Monthly preparation!

If you've been with me for awhile you know that I plan out all my meals for a month at a time. I sit down at the computer and with my favorite cookbooks and pinterest I pick out meals for the month. Sometimes I am lucky that my daughter will go on and pick out some of the meals she wants to try and then she has no excuse not to eat them!

At the beginning of every month I do a large grocery shop for all my non-perishables and most of the meats that I'll be needing. With the schedules so crazy I find this works so much better for us and I can take meat out of the freezer ahead of time and have it defrost in time and I'm not running around to make sure I can get to the grocery store in time - especially if it's a slow cooker recipe.

Once we receive schedules I may have to flip a few recipes around if the timing is off but I know that I have everything on hand. I try and get to the local market a couple of times a week for fruit and vegetables. With the kids off sugar we are definitely going through those fast. Then I make sure I have what I need for the dinners of the week as well.

In the past I have bought the chicken and wrapped it up and thrown it in the freezer and then kind of guessed what I needed. Well, I finally decided to make life a little easier on myself and wrapped up the chicken in the exact quantities I needed and then stuck masking tape with the name of the recipe and the amount of chicken in the package. I thought I better write the amount on there so that I would know if I was then making a whole or 1/2 recipe when the time came.

The other reason for me to do this is that if I was unable to make the recipe this month it is ready to go for the following month. Then I am one more step ahead in trying to organize myself and more time for everything else!