mind.

My sweet husband, Bobby, and I were on vacation a couple of weeks ago. He decides he needs to buy a new camera. Oh my goodness. You know what that means, don't you? It means that I can take the old, perfectly good camera and claim it as my own, to take pictures of any ole thing I might be so inclined to snap, like food! So I throw this idea out to Bobby. He realistically wonders when in the world am I going to have time to do something like cook, take pictures of the process and blog to boot? He's right.  Even though I don't work outside of the house, I stay really busy. Silly idea!

So, we're at the store last week doing our weekly grocery shopping and this lady is staring at me while I'm standing at the deli counter waiting for my honey mesquite ham. Well, turns out, she isn't staring at me so much as she's staring at my "brain." Not the one in my head but the one I keep in a small composition note book. It holds my "To Do List," calls to be made, and errands to be run, as well as my weekly menu and master grocery list. The lady comments that she wishes she could be so organized. I'm thinking, "How could I survive each week without being so organized?" Bobby is witness to the exchange and before I know what's happening he is telling me he thinks I should start blogging my menus and grocery lists, helping other ladies get more organized so they can prepare meals for their families on a regular basis.

So here I am, trying to navigate through the computer lingo so I can begin blogging my humble menu plans, grocery lists and perhaps, some of my attempts at preparing some of the delicious food items I'm pinning on Pinterest. We'll see how this goes. I'll give it a try and if I get the hang of this, I might let some people in on the fact that I'm blogging. Until then, it will be my little secret and whoever else happens upon this blog. :0)