These are the stories of my adventures as I attempt to define "homemaker."

Monday, July 7, 2014

[head cook] Weekly Meal Planning


My background as a classroom teacher has taught me many valuable skills that come in handy as a homemaker.

My classroom was a mecca for organizational fanatics. Everything had a place. And was labeled. Even my labels were labeled.
Told ya.
So it should come as no surprise that my home is the same.

Well, let's be honest here. My home is trying to be the same. It's hard to label everything in your home. I don't want it to look like a classroom. Though that might be dreamy for me...

Anyway, one key part of organizing is utilizing binders. They are everywhere in my home and I use them constantly.

One that I use the most is a part of my weekly meal planning routine.



How many of you can relate to this?


You walk into the grocery store. You've got a few things written down that you need on a paper napkin or the back of an old receipt.... toilet paper, shaving cream, milk. You know you've got to get food for some meals so you'll just decide when you're in there.  

Oh, the spaghetti sauce is on sale. Yes, we'll have spaghetti one night.  

Oh, Rotel, cheese dip sounds good right now.

3 hours later you've got a cart full of groceries and you're spending $300. Plus you forgot toilet paper.

Or this?

It's 5pm and it's time to put together something for you and your family to eat for dinner. You dread this. You sulk into the kitchen and stare aimlessly at your pantry. Then your fridge. Then your freezer.

What did I buy at the grocery store?!?!

You consider take-out. Or fast food. Your end decision is usually one you're unhappy with. And you've totally forgotten that you decided on spaghetti one night.

This used to be me. Especially when I was working and HATED coming home and worrying about dinner.

So I decided to start planning my meals. Then making one big grocery list. And STICKING TO IT. Right now I'm feeding my husband, my infant daughter, and me. So meal planning is considerably easy. I imagine it'll be more difficult when Baby starts eating what we're eating. But I'll figure it out then, just like I did now.

So pick a day. Mine is Sunday. After church, I sit down, plan my meals, and run to the grocery store. This is while Baby is sleeping and husband can be in charge of her. This takes all of 2 hours. Faster if I'm not interrupted.




I've got all I need:
1. Recipes
2. Planning Sheet
3. Grocery List


1. To plan your meals you need a recipe database. I rely on my good ole fashioned recipe box. It has handwritten recipes from my mother, printed online recipes, and recipes I've taken out of the Kraft Food & Family magazine.



Then I always have my iPad handy for finding new ideas or using recipes I've found online and pinned to Pinterest.

I also have a silly little idea that I've used for a while now:

Mexican Mondays.
Tilapia (fish) Tuesdays.
Pasta Wednesdays.
Whatever Thursdays.
Pizza or Leftovers Friday.

I very rarely stray from this. Call me weird if you must, but it works for me. I plan my meals around this. Fish every Tuesday gets a little much so that's usually the day I stray.

2. I have a handy little notepad that I bought from Michaels a few years ago. It has the days listed out along with a shopping list. You can find these anywhere. Or make your own. Or browse online. It's not very big, 8" x 6" so it doesn't take up a lot of room. Plus it has a magnet on the back so I can keep it right on my fridge.


3. After I've planned my meals, I make my grocery list. Here's where you might call me crazy. When I walk into the grocery store, I'm like a machine. I don't want to look at my list and run all over the store. I need all my vegetables listed together, meats together, dairy together, etc. So I found this notepad.
http://www.amazon.com/All-Out-Of-Magnetic-Pad/dp/1601061935

This is great and all, but it still kinda leaves me running all over the store. What I needed was a list that was categorized out in the order of the aisles. But who in the world does that?!? Me.

So I made my own list. Customized to the things we buy the most. And listed in the order of the aisles of my local Kroger. If they ever remodel I'll have to start over. Ehhhh....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6serm5CQQhiV2Z1VGlfSWZjeHc/edit?usp=sharing
You can download a copy of my list here. It's a Word file so you can change it up. The formatting will likely be off though because of the different fonts I used. Be advised.

I keep this list on a clipboard in my kitchen. When we run out of something, I run in there and highlight it on the list. Then when Sunday rolls around and it's time to shop, the house needs are already on there.

So my list is ready and I make a trip to the grocery store and ONLY BUY what's on my list. I allow only a few impulse buys and of course there's always the "oh yeah! I need..." I'm strict because my husband and I have a budget and I absolutely must stick with it.

When I get home from the grocery store I hang my plan on the fridge, along with any recipes that I'm using that week. Every evening there's no guessing what I'm cooking. It's there.



At the end of each week I put my plan in a binder. Then if I'm curious about the last time I cooked something, I can quickly look it up.

Yes, that's a utensil holder that I use for writing tools and the like.

The binder is a small binder from Wal-Mart that fits my meal planning sheets perfectly.


The cover was designed using this fabulous template, available on TeachersPayTeachers. I used the font A Gentle Touch from dafont.com.



This planning saves me money each week because I'm not buying a bunch of food that inevitably won't be eaten. Plus, it has the HUGE benefit of not having to decide each night what to cook!

So I guess being a homemaker involves a lot of thoughtful planning! =)

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