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How I menu plan with cookery books.
dawn1980
Posts: 87 Forumite
Hi guys. I've been lurking a very very very long time. I have learned so much from here and I am pretty much debt free.
I want to share this as a thanks for what I have taken. I hope it will be useful to someone.
A long time ago I started to cook most meals myself and learned some techniques and got a few recipes in a collection. Over time I aquired way too many recipe books and planning menus became a long task :eek:. I never knew where to start! what was in season, what was cheap this week etc. I don't have all this knowledge in my head and I am not very naturally gifted at creating my own recipes.
Here is my solution.
3) Start filling the folder by adding recipes you already use to the correct days.
4) make a sheet for each section for meal ideas that fit that section but need no recipe.
Then in the first plastic thingy of each section you gather recipes to try. I throw in recipe clippings from magazines.......
5) Here is where your recipe books come in and the longest bit (sorry but it is worth it) . Starting with your most used recipe books write down on a sheet in the to try sections the book, name and page of all the recipes that would be suitable for weekdays and suit the family-be ruthless only choose those that you know sound possible. You will still have the books for when you want an extra bit or sauce or special treat. (instead of pulling out sheets from each section to write these down you may want to start a word document and add ideas under each heading and print them out on seperate pages per heading to add to the folder when you have done all of the books)
6) when you come to menu plan-print out a calender for the month-there are tons of these online-or use the calender pdf from here. Then you can easily fill in a meal for each day-(think about what's in the cupboards) To begin with you will have very few tried and tested recipes so you will be trying lots of new ones. I've got to the stage now where only one of my meals a week needs to be a new one. When you have maybe 20 for each section you could try just one a month-unlss you enjoy experimenting.
7)Each time you try a recipe ask if it's a keeper-if it is write it out and slot it in with any notes or changes you make. If the recipe was a magazine clipping I just glue these to a sheet or slip in a case if it's got space at the bottom.
8) I colour code (dab a blob of coloured felt tip) the recipes by season too. (what's in season lists can be found in loads of recipe books and via google.)
9) I try to add one soup and one pudding each week.
I know this seems like a lot to do but after a while you will have all the recipes your family loves collected together in one place, organised sensibly so that your meals can be planned in minutes not hours. This has made my life so much simpler and takes all that brain pain out of what on earth to do away.
NB having all meals written on calender sheets in the folder means you won't repeat too much.
Only take the recipes you really will try. So no expensive or fussy things (unless it's a sunday meal.) I have some recipes with a note at the top to tell me if I need alcohol etc.
Talking of which use your noggin. Think about leftovers, or whether an ingredient can be bought cheaper for more and used more than once.
I have recipes that use wine because sometimes I have some in the fridge past drinking but ok for cooking.
Of course I still by meats and bogofs for the cupboard or freezer if I know it will be used ina recipe I have.
So there it is and it saves me time and money and we eat great meals without stress.
I hope someone can use this. Ask if anything's not clear.
And thanks.
I want to share this as a thanks for what I have taken. I hope it will be useful to someone.
A long time ago I started to cook most meals myself and learned some techniques and got a few recipes in a collection. Over time I aquired way too many recipe books and planning menus became a long task :eek:. I never knew where to start! what was in season, what was cheap this week etc. I don't have all this knowledge in my head and I am not very naturally gifted at creating my own recipes.
Here is my solution.
- Get an A4 folder and a pack of a hundred of those plastic wallets with holes punched (to put your recipes in).
- Seperate your week into a kind of meal every day. Here is mine...
- monday=pastry based meal (pie,pasty,sausage rolls with leftovers or whatever.)
- Tuesday= pasta (including Gnocchi or pasta bakes)
- Wednesday casseroles (including potatoe topped things like shepheards pie or hot pots)
- Thursday=rice (indian chinese spanish risotto etc)
- Friday=fish or vegetarian or egg
- Saturday=anything goes-usually burgers, takeaway, frozen stuff and chips
- Sunday=Roast or a more expensive or too posh for weekdays ie lamb chops, prawns, salmon, lamb, chicken in wine etc.
3) Start filling the folder by adding recipes you already use to the correct days.
4) make a sheet for each section for meal ideas that fit that section but need no recipe.
Then in the first plastic thingy of each section you gather recipes to try. I throw in recipe clippings from magazines.......
5) Here is where your recipe books come in and the longest bit (sorry but it is worth it) . Starting with your most used recipe books write down on a sheet in the to try sections the book, name and page of all the recipes that would be suitable for weekdays and suit the family-be ruthless only choose those that you know sound possible. You will still have the books for when you want an extra bit or sauce or special treat. (instead of pulling out sheets from each section to write these down you may want to start a word document and add ideas under each heading and print them out on seperate pages per heading to add to the folder when you have done all of the books)
6) when you come to menu plan-print out a calender for the month-there are tons of these online-or use the calender pdf from here. Then you can easily fill in a meal for each day-(think about what's in the cupboards) To begin with you will have very few tried and tested recipes so you will be trying lots of new ones. I've got to the stage now where only one of my meals a week needs to be a new one. When you have maybe 20 for each section you could try just one a month-unlss you enjoy experimenting.
7)Each time you try a recipe ask if it's a keeper-if it is write it out and slot it in with any notes or changes you make. If the recipe was a magazine clipping I just glue these to a sheet or slip in a case if it's got space at the bottom.
8) I colour code (dab a blob of coloured felt tip) the recipes by season too. (what's in season lists can be found in loads of recipe books and via google.)
9) I try to add one soup and one pudding each week.
I know this seems like a lot to do but after a while you will have all the recipes your family loves collected together in one place, organised sensibly so that your meals can be planned in minutes not hours. This has made my life so much simpler and takes all that brain pain out of what on earth to do away.
