I was going to post a recipe today, but thought I would share something that I put together to make my life a bit easier. If you are like me, you have a ton of recipe books or just pages printed off from allrecipes.com, recipezarr.com, etc. However, you (ME) are far too unorganized to actually use them. Lately I have been really struggling trying to get dinner on the table. I leave work having no clue what I am making for dinner and it just stresses me out.
Here is what I did. I made a weekly recipe binder with 6 weeks worth of recipes. For the loose printed out recipes I put them in the binder behind that weeks list, and if the recipe was in a book, I listed the page. If the recipe required a special ingredient that I know wouldn’t get all used, then I found another recipe that would use the remainder. On that weeks list I also put all the food that I would need. This serves as a grocery and check-the-pantry/freezer list.
I am lucky enough that I can order my groceries online and have them delivered, which I plan to do every Saturday morning (order Friday night). My list goes from Saturday to Friday each week. Having this list should save me from buying things I don’t need, which I do ALL THE TIME. I order veggies that I don’t use and they just sit in the “rotter”, as Brian calls it. I can also look at the list and check to see what I’m making the next day to make sure to take it out of the freezer. I’m actually being prepared!!
Here is the recipe list that I am using. Feel free to use it yourself. I have a few weeks filled out on it, so you can see what I am doing. When I sat down with my recipes, I just penciled them in and erased as needed. I made sure to be realistic, and had leftover nights and going out to eat nights that I know will happen. Brian has a poker night with the guys every other week, so that is usually Boston Market night in our house.
It took me a few hours to go through my recipes and list them out with the groceries. Well worth the time! There are still a bunch that I want to use, so I plan to use this as my basic list and change out recipes that I tried and didn’t like (or the kids refused to eat!). I also don’t grill in the wintertime since there isn’t enough light on our deck, so most of the grillables will have to wait during the frigid, dark winter months.
I think I can handle reconfiguring this every 6 weeks, how about you?
You are *so* much more organized than me! I am envious.
That was my point with this Alissa, I’m not!! This was just a way to de-stress my life a little bit and so far it has worked this week. I go home and know what I’m making and that I have everything defrosted and all the ingredients. Just spend some time to put it together…well, worth it, I tell ya!
Hmmm… I thinkin’ that sounds great. I’m already getting burned out of having to prepare school lunches that it seems like a huge chore to think of dinners too.
And I’m a little jealous, no wait, very jealous, that you have groceries delivered!! How I loathe grocery shopping.
Melody, I loathe it too. It is totally worth the $7 delivery fee so I don’t have to go grocery shopping. Especially in the wintertime when it is snowy and cold!! It also stops me from impulse buying, so actually I usually save money even with the fee. 🙂
Stacy, this is marvelous. I really need to do this and check into ordering groceries for delivery. It can’t cost more than gasoline or the extras the boys sneak into the cart when they must tag alone.
My problem comes in that I prepare 2 dinners nightly..the boys’ and mine and DH’s. The boys have such issues and some allergies that it’s necessary. All the more reason to organize like this.
Well, I hope this helps you in your hectic life Melody. I think making one dinner is hard enough, much less TWO. My oh my, I think you need to do this, too, and you can de-stress a bit about dinner every night if you have a plan. Definitely look into grocery delivery, too. It is a sanity saver!