Cooking has never come naturally to me.
So I’ve been working on making
cooking and shopping as easy as possible.
I’ve been finding recipes on line and
printing them on 4×6 cards for a while now.
I like using this protective photo magnet sleeve to hang
them on my oven vent while cooking… easy and accessible.
I list the ingredients on the left with what to do with each one on the right.
Once abbreviated, most recipes will fit on the front of a 4×6 card.
Longer recipes are usually too complicated for me.
I write notes right on the card while using it; making it easy
to adjust the recipe to our taste and reprint it on a new card.
This one called for too much red pepper.
I found this mini planter at Michaels to hold my 4×6 recipe collection.
If at least three of my four kids like a recipe,
I give it a star for each and it goes into my box.
If fewer than three want me to ever make it again,
it goes into the trash.. unless I really like it.
A few months ago I made this menu planner out of a
14.5″ x 24″ frame that I found on sale for $10 at Michaels..
I used scrapbook paper in my favorite colors to define each section.
There’s space for six 4×6 recipe cards in the top half.
Keeping these visible helps keep me inspired.
I’d seen many ideas on how to hang recipe cards;
on a string with clothes pins, in pockets, on cork board…
I like magnets and decided to attach
washers to the glass to attract the magnets.
Learn from my mistake and don’t use hot glue ..
Many burnt fingers later and.. it peels right off the glass.
Double stick tape does the trick.
I decided week day magnets would be a set-up for failure,
and made vegetable themed bottle cap magnets instead.
The bottom half of the frame holds a list of
easy meals that I made years ago to help me stay
out of the rut of making the same thing every week
And this shopping list..
I had hoped framing these would inspire the kids to
mark their wish lists on it.. so far they haven’t.
Occasionally they’ll call out, “Mom we’re out of ____”
And I’ll tell them to add it to the “list”.
Dry erase marker wipes right off the glass.
On “Shopping Day”, I print out a new shopping list,
and one or two new recipes from my “Recipes to Try” computer file.
Then I mark my list as I go through my recipes,
check my menu planner/list, fridge, and cupbords.
It’s working pretty well. We’ve tried a bunch more new recipes
since making the menu board. Even Judi has gotten on line
and helped me find new recipes to try.
Love,
Jenny
Like Dr. Smith used to say when he came in the OR and saw I was his circulating nurse: "We're cooking on the front burner today!"
Your organization is making me drool. Oh I wish I was that together.
Love it! Thanks for providing me with a visual! lol You know I needed that, didn't you?
To help with our meal planning, I purchased a subscription to emealz. I can choose which store I want to shop at (or not) and which meal plan is best for my family and they email me a weekly menu and shopping list. I probably won't use it forever, but we have discovered a few great recipes and it saves me time searching.