Yet
Another Meal Organizer!
Do
you find yourself staring at your pantry hoping for some inspiration?
Or do you seem to spend a whole lot of money on groceries and never seem
to come home with much?
Do you often end up buying an expensive takeaway meal because you either
can't think of anything to cook or you are sick of eating the same meals
over and over??
This
was my situation just a few months ago.
I started checking out different websites looking for inspiration. If
you are reading this then you have probably done the same thing and would
know all about the many different ways that people have to try to organise
their cooking. You can cook
and freeze all your meals for a whole month or write down all your
recipes and buy in bulk. In fact, there are countless ways to
organise your household's mealtimes. I'm not offering anything new or
even that exciting - just a system that I have adopted which works well
for me.
You
see, I'm not a really well-disciplined person and so the thought of planning
and cooking 30 meals in advance scares me LOL. I also love to eat food
and enjoy different tastes so I like to have room for exploring new recipes
and adapting the ones that I know and love. I should warn you now that
I don't cook with recipes - I make things up as I go along, adding a little
bit of this and a little bit of that. I don't think that I have ever made
one pasta sauce that tastes the same as a previous one!!
The
System
With
this system you are not tied down to a rigid meal plan nor do you have
to go out and buy a huge deep freeze. The information provided here will
help you to maintain a semi-organised meal system which allows room for
improvisation and last minute changes.
The main objectives behind this system are to:
- Save
money
-
Avoid food wastage (and therefore money wastage)
- Provide
variety
- Make
grocery shopping less of a brain strain
- Avoid
the "what's-for-dinner" doldrums
So how does this system work?
Well, it's basically just a list of complete meals that you have in stock
which you keep on the fridge door and cross off as you use one.
Sounds simple doesn't it?
Well
it is in principle, but in practice you need to maintain
a fairly well organised system so that you have all the necessary ingredients
to cook all of the meals on your list. There is no point in listing
ten exotic dishes if all you have in your pantry is a can of tuna!
What
goes on the list??
So
what goes on the list?
- Tried-and-true
meals
- Ready-in-a-flash
meals
- New
meals
- Variations
on a theme
TRIED-AND-TRUE
MEALS
These
are meals that are easy to make (or that you don't mind making) and that
you don't mind eating - there is NO point in stocking your cupboard with
things that you don't really want to eat because you will end up getting
takeaway instead and spending unnecessary money!
READY-IN-A-FLASH
MEALS
These
are meals that you can cook in less than 20 minutes for the times when
you have absolutely no time to cook and are really hungry.
If it's quicker to cook than jumping in the car down to McDonalds then
it fits this description!
I keep a couple of complete frozen meals for days when I arrive home late
and the troops are starving. I don't like those TV dinners with meat-and-two-veg
so I keep a packet of stir fry veggies and sauce which can be cooked in
a wok in 10 minutes - you can always add cooked rice to bulk out the meal.
NEW
MEALS
Food
isn't meant to be boring!!
So I always try to add something to the list that I have never cooked
before. It's usually something that can be cooked without buying a lot
of exotic ingredients. I tend to leave this meal for a weekend or some
other day when I'm not pressed for time. The family is always appreciative
of something new, and if it's a success then it can become part of the
tried-and-true list!
VARIATIONS
ON A THEME
I
don't always like to be tied to a strict plan and so these meals give
me the option of changing my mind. Eg, I might decide not to use the mince
in the freezer to cook chilli con carne but to make bolognese sauce instead.
If you organise your list under main ingredient and have a good stock
of common ingredients then it shouldn't matter too much nor should you
need to rush out and buy extra ingredients at the last moment.
THE
SHOPPING LIST
yes, you DO have to make one LOL
I
used to shop from memory.
The
problem was that my memory wasn't as great as I thought it was and I would
arrive home to find myself stuck with ten tins of tomatoes and nothing
else!
I used to cook from what I had bought which was often a disaster
because I would be lacking a key ingredient and end up either buying it
at twice the price from a convenience store or giving up and buying a
takeaway. Now I buy for what I am going to cook and usually have all the
ingredients to hand (of course there is still the odd dash to the 7-eleven,
I am human after all LOL)
WHAT
GOES ON THE LIST?
Your shopping list will be made up of these things:
KEY
INGREDIENTS
This
is usually the main ingredient for a meal and is most likely going to
be some form of meat (unless you are a vegetarian/vegan!).
COMMON
INGREDIENTS
These
are things that you use in a lot of different recipes, eg tinned tomatoes,
onions etc. These are things that are worth buying in bulk because you
know that you will use them.
