30 Meals Plan - Step 3

Hello everyone! Everyone moving right along on their 30 Meal recipe collection? Apparently I am pretty bland, because I am still only at around 20 tried-and-true family recipes, but they are typed up. I need to work on getting a few more together, but I am most excited about this next step. I think it is what is really going to make the difference for making dinners easy. Let me know what you think!

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Okay, here it is STEP 3: Master Ingredient List

This step is why I wanted to do the 30 meal plan in the first place... it just makes sense! It's great to have all of my recipes compiled, laminated, and ready to go but I can't make any of those yummy recipes without the ingredients... ALL of the ingredients which is often my problem when I'm trying to come up with a quick meal, it seems that I am always missing something!

Melissa and I thought and thought about how to do our MASTER INGREDIENT LIST we proposed this and that but then it hit us and here it is...

I used Microsoft Excel to make this lovely table (this is just a piece of my table) with the names of the meals on the left and ALL of the ingredients needed to make those 30 meals across the top. I separated the ingredients into sections to make it easier for shopping, i.e. meats/proteins, carbs, dairy, veggies, spices, etc. I think I will go back and alphabetize those sections to make it even easier.

The beauty of this is you can see EVERYTHING you need (and how much) at a glance.

Also, if you are at home looking in your fridge and thinking you need to cook up the chicken (or sour cream, or veggies, etc) before they go bad you can just pick up your Master List and check out the chicken column to see which meals you could make to use that chicken quick.

Once I am all finished with entering all 30 of my meals and the ingredients I will add some empty lines at the bottom of the page and laminate so that I can use a dry erase marker and circle ingredients I need to buy and also add other items I need to pick up at the store (i.e. cold cereal, soap etc.) so that I can just take my Master List shopping with me and know that I have everything I need.

Also, I plan on having an extra Master List in my car for those unexpected stops to the grocery store.

The other fabulous thing about this is I can stock up on the items on my Master List when they are on SALE or when I have coupons because I KNOW I will use them. I'm ALL about saving money.

You guys, I can't tell you how excited I am about this! There is something about 30 meals... I can handle 30 meals! It is totally going to change how I cook and shop, WAHOOOO!!!

Thanks nannygoat! You can check out their full 30 Meal Plan series here or stayed tuned to The Budgeteer for the last installment next Monday.

30 Meals Plan - Step 2

Did everybody get through the first step? Me either, but I have a pretty good start! But here we go, Step 2. (I say we can always go back later and work on them, right?!)

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First, don't panic if you don't have all 30 of your recipes ready yet... neither do we but this step goes along with step 1 and will help you see where we are going next.

STEP 2: Put your recipes/ meals on individual cards. Like I said, even if you don't have ALL 30 of your recipes picked out yet (it may take a while to find 30 meals you LOVE) go ahead and start copying the ones you have onto individual cards.

There are several ways you can do this but we wanted to have them on the computer so that we could reprint the cards and also easily email them to friends and family. We found these free recipe card templates here and just used photoshop elements to put in the text then we printed them as 4x6 photos at our local costco. You could also just use a word processor and print them on your printer or even hand write them onto index cards.

This is what the our cards look like- and by the way if you love Cafe Rio Sweet Pork you should totally make this recipe, it is awesome!

After we printed them we laminated each card.

Then we punched a hole in the top left corner and put all of the recipes on a ring.

This way at the begining of the week we can pick the meals we want to make for that week and remove them from the ring and put them in in this little card holder we made to stick on the fridge.
btw- We looked everywhere... well almost everywhere, to find a card holder like this to hold our 4x6 cards for the week on the fridge and couldn't find anything which is why we had to make our own.

Thanks nannygoat!

30 Meals Plan - Step 1

Here we go! Everybody ready? I know I am! Anything to try and make dinnertime smoother, quicker, and easier. Thanks nannygoat!

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Someday I will enjoy cooking.

Someday I will baste and sauté' with feeling and pleasure!

But right now there are 4 little ones underfoot and a kitchen table covered in art projects, homework, and spilled honey from breakfast.

It's 5:00pm and one of my girls is complaining of a growling stomach and begging for cookies while the other is whining about having to come inside and help set the table. Meanwhile I'm frantically scanning the pantry and fridge for clues of what to make for dinner. I finally spot the spaghetti sauce and start to cook only to realize that we are out of pasta... grrrrrr all the while nursing my baby and yelling at my toddler to leave the dog food alone... I just love dinnertime.

Sound familiar?

I'm always up for new ideas that will make dinnertime run more smoothly especially if those new ideas save me time and money too!
So when my mom shared a new idea with Melissa and I that promised these results we were all ears and now we want to share this idea with YOU! (Because we are ALL about sharing)

INTRODUCING...
THE 30 MEALS PLAN!

Okay, this is so simple and yet SO BRILLIANT!
The idea is to find 30 meals that your family loves MOST and compile those meals/ recipes so that they are easy to access. Then make a master list of all the ingredients you would need for all of those meals so you can keep your cupboards (and food storage) stocked so that on any given night you can pick a meal and whip it up in a jiffy or plan a week-month at a time... easy peasy!

The beauty of this is you still have a great variety (or if you are like me, more variety) and you can shop the sales, stock up on those ingredients, and make less trips to the store which saves me lots of time and $$$$ since I can never stick to my list. Plus no kids complaining, " This is gross"... you know everyone will be happy!

So if you want to join us then... HERE WE GO:

STEP 1: If you are like me then you use a lot of the same recipes over and over again. I have several cookbooks and recipe boxes full and over-flowing but honestly I make maybe 15 of those recipes on a regular basis so the first step is to find 30 recipes your family LOVES. I obviously picked all 15 of our "standard recipes" and then we have been making a new recipe every night to start building to 30 meals.

We get most of our recipes from Kraft foods because they are SOOOOO simple and my kids like 9 out of 10 of the recipes. I also use ward/ neighborhood cookbooks and recipes on the Internet. Every night after the meal we go around the table and vote yes or no whether or not to add it to the list.

There you go, start compiling your 30 meals and we will be back soon (next Monday!) with Step 2!

30 Meal Plan - Introduction

I recently started following a lovely blog called nannygoat. Written by sisters Kathryn and Melissa it helps feed my creative soul without leaving me wondering "where do they find the time??"

A few months back Kathryn and Melissa started a segment entitled 30 Meal Plan. I had heard about this concept last year, and even tried to bring it to life in my own life but got stumped somewhere along the way and gave up. I found other methods to try and bring some sanity to dinnertime, but this idea was never far from my mind.

So when I saw their posts I fell in love! And I want to bring that love to you. With their permission I will be reposting their step-by-step tutorial here on The Budgeteer each Monday (but if you can't wait a whole week, feel free to check out the entire series at nannygoat). My goal is to get you one step closer to streamlining your dinnertime meals and using what you routinely have on hand.

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If you are new to nannygoat and you are wondering what we are talking about, 30 meal plan, huh?!

Well, if you want to make dinnertime a breeze, grocery shopping more efficient, save money, AND have your kids love EVERYTHING you make for dinner... then you want to check out the 30 meal plan.

It is ALL about simplifying and making life (specifically dinnertime) pleasant... is that possible?!
Now, if you LIKE dinnertime chaos including you searching through cupboards and flipping through endless recipes TRYING to come up with SoMEThiNg to eat all while your children are screaming at each other (due to low blood sugar of coarse) and begging for treats then you DO NOT want to do the 30 meal plan... enjoy your anarchy.

But, if you like peace and happiness and yummy food then JoIn In!

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If your interest is peaked now, check back in next week to see how to get started with your 30 meal plan.