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SOS TIPS
August 2008

Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping

One question which is frequently asked in most households is “What’s for dinner tonight?’. And so we begin thinking about what we might be hungry for, if it is something everyone enjoys, is there sufficient time to prepare it, and of course, do I have all the necessary ingredients. So by the time we have covered these issues and then run to the grocery store to get the missing ingredients, a great deal of our precious time has gone by. Grocery shopping and meal preparation do take a big bite out of our time supply. So why not try to organize these activities so that they are not draining so much of our valuable time and perhaps save some money at the same time. Here are a few ideas which could be beneficial to you.

· Each week, prepare a weekly menu list of meals. The meals do not necessarily have to be designated to a particular day of the week. List the main dish and sides for the meal. If you will be using a recipe from a cookbook, go ahead and list the cookbook and the page number for the recipe. List the ingredients needed and differentiate between which ones you have in stock and which will need to put on your grocery list.

· Create a Mastery Grocery List by typing or writing up a list of groceries that you regularly use with room for other items as well. Make copies of the list and keep one posted in a convenient place so that items can be quickly checked off. You can organize your grocery list anyway which works best for you. You may want to list your items by type such as Baking Goods, Canned/Jar Goods, Dairy, Meats, Frozen Foods, etc. or by the isle number in your grocery store if you shop regularly at the same location.

· Do your grocery shopping once a week after you have planned your meals rather than making several trips to the grocery store. Try to shop on a day or time of day which is not their busiest.

· Consider purchasing precut, de-boned, chopped items to save time on food preparation.

· If you are a coupon user, check the expiration date before you clip them, only clip coupons you know you will be using and keep the clipped coupons in an organized system for easy retrieval. You can try to plan meals based on the coupons you have so that coupons are used before they expire.

· When preparing a main dish, consider doubling up on the recipe and refrigerating the second portion to use a couple of nights later or freeze for a future meal.

· While you are in the kitchen and preparing dinner, you may want to decide what will be the following night’s dinner and do some advance preparation such as defrosting the meat or chopping vegetables.

· Cook less time consuming meals such as pastas or grilled burgers, etc. during the week.

· Your microwave and a crock pot are excellent time savers and should be utilized whenever possible.

· Make sure you have a good set of knives for chopping and dicing and also a good set of tools which you may use for grating, peeling, coring, etc. Food preparation can take a good bit of time especially if you are struggling with poor equipment.

· Use a kitchen timer to not only avoid burning foods, but also to remind you to do other tasks such as turning the meat over at the half way point, putting the buns in the oven at the right time, or taking the pre-made salad out of the refrigerator and tossing it.

· While the meal is cooking, get as many other things as possible out of the way to save time later. You should wash and put away dirty bowls, utensils, and so forth, set the table and if you are a coffee drinker, prepare the coffee pot so it will be ready to go. This is also be a good time to prepare tomorrow’s lunch unless you are planning on dinner leftovers. If that is the case, prepare your lunch immediately after dinner before you get out of the kitchen.

· If you have a favorite cookie recipe you enjoy often, mix up a double or triple recipe and spoon cookie dough as if for baking on a cookie sheet which has been lined with wax paper and freeze. When they are frozen, remove them from the wax paper and place in a container appropriate for freezing. Just remove desired number from freezer, thaw and bake when you get the munchies for those cookies.

· When you are stuck inside on a rainy day, cook a very large pot of soup, chili or gumbo. Enjoy some that day and then put several containers away in the freezer for when you are having a really busy day with no time for cooking but still want a nutritious meal.

· Keep take out menus from your favorite restaurants together in a convenient place in the kitchen. Now and then give yourself the evening off from cooking and cleaning by ordering take out and be sure to use paper dishes and cups.

SOS TIP:

Keeping your pantry well stocked with the basics will help you to whip up unplanned meals, as well as saving trips to the grocery store.

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