Be a list maker!
Every Monday, I pull out my cookbooks, recipes I've printed off the internet, recipes I've pulled out of magazines, and my recipe box. I have one paper with the days Monday-Sunday listed (a magnetic pre-printed list I picked up at WalMart), and one blank paper for my grocery list. I start sorting through all the recipes and pick out what I want to make each day of the week for dinner. I write down each meal on the day I plan to make it, and then I write all the ingredients I need to get on my shopping list. I separate the recipes I'll be using for the week and set them aside, and write the page number the recipe came from if I found it in a cookbook. I tend to gravitate toward recipes that utilize items that I keep stocked, so that I am not buying 15 things for each recipe. I then go through the fridge and the pantry to see what staples I am running low on. Then we hit the store.
***Making a list cuts down on unnecessary purchases, and makes for a much less stressful grocery visit. Plus it helps not to get all the way home and realize you fogot one measly thing (not to say that still doesn't happen to me occasionally, because it does!).
Also, having a set meal plan for the week actually helps you in saving time and money. You won't be running to the store with everyone else after school, grabbing at whatever quick and easy dinner you can find. Fast daily trips to the store rack up to huge expenses. Setting time aside to spend more than a few frantic moments daily in the store can work wonders on your wallet, and your sanity. Coming home from work and knowing whats for dinner and having everything on hand to just throw it together and enjoy is a huge stress relief. It also gives your kids the opportunity to know whats coming for the rest of the week. Our menu hangs on the side of the fridge.
Recipe Hording
I am very guilty of this! I have a HEAP of cookbooks, a recipe box, and I get 3 different magazines that have recipes, plus I'm online looking for new ideas and printing them up all the time. I used to kick myself when I would make something really amazing one time, and then want to make it again only to realize that I couldn't remember where the recipe had come from and no reasonable means of finding it. So I devised a new plan:
1. I decided that the recipe box will be the home for all tried and trues. If we like the recipe, it gets written on a card that very night and put in the box. It holds nothing that we haven't already tried and decided we would like to have again.
2. I finally found a way to keep all of the "want-to-try's" organized. I purchased a 3-ring binder and bought a pack of dividers. I marked them: Appetizers, Sides/Soups, Mains, Desserts, and Good Ideas. When I find a recipe I want to try (either in a magazine or online), I rip the page out of the magazine, punch 3 holes and put it in the binder. Once we try it, if we like it it gets put onto a recipe card and the paper gets tossed. If we didn't like it, into the bin it goes. I used to have an entire cabinet dedicated to dog-eared magazines that I dreaded looking through. The binder has made it SO much easier. The Good Ideas section is for interesting tidbits of info that I could never remember if I didn't keep them, like how many minutes to cook a steak to get rare/med rare/well done...etc.
3. Cookbooks get marked with a round neon sticker on the pages that contain recipes we tried and liked. I don't want to re-write anything that's in one of the cookbooks, my dedication to this effort only goes so far!
Bargain Shopping
Now, in no way do I claim to be an excellent bargain shopper. I only occasionally look at the sale ads, and I definitly do not go to more than one store to get the best deals. It's not a feasable option for me. However, when I see a deal, I stock up. If any of our staple items are marked "2 for", I grab 2. When chicken breasts are on sale, I stock up and freeze them individually in Ziploc freezer bags. Same goes for steaks, ground beef, fish, shrimp, and everything else. Grab it while it's on sale if you know you will use it. When I know we have certain items in abundance in the frezzer (meats), I cook recipes with those involved so as to keep down on overloading the freezer. I can't contribute to the energy crisis by investing in a deep freezer. In no way have we "gone green", but I still do my best to do our part, and getting another electricity sucking item isn't an option.
I hope that all this rambling hasn't overwhelmed any of you! I just know that it works really well for us, and it helps me get an accurate value of what we are spending each week on food. I hope to, as they get a little older, include the kids in what we plan to make for the week, allowing each of them to pick whats on the menu for a particular day. Taking ownership inwhat is being made will help them feel involved and make them more likely to try new things.
We all plan out our daily lives; what we are going to wear, what time we have to wake everyone up and pile them out of the house, what we need to get done today at work, etc. It should be equally important to plan what it is we will be eating and feeding our families. Just a few extra minutes can make a huge difference in your health, and in your family. Studies show that children who eat at least one meal a day with their family are more socially adjusted and self confident. What a wonderful thing to be able to give to your children, just by making a simple dinner.
"Youth who eat more family meals perform better in school. They spend more time on homework, get better grades, and spend more of their free time reading for pleasure. And they are happier. They are less likely to use alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana. They are less likely to engage in early sexual activity or to have eating disorders. Their self-esteems are higher, on average, and they are less likely to become depressed. Teens who eat many meals with their families are half as likely to think about suicide." (from http://www.drgreene.com/21_1906.html)
Sounds like a worthwhile effort to me.
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