Menu Organization – Preparing for School

Simplifying my life is starting to be a mission, especially at the beginning of school.

If you are a teacher or have friends that are teachers or even have children going to school, you know that the beginning of the year rocks your world with schedules and routines.

I decided that the last thing I wanted to worry about was menu planning or cooking, so I organized my recipes and created a menu board in the pantry.

I made some cute days of the week clothes pins and hot glued them on.

I then printed off my recipes on index cards according to different categories.

Fiesta, Italian, Casual, Slow Cooker, Breakfast, and Freezer Meals. I also have DIY cleaner recipes

(This was easy to do. Basically you set your margins to custom and then 5 by 3 in Word, reset your paper size in your printing options, insert index cards in your printer, and print. I then put those cards on the day we will be eating that meal.)

I like this in that if Ken is feeling frisky and wants to begin dinner before I get there, he will have a recipe to follow.

(Which I must stop and brag on the hubster. He was feeling really frisky and cleaned the house, mowed the grass, washed and put up a load of laundry, picked the garden, and had dinner going when I came home after a 13 hour day at work. Way to go Ken! I may need to have something to do every Thursday!)

I can  add recipes easily since I saved the recipe document in Word. 

I also have a somewhat monthly menu plan that we use as a guide to buy groceries for the month as well as a cleaning plan, grocery list, and freezer inventory. 

I also made a few freezer meals from here.

I am not saying that this works all the time. I am sure that I will get lazy and not put those cards on the day of the week.

It will happen.

Right now, this is just helping simplify and corral my life as an educator at the beginning of school when you don't feel like being a house wife and a working wife at the same time.

(I also have 5 outfits picked out for the week. I'm a nerd, I know.)

By September, I will be able to handle both again and then the holidays will start.

A woman's job is never done, unless she asks her husband to be on house-husband duty and he does an amazing job!