Friday Favorites

Not Just an Egg Salad - this egg salad has eggs, walnuts, broccolini, grapes, apple, asparagus, and sprouts in it with a curry dressing. The whole blog is really good - vegetarian recipes.

Mango Citrus Body Butter - homemade - it is a review of a book on DIY natural beauty products and then a recipe for the body butter

Still Tasty - a shelf life guide

3 Budget DIY Countertops - shows examples of painting, concrete and butcher block and links to blogs that did these methods

10 Ways to Organize Your Fridge -  has a picture gallery of different ways to organize your fridge

Shelf life...

If leftovers have reached the point where you have to ask me to smell them to determine if they are still usable, I probably won't be eating them! I tend to rotate the fridge items so that the oldest items are near the front, so they are used first before they expire.

A few of my favorite links:

• Business Week slideshow on Shelf Life
• Real Simple's A Guide to Food Expiration Terms: Decode the sell-by and use-by dates
• WebMD's Do Food Expiration Dates Really Matter? Excellent section on page 2 for basic rules for how long food is safe to eat, and how to stretch the shelf life through proper storage.
• Real Simple's How Long Can You Refrigerate or Freeze Food?

Edited to add: Home Food Safety (thanks, danae!) There's two great printouts at the top right hand side to hang on your fridge or freezer.

And don't forget cosmetics! I generally try to sort through my makeup 3-4 times a year. Ideally, I should be doing it once a season. Creamy or liquid products have a shorter shelf life than powders once they are opened.

• Beauty Advice: Makeup Expiration Dates

For lotions and such, I prefer pump dispensers or squeeze containers than dipping my fingers into a jar. Not only does it reduce the bacteria introduced to the remaining lotion, but it cuts down on the oxygen exposure.

Meal/Menu Planning

When I make my grocery list, I make up a meal list. I don't put mine on a calendar that says Tuesday is going to be homemade pizza because our schedules just change so often that I might not have the time to make dough on Tuesday. So I have a list I can refer to and see the options. There are also things that are staples in our pantry/freezer/fridge that I can make almost anytime so those meal ideas are usually on the list too. If you have a fairly consistent schedule, writing out the menu on a calendar is a great idea. And if you see on Thursday you are making a roast -- you can write on the calendar the day you need to take it out to thaw. We have a dry erase board on our fridge so I usually write a note to myself there if I need to take something out that morning.

In making my grocery list and planning meals, I clean out the fridge, freezer and pantry. I toss things that are don't look good or are expired. I usually try to wipe down the shelves as I do that too. But also in cleaning out things, it makes it easier for planning meals because I have a clear view of what is actually available. It also makes unloading groceries easier if things are organized and cleared out.

I try to plan about 2 weeks worth of menus besides the usual staple dinners I just always have on hand (such as stir fry).

In planning the menus I...
go through my recipe box


go through cookbooks


look at recipes I have bookmarked online


look at past meal lists/menu calendars - helps me get ideas but also helps me not repeat


look through grocery ads - often looking through them I find something that sparks an idea or sounds good

look in pantry, fridge, freezer -- is there something that needs to be used soon? Is there something I have quite a bit of so should start using it up? Also is there something I have in the pantry that I always prepare the same way - maybe I can come up with something new for it?

think about seasonal produce -- I think about what I can incorporate that is in season. Fresh produce that is in season always tastes extraordinary without a lot of work put into it. Just a little olive oil and salt and pepper and usually you can have a wonderful side.

ask - I ask Himself if there is anything he is craving or would like to see on the menu

This all might seem a little daunting - taking the time to do this, but the more menu planning you do, the easier it becomes. And you will be thankful that you are not looking in the pantry thinking what's can I make for dinner.


Additional Resources:
Meals.com - I haven't ever used them for planning menus but used a couple recipes before

mealsmatter.org - I just found them today when googling menu planning and signed up so will let you know how I like them in a week or so

Livejournal - Dinner Ideas -- You have to be a member of Livejournal but is it a community I find useful. Because it helps me remember what I made. I can go back and look at what we have had for dinner for the last month very easily.

Uncluttered -- they have an exel spreadsheet or pdf file that you can download to help in menu planning