What's Cooking?
It's the biggest question of my day. Here recently a couple of people have asked me how the monthly cooking extravaganza is working out, so I thought I would let ya'll know right here. It is a really, really great concept. My grocery bill was less than half of what it usually is. And that age old question, "what's for dinner tonight", could be answered by simply checking the calendar in the kitchen drawer.
Now, all that being said, it still takes pre-planning. PRE-planning. And that is still what I am lacking. My plan fell apart when I filled in at the office a few weeks back, and I have yet to make out the menu for November.
But it is good to know I am not alone. This week in the trenches of the motherhood addressed the same thing. Several readers left comments with suggestions for their own way to organize and plan meals, and here are 2 that interested me.
First, Big Oven. This is software that you purchase for your computer that helps you to organize your recipes by entering them into your system. Then you can drag and drop them to your monthly calendar and it automatically gives you a shopping list for the week. That is really cool.
But the other site I liked, All Recipes, is free. So let's start here, shall we? It has a lot of the same concepts of Big Oven. I can enter my favorite recipes or browse their selection if I want to try something new, then select which ones I want for the week, 2 weeks, month, or whatever, and it gives me a shopping list. It also has a great search feature that can help me if, let's say, I thawed pork chops for a particular dinner, but then didn't plan enough time to make them. I can search "pork chops" and it will give me suggestions for what I can do with them in the time that I have left to fix something.
The biggest negative I can see is the time spent up front learning all the features and putting in my personal recipes. But if I can really make use of it, I think it will be wonderful in the long run.
And I'm not sure if I will be cooking once a month again. While that was a huge time saver during the rest of the month, we did eat a lot of the same meals. And a great number of those meals included lots of processed foods, which I try to keep at a minimum in our house.
Some ideas I will take with me from my freezer full of 30 meals though, are the sauces or meat bases that I use frequently are easily doubled or even tripled. Instead of making one small batch of spaghetti sauce, why not get out the stock pot and make 4? Then freeze 3 extra's for any last minute meal. Also, I think making one big trip to Walmart a month (and little weekly trips for fresh fruits and milk) saved me a lot of money.
And, of course, all this takes.....say it with me....Pre-Planning!!!! Wish me luck!!!
Now, all that being said, it still takes pre-planning. PRE-planning. And that is still what I am lacking. My plan fell apart when I filled in at the office a few weeks back, and I have yet to make out the menu for November.
But it is good to know I am not alone. This week in the trenches of the motherhood addressed the same thing. Several readers left comments with suggestions for their own way to organize and plan meals, and here are 2 that interested me.
First, Big Oven. This is software that you purchase for your computer that helps you to organize your recipes by entering them into your system. Then you can drag and drop them to your monthly calendar and it automatically gives you a shopping list for the week. That is really cool.
But the other site I liked, All Recipes, is free. So let's start here, shall we? It has a lot of the same concepts of Big Oven. I can enter my favorite recipes or browse their selection if I want to try something new, then select which ones I want for the week, 2 weeks, month, or whatever, and it gives me a shopping list. It also has a great search feature that can help me if, let's say, I thawed pork chops for a particular dinner, but then didn't plan enough time to make them. I can search "pork chops" and it will give me suggestions for what I can do with them in the time that I have left to fix something.
The biggest negative I can see is the time spent up front learning all the features and putting in my personal recipes. But if I can really make use of it, I think it will be wonderful in the long run.
And I'm not sure if I will be cooking once a month again. While that was a huge time saver during the rest of the month, we did eat a lot of the same meals. And a great number of those meals included lots of processed foods, which I try to keep at a minimum in our house.
Some ideas I will take with me from my freezer full of 30 meals though, are the sauces or meat bases that I use frequently are easily doubled or even tripled. Instead of making one small batch of spaghetti sauce, why not get out the stock pot and make 4? Then freeze 3 extra's for any last minute meal. Also, I think making one big trip to Walmart a month (and little weekly trips for fresh fruits and milk) saved me a lot of money.
And, of course, all this takes.....say it with me....Pre-Planning!!!! Wish me luck!!!
posted by jodi at 4:06 PM
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