But Before I Get Started on the Friends
A web site I read pretty regularly, LifeHacker, had a post about a meal planning service. The comments asked for tools we use to help us prepare a meal when we're suffering from Cantthinkofanythingtofix disease. I had all kinds of things to say on the subject, but it really didn't fit their question: Can you suggest any other sites or newsletters that do the meal planning/shopping list thing for you? Instead of editing my ideas down to a comment about my routine, I decided to make a full-blown post about it.
About three years ago, I somehow got pointed to the mailing list Just Tell Me What to Cook. It was free, and based on the theory that the stay-at-home mother of two, then three, didn't want to spend her time at home in the kitchen - she was home with her kids to be with her kids. The second premise of the list is that we spend way too much time deciding what to eat, and when the pressure is on, it's 6:30, and we don't know what to cook, the simplest answer is sometimes "McDonald's." The Just Tell Me What to Cook system was a way around that second problem - I didn't have to decide what to fix; all I had to do was buy the food and fix it.
Every week, a list of seven recipes would come in my e-mail. I would pick out the ones I liked, print them off, and make shopping lists based on the ingredients. The recipes were measured in "Real Mom Time." How much did it take the writer, Ellen Gray, to prepare the meal. That was listed in "Real Mom Time" on the recipe. Real Mom Time does not equal "how long until dinner?" Sometimes the main dish goes together really quickly and needs to spend an hour in the oven.
Eventually I cancelled the mailings, because the author stopped sending new recipes after her third baby was born. I had already started collecting her recipes, as well as recipes I printed from AllRecipes and Cooks.Com, printing them out in full-page mode, three-hole punching them, and saving them in a three-ring binder. I divided the main dishes up into categories: Meats, Chicken, Fish, and Meatless. I also had tabs for sides, desserts and breakfast.
Every week now, on Saturday, I try to plan the menus for the upcoming week. I choose from a balance of the four sections. I select kid-friendly recipes for Monday, when I watch two kids after school/work for a friend, and super-quick recipes for Tuesday, when I have Cub Scouts. I used to put the recipes for the week in a little binder in sheet protectors, but now I don't bother - I just put them in the cupboard in a stack on top of the cookbooks. Every night before bedtime, I look to see what meat (if any) I need for the next day, and get it out to thaw. If I forget, I just get it out in the morning or let my microwave do the thawing work later in the day.
The main advantage of this system for me is that I don't in a bind about dinner at dinner time. I KNOW what I'm having for dinner. If I know what to cook, the cooking is the easy part (especially if I've picked quick to fix meals). Some of my meals are not exactly quick, but we really like them, so I try to fix them fairly often. If I've had a difficult day and we're supposed to have chicken, I'll often switch to Garlic Chicken Fried Chicken because pounding the chicken with a meat mallet is so therapeutic. We hardly ever have hamburgers any more since I found this recipe for Diner Salisbury Steak. I adapted it slightly; I use cream of mushroom soup diluted water and with beef bouillon cubes added for the gravy, and I use a whole pound of mushrooms because we really like mushrooms. With mashed potatoes on the side, it's as good as anything you can get as the daily special at your local diner, quick to make, and really, really cheap.
When I read about a dish that sounds good, or eat something out that I really like, I'll google it. I read a post by Rosalynde Welch on Times and Seasons about the meals people brought to her after her baby was born. The Penne with Tomato-Cream Sauce caught my attention, so I hopped over to AllRecipes and found tomato cream sauce for pasta. It's super fast and easy (and rich and delicious). It's now one of my standards for a fast meal. We went out to Copeland's on my birthday and I had a delicious shrimp and vegetable pasta scampi thing. I googled "Lemon Garlic Pasta" and found this wonderful low-fat version.
We save a ton of money now, because we don't eat out as often. I don't WANT to eat out as often - I can usually make something better at home. If I've got a hankering for shrimp I buy "jumbo gumbo" shrimp in a one pound bag, frozen, ($3.99 on sale at Winn-Dixie) and cook it up to make this wonderful shrimp linguine - shrimp isn't so expensive if it's served with pasta. We keep pizza toppings on hand, and with this quick crust it's out of the oven before the delivery could get here.
Some things are really hard to duplicate at home without the right equipment. I did find a way to make steak that's just delicious, without using an outdoor grill, when I was watching Good Eats one night - Alton Brown showed how to make pan-seared ribeye steaks with a cast iron skillet and a super-hot oven. Good Eats indeed!
