Heather says:
We’ve all done it, you know, the 5:30 stare. You walk to the refrigerator, open the door and hope for dinner to leap into your arms and say, “Cook me! I’m the meal you want!” Unfortunately it doesn’t happen, so you stare past the eggs and the milk, you notice the leftovers that should have been tossed, but they’ll linger for at least another day or two. Sometimes you’ll close the door and wander away, only to return a few minutes later hoping something new has appeared. It hasn’t.
You know the solution is simple, right? Menu planning.
But, but, it sounds so structured, so constricting, so dull. Well, eating another peanut butter sandwich over the sink doesn’t exactly sound scintillating, either.
Meal planning doesn’t have to be a monumental task.
Over the last few months, many of you may have noticed I have begun providing a full, printable shopping list to go along with the weekly menu plan. I create the shopping list using the free tool SayMmm.com. I was pretty skeptical at first. Most of the menu planning sites I have played with in the past restrict users to a set selection of recipes or stores. SayMmm is different; it lets users easily create menus and shopping lists from their own favorite recipes. Bloggers will love that they can link to their own sites and create printable, sharable shopping lists to share with their readers.
As with any project this personal in nature -and it’s hard to get more personal than your diet- there’s a little customization to be done in the beginning. I’ve worked with the site creator, Brian Hutchins, to add over two hundred recipes from Home Ec 101 to the SayMmm website. Each of those recipes now has its own shopping list and links back to the original. SayMmm.com understands that people work hard to find and curate their own trusted recipe collections. I’m a huge fan of SayMmm.com because the site respects the work I’ve already done.
Menu planning with SayMmm isn’t a huge project. Just open the menu plan and list your recipes by day and meal. If a recipe you want isn’t already in the database, just add the recipe to the database. Don’t worry, if any of this sounds confusing, there are video tutorials that walk you through the process.
Here are six menu plans to get you started. That’s a month and a half of not having to think about what’s for dinner. Isn’t the Internet a wonderful place?
It gets better.
SayMmm.com and my friend Laura from I’m an Organizing Junkie have teamed up with a few other bloggers and myself to put together a great giveaway to help you get started on your organizing resolutions. Yes, I know it’s February, but we already established that you’re not organized, right? Stay with me here.
If you hadn’t heard, Laura has a book out and SayMmm is giving away 40 signed copies of Clutter Rehab.
Head over to Organizing Junkie for full contest details.
Here on Home Ec 101, I’m giving away 4 copies of Clutter Rehab, 2 free six month subscriptions to SayMmm Plus, and 3 copies of Do the Funky Kitchen, an ebook from Heavenly Homemakers.
*Whew* that’s a lot stuff going on.
How does it work?
First, go check out SayMmm. Create an account and see how easy it is to create your own meal plan and printable shopping list -did you know you can view it right on your phone? That’s great for those, crud I left the list at home moments. Oh, and then there is also the whole, save a tree aspect, too.
Then come back here and leave a comment. (That’s entry #1)
If you want a second chance, tweet about this giveaway on Twitter, and leave a second comment with the url of your tweet. (Just right click the timestamp and click copy link to get the url).
And for a third and final chance to enter, post about this giveaway either on Facebook or your own blog, then paste the url in a third comment. (Or second if you skipped the tweeting bit).
This giveaway will run through 10pm EST on February 10, 2011. Any comments with a later timestamp will not be eligible. (Sometimes I go to bed early, raising minions is NOT for the faint of heart or night owls).
That’s not all, that’s not all! You still have several more chances to win, each of these fine bloggers is also giving away copies of Laura’s book, so be sure to visit them, too:
Organizing My Kitchen {and Yours Too!} from Finding Joy in My Kitchen
Breakfast Organization from Heavenly Homemakers
Say Goodbye to Disorganized Meal Planning from Once a Month Mom
Organize With Less from The Happy Housewife
Help Getting Organized from Say Mmm
Good luck!
[...] easily fall back on commercially processed foods. Again, my go to girl is Heather Solos who uses a plan and shop [...]
[...] Home Ec 101 was hosting a contest that offered 2 subscriptions to SayMmm.com (a really cool recipe site), 4 copies of Clutter Rehab by Laura at Organizing Junkie, and 3 copies of Do the Funky Kitchen. [...]