Search Results for: menu planning

7 Sep 2008 by Marcia Francois Leave a Comment

Back to basics with menu planning

When things start going a little bit crazy, the first thing I do is go back to basics. Like when I feel overwhelmed with the business, I drag out one of my master to-do lists and start writing down everything.

In the same way, when if feels like things are too busy in my life at home, I get back to basics with a few things. I:

write EVERYTHING down on our kitchen calendar
clean my kitchen (I like an uncluttered working space so this helps me feel centred; a friend likes doing laundry – ugh!!!)
menu plan

Last week, I was on a course for 4 of the 5 days so things were wild at home. One of the first things I did when I got home on Friday evening is I did the shopping list and I wrote out my menu plan.

This week, things should be back to normal again. But if you’re having a crazy busy time, grab a menu planning form and write down a few meals. It doesn’t have to stifle your spontaneity or creativity – you can mix it up and have Thursday’s meal on Monday if that’s what you feel like, etc.

Make the plan work for you.

So, this week’s menu is as follows:

Monday
Out with a friend 😉

Tuesday
Baked potatoes and apricot chicken

Wednesday
Pasta with kidney bean sauce

Thursday
Chicken curry, pumpkin and rice

Friday
Chicken burgers and weigh-less chips

Visit Laura for a gazillion more menus. The last time I checked there were over 300!

And don’t forget to visit on Friday to show off what you declutter this week.

Filed Under: Time management

5 Nov 2007 by Marcia Francois Leave a Comment

Menu planning & planning for busy weeks – 5 Nov 2007

I knew we’d be back late last night from Cape Town (see previous post) so I cooked extra last week so I could have some freezer meals for Mon and Tues.

I’m using the time I would have been cooking to write a quick newsletter for Wed’s mailing and catch-up with emails. Although, my email box is not looking bad at all. I’m impressed 🙂 And of course, preparation for my talk on Wed.

Anyway, so here’s my menu for the week.

Monday
Stirfried sausage, chickpeas and veggies with rice

Tuesday
Spaghetti chicken casserole

Wednesday
Something quick – doing a talk, how to manage your time and take back your life for a group and will only eat around 8pm

Thursday
Grilled fish and chips (95% fat-free) with salad

Friday
Eating with friends

How do you plan for busy weeks?

Filed Under: Time management

26 Nov 2014 by Marcia Francois 1 Comment

Let’s talk about menu-planning – part 2

We’ve spoken about menu planning before; this time let’s talk about the how.

I like to keep things reaaaaaally simple.

So we have a very easy plan.

1. Use a printable or meal planner pad and keep it visible

For years I used the printable in the Household Organising Kit (part of the Organise your Home printables). These days I buy a menu planner pad from CNA and stick it to the side of the microwave so it’s visible to me, D (if he’s interested) and our nanny.

2. Mark off challenging days

On Wednesdays I go to Spanish dancing so supper is always a freezer-ready meal. I start cooking the pasta and Dion finishes it so that he and the kids can eat. I eat once I’m home just after 8.

If you have after-work activities, those are the nights to keep things easy. No-one died from having a sandwich and salad/ soup for supper.

When one of us has a work or other function where we’re going to be eating, that’s the night to eat the meal the other isn’t wild about 🙂 When I’m at home with the kids, we’ll have leftovers.

3. Have loose themes

Some people like to have Meatless Mondays, Beef on a Tuesday, Chicken on a Wed, etc. I like pasta on Mondays and Wednesdays, rice on Tuesdays and Thursdays, potatoes on a Wed and easy meals on Fridays. I almost never plan the weekend meals as we eat whatever I feel like doing…

Decide on your themes and write them down.

4. Add meals from your freezer or pantry

I decide what we feel like eating from the freezer and what we (I) feel like cooking. If you don’t look in your freezer regularly, you’ll forget what’s in there. Which reminds me, I have some waffles we need to eat 🙂

5. Get creative

I aim for once a month but in truth it probably only happens once every 6 weeks. That’s the week I get creative and use up any odd bits of meals/ veg/ pantry items to create meals.

