Many, MANY months ago, I was searching for a way to shop and cook less but still be able to feed my children the legally required amount of times a day. I ran across a site that you could use to buy and cook EVERYTHING you needed to eat for AN ENTIRE MONTH.
My head exploded.
The end.
Ok, not really... but at the time, the whole ordeal looked so cool and so frightening that I forewent it. Instead I opted for my own version of once a month cooking and planned out my own meals... things like chicken nuggets and fish sticks and corn dogs. Why? Because I had little picky children and no energy to fight them on their picky ways.
But my kids are older now.
Well two of them anyway.. and Triniti practically lives on cheese and soy milk so I think we are ready to attempt [duhn duhn duhhhhnnnn] Grown Up Food.
But I've heard that actually preparing these things called "meals" can be time consuming and whenever I start to try it, I end up longing for the days of tater tots and frozen pizza - even though there isn't a bone in my body that really wants frozen pizza.
Except stuffed crust Digorno.
I [heart] stuffed crust Digorno.

So today I was surfin' the web and bothering Google by seeing how many different ways you can search for preplanned menus with shopping lists.
Observe:
week menu shopping list
meal planning menu
two week menu grocery list
menu planning grocery list two weeks
planning list menu two weeks

It went on longer, but I will spare you. I think Google is going to start billing me. It'll come in my gmail and the subject line will say "redundancy fees".
But somewhere in my random googling, I came across a website. One where you could hear that angelic music in the background. The kind of music that can only occur when there is such precise organization as MONTH LONG MENU PLANNING accompanied by THE ENTIRE SHOPPING LIST NEEDED FOR SAID MENU and STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS for TWO PEOPLE.
Am I still here or have I gone to heaven?
And not just ANY two people but two separate family representatives.
Like, you make enough food for TWO FAMILIES. Together. For a month.
And it gets better.
I know, I KNOW, HOW COULD IT POSSIBLY GET BETTER??
Excel, that's how.
Oh yes my pretties.
THE WHOLE THING IS IN EXCEL.
With printable workbooks and auto calculating cells.
I need a paper bag so I don't start hyperventilating.
And the cherry on top of this Organizational Sundae is that they even provide you with printable labels so you can label the food with the date and reheating instructions for when you pop it out of the freezer.
If this site had been invented and run by a man, I would capture him and make him my love slave.

Labels: Being Mommy, cooking, menu planning

In my search to try and find some predone menus for one to two weeks that also come with shopping lists, I came across this site.
I guess I'll have to send them to Woman Atop Her Soapbox for translation though because everything is in the freaking metric system and I have no idea how many grams of tomatoes I buy.
Nonetheless, a lot of these recipes look very good and very kid friendly and since they seem to hail from the UK, some of them are new to us altogether.
And we need to mix things up a little.
I am so bored with eating.
Check them out, see what you think.

Labels: cooking, menu planning, RBATOTD, recipes

Who made pie crust from scratch? Me.


And then who tried to weave it and eventually cut out "Rico Suave's" name? Uhm, that would also be me.


All cooked and golden-pretty.


And a strawberry pie cuz I was feeling cocky.


Now the beginning of the peaches and cream pie.


A little help from The Emo who is spooning it on while I photograph ;)


See, it's all bubby and yummy.

Labels: At work, Being Mommy, Emilee, menu planning

Ok, believe it or not, I am actually pretty decent at thinking up ways to make life a little easier if you are a Super Busy Mom, like I am. (This post may be a little less interesting if you are a single bachelor... but hey, if you are ;) email me.) I believe that the trick in keeping your sanity is plan, plan, plan & then pre-plan some more. If you ask any one who knows me, they will tell you that I am the crazy lady with the schedules and lists. Just two weeks ago, Jiffinner called me to ask me to go grocery shopping with her that night and I told her I couldn't because I didn't have a list yet. We ended up going the next day to give me time to make one. You see what awesome patience it takes to be my friend?
I believe that if you spend the time to schedule everything that it will save you a ton of time later. It's just simple organization. And I dig organization. Organization rocks.
So, my latest foray into Making Life Easier ala Katehopeeden began when I received my ezine from Family Fun. I usually glance through these and then delete them, but this time the words "Monthly Meal Planner" caught my eye. My brain immediately thinks, ooooohhhhh, it's already organized... I can just copy it...
That is the first thing you should be looking out for if you are wanting to become a Super Organized Super Busy Mom. Always grab or copy or save anything that could possibly be useful and save you from having to dig random recipes out of your already super cluttered mind. Think of it like online banking: would you rather have to go through and keep track of everything individually or just copy it from the online banking page and compare it to your receipts?
So ANY time I see a menu or an easy recipe, I save it. (Another GREAT place for GREAT recipes is The Pioneer Woman Cooks. I am making that peach crisp thing this weekend because either it is as good as the pictures make it look OR I need to get that camera.)
Anyway, as it happened, Family Fun had a months worth of recipes and there is also some list function on there that I couldn't get to work which I can only hope would throw together a grocery list for you as you added recipes to your "shopping list".
I did something slightly different though.
I went through the recipes and printed up some that I thought the girls might like. I printed probably about 40 recipes and took them home and sat down with the girls and explained to them that I wanted them to go through the recipes and pick out what we would be eating next week and make me a menu. On the menu (which runs Mon-Fri), I wanted a main dish, a side and a dessert (because my kids are just ALL into desert these days). And they did. And more importantly, they are excited about this. Really excited. Because they essentially get to choose what we are eating. And because they are choosing, they can't get all pissed off when it's dinner time and it's spaghetti... again.
I then took the menu and the recipes that went with it and made a shopping list. Then I made an excel sheet with the menu on it and put notes in the box next to the food explaining any prep work that might need to be done as well as which daughter would be making which part of the dinners. Then I attached a sheet to it where the girls can say whether they liked something or not (more or less determining whether we will use that recipe again).
Now there will be a funneling down process as we try out some of these foods over the next few weeks and then get rid of the things we didn't like and keep the things that we do. Once we've done that, I can change the excel sheets to run Mon-Fri with things that all the girls like and save about ten weeks worth that we can alternate through.
The last step is I am going to get two three ring binders and in one, put all the printed copies of the recipes (with little separator tabs for like "entrees" "chicken" "desserts" "sides" etc) and then in the other binder put the weekly menus and the grocery lists needed for the whole week (encased in those little plastic slip cover things so they don't get all messed up) attached to it so that they can just pick one of the weekly menus and then I can just grab the week menu, put it on the fridge and grab the list to take to the store.

So there you go. You now have one of my World Domination via Planning & Organization secrets (otherwise known as: things people do when they don't have sex). I've linked you I tried to link you to the excel sheets but couldn't because I am apparently retarded and can't figure it out. Anyone know how to upload and share excel or word docs? If you need a copy of the very basic template, shoot me an email. And, as always, I am totally interested in ANY World Domination via Planning & Organization ideas that you may have.

Labels: Being Mommy, menu planning, my crazy life, organization