Meal Planning Basics

I decided January would be my "figure out how to do meal planning" month.  I have gotten recipes organized, been reading through food blogs, but haven't done much on meal planning. 

I stumbled upon a website today that seems like pure gold to me.  Surprisingly - its as simple as setting aside TIME to think through your week.  Each week.  Admittedly its been a hard six months trying to figure out what my routine will be for work.  But I've managed to cook and grocery shop, so clearly I have time to plan meals. 

I am looking forward to putting this into practice.  She suggests categorizing meals.  I came up with the following we like: burgers, soup and sandwiches, pizza, chicken, Mexican (tacos, enchiladas, burritos), Pasta, Vegetarian, Seafood, leftovers and eating out.  I'd also add Ethnic food - particularly Thai and Indian.  Obviously its hard to do all of these in one week - but perhaps a two week rotation?  

I've also found these gems on Pinterest.  This is a good visual of planning out what the meal is and what the required ingredients are.  And this is a really neat tool I saw last summer while visiting at one of Mike's co-worker's home.  She had gone to the extra work of putting the recipes on the back.  It was very impressive!

Again - this all takes time.  And today has been the perfect day to sit in a chair and watch West Wing while hearing the snow and ice fall around our house.  Like I said - January was my target month.  And I am just now getting to this - but I haven't sat much since we entered 2013.

As I mention a goal for the month, I'll also share that my hope for this year is to build some foundations.  Learn to make some basics and take one month to focus one thing.  I think it takes a few weeks to get the hang of something and hard to do too much at once.  I haven't decided on February - or the rest of the year - but its nice to have a start with meal planning. 

I think the best time for me to take this on is Monday mornings.  Usually this is my day to be at home and get to the grocery store and do some laundry.  At least it was before Christmastime hit.  So here's to getting back to that routine - y'all can keep me accountable!