As my long time readers on JLO know, cooking and managing the cooking during the week is my least favorite pastime and organizing subject. I’d much rather clean a toilet or decorate my home We all have our strengths right?

But, I’m also a very self motivated person and like to “face my demons” so I mostly try not to think about how much I’d rather not do it, and so I stick to the research (of always looking for easier ways), plan, and attack!  Which means I just do it anyway.

In my  research, I have to say that I am always looking for new and improved ideas when it comes to managing the cooking that needs to happen and I hate to say this but I have yet to find a shortcut or a “new” idea with regards to cooking.

All the organizing tips seem the same to me- plan your menus, clip your coupons, plan your recipes, grocery shop, cook one dish and freeze another, maybe prep some of the ingredients beforehand. All stuff I’ve heard before.

I think the trick here is to just go ahead and DO IT.

I will just mention two other tips that seem to work for me.

1. Have a list of about 10 dinners that you know like THE BACK OF YOUR HAND. Things you don’t even need a recipe for and what goes well with them. Then, if you weren’t a goody goody one week and didn’t plan your meals, you can at least go to the grocery store and get the ingredients in your “mental” recipe files.

Note- if the idea of storing recipes in your “head” is stressful to you, don’t do it. Everyone is different. I’m talking REALLY simple- for instance, one of mine is eggrolls so I know I need eggroll wrappers, tofu, and cabbage and soy sauce and that is basically it)

2. Second tip is to keep a whiteboard on the fridge and as you run out of ingredients, simply write them on the whiteboard. You will have to transfer them into some sort of grocery list, and I think comparatively to everything else, that isn’t so bad, is it? Or bring the whole whiteboard along if you have to and it isn’t too large