Obviously I have changed the theme of my blog. I no longer have my store, Look Who's Stamping so I am going to write about my new life. I have more time off now and one of my goals for 2011 is to start cooking healthier meals for my family and to plan these meals for a week at a time and do all my shopping for the week. Eventually I would like to shop for the month, but I better start out slow. Everything I read says this will save you money by making less trips to the store. We need to save some money, so I decided this was a great idea.
So, my first task was to plan my week of meals. I found a site online called GourmetBetty.com. At this site I was able to print these great meal planners. On one side you plan the meals for the week and on the back side you plan your shopping list. It is a great system and worked well for this first week.
It was hard to plan the meals. I just kept looking at the blank page, then finding something else to do. That way I could put it off a little longer. I finally sat my self down and got it done. I also wanted to make some cookies for my 14 year old, Brian so that I would not have to purchase Little Debbie's all the time. He loves his nutty bars. After that I went through my pantry (it was pretty empty) I made my list for the grocery store.
Yesterday I went to Fareway at 4:02 pm. It took me an hour and $142 but it was done. I thought that was a lot of money but I had purchased some things that would be in the pantry or the freezer for at least a month if not longer, so I guess it was justified. Of course by that time we still had to make supper and then I was so exhausted I did not have the energy to make the cookies. I decided I could get that done the next day.
This afternoon when I got home from work I started right in. First I made the cookies. I forgot to double the recipe. I wanted to have extra for the freezer. But no......! Whatever, I will get over it. Then I started supper which I wanted to have done by 6:00 or so. The meal turned out good, it was a Salisbury Steak recipe from Pampered Chef and a lettuce salad. Pretty easy. But I think we ate around 6:35. Wow, was my timing off. I had no idea how long it would take to chop onions, mix stuff, then cook it up. It is not the same as dumping everything out of a box and into a pan.
In the end, we all liked it and it was definitely healthier than our usual meals. Don't tell Brian. Hopefully he won't read this blog. I guess he wouldn't be caught dead reading this. He unfriended me from Facebook for goodness sake so he would not have to have anything to do with my dorkiness.
Tomorrow is hamburgers. Brian is excited, but I probably shouldn't have two beef meals in a row. Oh well, I guess I will learn as I go right?
I will keep you posted!
Michelle
P.S. As a plus, Jeff did the dishes!
Sounds good to me!
ReplyDeleteA thought struck me as I read the part about staring at a blank page trying to create a meal list. What about doing some recipe sharing? I often get tired of the same ol', same ol' food, so I could use a few of your same ol' recipes b/c they'd be new to me! (and vice versa!) Let me know if that would interest you, or anyone else for that matter.
I've also heard a couple of tips for dinner prep that might work. One is to do your prep work 2-3 days ahead of time. For example, you said you underestimated how long it would take to chop onions. What if the onions were already chopped when you went to make the meal? It would certainly cut off some time.
Another idea is to do a group cooking session, where we all bring stuff to make multiple dishes of one recipe. I make my recipe 3 times, you do yours 3 times, and a third person does hers 3 times. We then trade two of our 3 dishes and go home with 3 different meals. If they can be frozen, it's even better b/c we can save it until we need it.
Look forward to seeing how your meal planning goes. Can you post your weekly meals?
Several of my friends make meals ahead of time, say on a Sunday afternoon, and either refrigerate or freeze them. They do prep for some of the ones that need to be assembled at the time.
ReplyDeleteI like Peggy's idea. Armed with ingredients, enough friends, and aluminum pans, we could rule the supper world...!