Tuesday Tips: Menu Notebook

A while back I told about my Menu Notebook that I've kept for years. Some of you asked to know what that was, so I decided I'd start Tuesday Tips (we'll see how long this goes on!). I hope to post something every week that is helpful, whether something I wish I did, or something I already do. The first entry is this notebook. I've kept it for almost 7 years, and it's been a life saver. The worst time of day for me, was thinking what to have for dinner. We usually ended up eating something boxed or frozen. I wanted better dinners so I wrote down a list of dinner ideas, that you can see in the first picture. This is a good start, but it's hard to pick on a daily basis since you have to have all the ingredients on hand. So, I wrote everything down for a whole month, leaving the weekend free for going out and leftovers. I decided to make a new one every month. I do a lot of repeats, but like having the freedom to look through cookbooks and get recipes from friends. Be sure to check your family calendar and use your crockpot days wisely! It's also smart to be balanced between the different types of meats, potatoes, rice, noodles, and ethnic foods. And to be even more organized, make your shopping list for the month while you create the menu, then just make small shopping trips for fresh vegies and things like that. I think if you click on the picture it will make it bigger and you can get an idea of what we ate last April! It's sort of become a food journal for our family.