Rereading my old blogs, I got inspired to continue my meal planning tradition of sitting for a moment with my recipe box and pulling out 5-7 main dishes to cook over the next week.
Many years ago I made a recipe card for even the simple dinners we eat, not that I needed to follow the recipe for it, but more as a physical note of the meal. Once a week, usually Saturday morning while everyone is sleeping or doing their own thing, I sit with my recipe box (and my calendar for the next week) and pull out the cards of the dishes I want to make and keep those cards out, either on the counter or in a cabinet, but somewhere I can flip through them. I fill up the grocery list on the productivity app my family shares, and by Sunday night I usually have all the ingredients I'll need for the week. Having that list of meals plus their ingredients on hand makes getting dinner on the table easier. I tried assigning a meal to a certain day of the week, but I prefer to just cook what I have time for as each day comes. Some days I'll have more time than others, so I just cook the meal that seems to fit in best at the time. It saves so much time.
When I'm done with the cards for that week, I file them in the back of their category leaving me with the cards of dishes not recently prepared. Yes, I do try new recipes, and if there's one that will make the cut into our rotation then I file into my box!
The calendar sits with me so that I get a realistic view of who will be home for dinnertime and which kids need hefty pre-game meals.
These are just the main dishes; don't be alarmed at the lack of veggies! I usually make either an Arabic style salad or roast some vegetables, or both.
This week we travel Friday, so I'm not going to have as full of a list.
~ Zesty BBQ chicken (crock pot or Instant Pot) for lunches
~ Meatloaf (won't be needed)
~Musaka
~Homemade Lasagna
~ Chicken Shawerma
Nope, we're not vegetarian.
I quit using paper towels for a while back in 2007. I kept a stash of cleaning cloths in the kitchen in a handy spot for everyone to reach. I showed the kids to use those cloths to wipe up spills and to wipe off countertops. It worked really well, but somehow over the past few years I've gotten back to using some paper towels. Once you start using some, you use more.. and more! So, I got some ideas from people trying to adapt a zero waste lifestyle and got a little solution set up for myself.
I borrowed some pinking shears from a neighbor, picked 5 old white undershirts from my husband's closet that he's been wanting to get rid of, and cut those suckers up into squares. They're not exact, but they are roughly 8"-10" square. I got over 60 squares!
I keep most of them stashed in a drawer in the kitchen and told everyone to go ahead and use them whenever they'd want a paper towel. They're small and easy to use. If they cleaned up something super gross then I rinse it out in the sink. If they're just kinda dirty then I toss them directly into a bucket I have stashed inside a cabinet. This bucket is a white dishpan I bought from Fred Meyer years ago. It doesn't have any cleaning solution in it or anything, it's just sitting there collecting the dirty rags. About once a week, or more often, I run the contents of that bucket in the laundry. It's been very convenient especially since there are well over 60 of those rags.
With some of the rags, I created a jar of homemade disinfecting solution that I stuffed about 20 of those little rags in. I found that recipe from another blogger.
http://naturesnurtureblog.com/homemade-cleaning-wipes/
Below is a picture of the cleaning solution jar. I used a quart jar which fits the liquid to cloth ration perfectly.
The rest of the cut up squares are in a handy drawer, and I've gotten all members of the household to grab these instead of paper towels (which are no longer found in the kitchen).
It's been over a month since I've adapted this and I feel so good about the reduced waste. Small steps!