It may sound like I spend a ton of time in the kitchen. That's the beauty of it: I don't. I have a nice collection of quick and easy dinners that taste good. I plan what I'm going to cook ahead of time, and shop to the plan. And because I do the cooking, I don't have to do the dishes.
About three years ago, I somehow got pointed to the mailing list Just Tell Me What to Cook. It was free, and based on the theory that the stay-at-home mother of two, then three, didn't want to spend her time at home in the kitchen - she was home with her kids to be with her kids. The second premise of the list is that we spend way too much time deciding what to eat, and when the pressure is on, it's 6:30, and we don't know what to cook, the simplest answer is sometimes "McDonald's." The Just Tell Me What to Cook system was a way around that second problem - I didn't have to decide what to fix; all I had to do was buy the food and fix it.
Every week, a list of seven recipes would come in my e-mail. I would pick out the ones I liked, print them off, and make shopping lists based on the ingredients. The recipes were measured in "Real Mom Time." How much did it take the writer, Ellen Gray, to prepare the meal. That was listed in "Real Mom Time" on the recipe. Real Mom Time does not equal "how long until dinner?" Sometimes the main dish goes together really quickly and needs to spend an hour in the oven.
Eventually I cancelled the mailings, because the author stopped sending new recipes after her third baby was born. I had already started collecting her recipes, as well as recipes I printed from AllRecipes and Cooks.Com, printing them out in full-page mode, three-hole punching them, and saving them in a three-ring binder. I divided the main dishes up into categories: Meats, Chicken, Fish, and Meatless. I also had tabs for sides, desserts and breakfast.
Every week now, on Saturday, I try to plan the menus for the upcoming week. I choose from a balance of the four sections. I select kid-friendly recipes for Monday, when I watch two kids after school/work for a friend, and super-quick recipes for Tuesday, when I have Cub Scouts. I used to put the recipes for the week in a little binder in sheet protectors, but now I don't bother - I just put them in the cupboard in a stack on top of the cookbooks. Every night before bedtime, I look to see what meat (if any) I need for the next day, and get it out to thaw. If I forget, I just get it out in the morning or let my microwave do the thawing work later in the day.
The main advantage of this system for me is that I don't in a bind about dinner at dinner time. I KNOW what I'm having for dinner. If I know what to cook, the cooking is the easy part (especially if I've picked quick to fix meals). Some of my meals are not exactly quick, but we really like them, so I try to fix them fairly often. If I've had a difficult day and we're supposed to have chicken, I'll often switch to Garlic Chicken Fried Chicken because pounding the chicken with a meat mallet is so therapeutic. We hardly ever have hamburgers any more since I found this recipe for Diner Salisbury Steak. I adapted it slightly; I use cream of mushroom soup diluted water and with beef bouillon cubes added for the gravy, and I use a whole pound of mushrooms because we really like mushrooms. With mashed potatoes on the side, it's as good as anything you can get as the daily special at your local diner, quick to make, and really, really cheap.
When I read about a dish that sounds good, or eat something out that I really like, I'll google it. I read a post by Rosalynde Welch on Times and Seasons about the meals people brought to her after her baby was born. The Penne with Tomato-Cream Sauce caught my attention, so I hopped over to AllRecipes and found tomato cream sauce for pasta. It's super fast and easy (and rich and delicious). It's now one of my standards for a fast meal. We went out to Copeland's on my birthday and I had a delicious shrimp and vegetable pasta scampi thing. I googled "Lemon Garlic Pasta" and found this wonderful low-fat version.
We save a ton of money now, because we don't eat out as often. I don't WANT to eat out as often - I can usually make something better at home. If I've got a hankering for shrimp I buy "jumbo gumbo" shrimp in a one pound bag, frozen, ($3.99 on sale at Winn-Dixie) and cook it up to make this wonderful shrimp linguine - shrimp isn't so expensive if it's served with pasta. We keep pizza toppings on hand, and with this quick crust it's out of the oven before the delivery could get here.
Some things are really hard to duplicate at home without the right equipment. I did find a way to make steak that's just delicious, without using an outdoor grill, when I was watching Good Eats one night - Alton Brown showed how to make pan-seared ribeye steaks with a cast iron skillet and a super-hot oven. Good Eats indeed!
It may sound like I spend a ton of time in the kitchen. That's the beauty of it: I don't. I have a nice collection of quick and easy dinners that taste good. I plan what I'm going to cook ahead of time, and shop to the plan. And because I do the cooking, I don't have to do the dishes.
