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| Live crabs in a Hong Kong storefront |
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| “Oranger peel” — probably better than “old orange peel”? — in Hong Kong |
I have been doing some much-needed rescuing of my content from an early wrong turn on the blogging highway.
I had some things I needed to tell you. Some of you kindly tell me to write a book; one of my goals here was to produce something like a first draft!
I had wanted to put certain things in a form that you could easily print out for your own use (without photos, therefore). I even had visions of you getting together with friends and using the worksheets as a starting point for discussion and mutual help! It was going to be awesome.
So I posted a bunch of things as Google Docs. But between my easily scrambled brain and the easily scrambled settings on the Google Docs, the links weren’t always working for you. Throw in this new Drive thing they have going on over there in Google land (why? why, Google? It was all so… fine, before), I decided to redo these as posts in the timeline (or as near as I could figure it).
What’s it all about? If you are new here, or a faithful reader who hasn’t really glanced over at the sidebar, or a faithful reader who has clicked on links to no avail and given up, a little recap: These are my step-by-step hand-holding tutorials on how to solve the one thing that is making you crazy, holding you back, and sabotaging all your efforts: The Failure to Know What’s for Dinner (and lunch and breakfast).
There are posts about these steps as well — it’s going to take me longer to get them all organized. I’ve linked the important ones on the sidebar.
Go here for Worksheet I. Learn how to make menus that are exactly right for your family — no one else’s! That is the LMLD difference!
Go here for Worksheet II. People like examples — here you will find some to encourage you.
Go here for Worksheet III. Some people can’t figure out how to make specific menus for a whole week, just because things change every day. I show you how, walking you through my own thought process!
Go here for Worksheet IV. I show you how to grocery shop, saving money big-time — in actual groceries and in eliminating budget-busting dinners out — without many coupons! The secret is in this worksheet!
Go here for Worksheet V. Save-a-Step Cooking! Maybe you aren’t naturally a cook. Or –You love spontaneity, you’re a creative cook, you can’t feature freezing all your meals, but you are drowning in the work of feeding the family! Really, this method is painless.
Go here for Worksheet VI. Read the pathetic story of how I developed a worksheet (the first one, actually! typed out and taped inside my own binder) for a bland diet for sickies.
Go here for Worksheet VII. Breakfast recipes, including the absolutely indispensable Buttermilk Baking Mix of Fabulousness!
Go here for Worksheet VIII. Save a step at breakfast, and implement the breakfast recipes optimally.
Lunch secrets. This isn’t a worksheet, but it contains my thoughts on lunches, which I sort of detest making.
Feel free to print these out for your own use. If you have a mother’s group, I honestly believe in all humility that working on getting supper on the table can be the best activity you do! I would be honored if you printed these out for that purpose! If you post on your blog, a link would be appreciated!
Have you intrepidly hunted down the worksheets before? Have you used them and found them helpful? I’d love to hear how in the comments.
And — don’t forget — {pretty, happy, funny, real} is still going on in yesterday’s post!
Thank you for highlighting these! So timely– I am need of a 'reboot' in this area!
Thank you so much! Making a new batch of pancake mix is actually on my to-do list today. And I really appreciated your “saving a bad day” post–I had gotten myself all out of sorts last weekend, and that was exactly the post I needed to shake myself out of it the next time!
Yes, I have found these helpful. I ALWAYS write out my week's menus and make my shopping list from there. It makes things fast and easy. This week my schedule got derailed. I did NOT write out a menu, and the extra mental energy that has cost me each day trying to hold in my brain what my plan was…not pretty!
I also really like your posts on laundry!
thanks for this- your method is the best for normal types who detest freezing a months plus worth of meals…Rosie's post inspired me to make fresh pasts for the first time…it was good, but more like dumpling because I don't have a pasta press (or a rolling pin that I can find)
Dearest Auntie Leila,
Thank you for this post and all the others. I have the most wonderful, excellent Mama and Granny (and am so blessed to still have my Granny, though I'm past 30), but even with all that wonderful help right with me, I STILL find inspiration and help in your blog. You've made a difference in this small family!
I'm a save a step cooker. Whenever I make meat I save a cup or two for use in the next day's dish. But your biggest dinner influence in this family is to light a candle!! We do that now! Just about every day. The kids love taking their turn to blow it out. I've also put your Egyptian Lasagna to good use a few times. And yes there is something about consistently producing good-quality food for the family that makes me feel like I got a gold star for the day.
I LOVE your blog, I LOVE your blog, I LOVE your blog! I feel like I am getting the mothering my wonderful mother could not give (because she herself was not fortunate enough to receive it, and if you have not received, it is hard to give, right?) and the grandmothering my dear grandmother is unable to give because of distance coupled with lack of technological skills. I have become a better wife through your blog. There is still SO far to go, but at least I have a light on my sometimes seemingly bleak path. I love how real you are about your past, and present failings, but always showing the hope that is there. I giggle that so many of your posts about yourself as a new bride still describe me as a bride of 10 years and mother of 5 years! Thank you, thank you for letting me know that not only am I normal, but I can, and will grow. You are a blessing and a woman of Titus for me, even though we will never meet!
