Last week, Elise posed two scenarios to her fair readers, “to get your take on kitchen habits: what is normal, and what is not.” The first scenario included meal plans, a stocked fridge, and smooth kitchen operations, whereas the second painted a picture of late arrival home, no food in the house, and caving in to order take-out. After reading a handful of comments empathizing with the second scenario, I shamefacedly admitted that JG and I have a routine that resembles the first one, although I pointed out that we don’t always clean while we cook (at least, I don’t), and the non-cook of the night gets stuck with whatever mess is left behind.
Elise promptly e-mailed me in response to my comment:
Why wouldn’t you want to admit that? I am TOTALLY impressed by it! How do you do it? What do you buy? Who cooks? Can you share some recipes, or ideas, or SOMETHING?? I am desperate
I was stunned. The thought that anyone besides us might want to hear our extremely regimented method of meal planning, recipe filing, and grocery shopping was completely foreign to me. Sure, we can’t imagine living without it, but it’s an entirely different story to describe it to the outside world. After Elise’s encouragement, I present the first of a three-part series on how JG and I deal with meals. So, welcome to our kitchen!
My favorite parts of the kitchen are the gigantic refrigerator that we inherited from the previous owners, the wood floors they put down, our bookshelves of cookbooks, and my Kitchen Aid mixer. My least favorite parts are the little pockets of counter space (rather than a long, lovely expanse) and a complete lack of natural light. We haven’t had to make any major improvements, thank goodness, other than replacing a twenty-year-old dishwasher and stove hood. The kitchen isn’t huge, but it gets the job done. Eventually, I’d like to reface the cabinets and have a more cohesive shelving situation on the opposite wall.
Before I launch into the nitty-gritty (and thrilling!) details of our kitchen processes, I feel the need to disclaim myself to death:
I’m just describing how JG and I do things, and I understand that not everyone will ascribe to or even like how we do it. In fact, I will be pleasantly surprised if this little series does not land me in the So Square We Can’t Even Believe It category. So please do not interpret these posts as a prescription for your life.
So! The topic of this first installment is how we set up a meal plan and create a shopping list for the week. JG and I are both incredibly objective-oriented, and our process for doing so revolves around these goals:
- Accommodate any weeknight plans
- Cook so that we create enough leftovers for lunches or any necessary quick dinners
- Split up the cooking relatively equally (JG and I generally share the cooking in a 60-40 ratio; in the summer, it’s more like 100-0.)
- Have balanced meals
- Go the store once in a week
The usual process is:
- Review what’s going on in the coming week
- Figure out who makes the most sense to cook for each night
- Calculate how many servings of leftovers are needed, total
- Choose meals based on who’s cooking and the leftover potential
- Write down ingredients and take stock of other items to buy
This week, for example, one or both of us has something going on every night, which is rare:
- Monday: JG’s graduate class
- Tuesday: At the climbing gym
- Wednesday: RA meeting a friend for dinner
- Thursday: At the climbing gym
- Friday: Evening function at JG’s school
- Saturday: RA at book club in the evening
When we looked at this schedule, it became clear that:
- I should cook tonight
- JG is on his own on Wednesday
- We’ll need quick, light dinners on climbing nights
- On Friday, depending on how much time we have between me getting home from work and when we have to leave to go to JG’s school, we may just do snacks and supplement with food afterward.
- We’re free for most of the day on Saturday, so we’ll go to the store then.
We had previously decided that I would make a tuna noodle casserole tonight, which would, with the weekend’s leftovers, yield enough lunches for me. For his part, JG opted to make a batch of tuna and take sandwiches. We just had to deal with dinners for Tuesday-Friday.
I interrupt this process to introduce what might be the most key element of our meal-planning system: the dry erase board. We have one on our fridge, and we use it to jot down meal plans, write reminders for errands, and, most importantly, write down items that need to be replaced. If I unwrap the last stick of butter, I add it to the list, right then and there. If JG opens the last box of tissues, he adds it to the list. So, as we talked through meals for this busy week, I was taking notes on the board, and we eventually came to the following plan and shopping list:
The list is a mix of ingredients we need for cooking dinner (chicken, fish, broccoli), weekly lunch items (yogurt, apples, oranges), and things we need to restock (couscous, Goldfish crackers). If JG and I add the things we need personally, plus whatever we see is empty or running out, we should have it covered. Once the list on the board is complete, whoever is going shopping (me, this week) writes it up, erasing each item as it’s added.
To avoid scrounging for pen and paper each time, I bought a cheap, magnetic locker caddy when school supplies were out in full force, and we keep pens, a pencil, a dry erase marker, and index cards right on the fridge. The whole set-up is really compact, so it was easy to get into the habit of updating the list, and the steps from brainstorming to list-making are not huge.
Now, the system is not perfect, and we have to make extra trips to the store, sometimes. Maybe one of us misreads a recipe and forgets an ingredient, or one of us assumes that, because the canister of baking powder is sitting there, there is enough. It’s not a big deal, but we try our best to minimize the number of trips to the store. At the very least, JG and I avoid eating out when we haven’t planned to do so, and we aren’t stressed about what we’re having for dinner during the commute home.
