In a fit of household organisation the other day, my husband and I struck a deal regarding chores.  He is going to do all of the cleaning, and I’m going to be in charge of all of the food.  This is a bit of a change for us as in the past it has been the other way around.

Finding myself in charge of organising all the food required for the week, and making sure I have enough time to shop and cook has required me to revisit some old processes.

Before I was married, I was a bit of a ‘fly by the seat of my pants’ kinda girl and didn’t really plan food too carefully.  Now, with my new system, everything is planned and organised (or getting there.)

So how do I do it?

Well.  I plan the week’s food requirements out in advance, normally on a Saturday.  I am currently using Kikki K’s excellent menu planner (although I wish it started on the weekend instead of Monday) and plan all the meals for the week ahead.

I then check the fridge and pantry, complete my shopping list on Remember the Milk and go shopping.  We have a habit of cooking larger meals and either eating them again during the week or freezing the leftovers, so normally there is only one or two week nights that need cooking.  The rest is reheating, which really saves both cooking time and washing up.  I now tend to try to cook at least one but generally two main meals on the weekend so they are ready to go, and have a couple of lunches in the fridge to save time in the morning.

Tomorrow, I need to clean out the pantry as I have no idea what is in there, but this system is working out pretty well for me at the moment.