The Seven Magic "P's"

My dad always said if you followed the rule of The Seven Magic P's you'd never fail.  Have you heard of these? 

Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.

I have no idea who came up with the saying originally, but my dad adopted it as his own, and wholeheartedly lived by it.  And he drilled it into my head from a very young age (Yes! Complete with curse words!  I know!).

And yet somehow I went 36 years of my life NOT applying his wise words when it came to cooking.  In fact, I genuinely thought I was a bad cook.  I thought I hated cooking.  But, I have come to realize my "piss-poor performance" was due to my lack of "proper prior planning".

Recently, I asked my friend Susan (the one from Tulsa, not to be confused with neighbor Susan) how often she plans out her weekly meals.  Her response?  Every week.  Every single week she sits down and plans out what she's going to cook.  She plans out the groceries she'll need.  She even plans which meals to cook based on the time required to cook them - such that she cooks the simple meals on days that her evening involves kid's sports or other time-consuming activities.

Doesn't that sound SMART?

Yeah.  And yet I failed to figure this out FOR MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE! What is WRONG with me?  It's like the cooking and meal planning lobe of my brain sustained damage at some point. I had Meal Planning Brain Damage!  I'm certain it's an actual medical ailment.

So for the last several weeks I've been using a handy-dandy meal planning thingy.  A little tablet that magnetically affixes to the refrigerator. 

And look!  It even has a space for listing grocery items.  How smart is THAT? 

And do you know what?  It turns out this cooking thing is so easy!  Dinnertime is no longer a stressful time of day for me!  All because I PLANNED.

Somewhere in heaven, daddy is shaking his head and saying "I told you so!".

You were right dad! Your Seven Magic P's even work in the kitchen!