Recipe & Menu Organization...or... 'DOH!'

When I was eating a SAD diet, I did not cook. I was only in the kitchen to pass through the house, or to crack another can of beer. As passionately as I love preparing raw meals now, I hated cooking then. My poor mother. She tried. I was always, "Yeah yeah yeah...you do it." My poor boyfriend. Would put in a full day at work and come home to me waiting for my next meal. It gave me a wave of shame to type that. (tap tap tap)

Well things are very different now, and as the saying goes, you do better when you know better.

Anyway, enough with the repressed Catholic guilt. Point is, because I avoided all things kitchen, I am only now up to speed on organizing recipes and planning menus. So this may be Kitchen Basics 101, but for me, it pretty new! haha!

When I started preparing raw foods, I worked in a state of near panic. "OK NOW I NEED AN AVOCADO...OK AVOCADO...WHERE'S THE FREAKIN' AVOCADO...OK I THINK I KNOW A TRICK TO GETTING THAT PIT OUT...OW! I NEED A BANDAID..." "OK, NEXT, WHERE WAS I? LEMON. I DON'T HAVE LEMON!"

You get the idea. A willing, but complete, MESS. But that's how ya learn, right? (I just heard a flashback of myself saying, "Yeah yeah yeah, you do it...")

Fast-forward a couple years and I actually would say I've got my kitchen act together. I'm still learning, but I prep food with calm confidence and organized ingredients.

Still, though, up until a couple weeks ago, my recipes were all scattered on loose printer paper, in all different drawers and cupboards throughout the house. And in no particular order. That's because I will find a recipe and think, "OMG I have to try that!" and I print it out on the spot, and it starts out on my desk, then travels to the kitchen, then gets put on a shelf but then it falls down the back of the shelf, so it ends up back on my desk or in a drawer, etc.

And each recipe page was always gummed up with food from sticky fingers, so they were stuck together, too... I'm painting a pretty honest picture of my chaos here. Still love me? ;)

SO. A couple weeks ago, I got fed up with this, so I marched myself down to the dollar store and bought some display books with 10 protector sheets in them.

I reserved a book for each recipe category, making stickers for the front of the book that said:

DIPS, SPREADS, AND SALADS

CRACKERS, CHIPS, AND BREADS

SIDES AND ENTREES

DESSERTS

I took the piece of white paper that came in the spine and put it to use as well, listing what recipes are in the book, and re-inserting it in the spine. On the part visible when you shelve the book, I re-wrote the category.

Inside, there are 10 protector sheets, so I can fit 20 recipes, back to back.

This goes a long way to feeling clean and organized, and the added bonus is that with all my favorite recipes in books, I can easily see what I'd like to make for dinner.

I have a lot of raw 'cook' books, but they are not all my favorites. But the loose pages were.

Today, I got so organized, I thought, "Who are you, and what have you done with Rawkin'?!"

I had a budget to go grocery shopping and couldn't figure out how to prioritize, since we need non-food items as well as having immediate dinner needs. And I didn't know what I wanted for dinner! Wah!

I knew I wanted a salad with every meal, and that I need greens for my smoothies, that was a no-brainer. Probably like the rest of this!! haha bare with me.

I flipped through my books and wrote down entrees that alternated between light and more gourmet, as I'm trying to keep nut-heavy meals down. Next, I looked through my salads book and found a different salad style for each meal.

I came up with:

Tonight (Tues) Better than Beef Burgers with garden salad and kale chips

Wed - Collard Rolls with Beet & Carrot Salad

Thurs - Angel Hair Pasta with Marinara & Greek Salad

Fri - Enchiladas with Mixed Baby Greens Salad

Sat - Beanless Falafels with Tomato/Cucumber/Spinach salad

Sun - Carrot-Pecan Burgers with Chick Pea Salad

I went shopping and bought everything I need for tonight and tomorrow's dinner. And mid-week, I'll do the same for the rest of the week.

It was SO EASY because it was SO ORGANIZED.

Did everybody know this stuff already?

WHY didn't anyone TELL me?

:)