Meal Planning

Let's talk meal planning for a moment. This has been the bane of my existence for quite some time! What's for dinner? What's for breakfast? Do we have any XXX?

You see, I love love love to cook and bake. I love to try new recipes. I love almost all foods, I am not a picky eater at all. My husband on the other hand thinks fish shaped like a log in a box is "real" fish and that hamburger is the greatest meat on earth! Now add 2 little boys into this mix. One who thinks chicken nuggets/strips are the bomb diggety end all be all food, and a wee one, who at 18 months, still has trouble chewing so we are still on soft foods.

I would sometimes get so frustrated with my menu planning that I would just give up...until...... I discovered a recipe/food/meal planning binder a few years ago along with freezer cooking. Helloooooooo, where have you been all of my life? I have always been frugal when it comes to shopping, I would carefully plan each trip, write down all sales items and go through my coupons like a mad woman (more on my coupon binder later). Then I discovered freezer cooking! I also discovered that I had recipes EVERYWHERE! What a mess!

I decided to get my recipes/meal planning more organized! I can tell you this has helped me tremendously! No more wondering what's in the freezer, no more guessing what's for dinner. No more, ooops I don't have that spice to go with that chicken.

Just like with your home binder, just grab any binder you have laying around the house! I happen to use a leather one from a job I was once employed at, it has nothing to do with cooking or meal planning, but it is large enough that I won't need to upgrade anytime soon! Don't forget to grab those dividers! I have several categories in my binder so I used about 2 pkgs of dividers.

I make room for my:
Monthly planning sheet
Weekly planning sheet
Food Categories
Freezer/Pantry
Shopping Lists

First tab:
This is for my monthly planning sheet. I sit down and decide on all meals for the month ahead and write them on my calendar. Now this doesn't mean things won't get moved around or scratched off the list at any given time, but it gives me an idea on what we can have for meals and what I need to look for when it comes to shopping. You can get a copy of my monthly planner here.

Second tab:
Is my weekly menu planning sheet. Most of the time I take this directly from my monthly sheet with no changes. However; things happen so I always use the weekly sheet to make any changes on, plus I can put this on the fridge and no one asks me "hey, what's for dinner?" as they can read the menu themselves. No sadly, this still does not stop that infuriating question :) Grab a copy of my weekly menu planning sheet here.

Then I have my food category tabs. Lots of tabs here! Here is a list of the tabs I have in my binder. You will want to set your binder up with what works best for you. You may not like to freezer cook or don't even own a crock pot (to which I say why not??).  The first sheet in each section is a sheet for my favorite recipes in that category. I keep a list by name, cookbook/source, the page number, and any comments I want to leave for myself. This is so much easier than combing through the mass of cookbooks/magazines I have looking for that great Monterey Chicken recipe! You can find it here.

After these tabs I have my freezer inventory, my pantry inventory and my shopping list.

Having everything together really helps in the meal planning process. With the monthly plan, I can just write down our favorite dishes and plan my weekly menus based on that. And with freezer cooking, I never have to worry about not having something for dinner. Grab a binder and get started, you will thank me later!

Next post will be all about freezer cooking!

Until next post, have a wonderfully blessed day!

Shelly