SOME
FROZEN, TINNED OR DRIED INGREDIENTS & SUPPLIES
There's
nothing more annoying than going to make a meal only to find that you
are missing a key ingredient or that the fresh ingredient that you bought
last week is now a soggy mess in the bottom of your refrigerator (of course
if you had used your list correctly you would have avoided this situation
but we all make mistakes, right??!!).
While you can't beat fresh veggies, having frozen standbys to add to meals
is very useful!
I
use a lot of chopped onions in my cooking - in curries, pasta sauces,
chilli etc. I now buy a 500g (1lb) bag of frozen chopped onions. Now I
don't have to worry about green things sprouting from my onions and (best
of all) someone else has already peeled and chopped them for me!
Other
useful ingredients include a jar of crushed garlic, tinned new (tiny)
potatoes to add to casseroles and tinned stir fry veggies to add to stir
fries and Asian meals. Chunky style frozen veggies are great to add to
any cooked dish and tinned tomatoes can be used in just about any dish
too add flavour or provide bulk.
DON'T
FORGET YOUR CORE GROCERIES!!
In
the rush to buy all the goodies that you will need to get your meal plan
underway don't neglect all the other grocery items. I've found that it
helps to keep a typed list of all the things that I always buy like cat
food, coffee and washing powder etc and then add the other items.
You
can either type this up yourself or set up a master grocery list with
one of the online supermarkets like Woolworths
and print it off - this has the advantage of giving you the prices too.
Of
course you can always try shopping online but bear in mind the delivery
charges.
AT
THE SUPERMARKET
How to be a bargain shopper
THE
MEAT SECTION
A
friend of mine told me that the best time to shop for meat at a supermarket
is on a Wednesday because that's when they mark down their stock in anticipation
of adding new stock for Thursday night shopping (in NSW anyway).
Always
keep an eye out for bargains in the meat section.
They
markdown meat prices when the use-by (or freeze-by) date is approaching.
As long as the meat still looks okay and you freeze it that day it is
perfectly fine (and cheap!!) to buy it.
Don't
be afraid to experiment or substitute if you see a bargain. Many recipes
work perfectly well with a different kind of meat.
Last
week I was at the supermarket when I spied some trays of diced turkey
breast which were reduced from $7.50 for a 500g (1lb) tray to $2.99. I
usually buy chicken breast for my recipes and then I dice it myself but
I decided to buy three trays of the turkey instead. I ended up paying
only $9 for 1.5 kilos (3lbs) of the turkey when I would have paid $12.99
a kilo for chicken breast. So I saved quite a bit of money on just that
one purchase!
By the way, the turkey tasted great and was a welcome change from chicken
LOL.
THE
GROCERY AISLES
Look
out for discontinued items.
These are items that the store no longer wants to sell and they are often
heavily discounted.
For example I have purchased jars of boutique simmer sauces for just 50c
- they were originally $3.50 each and were now cheaper than buying packet
sauce mixes. Just remember to make sure it is something you WILL use!!
WHEN YOU GET HOME...
Take
out your preliminary meal list and note any changes or substitutions or
any last minute additions (or inspirations!!). It's best to do this while
you have the food in front of you so that you don't forget anything.
Now
divide up the meat into meal sized portions and pop it straight in the
freezer. Put the stuff that needs chilling into the refrigerator.
Now it's time to organise the pantry!
I
put the ingredients for each meal in a separate pile (not including herbs
and spices and oils etc, just the tins and packets). This allows me to
grab them quickly when it comes time to cook a certain meal. It also allows
me to make sure that I do have all the ingredients. Eg I would put a packet
of penne pasta with a tin of tomatoes and a tube of tomato paste all ready
to make Penne in a Tomato Sauce.
Now
I type up the new list of meals, transferring any remaining meals from
the previous list to the new list.
If
you find that that you keep transferring the same meals then it's time
to cook up that meal and then scratch it off the list!
I keep the list in order of key ingredient. By organising the list this
way I avoid cooking several chicken dishes in a row etc. You could always
consult with your household about what they might like to eat that night
or (better still) delegate the cooking to someone else - after all they
have a menu plus all the ingredients to hand LOL.
Once
finished I print my list and stick it to the fridge.
TA DA!!!!!
That was fairly straightforward wasn't it??!!
Now
comes the easy part - once you have cooked a meal you tick it off your
list.
Here
is an example of one of my MEALS
IN STOCK
lists
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