what's for dinner: getting organized in the kitchen

As with other daily chores, such as laundry, the amount of spent in the kitchen correlates directly to the age of your kids. It peaks when your youngest starts eating real food until your kids can sit down at the table with the rest of family. get their own ketchup and eat everything on their plate without whining or spilling.

While you may be in the kitchen all day fixing snacks and playing the role of short-order cook, Baby Bunching doesn't lend itself to actual experimentation of culinary dishes...mainly due to lack of time. When my kids were little I had on average 6-10 dishes that were easy and fast to make. I would often make double and freeze a portion of it. And this was perfect for the stage in my life. I didn't have time for things that involved more than 10 ingredients or took more than 30 minutes.

But things have changed in the past few years. My kids now eat more things, I can move beyond the simple 6 recipes and try "experimenting" a bit. But when it came to actually keeping it all organized in the kitchen for the week, I wasn't able to manage. Every week I made a list of things I thought I would make, then I would forget to take out some meat or be missing an ingredient. Every week I was back to my six staples. I had recipe books marked and stacks of recipes I had printed and ripped out of magazines.

Then my neighbor provided me with the solution to most of my cooking problems.

Here is What Worked:

• Get a 3-ring binder (preferably one with a clear plastic cover that you can slip paper behind.)
• This is the time consuming step, but TOTALLY worth it. Put all your recipes into clear plastic page protectors. If you have some that are smaller and have time to print them out as full sheets, it helps, but it's not necessary. Get everything into protectors. It helps when you're cooking from them so they don't get dirty/wet.
• Organize your recipes by type. I have mine by appetizer, main, side, dessert, drinks, breads. But if you want to do it by chicken, beef, vegetarian, spicy, kid friendly...then do what works for you.

Now you're set. Here's how the system works.

1. Every week sit down and quickly flip through my binder of all recipes. It's helpful to have it all right in front of me. I pick out 6 things to make. (Note: One day is reserved for leftovers.)
2. I physically take the recipes from the binder (still in the plastic sheet) and move them to very front of the binder. 
3. Then I make my grocery list from the 6 items I pulled out.
4. I use the plastic sleeve on the front of the binder to hold my weekly menu so it's there to see quickly. Each day I take the recipe I'm making that day and clip it to the frig so I can see it all day and note if I have to marinate or chop a bunch of stuff. This way come 5:00 p.m. I'm not behind.

I started going this route about a year ago, and it has completely saved me from added evening stress of "what to make for dinner?" The hardest part was getting everything in one location, but once it was set up, it's been easy. Now I just rip things out or print things off and slip them in the binder for the next week.

Comments

[Motherhood Uncensored]

So smart. www.momagenda.com - has a great "kitchen folio" that works like that (without the rings).

Also, we use www.relishrelish.com for meal planning. I pay for it - like $7/month - but it's been worth it.

Speaking of which, I need to go plan dinner tonight. Ha!

[Tara @ The Young Mommy Life]

Menu planning gives me a weird sense of control, which is rare when you're a baby buncher. But sitting with my recipes, deciding what dishes to make, making a grocery list from it...there's no better start to the week. Plus, with your system, you know you'll need to take out the chicken, beef, pork, etc, so you're not stuck with frozen meat when it's time to cook.

[Knowles]

Love the tip! I'm always looking to hear about timesavers and organizational tips!

[Heidi]

Great tips. Simple but efficient!

[Natasha]

www.savingdinner.com & the related Flylady website are really big on this too - I really find it helps!

[Ariel]

Great idea! But I'd really like to know what your original 6 recipes were...

[Tracy]

I second Ariel's comment - can you share some of your original 6-10 easy/fast dinners?