That’s how my sausage chicken and sweetcorn pasta originated… which is now a regular occurrence.

Sometimes the combinations are a bit strange so I’ll need an ingredient to create a decent meal, and that’s fine.

The point is to use up things you’re mostly likely to ignore.

Annnnnd that’s it. That’s how I do my menu planning.

How do you do your menu planning?

Filed Under: Menu Planning, Organising, Time management Tagged With: menu planning

19 Nov 2014 by Marcia Francois 6 Comments

Let’s talk about menu-planning – part 1

I always get a lot of questions about how I do meal planning, my thoughts, preferences and so on.

That’s not a surprise since I’m also a very curious person and if I were sitting down with you, I’d ask you for your details too!

I meal plan because it saves me TONS of time, I don’t like to wait for food when I’m hungry (and it seems my kids are the same) and it saves us money too since we “eat from the freezer and pantry” once a month.

1. Main meal

I like to cook the main part of the meal and have that portion in the freezer. This includes things like bolognaise sauce, chicken and broccoli, chicken a la King, kidney bean and tomato sauce, curries, etc.

How do I decide which meals to cook for the freezer?

I have a list of our family favourites so I can always refer to a list. But I do have it on my goals list to try 2 – 3 new recipes every month. My Pinterest board has to count for something. My only rule is that it has to be a quick meal. I can’t abide meals with too many steps or ingredients – I get tired before I’ve begun!

2. The carbs

Mine is a carb-eating home. If you’re on a different diet, ignore this point.

I generally cook carbs on the night, but we do freeze any leftovers in the correct portion sizes so that it’s easier on a leftovers night. We eat pasta, rice and potatoes. Sometimes we also have wraps – I used to buy them but I discovered these wraps and I’ve been hooked ever since.

3. Veggies

We cook veggies on the night only. I do keep some frozen vegetables like peas, corn and pumpkin (South Africans, I love the McCain pumpkin chunks) but most are cooked “fresh”.

4. Pizzas

We make our own pizza bases from a super easy recipe I picked up somewhere years ago. I also mix in spinach and now the kids only know spinach bases as pizza 🙂

I always have a couple of bases ready in the freezer so we can whip up a healthy, homemade pizza whenever we want.

5. Friday night easy meals

On Fridays we like easy meals. I know this is traditionally a take-away night in many households but I’m … fussy and I honestly prefer to whip up something quickly than to drive somewhere and get it.

We have pizza, burgers, omelettes, etc. and in winter, soup and a toasted sandwich.

6. Leftovers

I never throw leftovers away. Ever.

Even if there’s just one portion, I save it. That could be a lunch for me or if a bit more substantial, we could add a big salad and garlic rolls to make it another meal.

That’s my system.

What are the components of your menu planning system?

PS even if you think you don’t have a system, you probably do 🙂

Filed Under: Menu Planning, Organising, Time management Tagged With: menu planning

12 May 2021 by Marcia Francois Leave a Comment

Weekly planning – should you or shouldn’t you?

I started off with the question in the title because we are all different.

I can definitely say that weekly planning helps me in my life, but I recognise that we all prefer to do things in different ways.

If you’re very happy with your current non-weekly planning process, I’m delighted! However, if you feel like things could work a bit better here and there, then, as I always tell my coaching clients, test it and see. At the most, you’ve had two weeks that were more structured and a learning that the exact way you did it wasn’t optimal for you. But who knows? The opposite is also true – you might love something and never stop doing it (menu planning for me the last 15 years).

If you do decide you want to play with weekly planning, here are some ideas you can try planning:

meals (supper, or all meals) for 5 or 7 days – put down some ideas and pick from your list every day
exercise days – my gym requires that we book our classes to avoid capacity issues
connection time with family and friends
personal goals – like reading a book or working on your photos
house goals – organising your clothes
work/ side hustle projects

Please note all of these are just ideas – the thought of doing all of that might overwhelm you. Don’t let it. Pick what you want and leave the rest.

