How meal planning has helped me

In the long scheme of things, I have only been doing this meal planning thing for a little while. It has always been my heart to provide delicious food for my family, and in the 8 years that we have been married I have tried different things off and on. But, nothing really worked so well that it stuck. Finally, though, I have found what works for me. I don't know exactly how long I have been planning my meals in this way, but it has really blessed me, my kitchen, and my family. I did several posts a while back on why it is important to provide meals for your family in your home, what does NOT work for me in meal planning, the actual meal plan that I use, and what cookbooks I use. If you are interested in finding a way to plan out a menu and shopping list that works for you that is easy to follow, check out those posts to see if my plan would work for you as well.

This is what is on my mind this morning, so I thought I would share some of the ways that planning my meals and shopping list in this way have helped me.
* I have a very limited grocery budget. I have about $125 to spend on groceries for the 5 of us for a 15 day menu. It's tight, but since I am planning out all of our meals for those 15 days, and I know which of the two stores that I shop (Aldi and Kroger) sell what I need the cheapest, I can get what we need within that limit. We don't buy organic, because that would just take up too much of my chunk of money, but I feel that providing nourishing homemade meals and avoiding processed junk and fast food (when we can) makes up for it.
* The overall thought process in my home around meal time has changed from "Where are we going for dinner?" to "What are we having for dinner?" Also, that questions is easily and quickly answered by a glance at the menu hanging on the refrigerator. I read somewhere recently (can't at all remember where) that when you are consistently feeding your family home cooked meals, you are creating for your children and your family a sort of "home base". There is no uncertainty about dinner time.
* My children love helping me in the kitchen, Hudson especially. For Christmas he got his very own spatula. He was 3 at the time, and has loved using it to help me cook whenever he can. By helping me cook and, occasionally, bake, they are learning very valuable life skills. I am also learning and growing in patience :)
* My kitchen has become the place to be. I have Christian music playing in there from morning till night, and at any point throughout the day at least one person is in there. I take pleasure in preparing meals, and there is no 4:00 panic as I try to find something to make. It's all there ready for me.

If you have a desire to have more meals at home, or have been considering finding a system that works for you of consistently and efficiently planning regular menus, I would be happy to help. You could check out the links above, or contact me. My email address is listed at the top on the right under my picture.

Have a great Thursday, and happy cooking! This evening for us, it's chicken and broccoli casserole. Yummy!

From my Kitchen Friday

And so it goes.

Meal Planning Made Simple
The Meal Plan
Cookbooks I Use

From my kitchen Friday: Busy mom's lasagna

Last night was comfort food night, and on the menu was lasagna. The problem was that I didn't have enough time to pre-boil the noodles, and as it was I was already running late. I decided to take a big chance and made up the whole lasagna with the uncooked noodles (regular noodles, not the "no boil" ones, I can never bring myself to pay the extra money for them). After assembling the dish, but before I put the extra cheese on the top, I very gently poured 1 cup of water over the whole thing. Then I put the shredded mozzarella on top, covered it with aluminum foil, and baked it in a 350 degree oven for about 50 minutes. I then took the foil off and checked the noodles. Perfect! I baked it uncovered for a bit longer to brown up the top.   

At some point in the baking process, I put an old cookie sheet on the rack under the rack the lasagna was on because it was boiling over a bit.

I'd say it was a little messy, probably because of the water, and I would maybe add a little less next time, but it was no messier than a lasagna you would buy at the store and bake. Then again, isn't lasagna always messy?

Anyway, it was delicious! The noodles were perfectly cooked, and I have a feeling I will be using this lazy version every time! And may, in fact, make it more than I usually do because it was so easy! Everyone loved it :)

Happy Friday!

Cookbooks I use

As I mentioned before, I use a 3-ring binder, with lots of recipes I have acquired over time, and two cookbooks. The first cookbook I use is Healthy Choices, by Marvin and Miriam Wengerd, authors of Keepers at Home magazine. This is a really awesome cookbook. It is full to the brim with lots of healthy recipes, made with ingredients that I actually have! It also has gardening and canning tips, and has a lot of home remedies for things ranging from colds/coughing to immune boosters to headache relievers.

The other cookbook I use is The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner, by Liz Edmunds. She actually has a television show, though I've never seen it, and has a whole program where she helps women and men set up a system that works for them to have regular homemade meals. She uses the theme system and it has worked for her for over 30 years. I have tried the theme system off and on over the last few years, but never was able to find it easy to stick to until I decided to come up with my "cheat sheets." That really is the secret for me.

The thing about this system is that you can have as few or as many recipes as you want. If you want to have only two or three recipes for each theme, then you will only have the same meal every two or three weeks. Or, you can have a lot of recipes for each theme and not have the same meal for quite a while. It's really up to you. I love cookbooks, and I actually own quite a few. It's unfortunate that they all now sit collecting dust, but really having so many things to choose from contributes to my undoing.  

There is also room for you to tailor this to your own family's taste as far as what themes you choose, and whether or not you choose to include a day or two for leftovers. My family historically has not done well with leftovers. I throw away more than I reheat. So, I keep this in mind when I am planning out my meals and I make sure I only make enough for us to eat in one sitting or to have some left for only one set of lunches. I also make sure I have a date night with my husband in there once a week or so, and I either still make the meal for my children or (usually) skip that meal and transfer it to the next 2 week plan. Easy peasy!

Has this been helpful to you? I would love to hear your stories :)  Happy cooking!! Your family will reap the benefits, and you will, too :)

The meal plan!

Okay, so once you have decided which 2 or 3 cookbooks you want to regularly pull from (remember, if there are recipes that you enjoy out of other cookbooks, you could always keep a 3-ring binder and make copies of the recipes to put in your binder; I personally use 2 cookbooks and one binder), and have decided on what themes you would like to use in your meal planning, you are ready to go to the next step.

