Motherhood is
Organized.
To each their own, but for me, sanity come in making things simple.
And since my body can't keep up with my brain right now,
I am focusing on any simplifying I can do while sitting. all.day.long.
Starting with my weak point- cooking.
Welcome to my new lifesavers...
(Ummmm, first off- WEEK 50???? When did that happen??? I can not believe it is almost Christmas and this year is almost over. wow.)
If you know me well, you know I have never really enjoyed cooking. I adore baking, because you follow exact recipes. But cooking? Nope. I don't like finding recipes, planning meals, grocery shopping, and least of all, actually standing in the kitchen and cooking.
I have no idea why I hate the whole process. When it comes down to it, cooking is creative, but it's not a form of creativity I am good at (which is probably why I dislike it so much- I AM a perfectionist over here!). So I made excuses and hubby and I ate horribly the first couple of years we were married. Then my child started eating baby food. And I discovered a simple, organized, rewarding way to make homemade baby food. And I knew when he started on table food, that I would have to get better about cooking.
So I did. I cooked more, and he eats pretty much whatever I make. It got easier, more enjoyable, when I viewed it as a labor of love for my family.
But still. I wasn't organized. I need recipes. I'm not at the stage where I can throw things together or come up with substitutes on my own. I still need to follow directions. But I had recipes in 10 different cookbooks, online, and on cards all over. Meal planning took several hours and I dreaded it, but if I didn't plan, I hated cooking the next week.
So I decided to look back into a recommendation that my friend Shawna over at styleberryblog made a while ago. I uploaded all my recipes into a program called Evernote (see Shawna's blog for more detailed info- she did a wonderful tutorial on it!), and installed it on my Nook, iphone, and computer. I can access them anywhere! I can tag them by frequency of use, whats in them, or cookbook. I prop my Nook up in the kitchen and cook right off of it. It's super easy to sort and pick out recipes. It took me less than 10 minutes to meal plan 5 meals and sides for next week. SCORE!
I went around and scanned all our normal grocery items into my iphone app called Grocery IQ (once again- check out Shawna's post!) so making our list is quick and easy. Plus it has the exact description and brand, so anyone grocery shopping for us after the babies come can tell exactly what we want.
Ahhhh. I can breathe better. And I hope I can cook better now!
How do you meal plan and organize your recipes?
2 comments:
YAY! It takes some effort to set up--but like any great system, the rewards are constant & so worth it!! :) I am so hoping this helps you post babes!
okay, we are TOTALLY opposite on this! haha! What you just described, makes my head spin. LOL
I totally LOVE going thru cookbooks and websites and spending a long time on it. But I can also read a recipe once, look at the picture, and make my own. When we first got married though, I didn't know how to make spaghetti. Our first pots and pans were purchased after we'd been in our house for probably 2 weeks. haha! And they were cheapy bx ones b/c we just wanted to cook our ramen noodles! hahaha! If we could combine our creativities, we'd be Martha Stewart. ha! ;o)
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