Now, as much as I would like kissing Valentino by a crystal blue Italian stream, I am not a big fan of Mondays. Kissing goodbye to hubby, as he goes off for another long week at work, and realising that it is just me and 2 lovely, but sometimes crazy, kids, for the next 11 hours... and the next 5 days!
I am not the queen of organisation, and I am certainly not a model parent! But I would like to devote Mondays on the blog to sharing one small tip that just might help to make your Mondays, and every other day, slightly less manic.
Menu Planning on the run....
Menu planning is fantastic, I always feel so much more in control when I have a menu plan, for the week. BUT if this is too much trouble, (and for me it frequently is!), the best tip I have learned is to at least menu plan for the day. This involves 1 simple thing --
Decide what you are doing for dinner, by 10.00am at the latest.
Write it down if you want, or just keep it in your head, but either way mentally decide on your evening meal, before you sit down for your morning cuppa. That way, you have time to defrost meat, time to fit in a trip to the shop for extra ingredients, time to do that long slow-cooked casserole, or whatever it is. And you avoid the 5pm - "Oh, Lord, what I am going to do about dinner?" prayer that I used to frequently cast to the heavens.
Anything you can do to make the end of the day 'Arsenic Hour' more bearable is well worth it, in my humble opinion!
Please feel free to join in with my Manic Mondays - leave a link to your own blog post or tweet of an organising tip. Together lets make Monday more about kissing Valentino, and less about craziness!
Incidentally, if you do want to give weekly menu planning a go, check out this fantastic pre-printed planner and shopping list, available from Paper By Forget-Me-Not!
I like to know what we are having early in the day too, it is a good tip, I ask everyone before they leave for school/work then it's a quick vote, Spagetti Bolognese is always in the running.
ReplyDeleteI agree that planning is great, especially if it avoids extra trips to the shops for groceries! Just wish I could make it a priority for most weeks!!
ReplyDeleteGREAT TIP! We menu plan for the week and have done so successfully for many years. BUT RECENTLY we've fallen short, because we've gone... "oh we'll pick up the fish fresh the day that we want to make it"; "we'll get fresh pasta from such and such a store'; "We'll pick that up at the growers market on Sunday"... last week was a disaster. So I really like your tip of making a habit of deciding on dinner before 10am.
ReplyDeleteit does work so much better when you plan! and less food wastage and smaller grocery bills when you use a system like the planner from forget-me-not! i do fall behind on this, but definitely knowing what you are doing early in the day is so good. i feel so accomplished to hit "arsenic hour" with dinner in the oven and wine in hand!
ReplyDeleteArsenic hour? I like that! I hadn't heard that before, but in our house, we call it the "witching hour."
ReplyDeleteThat's a great tip!
Oh I quite like this tip Sasha.
ReplyDeleteBetween the hours of 6-8 are really something, aren't they? *urgh*