Ive been trying to plan some meals for the next week or so, but its very difficult for me.
I cant exactly make a meal plan of whatever sounds good and then run to the store. Being in the middle of nowhere means that there isnt much available in the 2 little stores here in the village.
So, instead, I have to do a full pantry inventory, and then make a meal plan from that.
Which isnt helped by the fact Ive found several recipes lately that sound really yummy. But I cant try any of them, because the store in town doesnt have half of the stuff we need for them!
Anyone have any suggestions for organizing the pantry? I hate doing that even more than i hate washing dishes!
Meal Planning and Pantry Cooking
January 14th, 2007 at 04:48 am
January 14th, 2007 at 05:24 am 1168752293
How much space do you have for organizing?
This is pretty much how I do it but I don't keep flour and sugar in containers. I keep them in the deep freeze along with corn meal and grains. I also don't have the shelves labeled but I know just about where every item is whether its in the cupboard, fridge, freezer, or large pantry.
http://www.ehow.com/how_134872_organize-pantry.html
January 14th, 2007 at 05:43 am 1168753399
January 14th, 2007 at 05:46 am 1168753612
January 14th, 2007 at 02:10 pm 1168783835
Sit down w/your husband and brainstorm meals you like to eat. Try to list 31 of them.
Break them down by ethnicity if you have to - all Mexican meals together, all Italian meals, Chinese, etc. Have a week of those kinds of meals together is one method of planning. Lots of them will have similar ingredients making it less expensive than trying to have 7 different cuisines in one week.
Another way to plan is to do basically what I do and that is plan around a staple: 1 rice meal, 1 pasta meal, 1 meat meal, 1 fish meal, 1 junk meal, 1 leftover night, 1 bean meal.
Some families do 2 two week menu plans. Plan A and Plan B. They rotate them every two weeks and preprint the grocery shopping list for each. They then check their pantry for ingredients on hand and then shop for the rest.
Hope some of this helps. Try to get at least a week of menus together w/a shopping list and keep it somewhere so that you could grab and run to store when pressed for time.
January 14th, 2007 at 02:49 pm 1168786164
http://www.savingdinner.com/
For some people spending the money to get a menu plan that someone else has done is money well spent. I've not used this but loads have and rave about it.
January 14th, 2007 at 06:58 pm 1168801105