Four people (chefs) compete for $10,000. There are 3 rounds in which they have 30 minutes to make something from the mystery ingredients. Thirty minutes! That's not a lot of time. They are judged on taste, presentation, and originality. Round 1 is an appetizer, round 2-main dish, and round 3- dessert. As they finish each round they stand before judges to find out whose dish is on the chopping block. That's a bad thing--if it's your dish, you get Chopped and you are finished.
As I watched it last night, I got to thinking about how realistic that show is for many. How many times do you stand in front of the fridge or pantry at 4pm trying to figure out what to have for dinner? You look over the things you have: canned tomatoes, chicken stock, green beans, soups, frozen meat in the freezer, etc. Your mystery ingredients....
If your house is like mine, 4:30 is hectic, your pressed for time AND your little judges are running throughout the house...hungry!
I may not be that organized with many of the household duties (I'm working on it though), but I think it's safe to say: Dinner's are my thing. I have stood at my pantry too many times, stressing about what to make for dinner....
Getting started:
1) Make a master grocery list. I usually shop at the same store and walk the same route in that store. So I made a master list so things would be in order as I shop. It is very helpful to do it that way if you have to do grocery shopping with kids. When I do major shopping with my kids I am easily distracted. This type of list helps.
Make the time to plan out your meals. Give it an hour a week. With 168 hours in the week, 1 should be doable. Right?
Only go to the store once a week. It saves time and money! Plan your list accordingly.
2) Compile a list of your family's favorite dinners and some new ones to try. Add the ingredients to your master list, write down the dinner's you bought ingredients for. If I didn't write them down, I would forget.
Quick Tip: A lot of dinner's freeze well. If you are going to the trouble of making a lasagna, make 2 or 3 and freeze them. Then you will have dinner's on hand. Plan ahead!
I found this cute, magnetic note pad at Michael's in the $1 section. Perfect for making a list of dinner's.
2 comments:
Good ideas, I definitely agree that it's so nice to have pre-planned food available when all the little judges are hungry...Any suggestions on getting them all to eat it happily? I usually get "chopped" by at least one of my judges, lol.
I really like the memo pad, you got that for $1? Nice! I gotta go to Michael's.
Nice post! I have the same memo pad-it's great, it's on my fridge too with our menu for the week.
I like the idea of writing your list according to the store, so you can get in and get out. My only problem is that I don't shop at just one store-maybe I need to work on that.
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