Monday, May 8, 2017

~The Keeper of Home Series: Menu Planning~



Today I thought I would tell you about my menu planning system.  Each week I make a list of seven meals that I will prepare that week.  I have a master list of meal ideas on my Wunderlist app that I look at for inspiration.  Once I have this list made, I look in my kitchen to see what I already have as far as ingredients go to prepare these meals.  What I don't have I add to my messy kitchen list.  

Here is my messy kitchen list.  It is usually written on front and back.  This list is a list that I keep in my kitchen drawer, and we just write items that we are running low on or items that someone may need soon.  It is not organized at all, but it serves us well to always make sure we get those little things we are soon to run out of.  Once I have written down the ingredients that I need to purchase for that weeks menu, I then go on to the next step.

I make my actual shopping list.  I try to make this list in the order in which I will shop for these items in the store.  I get the non food items first, or at least the items not found in the food section of Walmart.  Then I move on to the produce section and the regular food section.  Putting the list in an orderly fashion truly helps me so much.  It makes shopping so much faster and I really recommend trying this if you have not.  I do not purchase everything from one store, so next I make my list of other stores I need to purchase items from.
Here is an example of this weeks other list.  I like to purchase my milk products from Aldi or Braums because they are like Organic, just with out the certification, so they are not costly.  I also get our bottled water from Aldi, because their bottles are BPA free, so they don't release harmful chemicals into the water.  Things like this are important to me, so I make the extra trips.  
This is how I menu plan each week.  It works well for me.  If you have not tried menu planning, you should give it a go.  It saves us a lot of money and stress, because any given day, I can look at my Menu List (which I keep on my refrigerator)  and easily pick a meal to make.  It is truly a blessing to me.  I also wanted to share this Youtube video about a very easy natural weed killer that would cost a lot less than Roundup and you would not have to use harmful Chemicals to get rid of weeds.  If you are interested in this, here is the address to get to the video.  (just copy and paste it in your address bar.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2AxjfHJJb8&t=0s   I thought I would post a picture of this cup that my mother gave to me over the weekend.  It once belonged to my great grandmother and it is depression glass.  It is small, so I am going to use it to drink a little soda out of every now and then.  It means a lot to me to think my great grandmother once used this glass.  We had such a busy weekend.  We celebrated Justin's birthday and then went to Lawrence to celebrate my niece Madison's graduation from Dental Hygiene School and we got to see my niece Sarah's new baby girl.  What  a wonderful weekend.  I will post about it later this week.  I hope you all have a happy Monday.  Hugs.  Juli 

4 comments:

  1. My friend,
    I think perhaps we are sisters, separated at birth!
    This is exactly what I do!!!
    Except we have a white board.
    Whenever we are out of something, someone says, "Put it on the board!!!"
    Loving this series! : )

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  2. Billie Jo, I know what you mean. When I am reading your blog, I am amazed at how much we have in common. If only you lived in Kansas! LOL

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  3. That list seems like our list here at home. But ours is in the wall, on a cork bulletin board.
    Near the end of the month, we make the final list on the computer.
    We also go to Aldi for some products. Last week, we bought spelt and oatmeal "milk". And they also have their free range eggs cheaper than other supermarkets, here in Portugal!
    :)

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