I’ll kick off today with a subject that’s very close to my heart – or rather my stomach.
As an obsessive meal-planner, a menu-board is an essential bit of kit in our home.
This is ours:
This is the one I should have purchased when I saw it earlier this year:
And this is how to make your own!
Do you have a menu board?
The doors wide open Guys, come on in and chat. Anything goes!
(Don’t forget to drop links in so we can continue the conversation elsewhere also)
Ooh, I like the white frame on that menu board (which you didn’t buy! Heh.) I’ll have to keep that in mind in the future. My girls’ rooms have white frames in them…so maybe next summer I’ll paint a frame white and do the chalkboard treatment on the glass.
The white does look good. Since reading your post I’ve been really inspired once again to look at what home-made art we can rustle up here. But I must try out your upcycled frame to menu board asap!
Ooh, I like the white frame on that menu board (which you didn’t buy! Heh.) I’ll have to keep that in mind in the future. My girls’ rooms have white frames in them…so maybe next summer I’ll paint a frame white and do the chalkboard treatment on the glass.
The white does look good. Since reading your post I’ve been really inspired once again to look at what home-made art we can rustle up here. But I must try out your upcycled frame to menu board asap!
Truthfully …. I rarely know what I’m going to make for dinner until I come home from work! Luckily I usually have from 2-3 hours between arriving home and dinnertime. And by ‘dinner’ I mean tea, or the evening meal. If it were not for being able to thaw in the microwave I suppose I’d have to get much more organized, but usually I have an idea of what must be used up & what the main course is going to be (depending on how many are home for dinner – this number varies as my children are older). We do keep a running grocery list that everyone is supposed to be adding items to as they see the need but of course the kids aren’t always the best at remembering to do that…
There is no ‘one size fits all’ – however you organise your meals, as long as it works for you is the right way. I’m a little fanatical about meal-planning. This isn’t really my nature either – normally I’m much more flexible!
Truthfully …. I rarely know what I’m going to make for dinner until I come home from work! Luckily I usually have from 2-3 hours between arriving home and dinnertime. And by ‘dinner’ I mean tea, or the evening meal. If it were not for being able to thaw in the microwave I suppose I’d have to get much more organized, but usually I have an idea of what must be used up & what the main course is going to be (depending on how many are home for dinner – this number varies as my children are older). We do keep a running grocery list that everyone is supposed to be adding items to as they see the need but of course the kids aren’t always the best at remembering to do that…
There is no ‘one size fits all’ – however you organise your meals, as long as it works for you is the right way. I’m a little fanatical about meal-planning. This isn’t really my nature either – normally I’m much more flexible!
My “menu board” is a piece of paper on the fridge held on by a magnet. I have seen some pretty cool menu boards in the past. I am afraid if we had a menu board it would become a small child’s drawing tablet.
I have a contest this week and a review on 3 types of reusable straws. I hope I can link it here! Giveaway open to everyone. My desire to eliminate useless plastic has been spurred along by you Jo and your no waste efforts. Thanks. Enter everyone……:)
http://www.veeseasyvegan.com/say-goodbye-to-disposable-straws-and-a-give-away/:
My chalkboard is well and truly unreachable 😉 but again there is no ‘right’ way to do it. Just what works for you.
Will pop over to yours – thanks !
I love our reusable straws; we have four of the stainless steel ones! They have been serivng us very well over the past years. My only gripe is that it is tricky to clean without the little brush that came with our pack, and it is hard to find replacement brushes.
Yes It’s the cleaning that concerns me as it would be used with milk!
My “menu board” is a piece of paper on the fridge held on by a magnet. I have seen some pretty cool menu boards in the past. I am afraid if we had a menu board it would become a small child’s drawing tablet.
I have a contest this week and a review on 3 types of reusable straws. I hope I can link it here! Giveaway open to everyone. My desire to eliminate useless plastic has been spurred along by you Jo and your no waste efforts. Thanks. Enter everyone……:)
http://www.veeseasyvegan.com/say-goodbye-to-disposable-straws-and-a-give-away/:
My chalkboard is well and truly unreachable 😉 but again there is no ‘right’ way to do it. Just what works for you.
