Meal Planning

My good mate in Brisbane introduced me to the concept of meal planning in 2010. I have since become a meal planning convert and know that it saves me money and time.

I sit down at the end of each month and flip through my cooking mags, recipe books and online recipe websites. I try and find three or four new recipes to add to my monthly meal plan to spice up our culinary repertoire.

I then open up Microsoft Word and make a table, Monday to Sunday across the top and weeks one to four down the side. I then insert my recipe name and relevant recipe book page numbers. If there's any extra ordinary ingredients needed, I jot these down on my shopping list.

Each Monday, I make a quick list of the ingredients that I will need for the forthcoming week's recipes. When I go shopping on Tuesday, I quickly zip around the supermarket and only buy what I actually need.

To make cooking easier on myself, every Saturday night is automatically takeaway and Friday night is a simple meal e.g. frozen ravioli with a pre-prepared sauce and vegies that takes 5 minutes to prepare.

The beauty of meal planning is that I don't have to think 'what's for dinner' every day and my family gets to try new recipes.

Bon appetit!