Food Management

The first "food management" step is to put together a Master Menu. This is a simple, one-page plan indicating what will be served for dinner (the main meal) over the next four weeks. The plan can be rotated from month to month with ease.

This outline should include a list of each day of the week with places to list four different meals under each day. It most useful not only to list the days of the week, but to give each day an official name which helps to categorize the meals. For instance:

Monday- Easy Meals (because Mondays always seem to be long, hard days), Tuesday - Mexican, Wednesday - Poultry, Thursday - Beef, Friday - Italian, Saturday - Fast Meals (because there always seems to be something which keeps the cook away from the kitchen), Sunday - Breakfast for Dinner

From there it is easy to list four favorite meals for each of the days. For instance:

Tuesday - Mexican: Soft tacos, hard tacos, enchiladas, and taco salad, Wednesday...., Thursday...., Friday...., Saturday...., and Sunday.

Next list a bread (if you have need to fill teenage or adult stomachs), a vegetable, and a fruit appropriate for that day's meal. These three items are served each week although the main meal varies for that particular day. For instance on Tuesdays you might serve: corn muffins, corn (frozen or canned), and mandarin oranges.

Use this same process for each day of the week, listing four main meals, a bread, a vegetable, and a fruit. In this way you will have twenty-eight meals, seven breads, seven vegetables, and seven fruits listed. This Master Menu serves as a basis for your weekly meal planning, your grocery shopping, and your cooking routine. You will find your family settling into a schedule as they anticipate Italian food on Fridays and Breakfast for Dinner on Sundays. You will have a system to get meals on the table in a timely manner and always have an answer to the question: "What are we having tonight for dinner?"

Find more helpful ideas in the "House of Order" Handbook, Chapter 22, "Food Management" and easy, complete recipes for the Master Menu in the "Master Menu" Cookbook. There is much more to food management which will be addressed later.

Also see: Food Storage, Best Price Box, Recipe Box.

Dear Marie,

I have to say how you have touched my life. I may have only sat through your class one time but those minutes instilled in me the knowledge that I can have days where I feel like Super Mom. Let me explain. After a wonderful luxurious holiday with family back in Utah I was brought back to reality and my little home in Ohio. This year with the joy of a new baby on the way I knew I wanted to have things more organized so I could enjoy my 2 year old and the moments that hit "wow I am going to be a mom again".

One of the areas I haven't done as well with while living in Ohio is the idea of meal prep and menu. I knew just what to do. I ran to my filing cabinet and pulled out your book. I reread the sections on food management and then got to work.

I have created a freezer inventory (I have plenty of food there including some freezer meals) and then headed to my basement to create a food storage inventory. I took this newly gathered information back up to the office where I created easy to use organized inventories. Ahh that felt great, but I wasn't done there.

Next I moved onto my master menu. I created a menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Finally using my new inventories I created my shopping list I would need for the next day to make sure I had everything for the upcoming week. I was pretty proud of myself at this point but I wasn't ready to stop.

I headed out shopping with paper in hand. I made notes as I visited two stores letting myself know where I can get the best price or the food we like the best. Yup I felt like super mom. It was even better when I started to dread having to decide what was for dinner..."Ding" the little light bulb went off in my head and I happily headed off to the fridge where my menu for the month was posted. I didn't have to wonder if I had all the ingredients or talk myself into making it.

This got even better today when I dreaded lunch time and wasn't sure what to fix...once again "ding" and I ran to the fridge. I must say I have to make plenty of decisions throughout my day and have three less (what I am going to feed my family) makes me happy and strangely I am less tired at the end of the day. Thank you for continuing to inspire me. Heather Bingham, 01-2010