Little Step - Shopping List!

OK, this is the last part of the Monthly Menu Planning challenge...

Now that you have your calender chart with a meal for each day of May pencilled in, just look across the row for the first week, and jot down ingredients for each meal in that week. Remember to include side dishes, vegetables etc.

Then, go to your kitchen cupboards and cross off anything on your list that you already have... just be sure to check the quantities on hand, before crossing it off.

Add your "other items" (garbage bags, toiletries, paper towel, drinks, lunch items etc) and there you have it - a comprehensive shopping list, ready to take on your next grocery trip.

If you are feeling totally inspired, you could rough out your shopping list for the next fortnight, or even the whole month.... but only if you are on a roll.

Otherwise, let's Little Step our way to an easy shopping trip this coming week. Don't forget to keep a note of how much you spend, and how that compares to your usual weekly amount... did you make a saving? I'd love to hear how your shopping trip goes!

Have a great weekend - Monday is a public holiday here in Queensland, and we are off camping, so I will see you all for May, next Tuesday. I have lots of ideas for Little Steps - and if you have any ideas, or areas of the house that you want to work on, let me know so that we can all do them together.

And finally, you can email me your 'points' balance for April, if you want to... email to sashasews (@) y7mail.com

Little Step - Monthly Menu Planning (Part 2)

It is a rainy day here, and the kids are at their Daycare mum's house... bliss!

So, taking up from where we left off yesterday, we have a sheet of paper, ruled into a grid that has 7 columns across and 5 rows down. Each column has a 'category' of cooking across the top.

As next month is May, and starts on Saturday, number the last box in your top row with a 1. Then number each box consecutively along, up to 31. So now you have a menu calendar for May.

Today's REAL challenge is to fill in a meal idea for each day, following the category of the relevant column.

So I need to come up with 4 roasts, 4 soups, 4 slow cooker meals, 4 oven meals, 4 cook book recipes, etc...

Don't stress about this - remember it's not a menu plan that is set in stone. It is just something that you can use as a guide - a fall back, so that we know that each day, we have the ingredients to cook SOMETHING for dinner that night. If you change plans, skip a day or whatever, this is no drama.

Have fun with this - make a cuppa and sit down with your favourite cookbooks (I have a crush on Nigella). Just pencil things we - you can move them around, change ideas and even change column categories if you want.

Tomorrow we are going to draft a shopping plan for each week.

Little Step - Menu Plan (Part 1)

It is getting towards the end of the month, and there is a larger challenge that I want to try, but I am going to break it down into bite-sized pieces (ha ha - pun intended!). I want to try a system I have developed for monthly menu planning.

I think we all realise that if you go shopping with a plan, and a list, you are far more likely to stay on budget, and save those impulse buys for truly important things... like chocolate.

One of the things that I struggle with the most is having healthy, easy to prepare meals ready for my family at least 6 nights a week. And yet, when it is all going well, it is one of the best Little Steps you can take, towards bringing some peace into your life.

So here is my monthly menu plan challenge. Today we are going to take a piece of paper, and rule it into 7 columns, and 5 rows - 35 boxes, in all. Then I want you to think about 7 different 'categories' of food that you cook - as an idea, I am thinking of

Sunday - Roast
Monday - Soup / leftovers
Tuesday - Slow Cooker
Wednesday - Cook book
Thursday - Homemade Takeaway
Friday - Oven baked
Saturday - Homemade Pizza

Write each category across a column in your grid.... and voi'la - you have a menu plan template!

And that's it for today!

Manic Monday - What's for Dinner?

"Just another Manic Monday.... "

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!

Menu Plan Monday - the comfort food edition!

It must be something about the cooler weather. Or the delicious recipes I have been reading in magazines lately. Or even just the feeling that life in a country town moves slower, and gives you more time to enjoy things like home cooking. Whatever it is, our menu this week is packed full of comfort food.

Chicken, sweet corn and tarragon pie, baked potato and veg (new recipe)

Homemade pizzas

Lamb and bean casserole with rosemary dumplings and mashed potato

Homemade sausage rolls, corn fritters and veg

Cottage pie, cauliflower with cheese sauce and beans

Roast chicken with baked vegetables

Spanish omelettes with bacon and toast

Spaghetti bolognaise with zucchini, pumpkin and carrot

Kimberly at Raising Olives commented that she does a weekly menu plan, but doesn't allocate specific days. That sounded nice and flexible to me, so that is what I plan to do.

Brad told me tonight that he wished we'd moved to a small town ages ago, as his palette is definitely enjoying the delicious meals I am serving up! What a sweetie.... little does he know, it just takes a plan, and a shopping list.

Don't forget to head to Organizing Junkie, for more great menu plans.

Menu Plan Monday - and de-brief

Last week's Menu Planning worked well for me - I kept the list stuck on the fridge, and each day I knew that I had something to cook, and that the ingredients were in the cupboard. I still struggled a bit with pulling meat out of the freezer for each dinner ... but that is what microwaves are for, right??!?!

My little family loved the winter vegetable soup, and the roast chicken dinner. The carbonara pasta was equally a hit. Unfortunately Thursday was a disaster - my slow cooker decided to go REAL slow. Like, after 18 hours the meat was still chewy -- that kind of slow. So the beef & burgundy was ditched in favour of pizza, when it was discovered at 6pm that dinner was inedible. Other than that, it was a good week - and I now have an excuse to look for a new crock pot!

This week's menu plan is:

Monday - French onion soup with bacon and herb muffins

Tuesday - Chicken parmigiana with baked potato and veges

Wednesday - Devilled sausages with mash

Thursday - Beef stroganoff and rice

Friday - Chicken with roasted tomato and garlic sauce

Saturday - Marinated pork chops

Sunday - Roast beef with baked vegetables and gravy

Menu Plan Monday is hosted by Laura at www.orgjunkie.com.

Warm fluffy goodness ... and some menus!

Here is a photo of what my sweet Naomi (and her daddy) gave me for Mothers Day. Soft lambskin slippers, perfect for keeping toes warm on our timber floors.... yummmm..... They are so comfy that I got all the way to the car as we were going out for dinner with my Mum last night, still wearing the slippers -- Brad came back in the house to get me a pair of 'outside' shoes!

I have been thinking lately that my repertoire of meals seems to be getting smaller - or is it just that I am cooking less and less imaginatively?? So I am determined to start some proper menu planning, and consciously expand the range of homecooked meals that I prepare for my family. We are definitely eating at home more often (less takeaway options in a small town!), and I want everyone to enjoy variety, rather than the same few dishes each week.

So here is my first try at a menu plan...

• Monday - Winter vegetable soup, garlic toast and spring rolls
• Tuesday - Beef and burgundy casserole (new recipe to try)
• Wednesday - Chicken and mushroom risotto
• Thursday - Spaghetti carbonara
• Friday - Roast chicken and vegetables
• Saturday - Lasagna (double size, half to freeze)
• Sunday - Sausages and mash with onion gravy

For more great menu plans, check out Laura's blog at www.orgjunkie.com .