I know this title has you thinking I must be auditioning for the next season of chopped on steroids! Let me assure you this is truly NOT the case! In an effort to stay organized this year, I decided to really stick to using my planner & see how it worked out.
You know... the planner all your friends told you to get? The same planner that you choose because it was cute & that made you think it would inspire you to use it! Don't get me wrong; I love using the calendar app on my phone, but there is something different about using pen & paper!
I love being spontaneous and flexible enough to just "go with the flow" and I can still be that way, just not with everything! So, I'm going to show you how I plan out our families meals for the month. This little trick has saved me from stressing what's for dinner, while giving me back time to spend with my family!
Ok... Hurry & grab your planner, & cookbooks, or open Pinterest.. (No judgement here)!
My first step was to implement categories for each day of the week.
You don't have to do this, but it helps me with planning & consistency. Now my family always knows the categories, so the fun part is them doing the guessing of what we'll have. Don't over complicate the process this is made to help you. Once you have the categories it's a simple as searching for recipes that fall under that particular umbrella & adding them to your calendar. I'd also recommend that you make a note of the page number and book (or recipe location) for future cooking reference if needed. This whole process took me no time, once I got started, and I wondered why I hadn't thought of it earlier!
I'd love for you to try this & comment below if this helped you out! Tell me how these tips give you the free time you need to tackle other things.
~La