Such Treasures

I am working on making a menu plan for my family. This is how I am approaching the task. Over the weekend, I compiled a master list of all our favorite main dishes. Then I categorized each main dish by the type of protein and cut (beef-ground, beef-other, chicken-whole, wild salmon-fillet, etc.) and by how frequently we eat it (weekly, monthly, occasionally, etc.). The next step will be to make a menu plan that incorporates all these meals in a regular schedule.

Ultimately, I have a goal to create a family cookbook. I will start by typing out all the recipes referenced in my menu plan. Many recipes I already have typed out, thankfully. But quite a few of the recipes I follow are in my head or I merely have brief notes on scraps of paper to guide me. Having these recipes in written form will allow me to generate a shopping list. Once I am done with those basic recipes, I will move on to including other recipes like dressings, breads, seasonings and desserts.

Jeff has mentioned some other things to include in our cookbook. We want to include nutritional information, like ~ What foods are good sources of iron? What foods are high in calcium? We will write about why it is important to eat whole foods and why one’s diet should be diverse. In the end, we want to be able to share our cookbook with others. Often, friends ask us to share recipes and information, but we need something more than unorganized thoughts or bits of information to offer them. Lord, please bless our efforts!