Mapping Out Your Family Favorites
Do you ever stand at your kitchen counter with a pen and shopping list in hand, drawing a complete blank about what you’re going to cook the coming week? This is when getting take-out every night sounds like a fantastic (although expensive and unhealthy) idea, right? When this happens, an ongoing list of successful meals that you’ve cooked in the past is incredibly helpful.
At some point I realized I should start a list of all the meals I cooked that were a hit – a cheat sheet of sorts – along with the recipe source for future reference. I refer to this as my Family Favorites, a.k.a. meals my whole family would eat. Meal planning is easy now that I have this list. All it takes is picking one favorite from the list, and the rest of the meals fall into place as I work on a balanced plan for the week.
It really doesn’t matter where you keep your list as long as it’s somewhere convenient for you. It can be a note on your phone; a document folder in your computer; a list in an application such as Evernote or Dropbox that can keep your information “in the cloud”; or, a dedicated spiral notebook kept somewhere in your kitchen.
Start by writing down all the meals you cook for a month and then it will become more of a habit to keep your list going.
I don’t know about you, but I feel so productive when making lists. In this case you won’t be crossing items off your list (sometimes the best part of keeping a list), but you’re creating an index that will be so useful in helping you feed your family.
Free Printable Feeding Your Family System: Family Favorites Worksheet