NB having all meals written on calender sheets in the folder means you won't repeat too much.
Only take the recipes you really will try. So no expensive or fussy things (unless it's a sunday meal.) I have some recipes with a note at the top to tell me if I need alcohol etc.
Talking of which use your noggin. Think about leftovers, or whether an ingredient can be bought cheaper for more and used more than once.
I have recipes that use wine because sometimes I have some in the fridge past drinking but ok for cooking.
Of course I still by meats and bogofs for the cupboard or freezer if I know it will be used ina recipe I have.
So there it is and it saves me time and money and we eat great meals without stress.
I hope someone can use this. Ask if anything's not clear.
And thanks.
0
Comments
-
That's fabulous! The kind of system I have tried and failed with many times. I did start the 'same type of meal each weekday' thing a while ago and it worked well, until the festive season hit!
You have inspired me to try again, though I probably won't manage anything as complex as your wonderful system.June Grocery Challenge £493.33/£500 July £/£500
2 adults, 3 teensProgress is easier to acheive than perfection.0 -
Dear Dawn,
Thank you soo much. I am just today thinking of going back to meal plans. I was slightly struggling last time to find a good system and I'm sure that's why we stopped. So thank you very very much for taking the trouble of putting your system in a post! It will help us to stick to our plans.0 -
Thanks. Glad it was useful to someone.:D0
-
Dawn,
Thank you so much for this, I am fed up of a lot of bits of paper which I print off from various websites etc, this is brilliant and I will definitely sort this out over the weekend.
E xJan GC £242.38/£250
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Repay £5K in 2012 £254.17/£5000
2012 NSD 14/200 (Jan 14)0 -
Very good system, I've been trying to plan something similar, although I do everything on my PC.
Will start again, thank you for the inspiration.0 -
You wonderful, wonderful woman!!!!
Look how many times you have been thanked for your original post to see how much we all appreciate this.
I am definitely going to follow you!Father Ted: Now concentrate this time, Dougal. These
(he points to some plastic cows on the table) are very small; those (pointing at some cows out of the window) are far away...
:D:D0 -
I have created a working word document to organise my recipes. Instead of only adding my useable recipes I am going to index absolutely everything and put a mark in brackets to indicate if it's good for everyday use etc. This will give me a full recipe index as well as a list of recipes to try (those marked (y) will be the ones I will definately try)
As I can't attach a file I will copy and paste it here. Basically just change the recipe books to the ones you have and fill out the form under the correct heading. I may have missed some catagories. If You have a vegetarian risotto etc you will have to decide which day you want to add that under. Have fun. I wonder how long it will take me to fill the whole thing out? lol.
Template in next post....to be clear.
When all recipes are indexed...use the enter button to get each section on a different page in the word document and print. You can keep the file on the computer to add new books to.
Don't forget to mark tried repes and add them to your file so you can find them quicker in future.0 -
Day Key....
Monday=pastry dishes. Tuesday=pasta dishes. Wednesday=casserole,stew and meat bakes. Thursday= Rice based dishes. Friday=Fish, vegetarian or egg. Saturday=burgers,bbq,sausages or cheat. Sunday=Roasts or expensive.
Cook books. (strike through when indexed make a key for each)
Country Kitchen (CK)
Delia’s Complete cookery course (DCCC)
Delia: Christmas (DC)
Dairy Book of Home Cookery (DBHC)
Forever Summer (FS)
Good Housekeeping (GH)
Good Old Fashioned Puddings (OFP)
How to Eat (H2E)
How to be a domestic Goddess (DG)
How to feed your whole family (HTF)
I Know How to Cook (IKHC)
Jamie’s USA (JUSA)
Jamie’s 30 Minute meals (30M)
Marguerite Patten’s Everyday Cookbook (MPE)
New Recipes for your Slo cooker (Slo)
River Cottage Everyday (RCED)
River Cottage Family Cookbook
River Cottage Year (RCY)
River Cottage (RC)
River cottage Meat (RCM)
The Cook’s Scrapbook (CS)
The Good Granny Cookbook (GG)
The Ultimate cooking course.
WI Biscuits (WIB)
Wi Sweets and Chocolates (WISC)
101 Cakes and Bakes (101CB)
101 One Pot Dishes (101Pot)
Under each heading-Recipe, page number, book, season, notes, (y) or (n) are you likely to make during a normal week? (X) if recipe contains ingredients the family don't like or you can’t stand the thought of.
Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Weekend lunch/sandwhich fillings
Soup
Bread
Pastry
Starters
Salads
Sweet bread/savoury cake
Cake (large)
Cupcakes
Biscuits
Sweets
Hot puddings
Cold puddings
Savoury sauce
Sweet sauce
Vegetable sides
Potato sides
Rice/couscous sides
Preserves
Hot drinks
Cold drinks
Pate and stuffing.0 -
Why, what a great system, very meticulous!
Since your post I have been meal planning, very successfully, saving a lot of money as well as eating healthily.
When I read your initial post it just clicked, the general idea of indexing recipes was what I needed.
Until now I've been using the internet (including MSE) to search for recipes (lazy option), but now I will go back and look at the many recipe books.
Thank you!0 -
YOu are very welcome.terra_ferma wrote: »Why, what a great system, very meticulous!
Since your post I have been meal planning, very successfully, saving a lot of money as well as eating healthily.
When I read your initial post it just clicked, the general idea of indexing recipes was what I needed.
Until now I've been using the internet (including MSE) to search for recipes (lazy option), but now I will go back and look at the many recipe books.
Thank you!
Inputting the info to this takes a long time but it will be worth it. I figure I'll have months with no meal overlap lol.0
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