Jordan Page Has Taught Me Well

For Christmas, Jeremy got me "A Season of Family Meal Plans" volumes 1-4 by Jordan Page. I started with Week 1 of volume 1 (January-March) last week and am doing Week 2 this week.

I started out strong last week with French bread already made to use in some of the recipes. I cooked up some pork roast to use in several recipes, including a recipe coming up in a few weeks (I froze the meat after cooking it). I was able to marinade chicken early for Greek chicken and successfully made pita bread. Hooray. I was so thrilled about that. The recipe was right in the book.

In true shelf cooking fashion, I used what potatoes I had and other substitutions I learned from "Shelf Cooking 101" that I got for myself for Christmas the year before.

Jet was my big helper.

 

I still menu plan with holidays in mind but this helps fill in the gaps. Some of the meals I'm just not interested in making and that's okay. The point is not to make you do something you don't want to do but to make things easier on you. The books have other tips and tricks in them as well.

Jordan Page also hosted a masterclass about budgeting, productivity, and meal planning that I was able to participate in at home recently. One of the things she mentioned about saving money was only going out to eat when it's scheduled. It just so happens that that night Jeremy and I had a scheduled eating out date. It was the annual Golden Corral meeting for Utah County Birders. There was some weather so it was not as big a group as sometimes but we had good conversation with the birders who were there. I love our birding friends.

Before we left, I made chicken Caesar salad wraps for the boys. The next day I was able to use some leftover rotisserie chicken in our meal. Since January 12 was National Curried Chicken Day, I found a recipe in "Shelf Cooking 101" that used curry powder, Chicken Divan. 

I've learned a lot from Jordan Page from shelf cooking to organization/productivity. I am grateful for the things I've learned and the resources she has. Check out shelfcooking.com and funcheaporfree.com to learn for yourself.