meal plan

Do you suffer from this common organisational problem?

5 simple tips to tame your random piles of recipes

Practically every kitchen I ever organise suffers from the same problem: piles of foodie magazines and torn-out recipes stashed everywhere that someone has collected to cook. One day. Or for the more tech-minded, it’s magnitudes of screen shots and photos of recipes clogging up their camera roll.

Problem is, they’re collected faster than they’re cooked and end up creating little piles of potentially delicious foodie experiences that almost never see the light of day.

Sound familiar? Try this!

  1. Gather all your magazines & ripped out recipes into one spot. I prefer to tear out the couple of recipes I like from a magazine rather than keep the whole magazine (I’ll never bother to go through a whole magazine again trying to remember why I kept it!)
  2. Have a quick flick through the pile/camera roll and discard/delete any that you can’t even work out why you kept in the first place
  3. Cull the ones that are too complicated or have an unrealistically exotic ingredients list for your comparative cooking care-factor
  4. Choose 1 small plastic folder, slip or pocket to keep the ones that sound tasty and label it clearly as “Recipes to Try”. For digital recipes, create an album so you can gather them into one spot. Or try one of the many apps out there to create some order. Note I said “small” folder. A shoe box or bigger is simply too overwhelming for most home cooks so keep it realistic
  5. All future recipes go into this one place. Once you’ve tested the recipe, either file it into a more permanent recipe folder or chuck it depending on whether you would make it again or not

“If you read a recipe torn from a magazine then flip the page over to look for and read the recipe on the reverse, only to flip it over again… chuck it! If you can’t even tell which recipe you wanted to try, I guarantee it’ll never make it to the top of your ‘must try next’ pile”.

little miss sorted

Don’t ever get around to trying the recipes you collect? You have two options really. Start testing them or stop collecting them.

The easiest way to make testing new recipes a habit is to pick a specific night of the week to religiously try a new recipe. “Try It Tuesday” has a nice ring to it but it’s more important to choose a night when you’re normally home and not rushing around to lots of activities. Pick a night that works for you.

And it really is that simple. Each week when you do a meal plan, select one Recipe to Try from your folder, include any missing ingredients on your shopping list and get your cook on.

Bon apetite!

7 things organised people are doing NOW to save time in the morning

7 oclock clock pink blue

Are your mornings rushed and stressful? See what organised people are doing as we speak to get out the door tomorrow with less stress. Because who among us couldn’t do with a little more sunshine to start the day?

1. They’re checking their calendar for tomorrow to remind themselves of what’s on & visualising how the day will run.

“What do I need to prepare, take, plan?”

And organised people include time-buffers in their schedule to allow for travel and the unforeseen. They don’t schedule their events back to back because let’s face it… Meetings! Children! Traffic!

2. Planning their meals & preparing them in advance if they’ll be away from home. I highly recommend doing a weekly meal plan, but at the very least, plan & prep the day before.

3. Packing their bag with all the things they need for the following day, ready to grab & go. This includes making sure their essentials have a home and are where they should be. Think: the bag itself, keys, wallet & phone (on charge if needed). The Uber-organised even make a note of anything that can’t be prepped in advance so nothing gets forgotten in the morning.

4. Checking the weather forecast. Knowing this allows organised folk to choose & prepare their outfit the night before, ready to put on. No one likes ironing in the morning. In fact, no one likes ironing full stop but definitely, not in the morning.

5. Updating their To Do list. A clear mind is conducive to better sleep. Get everything out of your head and onto paper or your favourite productivity app before you go to bed. Get clear on your priorities for tomorrow and revel in crossing off the things you’ve completed! The rest will be there waiting for you when you’re ready, I’m sorry to say.

6. They set an alarm and go to bed at a reasonable time. Enough said.

7. And because they did point 6 above, organised people get up without hitting snooze. Don’t you just hate ’em?

 

I want to hear from you!

  • How did you score out of 7?
  • What do you do to make your mornings more organised?
  • Are you one of those weird people that loves ironing?