Organising your Meals {Blog Hop Week}

I may be wrong, but I think this is an area of my life that I could be FAR more organised.

This post is going to be more about what I NEED to be doing, rather than what I AM doing!

I should start, first, with what I AM doing.

I feed my family.

Every day.

With food that I make pretty much from scratch.

There.

That's good, right?

Now, ORGANISING my meals. That, my friends, is something a little different.

I feel I am in a "lean" season (HA!) on the organising meals front. I went through a fabulous phase, of having it all planned out, a whole month at once!! It worked well, and I always knew what we were having, as well as planing in special meals, such as take-aways.

"What happened?" I may hear you ask.

I think it involved either pregnancy or a new baby.  Kind of the story of my life. Pregnancy and new babies seem to have that effect with certain elements of my life.

Chores carry on.  School carries on (in some way, shape or form).  Laundry carries on. Meals, somehow take a bigger hit.

In my brain, somewhere in the deep recesses, I have organisation.  I shop for my groceries online.  I have a huge, big, long list of my "favourites" that I have previously bought, and my organisation goes something like this.

"fruit - check.
vegetables - check.
Meat - hmmm, mince is always useful, a bag of frozen chicken for one meal, let's see what else is on offer... - check.
Dried goods - I THINK I need some more rice, and a pack of spaghetti is always handy - check
Any other things I think I remember we are short of - check"

And on I go, through the list...

So, in other words, I mentally have an idea of what we need in general terms, and vaguely plan out what we are having in the week.  Then, it's just a case of remembering what my mental planning had in mind for each day, once we hit that day.

Ok, so I am right, right? I need to do some work on organising meals.

Hmmmm.

SO, the good news is, I HAVE A PLAN!!

Can we have a "hooray"???

(Plans are good... especially if you actually put them into practice.... *walks off whistling*)

Firstly, I need to get back into knowing what I am doing in advance.  I saw a lovely idea on Pinterest, which is rather pretty, but also very functional.

I love this idea for a few reasons.  First off, I love clothespins!  We use them quite a bit for early years activities, in school, and I bought a whole load "just to have".  I love that it looks pretty. I love the cute colours.  I love that you just make a whole load of laminated cards with all the meals you make, and then decide, week by week, which ones you are having.

I may change it slightly, to have a "use a lot" pocket" and "less often" pocket.  Maybe slightly cleverer and attractive titles than that, but you get the idea.  You see, in my mental organisation, we do have certain meals nearly every week.  Baked potatoes is one, and bolognaise is the other. We ALWAYS have a roast on a Sunday, so I almost don't need a peg for that day.  We do have a shared tea at Church twice a month, so reminding myself of that instead, may not be a bad idea.

If I am VERY canny, I may get this project done in the next day or so, and have it on this blog post by Thursday.

Maybe.

I can see this type of menu planner would make it simpler to plan, as it is reusable.

Did I mention it's also pretty?

The other thing I plan to do, is start making double of certain things.  I also used to do this, but am guessing the whole pregnancy/baby thing may have also halted THAT.

We hope to get a new fridge-freezer soon.  Currently, I only have a chest freezer, which is actually not very practical for putting pre-prepared meals into, AND be able to easily find them again.... underneath bags of frozen peas, joints of meat, and loaves of bread. If I get a fridge-freezer, I think it may be easier to put whole meals into the drawer type storage, and be easily able to compartmentalise them?
Well, that's my hope, anyway!

Therein is  my confession of the week.  I am currently a "winging-it-for-mealtimes" mother, with good intentions to become more organised.

PLEASE (she pleads, longingly....) share what you do for meal planning, so I can be inspired!!!

Read what the other ladies do, and also, LINK UP, if you have written a blog post about meal planning!!

(Are you getting the hint of desperation here?....notebook at the ready, to jot down your ides.... GO...share!)