A lot has been said about how busy moms can ease their kitchen planning by using a weekly menu. The concept is simple; cooking a type of meal based on which day of the week it is - Monday is chicken, Tuesday is fish, Wednesday is pasta, Thursday is red meat and eat out on Friday to give Mom a break. This helps the busy household manager especially when the kids ask, "What's for dinner tonight, Mom?"
But what if at the end of a very busy day at work, you just start to think about cooking 'chicken' for dinner? Then, every Monday becomes grilled chicken or every Tuesday sees steamed fish on the plate and soon, your efforts to mix up the meal plans of the week seem to go down the drain?
I'm easily bored with the food I eat and I love to try new recipes I chance across whether browsing a book at the store or something I saw on Nigella Lawson. So, I married a few techniques to get around this problem - I use a David Allen GTD system with Google Calendars for a weekly menu and Remember The Milk for my groceries. You don't have to use all the tools I do, you may have a great system for your groceries that you could just add to.
Step One: The Infrastructure
First up, set up a Google Calendar account if you don't have one already.If you have one already, great! Then you just set up a Menu calendar at Settings: Calendar: Create New Calendar. I'm a visual person so I color code all my different calendars to keep track of who does what and when.
But what if at the end of a very busy day at work, you just start to think about cooking 'chicken' for dinner? Then, every Monday becomes grilled chicken or every Tuesday sees steamed fish on the plate and soon, your efforts to mix up the meal plans of the week seem to go down the drain?
I'm easily bored with the food I eat and I love to try new recipes I chance across whether browsing a book at the store or something I saw on Nigella Lawson. So, I married a few techniques to get around this problem - I use a David Allen GTD system with Google Calendars for a weekly menu and Remember The Milk for my groceries. You don't have to use all the tools I do, you may have a great system for your groceries that you could just add to.
Step One: The Infrastructure
First up, set up a Google Calendar account if you don't have one already.If you have one already, great! Then you just set up a Menu calendar at Settings: Calendar: Create New Calendar. I'm a visual person so I color code all my different calendars to keep track of who does what and when.
- Use Google Calendar to plan your Weekly menus
- Enter the food you'd like when you think of it
- Go Shopping and look forward to the meal
Comments
Hey Kayti, good to hear you are well and with the second one coming, congrats! It seems simple at the thought of it but for a long time, I wasn't really planning anything and eating whatever was most convenient or interesting. But planning has definitely made me think more about what goes into the food! Thanks for reading & keep it coming!
Kayti D
(Guest)
(Guest)
07/26/2009
I have to say, this article comes at a good time for my family; we are trying to eat healthier as a family but we have diet restrictions, a picky toddler, and a pregnant me to work around...It's not always easy to plan meals in advance...But the internet, especially Google and other search engines, have been a tremendous asset - and now, Ly-Ann, you've brought to light some new ways to use it that will hopefully make it all a whole lot simpler! Thank you!
Andrew
(Guest)
(Guest)
07/07/2009
Today in "The World is Flat" I read about the Google Cookbook: look in your refrigerator, take note of a few ingredients, key them into google and see what recipe pops up.
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