I know that Laura Vanderkam recommends one goal in three areas every week: work, personal, and relationships.

If you don’t like those three categories, choose your own 😉

Who’s ready to try weekly planning? Which categories are important to you?

{planning} your ideal weekend routine and rhythms

We are all different personalities and therefore need different rhythms for our weekends to feel like they were good ones.

What is important and consistent across personality types is for all of us to decide for ourselves what the components are that will make a weekend feel successful, and then incorporate those elements into our days.

This will also differ according to different times and life stages, e.g. in winter I cook more because that feels more life-giving to me, but in summer I only want to be in the kitchen a very short time.

Let’s look at some components of a successful weekend, shall we?

1. Anchor events and scheduled activities

In this section, extroverts will typically want to have more time spent with other people where introverts will be happier by themselves.

I have at least three anchor events on most weekends – a tea with a friend after work on Fridays, Saturday morning Zumba and Sunday morning church. Those things are scheduled and in my diary; they can move, but probably won’t.

2. Downtime

We all need downtime, but what downtime looks like for you may differ to the next person.

Some people relax by reading on the couch; others relax by going for a long run. You do you.

3. Chores

Let’s face it – we all look forward to getting some nagging things off the to-do list and I, as an enneagram 1, like nothing more than to potter and set things in order in my home. The week is often for keeping the house ticking over and weekends are when I (and you) can devote a longer period of time to a little deeper cleaning or organising, like swopping summer and winter clothes, decluttering your kitchen cupboards, etc.

4. Planning

This only has to take 20 – 30 minutes but is so useful if done consistently. I’ve heard of some couples who take time on a Friday night to plan for the week ahead. I do my planning in two stages – I plan the menu for the week ahead on a Friday night or Saturday morning and write out the shopping list, and then on a Sunday afternoon, I take 5 – 10 minutes to review and plan my schedule and to-dos for the week ahead. On very busy weekends, I might push the planning to a Monday night but I still like to get it done.

I need to get out once a day at least or else I get cabin fever but other than that, I like to both relax and get things done around the house every weekend. This goes out the window if I have a heat headache but if I’m well, that sounds like the perfect weekend for me.

I’m flexible around my loose plan (typical upholder!) but I do need those first three components to be present, and I feel like I’m winning for the next week too if I get my planning done.

What are the components for you to feel like you’ve had a successful weekend?

Filed Under: 31 days of enough time, Decluttering, Four Tendencies, Goals, I love stationery, Intentional living, Konmari, Menu Planning, Organising, Outer order inner calm, Planning, Reading, Sleep, Time management Tagged With: anchor events, reading, relationships, rest, time management, weekend rhythms, weekend routines, weekend to-do list

11 Sep 2017 by Marcia Francois 7 Comments

Why you should menu plan

I was chatting to a friend a few weeks ago and I told her that when things feel like they’re going off track, there’s one thing that I need to do: make a menu plan.

Today, let’s talk about why I do menu planning (I’ve been menu planning for 11 years now), and why you should consider doing so too.

Do you menu plan?

Good reasons to menu plan

it saves you daily decision time
saves you money when you use up all the food in the freezer and pantry, and stops you buying foods you don’t need
no stress about what to cook every night as even if you don’t feel like eating what you put on your menu, you know there’s at least 4 other options to choose from

I play a little game with myself and aim for sticking to the menu plan 4 out of 5 nights. Remember I’m not a perfectionist. Good enough is better than perfect.

How do you start menu planning

Note – please do this before you go to the shops to do your grocery shopping 😉

1. Go to your freezer and cupboards to see what food you have that you need to use up, and make a list.
2. Write out a menu plan for a week (if you do weekly shopping) or longer, using recipes to use up that food. Get creative.
3. Add any items that you need to your weekly shopping list and do your shopping. You may have some pasta and cans of tuna so in order to use them up, you might need a few cans of tomato.
4. Stick the menu plan to your fridge.

