Organizing in the Kitchen - Menu Planning Step Two

This week we'll talk about my second step in menu planning. After I made my huge list of meals my family enjoys I started transferring the recipes (from cookbooks, printed recipes, ect) to recipe cards. Some of the recipes I did right away and some of them are still waiting.  When I make something from the list I now try to get the recipe card done that day or I will sometimes make up the cards when I do my menu planning.  The second way works best because then I have the recipe handy when I go to actually make the meal.

The reason you want to do the recipe cards is so that after you have planned your menu from your list (+ one or two new recipes to try) you can then get the recipes out that you will be using that week. You can put them in your home management binder or just put them right in the front of your recipe box.  Also this makes figuring out what you need to buy easy. You can look at each recipe and check to see what you need and immediately put it on your list. No more forgotten items or only having half the ingredients on hand when you go to cook your meals!

You can use plain index cards if you want, buy some cute recipe cards, you can even find them for free online.  The ones I use I found at MessyVegetarianCook. Some of the cards can be saved to your computer and edited in a photo editing program, others are pdf files that you can edit and print from. You can also just google free printable recipe cards and lots will show up.

Hope you're having fun getting all your recipes organized and ready to use!

Organizing in the Kitchen - Menu Planning Step Two

Organizing in the Kitchen - Menu Planning Step One

Day 331: groceries By: bookgrl on Flicker

I missed posting yesterday but I didn't actually do anything other than the basics to get through the day.  I had to babysit and with looking after two little ones, plus the big kids home for a snow day; keeping my sanity was the only goal. Today I took another easy day mostly. Did a little work in the living room, tidied the rest of the house and this evening I worked on my menu for next week.  Since menu planning is part of being organized I thought I would talk about it with you tonight.

Do you menu plan? Have you stood in front of your cabinets or freezer an hour before you should be serving supper wondering what in the world you could make tonight?  Do you often end up just ordering out because you can't figure out what to make? Menu planning can help! Spending a few minutes once a week can save you time, stress and money!

When I first started menu planning I just started with planning suppers, gradually I started adding in lunches and breakfasts.  This is particularly helpful when the kids are home on school holidays. Now I generally keep the same breakfast and lunch menu until the kids start saying they are sick of something, then I will change it up a little.  I plan only one week's worth of menus at a time.  If you get paid every two weeks it may be more helpful for you to plan two weeks at a time.  I've tried planning a months worth or more of menus before and I never stuck to the menu at all.

Recently I sat down and tried to figure out a faster system for menu planning and this is what I came up with.  Tonight we'll only talk about the first step. That way you can do the homework and come back next week for step two. The first thing I did was sit down with all the recipes I had printed, cookbooks I use, clippings I had saved and wrote down a huge list of things I like to make. This list does not include things I haven't made before or want to try; it's just things I know my family likes.  I have a list for spring/summer and fall/winter.  Doing it this way I know I'll have things on my menu the family enjoys and I can add a new recipe in whenever I want. You can see the list of meals I made here. I think I've added on to the list (via my cooking blog) since I made this list in my notebook, but I just used the notebook list to make this file for you.

This week you can try coming up with a list of meals your family enjoys. Next week we'll tackle the second step.

Are you finding this helpful? Do you have a different, maybe better way that you plan menus? If you do I'd be interested in hearing it, always looking for a new more efficient way to do things. :)

Organizing in the Kitchen - Menu Planning Step One

Kitchen Cabinet Organizing - Part 1

This evening I decided to tackle a couple of my kitchen cabinets. The worst of the bunch, the ones that annoy me when I open them and things are falling out or are so disorganized I can't find what I am looking for. I'm sure you know what I am talking about, right? I don't know about your family but mine can have the cabinets a bit messy again by next week. So, I'm going to try and make an extra effort to put things back in place when I see someone has just shoved in a rush. Maybe then my efforts will last a bit longer.

Are you wondering what state the cabinets were before I cleaned them out & organized them? Well, let's take a look...

And about 40 minutes later (I did this while making and serving supper to the kids so may have taken a bit longer that it should have), we have a couple of nicely organized kitchen cabinets!

There were quite a few boxes that only had crumbs left, so I left enough space to replace them when I go shopping. I'm pleased with the results mostly. Thinking about getting a couple baskets for tea & coffee boxes and maybe for snack items. Other than that I think it looks a lot better now. I can open the doors and smile instead of grumble, that is a good thing! 

Kitchen Cabinet Organizing - Part 1

What's in the Pantry??

Every day this week when making lunches I open the pantry door to get the lunch bags out and I cringe at what I see.  Okay, so this is been going on a bit longer than a week, more like a month or so but who's counting. ;) Today I finally had enough.  This would be the day I would win the battle of the messy pantry. Wanna know the best part - It only took me 15 minutes to empty, clean and re-organize the entire pantry. Yes, that's right all of the shelves took only 15 minutes!

This is the scary before picture. Lucky nothing fell out when I opened the doors.

15 minutes later...

Isn't that beautiful?  I just want to sit and stare at it.

The top shelf has my spices and all my cake decorating/candy making supplies in the basket. The second shelf has some of my baking supplies. The third shelf just holds some misc. things I didn't have room for in the cupboards. On the very bottom shelf is my bread machine and food storage bags/wraps.

I was able to donate all of the baby food (we never really used it, just had it on hand "in case") and the baby crackers. The best before dates on all of it were a long way off, so I felt good blessing some family that may need it for their little one.

Did you organize anything today? There are so many things you can do in 15 minutes or less. I know it's hard to not want to do anything unless you can do the whole room, but a little here and a little there and before you know it the whole room will be done.

What's in the Pantry??