My Blessed Life... In the Kitchen: just for fun AND how I stay organized in the kitchen

So, let's just tell the truth about cooking...

Sometimes the food I serve my family for dinner does not require a recipe. Or any effort for that matter!

The other day was just such a day in my kitchen, and my daughter even pitched in to place some frozen food on a cookie sheet for baking. Gotta love that!!

And I really loved how she used her hot pad (play version from her kitchen set). She told me the reason she was using her hot pad was because the food was so cold!

Sometimes we have a super easy, absolutely-no-effort-needed type of meal like this one (which, by the way, was some frozen food from Market Day--Alaskan cod and mozzarella bites, which is what Hope was in charge of). And sometimes we have something that requires a little work, or a lot of work, or remembering to prepare the meal ahead of time. But, regardless of the type of meal we're having, here's what is almost always the same:

(1) Our family eats together, at the same time, seated at our dinner table.

and

(2) The meal was listed on my monthly meal plan

That's right... a monthly meal plan! Over the years, I have tried lots of different ways to approach dinner planning. I've tried using index cards, and I've tried listing out a week's worth of meals (either assigned or not assigned to specific days), but what is currently working really well for me is the use of a monthly calendar where I record the dinners I will be serving my family (even planning for those super easy ones, or the nights when I don't plan to cook at all--going out or getting pizza...whatever!).

I've been using a monthly calendar for quite a while now, but something I've recently added is making my life a lot easier. I simply expanded the calendar grid by adding extra rows, so that each week is represented by two rows on the calendar. The first of the two rows lists what dinner we'll be having. The second row is where I'm listing out the ingredients I'll need to make that dinner. Then when it's time to create my weekly shopping list, it's super easy to take a look through my kitchen and see what is needed for the week's dinners. I've also started using a free grocery list app on my iPhone, so really the process is becoming quite efficient for me.

Here's a look at my February calendar (please note the photos are not the best... I do let my 4 year old color on the calendar picture and it gets a little wrinkled as a result):