Works for Me Wednesday - Menu Planning

Before having children, I worked a typical 40+ hour week in an office.  I'd come home exhausted from work, stare into the fridge and hope that some ingredients in there would jump out and magically begin preparing themselves into a healthy meal.  For some reason that never worked.

Then I would spy some tortillas and think, "Oh, I can make tacos!"  I'd rummage around some more and discover that there was no taco seasoning, cheese or tomatoes.  So unless I wanted plain ground beef in a tortilla, tacos were not an option for that night.

I ended up eating a LOT of frozen pizza and various flavors of Rice-A-Roni.  My favorite was Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  But one day, I noticed that I wasn't fitting into my pants anymore.  I read the nutrition information on those prepared foods and knew I needed to get more deliberate about meal planning.

Fast forward 15 years and I'm a stay-at-home mom with a husband and two growing boys to feed.  My youngest son has type 1 diabetes so it's even more important than ever that I make healthy meals.

The same system that began casually back in that apartment in 1997 is basically the same system I use now.  I write down a list of meals that I plan to prepare that week and then make a grocery list based on those meals.  The benefits are obvious:
I actually use everything I buy so it doesn't slowly spoil in the dark recesses of the fridge.
I plan to cook meals that actually involve vegetables.
I'm not spending tons of money on prepared foods with questionable nutritional benefits.
If we have evening activities, I can make sure the meal prep fits into our schedule.
I know what we're eating the next night, so I can thaw any frozen components ahead of time.

I've just gotten a little more fancy with my meal planning over the years.  Behold, the chalkboard.

Every time people come over they marvel at the chalkboard in my kitchen and ask, "Is that for real?" as if they can't imagine anyone being so organized.  But it's really not that difficult.  The half-hour it takes once a week to write down the meal plan and the corresponding grocery list helps me avoid all that time wasted staring blankly into the fridge while my kids whine about how hungry they are.

You'll notice that I only have meals planned for Monday - Friday.  I slack off on the weekends and make frozen pizzas and fish sticks and stuff like that.  Hey, I'm not superwoman.

The white dry-erase board is also a time saver.  We have a freezer in the basement and I write down what's in that freezer on the dry-erase board.  The dry-erase board is portable so I can take it downstairs with me to see what's in the freezer.  (And I can stash it somewhere out of sight if company is coming!)  When I'm planning my meals each week, I check out my freezer inventory and try to incorporate stuff I already have into my plan.  When I use something, I wipe it off the list.

The other thing (not pictured) that helps with the weekly meal planning is my recipe binder.  Over the years, I've been gathering my family's favorite recipes into one binder.  Recipes don't make the binder if I've never tried them before, or if nobody likes them, or if they are too complicated to be considered an "everyday" meal.  But I can flip through my trusty binder of tried-and-true recipes and make things that I know my family will actually eat.

Also in that binder I keep a list of standard pantry items.  These are the things that my family usually eats for breakfast, lunch and snacks (apples, bread) as well as items I like to always have on hand (olive oil.)  When I make my grocery list each week, I read over the pantry list and make sure I've got enough on hand to make it through the week.  It really helps avoid those "Mooom! There's no cereal left!" moments.

Although my meal planning system takes a bit of time to do each week, it's totally worth it.  My family has food and I have my sanity.

New Year, New Blog

I love the internet. Type a few words in the Google search box and a whole wide world of information and inspiration pops up for your perusal. So I thought, "I get so much help from other people's blogs and such, why don't I give back a little?"  Thus was born the Make Do blog.

The title comes from an old saying, "Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without."  My 91-year-old grandmother came of age during the Great Depression.  She embodies this concept.  She rinses out and reuses Ziploc baggies for crying out loud.  These days they use the phrase, "reduce, reuse, recycle" to describe what my grandmother did as a matter of survival her whole life.  My grandmother taught this way of living to my mother, who also lived through lean times.

I have to admit, I've grown a little careless growing up in affluent America.  My family of four generates so much garbage it's embarrassing.  We have to keep getting rid of the "stuff" that overflows our home.  In this new year (2012) I hope to be more deliberate about my spending.  Do we really need it?  Is this just going to end up being "clutter" in a few month's time?

As a stay-at-home mom, I have more time than money. So I am resolving to use my time and my money more wisely in an effort to make the most of both.  Why buy something new when I can craft a similar item from things I already have overflowing my closets?

On this blog, I plan to share the projects that I make and do.  Some will be done in an attempt at frugality.  Some will be just for fun because Mama needs a creative outlet.  I have a lot of hobbies, so my posts may be somewhat random.  I can't commit to just one hobby.  I get too bored.  But all my hobbies have one thing in common: they can be done relatively quickly.  I'm not one to spend months piecing together a giant quilt or knitting an afghan.  I make smaller things and then check them off my list.  (Checking things off my list is a big deal for me!)

I'll label each post so it should be easier to find the things you are interested in, but here are the major categories:
PAPER - I  make scrapbooks and cards, tags, banners, and random other things with paper.  I'm a big fan of my Cricut and of Close To My Heart stamps and paper.
FABRIC - I see so many cute things on Pinterest that are made from felt so I play around with that.  I've also been known to sew some costumes for my kids and I like to make bags.  I want to learn needle felting.
KITCHEN - I spend a lot of time in my kitchen.  I hate making meals, but I love to bake.  I've come up with a few ways to make meal time less annoying.  But my real loves are cookies and cakes.  Well, any dessert really.  This is unfortunate because I am reaching that age when one's metabolism wanders off and I can't eat anything I make unless I want to keep it forever on my hips.  Plus I have a son with type 1 diabetes so we try to not overload him with sugar.  But I can't help it.  Making desserts is just fun.
PARTIES - When someone has a birthday, I get a little crazy.  There has to be a theme and everything has to match.  I get to make things out of paper AND fabric AND there has to be a wonderful cake, of course.  So I will be posting about parties because they combine all my hobbies into one event and they are a great opportunity to be frugal.

As this blog grows, I hope that my posts will inform and inspire other people out there who spend a bunch of time on the internet looking for information and inspiration.  Enjoy!