Yay! I have really enjoyed the list of worksheets on the sidebar and it has seriously helped me in the laundry department. I have a question about menu planning though…I do it every week but it seems that we are forever running out of groceries and it is seriously irritating. I think I'm still shopping as if it were only my husband and I and we now have two children and another on the way. The other issue for me is that we are signed up for a yearly CSA (community shared agriculture) and get a new box of veggies every week which are never the same. It makes it difficult to meal plan because I don't find out what we're getting until the day we get it! Any suggestions of how I could make this easier? thanks!
Katiebrigid, I don't get a CSA box, but it's sort of the same with a garden. With the box, make your meal plan day be the day you get it. And in general, you can at least figure out your proteins and starches — like, chicken and rice, and then something from the box, and if it's trending towards something for a while — spinach — then you can plan around that, even ahead of time. I think that with produce, some of it is going to be processing it for later/much later, rather than eating it all right away, right?
Thanks for all you do for moms on your blog! I love your idea of a mother's group helping each other get supper on the table. I need all this down-to-earth practical help.
Loved the photos of Hong Kong. I've heard one lady say she hired a taxi to get from one side of the street to the other. So busy and crowded! Would love any more posts on the subject.
Karen, you should check out Natasha's blog (my DIL) — hkhousewife.com. She writes all about life in HK!
I am very grateful the series on menu planning. Though I was given a thorough grounding in cooking by my mother and grandmother, I don't think my mother ever planned the menu for a whole week. She is expert at how to get dinner on the table from scratch in 30 minutes or less, a feat she performed several times a week. My grandmother taught me the more time consuming and traditional Norwegian dishes, on which she was expert. But no one mentioned menu planning until I started reading blogs as an adult, and your method is the best I have found for my family. It has saved my sanity many times after our twins were born two years ago!
Such a great series of worksheets, Leila. I've posted a link so that my young mom friends can find these. (http://ourgoodfood.blogspot.com/)” target=”_blank”> http://ourgoodfood.blogspot.com/)” target=”_blank”>(http://ourgoodfood.blogspot.com/) I'm thankful that you've written it all down in such a straightforward, common sense way.
*shudder* Live crabs!
Auntie Leila, I just wanted to say thank you a million times for all your helpful suggestions here! I finally, FINALLY after months — no, YEARS — of “planning to”, sat down and mapped out a) meals for a month, in a 4-week rotation; b) a monthly shopping list to go with the meal plan; and c) a weekly basic meal theme plan, including all main meals and snacks. It took me a couple months to get everything tweaked and typed and printed out, but it has revolutionized my life! I can look at my calendar and know what we're having for dinner next Thursday. It's AMAZING! I feel like a domestic goddess. :) I also don't hold myself strictly to it — for example, we had beef stew scheduled for tonight (Monday is soup/salad night), but I wasn't able to get a roast at the store last week, so I switched with tomorrow night's pasta meal, which works out better since I'm going to be busy all afternoon tomorrow, and will appreciate a leave-it-to-simmer meal that requires no extra effort at dinnertime! I'm so excited for this new organized corner of my life. It will certainly help in the near future, as baby #5 is due immanently. But I've got the meal plan, and all the ingredients to survive for a few weeks so we won't starve! Hooray! :)
Thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience. Your blog has been one of the greatest blessings of the internet, for me. :)
Where is the best place to buy affordable flour and buttermilk? They seem so expensive at the grocery store.
Jennifer, it depends on where you live. We get our flour at a restaurant supply house — King Arthur All Purpose flour, around $17 for 50 lbs! The buttermilk I buy at the grocery store (it's next to the cream). It's cheaper than powdered. It's not a big-ticket item, as I won't use more than a quart a week, and if I do, I can sub yogurt or milk mixed with lemon juice. Ask the frugal people you know in your neck of the woods. Eventually you will find the good prices.
Hi, I am new here. I am loving your Menu Planning posts, however I am not able to figure out how to print the workshhets. I need more hand holding help…lol.
Thanks,
Becky
Becky, you can either just print out the post (using your browser's
task bar to select print from edit), or copy and paste the worksheet
into a document and print that. Okay?
I'm sorry, I didn't clarify myself. I can seem to find the worksheets at all.
In this post you will see the links to the \”worksheets\” posts.
I used to have them as actual worksheets in Google Doc form, but now
they are content in the post.
So the post will have \”Worksheet I\” and then everything below that is
the worksheet. Copy and paste it into your own document, or print out
the post.
Make sense?
It does, thank you! I was looking for an actual worksheet or form that I could fill in. But, I see what you are saying now. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I used to plan menus many years ago & rotated my menus every month, but after child number 3 then 4, then in the busyness of my husband going full time in the ministry that all went out the window. Due to a significant pay cut, I am having to make adjustments so I am trying to start menu planning once again. I will go thru your posts on the topic. Thanks again! Blessings :)