People think I’m really organized and strictly follow an hourly plan of how I go through my day. But, as I assure most people who say those things, if you spent the day with me, you wouldn’t be very impressed with my organizational abilities. I do have lots of written plans and schedules for my time and cleaning and cooking. But flexibility is key (and a requirement) with 4 little ones.
As I’ve mentioned before, my current season of life doesn’t easily lend itself to big freezer cooking days, so I do a lot of batch cooking where I double or quadruple what I’m cooking to put the extra in the freezer. Well, lately I’ve found myself doing heavy cooking almost every day and honestly, I’m just tired. So, recently, I planned my typical week of cooking with 3-5 days of batch freezer cooking. But at the beginning of the week, I just jotted down what I was aiming to cook for the freezer and posted it on the side of my refrigerator.
That simple little list gave me a quick view of the week without looking into every day of my meal plan. And when I found an extra 15 minutes in the kitchen, I looked at the list and prepped the potatoes for one meal and started some of the measuring for my waffle batter. It was so helpful and saved me time later.
Anything to reduce my time in the kitchen but still contribute to filling my freezer works for me.
What do you do to make your cooking more efficient through the week?
When I write out my menu plan for the week, I include prep steps on my daily planner to make sure I don’t forget anything. I also write down food tasks like making yogurt or kombucha to make sure I get them done.
After reading a post on Good Cheap Eats about 3 x 7 menu planning, I’m going to try that next week. With my 5 kids, I feel like I wing breakfast and lunch too much. I am also doing a family cooking project this summer, and I want to be sure the kids make at least one thing each week.
I totally understand! I definitely got to the place where I needed to plan all 3 meals so I have enough of everything every day. Your summer cooking project sounds great!
Thanks to your links again, I checked out OAMM’s freezer cooking website and was greatly inspired! But also a little overwhelmed. In the end I did something like you’ve described here. I took a look at what I had and the recipes I wanted to make, made a list and took 3-4 days to work on it when I had time. It has been SO helpful!
I hope that worked great for you! I can be a little overwhelmed too looking at those huge cooking plans. I just subscribe to OAMM’s blog and pick & choose from her recipes. They are usually really great!