Meal Planning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I talk to my friends we all seem to share a common dilemma. What to make for dinner.  I own tons of cookbooks and with the click of a mouse I have access to millions of recipes yet every Sunday I ponder the same question, “What should we have for dinner this week?”  I recently purchased a weekly/monthly calendar at Target so I could record my menus for the week in their own planner.  I write the main dish and any side dish ideas down along with where the recipe can be found.  I also record how everyone liked the meal  that way I know if it’s worth repeating.  My memory isn’t the greatest and I’ve made things my kids liked and then for the life of me can’t remember what it was I made.  I usually plan my meals on Sundays for the upcoming week.  I have done this for years with the exception of writing them in a planner.  I would write down the meals for the week, but then throw the slip of paper away.  By having them recorded all in one place  I can rotate meals every few weeks and not have to reinvent the wheel every week.  We like a variety of foods, but there are always a few favorites I can thrown in once a week like spaghetti and sloppy joes.

Edie at Life in Grace shares a three part series for meal planning on her blog.  She uses Goggle Calendar and offers a tutorial on how to use it as well as other online meal planning resources like Ziplist.  I’m still in the old fashioned paper and pen stage when it comes to recording my recipes and meal planning.  I have several recipe boards on pinterest.  If you click on the P icon on the top right of my blog it will take you to my boards.  It’s my internet cookbook, but I like to print a hard copy of the recipe when I make it and now I have my new planner to record all of our dinners.  If you’re computer savvy and enjoy having things on your mobile phone you may want to check out her ideas.

Happy Menu Planning!  If you have some ideas that are working for you when it comes to planning meals I’d love to hear from you.  A personal chef would be nice, but I don’t foresee that happening any time soon. If you like the menu form above you can click here to download it for your own personal use.