As a newlywed wife coming straight off a ramen noodle and cereal diet in college, the task of preparing dinner for my food-lovin husband was more than a little scary for me. Add that fear on top of my OCD personality and we were left with quite a dilemma. My solution? A menu board. A way for me to stay organize, grocery shop efficiently, and please the hubby's belly. I knew that I needed a plan for the week, I wanted Adam's input on the meals, and I needed a way to stay organized with all the details of meal planning such as remembering to pull out the frozen chicken to de-thaw while I'm still in my 5am coma, and actually turning on the crock-pot once you have placed items in it, etc. (Holy run-on sentence!! )
Here's what I came up with...
I designed this little baby using binder clips, an old canvas (flipped over), some ribbon, card stock, and some index cards. All things I had lying around the house, which is a major plus. It sits on our kitchen counter, where I can glance at it every day before I leave for work.
We choose our meals on Sunday out of my recipe books, I write the meal down on strips of index cards and attach them to the day of the week, I then pull the recipes from by cookbooks and place them in the "Recipe" folder to be easily accessible during the week while I'm brewing up our supper.
So far this system has saved me lots of headaches and helped me to feel quite productive in the kitchen. It also gives Adam a lot of input, since he does have to eat the crap food delights I prepare. Though we don't always stick perfectly to the menu, I always know what ingredients I have on hand and can cook on the weekend if we happened to skip it during the week. I am going to start posting some of my favorite recipes soon, but to keep you satisfied, here are a list of websites I frequent to gather recipe inspiration from...
So do you keep meals organized somehow? Bon Apetit! Enjoy!!
