my first post

published: 2024.03.06
tagged: journaling, cooking
by mana

we’re finally moved into our new place, my partner and I. well, all of our things are here. there’s still quite a bit of unpacking/organizing to do…>w<

a friend of mine is really into bullet journaling or bujo, and I’ve always admired the pretty washi tapes and stickers people use for that sort of thing. I used to work in a stationery store myself, so I’ve always been a little bit preoccupied with planners, taking notes, and organization in this way.

anyway, I figured this move would be a good opportunity to begin fresh with a lot of things, among them starting a bullet journal. now that I have a nice large new kitchen, I intend to start cooking again now that my health is permitting it, and it occured to me that a bujo might be just the thing for organizing meal prep each week and keeping track of grocery lists and tasks for about the house.

so, a week or two ago, I ordered an A5 kraft paper-bound notebook with grid sheets, a plastic A5 cover for it, and a few packages of colorful/cute washi tape, and some stickers. I wasn’t going to allow myself to decorate it until I’d sorted through some things first, and yesterday I finally had uncovered most of my stationery & journaling supplies.

So, I allowed myself to decorate and begin my first bujo :D

I followed a tutorial given to me by my good friend lucidiot on how to set up & begin my bujo, so I now have a key on the first page inside, my index on the first spread followed by a monthly log for the next six months on the following spread, and then beginning the month of March following that.

I looked online for some inspiration on how to do meal planning in a bujo, and found the following template, however, since I am planning more than just dinners, I decided to use the left column a bit more efficiently and list multiple meals (breakfast for me/lunches for my partner to take to work and then also for me at home/shared dinners), so mine turned out a bit different.

my intent was to use tomorrow to prep and bake a large amount of breakfast quiches and freeze them so we could just reheat them for breakfast, since my partner has recently found out he is diabetic and we had to plan meals with lower sugar & carbohydrate content than we would previously, but it looks like my muffin tins won’t be here until saturday, so I suppose we will make do with cereal for this week >w<;;
either way, we now have the ingredients needed for quiche so as soon as I get my muffin tins, I can prep that any day.

the other thing I knew I was making this week was my good friend’s nonna’s tiramisu recipe, as a sort of reward/celebrating getting everything moved over to the new place. an inaugural dessert, if you will. >w< tiramisu has always been my favorite

other meals I’m planning for this week are: green tea chicken (a pan-sauteed, then steamed chicken breast made with sesame oil, garlic, and jasmine green tea), which will double as my partner’s take-to-work lunches this week (with steamed green beans with garlic & soy sauce as a side dish), vegetable curry (Japanese-style, we usually make golden curry, medium-hot), and a hoisin/char siu pork tenderloin with sauteed asparagus and butter as a side dish. I should have my panini press by this weekend, so we’ll have panini as an easy meal this weekend while I prep the breakfast quiches for next week :3

I also made, on the opposite page of my weekly meal plan, a list of items we need for the new place: everything from trash cans, window coverings, command hooks and rugs to more cooking-oriented items like a stand mixer and loaf pan. It’ll be interesting to see how this goes for the future, but as easy as all this was to fill out, I can definitely see myself using the bullet journal in the future, even if it is just for meal planning.

I look forward to posting more photos of my bujo as i continue it, and pictures of food I make as well :D I may also decide to make a weekly cleaning list so I can keep track of what needs cleaning and maintain the cleanliness of our new place so that it never really becomes a chore.

wiping things down once a week sure beats the once-every-few-months having to deep clean to get rid of gunk…