by Carrie on February 11, 2010
Early last year, I got it into my head that I wanted all the recipes from all my cookbooks and magazine tear outs indexed in one place on my computer so that it was easy to pull together a meal plan. At that time, I decided to start by listing them all out by dish type in a basic text editor.
More recently, I was browsing around the blogosphere and came across Mommy Snack’s Menu Planning Recipe Box and I loved the spreadsheet idea but it needed a little tweaking to work for me.
Here’s what I came up with (click the image to enlarge):
Download the .xls file so you can play around with it yourself.
I’ve got several columns for sorting the data in various ways, left to right they are:
- a place to mark which recipes I’d like to use on my next meal plan
- name
- type of dish (main, side, salad, dessert, etc)
- protein
- produce
- starch
- tried/favorite
- notes (seasonal info or cooking notes if I want to make changes to the recipe in the future)
- source
Rather than using Google Docs (which I love because I can access my files easily from multiple computers), I decided to go with Microsoft Excel. Excel does a couple things that made my digital recipe box easier than it would have been in Google Docs: 1) it remembers what you typed in the same field in rows above so that you don’t need to type the same cookbook name over and over again, 2) it has filters so that once all my recipes are in, I can easily narrow it down to just chicken dishes, just desserts, just recipes I’ve marked as favorites, or even search for recipes with the word chocolate in the title.
by Carrie on February 1, 2010
I’m giving a monthly meal plan a try for February. I live alone and am cooking for one plus I have a reduced appetite because of the chemotherapy so I’m planning two to three home cooked meals per week and I can work on the leftovers for the other meals or eat some of the fillers listed at the bottom.
Week 1:
- fajitas (meat presliced and seasoned is in the freezer)
- chicken and cornbread dumplings (recipe from The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook, slow cooker)
Week 2:
Week 3:
- fajitas (meat presliced and seasoned is in the freezer)
- chicken paillards with lemon butter sauce, mashed potatoes (recipe from Martha Stewart Living magazine)
- baked ravioli (recipe from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast, will substitute tortellini since I already have some on hand)
Week 4:
- shepard’s pie (recipe from Make It Fast, Cook It Slow, slow cooker)
- polenta wedges with asparagus (recipe from Everyday Food magazine, will move this item around to an appropriate week if there is a good sale on asparagus)
Fillers:
- pasta with or without turkey meatballs (meatballs from the freezer)
- canned soups
- chili (from the freezer)
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by Carrie on January 24, 2010
I finally feel like I’m starting to make a big dent in what I’ve got in the pantry although I still haven’t completely used up much of anything (like I used up one box of crackers but I’ve got two more).
This week I’ve got about half a gallon of milk left so I think I’ll be able to make it without going to the store at all.
Next Sunday I’ll return to my regular grocery shopping routine. What I’ve learned over the course of the month is that I’m really overstocked on snacks/desserts and carbs/side dishes so those are the things I don’t need to be buying right away even when the challenge is over. Meat, dairy, and produce are all I really need to shop for for awhile here.
Breakfasts
toast
eggs
oatmeal
cereal
muffins
pumpkin bread
pancakes
yogurt
Meats/Mains
canned soup
pasta with turkey meatballs
fajitas
refried beans with chips
tortellini
macaroni and cheese
omelets
breakfast for dinner
chili
Starch Sides
couscous
pasta
mashed potatoes
polenta
corn bread
bread/rolls
rice
tator tots
Fresh Produce
apples
carrots
Frozen/Canned Produce
peppers
peas
snow peas
corn
brussels sprouts
carrots
spinach
pumpkin
Snacks
popcorn
almonds, pecans, walnuts
string cheese
granola bars
dried fruit
crackers
chips
Desserts
ice cream
popsicles
chocolate
jello
brownies
yellow cake
by Carrie on January 17, 2010
Finally starting to make a little bit of a dent in the list and get some things used up. I haven’t been shopping yet this week but the plan is to get a gallon of organic milk and two boxes of Rice Crispies at Safeway (on sale 2/$3 and I have a $1/2 coupon).
Breakfasts
bagels
toast
eggs
oatmeal
cereal
muffins
pumpkin bread
pancakes
yogurt
Meats/Mains
canned soup
pasta with turkey meatballs
fajitas
refried beans with chips
tortellini
macaroni and cheese
omelets
breakfast for dinner
ground beef (beef stroganoff, chili)
Starch Sides
couscous
pasta
mashed potatoes
polenta
corn bread
bread/rolls
rice
tator tots
Fresh Produce
apples
carrots
onion
Frozen/Canned Produce
peppers
peas
snow peas
corn
brussels sprouts
carrots
spinach
pumpkin
tomatoes
Snacks
popcorn
almonds, pecans, walnuts
string cheese
granola bars
dried fruit
crackers
chips
Desserts
ice cream
popsicles
chocolate
jello
brownies
yellow cake
by Carrie on January 10, 2010
Still not making much of a dent on the list of things available to eat in my pantry/fridge/freezer but that’s because I have multiple meals worth of pretty much everything on the list. I cooked up some of the fajita meat that I presliced and preseasoned and it came out fabulous which is good since I have 3 more bags of it ready to go in the freezer. Other meals of note were some surprisingly delicious hashed brussels sprouts and homemade polenta one night, my ever favorite Maple Roasted Chicken and Sweet Potatoes, and some tortellini with a couple cubes of frozen pumpkin puree mixed into some regular pasta sauce.
This week I picked up milk, sour cream, and baby carrots at Safeway which is within my only buy produce and dairy this month guidelines. All organic so I’m still sticking to my New Year’s Resolution about that too. (Which reminds me, what are my options for organic cheese? Not seeing much of it at Safeway. Anyone have any experience with that?)
I also picked up two boxes of Annie’s Organic Macaroni and Cheese at Target for $0.50 each. Not within my guidelines but that’s just too good of an organic food deal to pass up and then I’ve got an easy way to use up the tuna on my list.
So here’s this week’s updated list:
Breakfasts
bagels
toast
sausage
eggs
oatmeal
cereal
frozen waffles
muffins
pumpkin bread
pancakes
yogurt
Meats/Mains
canned soup
pasta with turkey meatballs
fajitas
garlic chicken stirfry
refried beans with chips
tortellini
macaroni and cheese
omelets
breakfast for dinner
tuna (tuna cheese melts, mac and cheese with tuna)
ground beef (beef stroganoff, chili)
Starch Sides
couscous
pasta
mashed potatoes
polenta
corn bread
bread/rolls
rice
tator tots
Fresh Produce
apples
carrots
onion
Frozen/Canned Produce
peppers
peas
snow peas
corn
brussels sprouts
carrots
spinach
pumpkin
tomatoes
Snacks
popcorn
almonds, pecans, walnuts
string cheese
granola bars
dried fruit
crackers
chips
Desserts
ice cream
popsicles
chocolate
jello
jello pudding
brownies
yellow cake
chocolate chip cookies
