P is for...

Every week in my son's preschool class, they learn about a new letter of the alphabet.  This week is the letter P.  Like most parents in similar situations, when it's show and tell day and you're wracking your brain for anything that might start with the letter P, you begin to get creative.  P is for penguin, pistachio, Perry the Platypus, pine cone, pin cushion, and pizza.  In all this thinking about P this week, it occurred to me that P is also for Plan.

I've been asked before how I pull together the meals I do each week.  Honest truth?  I plan for it.  In my first apartment in college, I didn't do a whole lot of actual meal-planning.  I was young and didn't always feel like making a big production out of cooking just for myself.  When I got married though and had more than just myself to think about, I started figuring out the best way to plan meals for us.

First thing I had to figure out is just how often do I want to find myself at the grocery store?  I'm not one of those people who can make a run every day or every other day (good gracious I'd go crazy!).  I do like to have lots of fresh produce on hand so a monthly trip is out of the question.  Even going every two weeks would be pushing it... so a weekly trip it is!

Once I'd established that I'd get fresh groceries each week, I needed to decide how many meals that meant I would cook.  I'm a HUGE fan of leftovers, plus I do like to eat out on occasion.  So I aim to actually cook between four and six dinners each week.  At least one night is designated for leftovers and another for frozen pizza, takeout, or just plain eating out (don't care what we do, as long as I'm not cooking). 

Now it's finally time for the fun part...the recipes!!  I subscribe to a variety of e-newsletters and magazines.  I have a respectable cookbook collection.  I'm addicted to food shows.  Plus I haunt certain foodie websites.  Oh and Google.  Sometimes I get the best results just from googling a recipe idea.  But I digress...  I pick out the things I feel like making, WRITE THEM DOWN, and make note what ingredients I might be missing.  That whole writing thing is crucial.  In the early days of our downtown apartment, I kept the weekly meals on a dry erase board on the fridge.  That has now evolved to keeping the meal plan on the family calendar.  Yup, the same place I write down dentist appointments and class parties.  One central location, I like it.

This is one of those Mommy-Planner calendars.  Each person has their own row...we're tracking Gavin's good behavior with stars if you couldn't tell. ;)

Making the grocery list can be easy but hard.  Writing down missing ingredients is one thing but keeping up pantry and fridge stock?  Ugh.  Not my favorite thing to do.  Plus, what about meals you don't plan for?  Dinner may get most of the glory by there's still breakfast, lunch, and snacks that need to be accounted for.  Ack!  Sometimes it's overwhelming.  Yes, I said it.  Me, the one who loves to grocery shop gets overwhelmed with it all.  I think it's ok to admit that sometimes. ;)

Anyway, for that list, I start it out in a couple different places.  I keep a list on the fridge by the calendar.  That way as I use up ingredients I can right away write them down to replace.  My husband can also easily add things he needs.  I will also write things down on scrap paper at work as ideas come to me (oh man, you don't want to see how crazy my purse can get with all that scrap paper!).  Eventually though, it all gets transferred to one easy place: my phone.  Yeah, there's an app for that!

 Isn't this just so cool??


I'm a fan of the grocery list app on my phone.  No paper and pen to keep track of anymore.  Just bring it on my phone, and tap things off my list as I toss them in the cart.  Easy!  Best part is though I can also e-mail the list to my husband if I need him to do the shopping instead. 


So there you have it.  How I keep my crazy self somewhat organized enough to make different things each week.  Some days it's fun, other days it's a chore.  But most of the time I love it.  Because I really do love to cook, experiment, create.  I love filling my home with good smells and tastes.  And as long as I focus on that love, these little food chores like planning and list making don't seem so bad at all. :)