It Works For Me! - Dinner Rotation

For those of you who know me best, you'll already know that I love to keep things organized.  It's nearly driven Tyler crazy in the almost-8-years that we've been married, but he's so patient with me that he's never complained (yet).  :)  Anyway, I wanted to share with each of you my dinner rotation/meal-planning/grocery-shopping lists & ideas.  For me it helps keep my household running a lot more smoothly & it makes meal times a lot less stressful.    I don't know where to start, exactly, so at first I'll just mention that if I cook something that everyone in my family likes (I always want to do a happy dance whenever this happens), I copy down the recipe & put it in my box with all of my other ones, and I also include it in my dinner rotation book, which looks something like this:

(Sorry, I know this picture's terrible).  I got this idea from my sister.  The last Christmas before Tyler & I were married, she gave me a book similar to this one with all of her favorite recipes in it, which I still have, by the way.  I decided to make my own personalized book with the names of the dinner and/or recipe, along with a list of all the ingredients needed to make each meal.  This makes writing my grocery lists a lot easier.  I also have a Breakfast list (Tyler loves hot breakfasts & I try to make them for him whenever I can on Saturday mornings & on his days off), a Salad & Sides list and a Desserts list.  These lists are both handy to have for when I need to help with meals in the ward or when I've signed up to bring them for other ward functions.  

With this trusty book in hand, I'm ready to write down my weekly grocery shopping list.  If I have a little extra time I also grab all of my cookbooks & flip through them to see if there are any new recipes that I'd like to try.  My most favorite thing to do if I have the time is to flip through pages of recipes that I've printed off of recipe blogs & cooking websites:

See how I've crossed off the top recipe?  These types of recipes are great to print off, because then if we try one that we don't like, I just cross it off & move on to the next one.  Then on the flip side, if we find one we do like, it makes it's way into my Dinner list.  Anyway, once I've planned all of the meals for the week, I write them down on this handy little magnetic notepad & stick it back on my fridge:

Eventually I'd LOVE to do something like this for my kitchen, but I won't be assigning each meal to a certain day of the week.  I tried doing that once, & then I ended up getting frustrated with the idea because I wouldn't have meat thawed in time, or something else would come up & I either wouldn't have to cook, or we'd end up going out to eat at the last minute (this, of course, doesn't happen all the time, but you get the idea).  This way it reminds me of all possible meals I'm able to make because it's always based on the types of groceries I have in the house for that week.

On the weeks when Tyler & I don't have much money left until payday (I'm sure you all know exactly what this feels like), I just go to my pantry, cupboards, fridge & freezer & take a little "food inventory", if you will.  :)

I always keep chicken broth, canned chili, cream of chicken soup (why oh WHY does Costco not sell this?!?!) and canned chicken on hand in my pantry because I use them all the time in my cooking.  Rice tastes even more yummy when you cook it w/ chicken broth instead of just plain water, we eat chili all the time because it's cheap, it's satisfying & both of our kids like it (with cornbread especially; yummmm!), and I use at least 2-3 cans of cream of chicken per week.

Whenever there are big sales on pastas, spaghetti & alfredo sauces I always try to stock up as much as I can so that I can have these ingredients on hand when things get a little bit tight throughout the month.

I didn't dare post pics of my freezer or fridge because neither of them are super clean right now, but I do try to get a good look of what I have in them before I do my shopping so that nothing goes to waste & so that I don't end up buying extra food that I don't really need.  I try to buy ground beef, chicken & pork whenever we can afford them, & I always buy them in bulk so that I can keep them in the freezer & have them ready to use whenever I can't buy them at the store during certain times of the month.

Well, that pretty much covers my "system".  Like this posts says, it works for me.  :)  I'd love to hear any of your ideas and/or plans on how you keep your kitchen running smoothly!

Red Velvet Cake Balls

I found this recipe while browsing on Mel's Kitchen Cafe recipe blog.  My finished product didn't look half as pretty as the ones on this blog did, and my camera isn't the greatest, but at least I have my own picture to make a digi-scrap recipe card with without infringing on copyright laws.  :)  These are oh-so-yummy!  In fact I think they may be just a wee bit too good, because after taking them with me to Young Women's last night, one of the other leaders asked me what they were, & when I told her she said, "Oh Julia, you are the devil!"  I don't know about that, but I sure wouldn't want to be responsible for wrecking anyone else's diet.  Then again I have to cook for somebody.  I love to bake so much, but I certainly can't eat all of this yummy goodness myself, so I have no choice but to give it all away.  ;)

1 box Red Velvet cake mix

1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)

1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate), OR chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli - they're by far the best chocolate chips I've ever tasted, & believe me, I've tried 'em all!)

wax paper

Prepare and bake cake according to the directions on the box.  Bake in a 9x13 pan; let cool completely.  After cake is cooled, crumble into a large bowl.  Mix thoroughly with all of the frosting.  If you need to, use your hands to mix, but be warned, it will get extremely messy.  I used a spoon & that worked just fine too.  Roll mixture into quarter-sized balls & place on a cookie sheet or tray covered with wax paper.  Chill for several hours - make sure they are really firm (you can speed this up by putting them into the freezer).  Melt chocolate in microwave according to directions on package.  * If using chocolate chips, just melt down in a saucepan on the stove, and don't forget to add a bit of shortening to the mixture.  If you don't, your chocolate will harden too quickly & trust me, you don't want this to happen.  Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm (you can use a spoon to dip & then tap off extra chocolate; 2 forks works great, too, if your chocolate is warm enough).  Drizzle with extra chocolate bark on top.  Like Oreo Truffles, these taste best cold, too.