Now you don’t have to rack your brain every night wondering what to cook because you have a plan.

Another tip that will save you lots of time is to cook something on a Sunday afternoon. This meal is not for eating that day, but for freezing. I heard a podcast recently (I don’t know how she does it – an Aussie podcast) where the lady said she makes all the lunches for the week on a Sunday afternoon and while she’s doing that, she bakes muffins or bread. Brilliant!

When you have a busy day it’s easy to just defrost the meal and have a healthy supper on the table in minutes.

We went through a stage where we didn’t buy any meat for two months while we finished everything in the freezer and started on the cupboards. You see, we all get into a habit of buying the same groceries every week without checking if we really need it.

If you’re not already menu planning, I’d like to encourage you to at least start. Do so for at least a month, give it a good go and see if it doesn’t save you time and money.

And if you already do menu planning, then your challenge for this week is to only buy perishables and eat from your freezer and cupboards.

Are you menu planning?

Is there anything you’d like to change about your process? Do you have any special tips?

PS Look out on Thursday for how I do my menu planning and some freezer meal ideas

Filed Under: Intentional living, Menu Planning, Money and finances, Organising Tagged With: meal planning, menu planning

27 Oct 2016 by Marcia Francois 5 Comments

My weekend planning routine

I’ve written before about how I like to organise my weekends.

Laura Vanderkam also has some good ideas in her little book. My favourite insight from that book is that there are 60 hours from Friday night to Monday morning.

60 hours is plenty to get lots of things done.

I usually start the heading in my bullet journal on the Thursday night because that’s when Beth and I chat.

And this is why I read so many books this winter. Like today, I can’t be bothered to sit in front of a computer because my bed (and book) are calling when it’s this cold! . . I did get 3 photo album projects done – kids’ 6th birthday, Sabie 2015 and Project Life March-August, but I will go do the menu plan to tick just one more thing off the list 👍🏼 #projectlife #bujo #bulletjournal #planning #pentel #bulletjournaljunkies #marcialoveswinter

A photo posted by Marcia Francois (@organisingqueen) on Sep 18, 2016 at 10:56am PDT

Some things happen every week

A really great weekend for me has these sections covered:

out and about
productive stuff in the house
relaxing
computer things (sometimes) like blogging/ photos, etc.

Obviously, the key is to be mindful of what makes a good weekend for you (maybe that’s getting set up with lunches and choosing work clothes for the week ahead).

A great week starts with a well-planned weekend.

Once my list is done, I leave my notebook open so I see it all the time just to keep me focussed throughout the weekend. I’m not obsessively checking my list but every 4 – 6 hours I’ll see it and update.

I like to highlight the entry when done or if I want a cleaner looking page, I put a cross in the block.

The start of my weekend to- do list. . . What’s on *your* list for the weekend? . #Planning #todolists #itstheweekend #getstuffdone

A photo posted by Marcia Francois (@organisingqueen) on Aug 26, 2016 at 11:07am PDT

I never ever complete my entire list; usually there are about 2 – 3 things undone every weekend but I’ll tell you a secret – on the one or two weekends I don’t even make a list, I feel like I was a complete sloth and that I got nothing done.

What are the categories you like to include in your weekend plans?

Live with intention: make a weekend list this week and tag me @organisingqueen when you post your list on social media (you can blur it if you want to keep things private)

Filed Under: Intentional living, Organising, Planning, Time management Tagged With: get things done, weekend to-do list

27 May 2016 by Marcia Francois 2 Comments

What kind of food planning do you need?

I figured something out ages ago.

When life feels too busy, the one way I can restore some order quickly is to menu plan.

I’ve been menu planning about 9 years now and it’s the best! It saves time because you’re not thinking about what to cook every night, and money because you buy exactly what you need.

