Curbing the Chaos

Dinner, the Million Dollar Question. It’s what drives me and other mothers, wives and meal-makers to dress in lovely white jackets accessorized with shiny, silver buckles and promotes a delirious sense of being. And no, I’m not talking about the professional chef get-ups with big, poufy hats and swirly monograms that any boxed mac-n-cheese cook can pick up at Kitchen Kaboodle.

Watching the budget. Watching my schedule. Watching the holidays creep up, I’ve decided to go back to a planning method I lived by many moons ago. A fortnight- three weeks if I’m feeling extra productive – of planned dinners for each day of the week, including those pesky, all consuming weekends. I know that there will be the occasional treat of dining out, so I just chalk up those groceries as on-hand storage to save me if the budget goes bust or I just gotta have a half-gallon of triple-chocolate, fudge-chunk, caramel, crunchy-nut goodness that no man on earth dare to come in between.

Being a self-diagnosed, somewhat anal-retentive person that I am, I made a spreadsheet of meals and broke them down into basic ingredients needed and whether or not I could freeze it, toss it in a crock pot or whip it up in a hurry.

I can manipulate the data to help ease the searching process and compile a shopping list. However, right now I only have thirty-three entries so it doesn’t apply quite yet.

Next I printed off a calendar, sharpened my chewed-up number two and got to work. I know that midweek days are crazy. Relief Society Tuesdays and Scout Wednesdays and Cub Scout Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays are always up in the air, but I plan anyway. For the month of November, Mondays are Italian night, Souper-Tuesdays, Midweek Mexican, Asian Thursdays and Friday Free-For-All. Sundays are always crock-pot or timed baked meals that require very little or no effort. Hey, sometimes I’m lucky to get the oven programmed!

Anyway, if you’ve lasted this far into the post, I challenge you to come up with your own menus and beg you (pretty please) to add them to the comments. I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. Or if you have a better way of reigning in the million, let me know.

Labels: Home and Garden