Tomorrow, the all-important recipe binder will relay all its secrets! I can tell that you’re on the edge of your seat.
20 comments
i wish, wish, wish, I could get C to want to do this. But he hates planning so if I want to do it, I’d have to figure it out myself…and well…I guess I’m not that dedicated
Well, if you’re unbelievably square, than so am I—we use the same system at our house. Maybe we should form a club.
Can’t wait to hear about the recipe binder! (Really.)
As I already relayed to you (and you may have not believed me) I am TOTALLY printing these out and putting them as the first pages in my recipe binder (ooh, I had a sneak preview of The Binder! I feel special)
Also, on a somewhat related sidenote, aren’t you just thrilled when you realize that you and the person you’re with are OBVIOUSLY perfect together? It’s awesome that both you and JG are committed to making this work. I can tell you the exact sentence where I was like, hmm, Cody is never gonna do that: “If JG opens the last box of tissues, he adds it to the list.” Ha!
But other than that, I think I can (and am in the process of) implement much of this strategy and have a much higher level of success. Yay! Thanks!
I am very impressed. I bet you also wash your car more than once a year, too! And I bet Ted isn’t at home starving to death right now because you got distracted by the leftover pizza in the fridge (mmm, lunch!) and forgot to feed him. Max is very jealous of Ted, if that’s the case.
But Elise is totally right — you and JG are perfect together! I could never get Joel to sit down and talk about meal planning… but he doesn’t seem to mind eating whatever concoction I throw together every night… even when I decide I want baked ziti after a late night at work and as a result we don’t eat dinner until 11pm. Not that that happens all the time or anything. ahem.
i love this. you are totally not square.
when clancy and i lived together we did almost this exact thing except instead of the dry erase board we had a magnetic grocery list with pen attached. (but i like the dry erase board so much better)
the cooking was more (90-10) but i started noticing that when i would write out what we were having for dinner each night of the week that he would get things started if he got home before me. it was nice
I am so jealous of your kitchen. We have a similar routine, except that I do almost all the cooking, although occasionally I am tired and don’t feel like cooking and then we’ll usually get sushi or Torsten will cook. But our kitchen is not NEARLY as nice as yours.
I love this post; I love the look into your adorable completely well organized life. :o)
xox
I do it pretty much the same way. I try and only go to the grocery story once every eight to nine days. I HATE making extra trips.
I have historically done groceries in essentially the same way. I’ve been pretty bad since I moved, so I need to get back on the ball. Of course, I only have a mini-fridge, and that throws things off more than you might imagine.
But, good on you for being so organized. Saves you time and money, I’m sure.
I’m very impressed! I wish we were more like this — our biggest obstacle is that sometimes husband works really late, and unexpectedly. In fact, I feel like the times that happens most are the times that we’ve planned meals. Can’t wait to see the next 2 parts…
This is what I hope cohabitating / married life will look like for me! Although, unfortunately, AS is far from organized, so getting him on board will be a major challenge. (There’s still time for me to “trade up” for an anal-retentive model.)
Oh, this system is genius! I have gone in fits and starts trying to implement something similar, but have yet to find something that works well consistently for all members of the household (ahem, GP). Also, my “recipe binder” is more aspirational than anything else, so I have a ton of recipes, but always end up with the same, smaller, group of things I am willing to make/eat in a given week. I can’t wait to see yours!
I’m amazed. I’m also very hopeful. Because I want to plan ahead and its hit or miss, but it CAN be done, clearly. I like your kitchen too. Well done!
OMG! That is like my dream! I am in charge 100% at our house! which sometimes I like, but seriously, I would love to share! This is more like when I lived with my best friend after college… the good old days…
and even when I get meals planned, often something happens to throw us off course during the week…
I love your system! Ted and I do something fairly similar, especially when it comes to figuring out what is going on during the week in order to plan meals. I love the dry erase board though…I have one for bills, one for food is a good plan!
Love it! I try to do some semblance of your organization but I am never quite perfect and do a fair bit of improv as the week goes on. It’s also harder (maybe easier, actually?) to do the same kind of cooking for one person. Sometimes I have TOO many leftovers! I’m excited to see your next installment!
Oh I love this! I do a pretty similar thing, and am in the process of typing up recipes and putting them in a binder. I’m sick of searching cookbooks every time I’m cooking! Maybe I can pick up some tips from your next post!
When my husband and I both worked (I don’t work now), we were in a terrible state with cooking and food supplies. He was continually going to the shops on his way home from work, and we never planned what we were going to eat. It was so stressful. Now I’m completely in charge of all that stuff and it’s forcing me to be organised for my own sanity!
I think you should be a consultant for this stuff for other couples.
And I need your help.
Hurry over!
It sounds like you guys work so well together. I’m jealous.
Oh, how I wish Tim and I were organized enough to do this. Sadly, we are not, though we have certainly tried. I definitely like your dry-erase board + paper and pen caddy system, though. I may have to make a trip to Target this week!
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