Grocery prices in South Africa (and I’m sure over the world too) have skyrocketed, so if you can save money, that’s always a bonus.

I usually only plan menus a week at a time, but I really want to get all the “old food” cooked and eaten, so this weekend past, I menu planned for two weeks.

My menu planner hangs on the side of our microwave, and is one I get from CNA. I buy whichever ones are in stock at the time, but I really love the current one I’m using because it has notes down the right, so I can note down which meals are in the freezer, or which I have to cook from scratch. I also use that section to plan my lunches for the week.

I’ve said this before but it’s worth repeating – as long as you have your 5 meals “ready” on the list, you can mix them up. If you don’t feel like pasta but it’s on the plan for Monday, do the meal for Wednesday instead.

Menu planning helps you use up food too and I can tell you my kids are so glad the broccoli is all used up now because we had that twice this week 😉

Do you menu plan?

If yes, do you plan weekly, two weeks at a time or a month at a time?

If no, what’s stopping you? Why don’t you give it a bash, just for a week?

PS Friday evening/ Saturday morning is when I menu plan for the following week because Dion goes shopping on Saturdays. I have strict rules for myself – we never just “pop” out to the shops; we make do if we don’t have what we wanted. As I always say, no-one’s going hungry; it’s just that your first preference might not be available 😉

Filed Under: Menu Planning, Money and finances, Planning, Time management Tagged With: menu planning, saving money

19 Oct 2015 by Marcia Francois

Weekly planning – setting yourself up for success

Okay, let’s talk about preparing for the week ahead.

I’ll share what I do and hopefully, that sparks one or two ideas for you too.

My weekly prep actually happens in 3 parts:

1. Decide on personal and business goals for the week ahead.

This step happens on Thursday evenings when Beth and I have our accountability chats.

I started a new step to this process about 3 – 4 weeks ago where I actually write those individual tasks in my notebook so I know when I’m supposed to do them over the course of the week.

This sounds terribly obvious but sadly, it wasn’t… and I’d always realise I had outstanding things too late to do much about them.

(30 mins with Beth, and 5 minutes to write the tasks spread over the week)

2. Weekly menu planning and grocery list

I usually do this section on a Friday night/ Saturday morning so that Dion can do the shopping sometime on Saturday.

The key here is to first check the freezer and pantry to see if you can make anything with what’s there, and then to decide what you want to eat, and add the missing ingredients to your shopping list.

I advocate loose menu planning where you have five meals with ingredients ready… but feel free to have Monday’s meal on Wednesday and bring Thursday’s one closer, as you feel led 🙂 I will say I feel particularly satisfied when a week goes by and I actually stick to the menu plan and cook all 5 meals! Go me!

Once every 4 – 6 weeks, I like to completely clear out the freezer (not of incidentals, but of main meal food). This is good for three reasons: you save money and you get to exercise your creativity in the kitchen. Some of our kids’ favourite meals happened as a result of me getting creative (pasta with chicken sausage and sweetcorn).

(10 minutes)

3. Physical getting ready

I check the schedule to see if anything out of the ordinary might be happening, like events at school, socials, and so on.

I had 5 tops left for work after I used the Konmari method. This weekend I bought two more tops, so YAY – seven! Colleagues will now see me in the same top only one in 8 workdays as Fridays are casual. Based on the weather, I like to have a rough idea of what I will wear on which day.

I prep cereals for the week (actual measuring out of cereals) and two lunchboxes with bread. And then I pack my lunchbox with everything imaginable, and on Sundays I also pack a clean water bottle to use for the week ahead.

(15 minutes)

That’s it – 1 hour a week (and I don’t think I should count the full 30 minutes with Beth in here but let’s be conservative) – and my life runs smoothly.

Do you do weekly planning?

How long do you estimate it takes you?

(I have just started to think about next year’s Let’s Do This workshops. Make a quality decision now to join me for one of those, and we’ll talk more about weekly planning then)

Filed Under: Menu Planning, Organising, Time management Tagged With: weekly planning