Once-a-Week Cooking: The Schedule
Today is the first day I enjoyed the fruits of yesterday’s marathon cooking session. I had breakfast (pancakes), lunch and dinner ready without having to do anything more than press re-heat on the microwave. It was wonderful to be able to clean the stove and the pots and pans, and know that I only have to do it once a week!
I now want to get into the details of how I plan to cook several meals at a time.
I’m a spreadsheet kind of girl, so of course I put my plans in a spreadsheet. I started with the monthly menu I put together many moons ago. I’ve not used this in a while, but it got dusted off because it’s the perfect tool for once-a-week cooking.
Instead of a menu for just 4 weeks, my list of dishes has now grown to cover 8 weeks. Take note that lunches are not included, and I only do 5 days per week. Saturday is left-over day, and Sunday is spent with my in-laws. Besides, since Sunday is now cooking day, I just make more of one dish to have for dinner that day.
After I wrote down all the dishes that I can think of cooking, I assigned them to their days, with the following in mind:
* I like to have a variety of types of meals over the week. I don’t do an all-beef week, for example.
* Even with the variety I need to have, I also will not do five types of meals for five days. So, for example, I have chicken for 2 days, beef for 2 days and fish for 1 day. The same goes with veggies.
* Vegetables are always included in the plan, whether it’s part of the dish, or in a salad.
Once I had the days figured out, I added three columns to the left of the days. These three columns are:
- Supplies
- To cook
- To prepare for finishing later
The supplies are, of course, the ingredients I need for the coming week’s dishes. These include the cuts of meat, the vegetable and things like tomato sauce. Having everything summarized helps with shopping for needed ingredients.
The column under “To cook” lists the dishes that have to be cooked to completion.
The column “To prep for later” is where I put time-saving steps that will help me with a dish that’s coming up in the week after. For example, pressure cooking a batch of beef for 2-3 meals saves a lot of time.
Using this spreadsheet, I can see the supplies I need, what the meals are and when they will be served that week.
This being just the first week I’ve done this, the schedule is still a work in progress. I have yet to see whether the dishes I’ve planned will do well with freezing. Having them in a spreadsheet also means it’s easy to change them as needed. Remember, it’s a plan but it’s not set in stone.
Yesterday, I wondered what I’ll do with the time I usually spend preparing dinner. Today, I started to re-organize my kids’ books and craft supplies. I hope to finish it up tomorrow, same time.
Tags: freezer cooking, home management, meal plan, menu, once a week cooking, save time, time-managementRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Cooking, Organizing and Clutter Control
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