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One of my greatest stressors in managing my home has been the kitchen. This stress comes in two forms - what to prepare, and providing healthy and nutritious meal options for my family. In this section you will find some of the items that I have used to help reduce my stress in these areas. Perhaps they can be of help to you as well, as you manage your family and your kitchen. Feel free to use them or modify them for your own use as needed.
Though my time is precious, I choose to use some of it to provide nutritious meal options to my family - and I love to make things that reduce my preparation time. I especially like to serve healthy, high-protein breakfasts, as it helps all of our concentration throughout our school day. Here are some of my own creations that save me time, and keep my children healthy and satisfied.
Mom's Magic Mix - use this mix in place of Bisquick for quick and healthy muffins, pancakes, coffee cake, waffles, biscuits, etc.
Granola - my version of homemade granola, that is completely customizable to whatever you like or have on hand!
Menu Planning and Shopping
The resources listed here are also listed in the Organizational Helps section, but they fit in both, so I put them in both places.
Meal Planning
Figuring out what to make for meals is one thing that TOTALLY stresses me out! Either I just can't think of anything that sounds good, or it's too late to make anything decent, or I can find a recipe to make but I don't have all the ingredients, or our schedule make my meal prep time rather scant - or something! Out of dire necessity, I began to make a menu plan in order to cut down on my stress level. Each 4 weeks, I plan out a menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the whole 4 weeks. I know for some people that sounds like a load of stress all on it's own - but it really helps me cut down my stress. I reuse the same page over and over again, just modifying as I go or adding in different things I'd like to try for variety. I make sure that when I am making my menu, I have my calendar nearby so that I can see when we have times that we'll be out of the house, out of town, or just in a big hurry due to soccer, ballet, or other activities. That way I can appropriately schedule crockpot meals, or other time saving meals for that day. Also, I always keep a short list of "really quick meal" ideas at the bottom of my page, in case my well-laid plans end up going the way of lots of well-laid plans sometimes do - and I need a meal in short order! This is what mine looks like, and if you come to my house, you will find it in a prominent place on the front of my fridge. This also helps cut down on the "What are we having for dinner, Mom?" questions - since everyone can just check for themselves. Use mine if you like and change it however it works best for you!
MENU PLAN FOR 4 WEEKS
Sometimes I just can't really think of what to put on my menu list, and sometimes I go a day or two after the completion of a list without having time to make the new one. So, then I have to punt. I put together this list of meal options that I can draw from in a pinch. Maybe it will spark some ideas for you too!
MEAL LIST
Grocery Shopping
I don't particularly care for grocery shopping. It's not that I don't like doing it, it's just that it consumes such a large amount of time and costs me a lot of money! So, one of the things that I do in my kitchen management, is to use my menu plan (above) to create a grocery list. I like to save time when I shop, so I have created these 2 list masters that hang on my fridge, right under the menu plan. Whenever I notice that we've run out of something, I write it on the appropriate list, or I use these lists to make my "big shopping" list from my menus. I generally shop in 2 stores - Aldi and WalMart. On occassion, or for certain items, I go to Sam's Club (my sister calls this the "$100 Store" because you can never leave it without having spent at least $100 - so I try not to go there often, because I find that to be true!), or Wild Oats/Whole Foods, or a foreign grocery store near us. So, I have spots for those as well, so that I don't have to remember what I need from there.
ALDI SHOPPING LIST MASTER
WALMART AND OTHER SHOPPING LIST MASTER
