Canada Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
How do you menu plan?
So I know I was on the bandwagon for a good few months there bit feel off huge once I was pg as food kinda took on a life of it's own and I was eating more day to day...
But my question is this... do you plan weekly/monthly? Do you have just a bunch of receipes that your rotate through and add a new one every so often? How do you store them (electronically, in a book or a combo of each?) I think my problem is that I need to get a collection going in one place and work from there, but I'm curious to see how everyone else does it too!
Re: How do you menu plan?
I just did a blog entry about this:
http://maplesyrupandpoutine.blogspot.com/2009/07/menu-planning.html
So far it has been working well for us because it gives us some flexibility. Also, I am very big on having us share the cooking duties. Getting this into place before the babe came along was essential for me and I find we fall into the "Let's just have frozen pizza or take-out" category way too often if we don't wait until the last minute. Also, we have not had to throw out any unused fruits or veggies in quite a while!
I do ours bi-weekly. What I do is I go through the flyers and see what is on sale. Then I use that to make the menu. I go through my google reader and any recipes that I have clipped out of magazines to see what I would like to make based on what is on sale.
I try to do at least half of the meals as new things (even if it is just a new side dish).
I store receipes in my google reader, in files in the office (I have one of those magazine storage boxes from IKEA and I keep recipes in there in plastic folders (by type of food), my blog and cookbooks in the kitchen. When I make something and blog about it I get rid of the link in my google reader or the recipe I had saved out of the magazine.
I plan on making a cookbook from my blog once a year so we have all the recipes in one place in case something happens to the blog.
Oh and another thing. Lets say roasts are on sale. I will plan on making one during that meal plan cycle and then buy a 2nd and maybe 3rd one and freeze it for later.
For chicken, I buy it in bulk when it is on sale only and freeze it in portions of 2. Sometimes I make a marinade and pour it over top of the chicken prior to freezing.
If I am making chili I make extra and freeze it in zip lock baggies. Same for meatballs and bacon.
Intially I planned weekly. But I found that I spent *alot* of time planning our meals. So I started planning monthly. It takes me about 45 mins - 1 hour to plan each month. I do our grocery shopping every Sunday and simply get what I need for that week's meals.
I store them in 2 Word Documents - a calendar and a collection of recipes for each month. I print off each month's calendar and recipes, staple them together, and hang them on the side of my fridge. At the end of each month, I file the paper copy of my menu/recipes in a binder arranged by month for quick reference. I also make a note on my electronic file whether we enjoyed the recipe or not - I change the text to green for 'make again' or red for 'it sucked' lol.
I get most of my recipes online. I sometimes google random food combos to see what comes up and go from there.
We plan weekly. A lot of our meals show up frequently, are simple, and few require an actual recipe, partly because DH cooks most nights and he never uses one. Planning is usually in the car on the way to the grocery store on Sundays, or a quick pow-wow once inside. We usually plan for Sunday through Thursday, and then decide on Friday and Saturday later in the week.
Saturday and Sunday are usually more complicated meals, and I usually try something new when I cook on Sundays. DH has a subscription to Gourmet and Bon Appetit, and we fold over the pages with recipes we'd like to try as we read it.
I plan weekly, and usually plan during lunch or at the end of the work day on Monday and go shopping after work. If I remember what's on sale at the grocery store I'm going to, I use that as a starting point. I have a spreadsheet set up that is sort of like a calendar for that week (Monday - Sunday) and my first step in the summer is to check the weather report, because if it's nice outside we will BBQ.
Then I try to choose a different protein for each day (fish, tofu, beef, chicken, pork, usually I do chicken twice). Sometimes I'm inspired by someone else's menu, sometimes I search cooks.com or allrecipes.com, and I have some decent go-to ideas now. I plan the meal around the protein. So each day I have a recipe, and I list the ingredients for the recipe, and BOLD the ones I need to buy for that day.
Usually I only buy food for 6 days per week (so Sunday is "unplanned") because usually we have leftovers, or come up with some sort of plan during the week (going out with friends etc). I keep it flexible so I can change which recipe I'm doing which day, because plans and the weather forecast always changes!!
*ETA. I keep the complicated recipes up in my recipe cupboard above the fridge, for now it is messy and just loose leaf papers... for the simple recipes they are just in my head
Ok I'm a little neurotic about this.
Every Wednesday I write down a few recipes I'd like to make. Throughout the week I am making a grocery list and also jotting down potential meals for the week following, so this usually doesn't take me long.
This could be based on a new recipe that I saw, or perhaps what's on offer from my organic food company, or maybe I bought a few whole chickens that were on sale last week.
Then I order the fruits and veggies from my organic food distributor - that basket arrives on Fridays. I list the rest in a grocery list, and I email it to myself along with the menu. I have an email folder where I store all of these, that way when I am stuck on what to make, I open it up and check out what I've made in weeks past.