• Meal preparation is made easier with tools to help you plan ahead.dinner dish image by Maria Brzostowska from Fotolia.com
  
  Whether planning family meals for the week or a dinner party for a Friday night, preparing ahead can make the process less stressful. You can prepare ahead by having tools to help you plan your menu. Tools can include lists, recipe organizers and menu templates. Used together, these tools can help you plan, shop and prepare your meals more efficiently.
  
  

Pantry and Refrigerator Inventory Lists

• To plan an effective menu, your pantry and refrigerator should always contain certain stables. These staples may include canned foods such as stewed tomatoes and olives, dry foods such as flour and pasta and spices such as cayenne pepper and bay leaves. Refrigerator staples include perishable foods such as meat, vegetables and dairy. Having meat and vegetables available in your freezer is also helpful in menu planning. Make lists of these staples, and keep them where you can see them like on a kitchen bulletin board. When preparing to go grocery shopping, check these lists for what might be missing, and add those items to your grocery list.
  
  

Recipe Organizer

• Organizing your recipe collection can help save time because you will not need to search your kitchen or the Internet for a specific recipe. If you like to clip magazine and newspaper recipes and print those you've found online, consider using a three-ring binder with clear plastic sleeves. You can further organize with tabbed pages indicating categories such as dinner and dessert. If you want your recipes all in one place without regards to category, consider buying a plastic box or decorative tin container of a size necessary to store your collection.
  
  

Menu Template

• Create a menu template. It can be a chart with each meal for each day of the week or it can be specific to a particular meal or event. Fill in the weekly template as best suits your lifestyle, planning each day's menu according to need. For example, if breakfast Monday through Friday is always a bowl of cereal and Saturday is usually brunch with friends, write that down or leave it blank. Keep in mind the template isn't permanent. If you decide to change Wednesday's dinner from spaghetti to tacos, that's fine. Having a well-stocked kitchen helps make these changes less stressful. Hold on to these templates, and recycle them weekly or monthly. For special events, create a template according to course, for example, appetizers, salad, main dish and dessert. You can create your own templates or download those available online.
  
  

Grocery List

• A grocery list can help keep you organized and prevent impulse buying. When making your list, look at your menu template for the menus you plan to prepare. Then check your pantry and refrigerator inventory lists to see what needs to be replenished. Also, take a look at grocery store ads in the newspaper, mail or online to help you decide where to shop. The grocery list isn't written in stone, but it is a tool to help you plan. If grocery shopping sparks your imagination for alternate meals, such as swapping out ground beef with Italian sausage, go with the flow.