Now what you need to do is get a blank sheet of paper for each of your theme nights. My themes are Mexican (Tues), Fish/Meatless/Brinner (Wed), Comfort Food (Thurs), Pizza (Fri), Casserole (Sat), and Pasta (Sun). My husband and I go to a small group on Monday nights, so what I prepare on those nights always changes depending on what we are taking to our small group. If you have already gone through your cookbooks and made a list of the recipes you like (one of yesterday's tips), this step will be easier. On each theme page, make a small list of recipes fitting that theme that you will choose from when you are sitting down each 2 weeks (or 15 days, depending on how often you have a pay-day or choose to plan; personally, I do 15 days because that's how we have our budget set up). Beside each recipe, make a note of which cookbook it is from and what page it is on.

 

When I sit down to make my 15 day meal plan, I also make my grocery list at the same time. Since I have noted in which cookbook and on what page each recipe is on my master lists, as I decide on a meal I also take a quick look in the book to see what I need to add to my grocery list. 

I keep all of my master theme lists in a plastic paper keeper in the front of  my 3-ring binder.

When it comes time to sit down and plan out your 2 week meal plan, all you will have to do is go through your theme lists and find which recipes you would like to plug into your meal plan. I made up a sheet of paper that I use to write my meal plans on. One page is one week, so I use two sheets for my 15 day plan. I have listed each day of the week and noted what the theme is for each day.

I also make sure I make a note of the cookbook and page number where I can find each recipe on this page, too, so when it comes time to begin preparing supper I can easily find my recipe.

I know this may seem like a lot of work, but really if you break it down and work on it bits and pieces at a time until you have it all done, it's really not bad. Plus, this little bit of initial work really makes for a plan that is quick and easy to follow through on. If you work outside the home, having a plan like this will take the stress off of knowing what to make for dinner, and will save time on sitting down to plan because the theme night "cheat sheets" make the process run smoothly.

I hope you have found this helpful! If I have not explained something clearly enough or if you have any questions at all, feel free to ask!

Meal planning made simple

Before I go any further about what does work (for me) in planning out meals, I want to write about why it is so important to have regular family meals at home. It goes beyond the benefits of not having to worry about coming up with something to fix each day and saving money with less trips to the grocery store and less impulse buying (although those are great benefits).

In her book, The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner, Liz Edmunds talks about the benefits of having regular family meals at home. She talks of research done by the University of Minnesota that "investigated the potential benefits of family mealtimes on children and found that families that dine together tend to have healthier, more well-adjusted children." Their studies also indicated that "the more often children and teens eat with their parents - and the happier, more structured these mealtimes are - the more the children gain these benefits: better nutrition, better language and literacy, fewer eating disorders, and fewer risky behaviors."

There is definitely something to be said for the security and comfort (for everyone) that comes from consistent, well-planned, pleasant meals with the family all gathered together, at home!

So, here are some things that I have found work (for me) when it comes to easy meal planning:

*stick to the 2 or 3 cookbooks that you most regularly use
*if you have loose recipes lying around, gather them all together into a 3-ring binder; this way, as you print more from the internet or make copies of others that you like, you can just hole-punch them and add them to your binder; I have a binder that I use in combination with 2 other great cookbooks; I have it sectioned off into breads, brinner (breakfast for dinner), main courses, and soups
*go through your cookbooks that you plan to use, and instead of marking each page of a recipe you like, get a sheet of plain printer paper and make a list of each recipe you want to use and what page it is on; this way instead of searching through your cookbook, you have a list to quickly look at to pick out what you would like to make
*think about what your family likes to eat most, and come up with themes for each day of the week (Mexican, Italian, Pizza, etc)

This is a large part of the beginning work. Like I said yesterday, I am not a planner by nature. But, this bit of initial planning really is what makes the rest of the process much easier. When I did this, I didn't sit down and try to tackle it all in one day. Instead, I worked on it bits and pieces at a time when I had the chance (after the kids were in bed, during a little bit of down time during the day, etc). Once you have all of this done, there are a few more steps that I will go over tomorrow that makes the whole process incredibly smooth.

So get those cookbooks and start sorting! Tomorrow I will explain the rest :)

Some thoughts on meal planning

(this is a current picture; yes there is a string of Christmas lights in the background because I left them up in my kitchen because I thought they were pretty and they make me happy)

I love to cook. I love to bake. I take great enjoyment out of spending my time preparing food that is not only nutritious but that my family enjoys eating. It's even better when my children help me because of their shared love of being in the kitchen preparing food. With that said, here is my confession: I have typically not been good at actually doing that consistently. I am not a planner. I have tried multiple times to get a good meal planning system down and always failed, usually due to my already stated planning problem.

Here are some things that I have learned along the way that do not work (for me) when it comes to meal planning:
*just planning to sit down with some paper and a few cookbooks to peruse through to come up with a 2 week plan will not happen successfully
*just going to the store (because of first point happening and me getting to pay-day without meals planned out) and buying a bunch of things I know we like and telling myself that I will just remember what I have and plan accordingly each day will not happen successfully
*having more than 2 or 3 cookbooks that I pull from when actually sitting down to plan my meals is too much to look through
*putting tabs within my cookbooks to mark recipes that look yummy will not actually make me remember that there are recipes in there that I would like to try
*first beating myself up after a failed attempt at a decent 2 week set of meals and then telling myself I will do better next time does not work. I always forget by the next time

Tomorrow, I will tell you the things that I have learned along the way that make meal planning successful, and I will share with you my current, fool-proof system. It's easy (though it takes a little bit of beginning work to get everything the way you like it), it's quick, and if it works for me it should work for you.