Will pop over to yours – thanks !
I love our reusable straws; we have four of the stainless steel ones! They have been serivng us very well over the past years. My only gripe is that it is tricky to clean without the little brush that came with our pack, and it is hard to find replacement brushes.
Yes It’s the cleaning that concerns me as it would be used with milk!
I’m rubbish at menu planning – even though I’m only cooking for me. I think actually that makes it more difficult as I have a tiny freezer and to make it worth it I have to cook lots and then freeze the extra. The same meal over and over again gets a bit boring!
http://lessismoreihope.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/lately_22.html
When did you have your head shaved for charity? I didn’t know!
http://lessismoreihope.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/lately_15.html
It was back in 2006!!!!
I’m not great at cooking for one. It isn’t easy. I’d probably live off salads! I can totally appreciate your stance on it!
I’m rubbish at menu planning – even though I’m only cooking for me. I think actually that makes it more difficult as I have a tiny freezer and to make it worth it I have to cook lots and then freeze the extra. The same meal over and over again gets a bit boring!
http://lessismoreihope.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/lately_22.html
When did you have your head shaved for charity? I didn’t know!
http://lessismoreihope.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/lately_15.html
It was back in 2006!!!!
I’m not great at cooking for one. It isn’t easy. I’d probably live off salads! I can totally appreciate your stance on it!
Ironically, one of the ways I have found to have less food waste is to not pre-plan meals 🙂 But it is just my husband and I at home, and we will eat whatever needs eaten at the time. I roughly plan a few meals and usually end up with several others of leftovers, or of a quick egg-based meal, or something like grilled cheese or pancakes if time is short or meat is not thawed. Things were quite different when our kids were little – then it was a meat and two veg meal most nights. But our schedule was more predictable then also, and I knew I’d have the time most nights to prepare that.
Food (and meals) most definitely evolves as life does. Sometimes planning meals means buying ingredients that do not get used up – so I can see how deciding on the day can work. Currently I can’t do that – as we have 2 evening meal times etc… I kind of need to be as efficient as possible. But who knows when the Kids fly the nest?
Ironically, one of the ways I have found to have less food waste is to not pre-plan meals 🙂 But it is just my husband and I at home, and we will eat whatever needs eaten at the time. I roughly plan a few meals and usually end up with several others of leftovers, or of a quick egg-based meal, or something like grilled cheese or pancakes if time is short or meat is not thawed. Things were quite different when our kids were little – then it was a meat and two veg meal most nights. But our schedule was more predictable then also, and I knew I’d have the time most nights to prepare that.
Food (and meals) most definitely evolves as life does. Sometimes planning meals means buying ingredients that do not get used up – so I can see how deciding on the day can work. Currently I can’t do that – as we have 2 evening meal times etc… I kind of need to be as efficient as possible. But who knows when the Kids fly the nest?
After reading your blog for the last couple months I thought I would try menu planning, before I’d just cook whatever was in the fridge and I would just buy food and “figure it out later”. I just completed my first 2 weeks of menu planning and for the first time in my marriage (5 years) I didn’t have any food go into the trash can. I have become a believer in menu planning!
Yay! Well done Hollie!
After reading your blog for the last couple months I thought I would try menu planning, before I’d just cook whatever was in the fridge and I would just buy food and “figure it out later”. I just completed my first 2 weeks of menu planning and for the first time in my marriage (5 years) I didn’t have any food go into the trash can. I have become a believer in menu planning!
Yay! Well done Hollie!
We don’t have a menu board but we have a menu planner/shopping list that I got from Paperchase which has a magnet on the back and lives on the outside of the fridge.
We don’t have a menu board but we have a menu planner/shopping list that I got from Paperchase which has a magnet on the back and lives on the outside of the fridge.