Today I did the first stage in my epic cook-ahead marathon. The supermarket delivery arrived late on Friday night but Saturday was filled with unpacking, choir and a concert in London, whilst this morning was spent attending three different breakfasts and watching Doctor Who (far more time-critical than finishing the unpacking, of course).
So this evening as I was cooking my dinner I decided to make a start on the list of meals for the freezer. I made a batch of spaghetti bolognese sauce without any difficulties other than the inexplicable absence of the plastic lids for my freezer boxes - one portion of sauce is currently freezing lidless. Then I put a bag of kidney beans into water to soak ready for chilli con carne tomorrow, and tackled a new recipe: Quorn fillet chasseur. It should have been simple...
Sunday, 30 September 2012
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Meal Planning with Scrivener
I recently downloaded the trial version of Scrivener to use on a university project, and while I was experimenting with the features I discovered it had a template for recipes. It got me thinking, and I'm now in the process of creating a complete meal-planning system using the program.
Obviously the purpose of the template is to store recipes, but I already have a fairly good system for that - I spent a day this summer formatting my recipe file and I mostly cook things without a recipe anyway. Far more useful is the fact that I can create a menu for the week, a shopping list, a list of what I have in the cupboards and link them all together, as well as include any new recipes I want to try. Of course I could do this without Scrivener too, using different files and saving them in the same folder, but it just seems more fun (and more efficient) with my fancy new software!
Last week I put in an order on the Sainsbury's website to arrive the day after I move back into college. I've got a couple of days free before term starts and I've planned a lot of batch cooking. This year will be even busier than last year, but starting out with a month's worth of meals in the freezer should make it easier. My kitchen this year has a table in it, which will make more difference than I would ever have imagined before I spent two years without one, and is not far from my room (without three sets of fire doors in between either!), and a friend has sold me her fridge as my new room didn't have one, and it has a good freezer compartment and more space than my old one. All in all, it should be an easier year meal-wise.
Obviously the purpose of the template is to store recipes, but I already have a fairly good system for that - I spent a day this summer formatting my recipe file and I mostly cook things without a recipe anyway. Far more useful is the fact that I can create a menu for the week, a shopping list, a list of what I have in the cupboards and link them all together, as well as include any new recipes I want to try. Of course I could do this without Scrivener too, using different files and saving them in the same folder, but it just seems more fun (and more efficient) with my fancy new software!
Last week I put in an order on the Sainsbury's website to arrive the day after I move back into college. I've got a couple of days free before term starts and I've planned a lot of batch cooking. This year will be even busier than last year, but starting out with a month's worth of meals in the freezer should make it easier. My kitchen this year has a table in it, which will make more difference than I would ever have imagined before I spent two years without one, and is not far from my room (without three sets of fire doors in between either!), and a friend has sold me her fridge as my new room didn't have one, and it has a good freezer compartment and more space than my old one. All in all, it should be an easier year meal-wise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)