I couldn't find a menu planner that was just right...
...so I've been tinkering a bit trying to make one that fits my needs.
P.S. There's an interview up with me over at Eve of Reduction.
...so I've been tinkering a bit trying to make one that fits my needs.
P.S. There's an interview up with me over at Eve of Reduction.
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I need something better than what I am using currently! The one I have right now is a sheet of notebook paper with date, day, any activities, and then the meal listed. Of course it always changes and my 2-3 week planned meals usually make it another few days to a week.
Have you looked at Pepperplate.com? If you want to go digital, cross platform and free it was the best option I could find for my wife when I did the research about 6 months ago. It also does recipies, grocery lists, etc. though sometimes less is more, especially if you just want a single feature.
I bought a dry erase calendar board that I keep hung up in my kitchen. Once a month I wipe it down and menu plan a month ahead. I shop only for the week though.
http://www.thetaylor-house.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Meal-Planning-Package.pdf
These were very helpful to me. they actually motivated me with their prettiness to start menu planning 🙂
Kristen,
I desperately need help with a menu plan for my week night meals. I work full time and I spend way to much money at the grocery store. I live in a very remote area and all we have is 1 large chain store. I have driven 20miles to the next town that has 2 discount grocers but the produce etc. looked horriable and it was a wasted trip. This has happened more than once. So I might as well purchase here local...but it is so expensive!
What works best for me is I make list of meals and have different categories of being quick and easy to more involved for the week. I plan for 9 meals at a time. Just move the 2 not used to the following week. This also helps if grocery store doesn't always happen when I think it will. 2-3 really quick ones and then the rest can be more involved with different degrees of time needed. I always pick from the list but this allows me some flexibility if for example there is a school function that I forgot or there is more homework than expected that is going to take away from preparation time. It works really well for me and I don't really have problems with defrosting the wrong meat because I always have one chicken easy meal and one easy beef. If I was originally planning something like pot roast or something I always defrost it in the fridge so if I have to put it off for one day and make pancakes last minute we are ok.
Not sure if that might help but rather than listing using a week as the guide just use numbers or title the different categories? Maybe Quick and Easy, Plan ahead (crock pot meals, anything that you must do earlier prep for, etc), and Medium Time. I know I struggled with the planning Mon-Sun idea and this fit for me better. Good Luck!
I read Eve's interview, and I must respectfully disagree with her description of you. I think you are the least obsessive person I "know". Your photos grace your website and provide your family and readers with a lovely diary of your life. Please do not think for a moment that there is any truth to that statement. Thank you, thank you for the gift(s) of your photography!
I saw that too, and first was a little put off - but the more I think about it, I really think she just meant it in a silly way.
Oh, was that maybe in my bio? I usually write those blurbs, so it was probably me saying that about myself!
Ok, now I'm clear...she just paraphrased the bio I sent her when she wrote the intro to the article. 🙂
Nice interview! The focus on how to live frugally by being happy with less, with homemade, or recycled/refurbished items is what drew me to your blog, and I really liked how your blog felt personal and wasn't cluttered by coupons and deals. Of course I love a bargain, but sometimes I find it can become a shopping obsession like any other.
I didn't grow up in America, and when I first came here in the 90s I was overwhelmed by its consumer society (and it's not like I was that deprived growing up). But for us, sewing, baking, gardening, etc. were commonplace, so it's been nice that these things have been in vogue recently and I don't have to feel quite so odd 🙂
I have software called CalendarCreator (from a CD) that I use to make a weekly planner. I can spread the week out on both sides of the paper so the space for each day is nice and big. That way I can use the same planner page for meal planning and whatever other planning I need for the week. I do up a bunch ahead of time and put them in a binder. So far the only problem that I've run into is that everyone keeps an eye on the meal plan, and oh, the hue and cry that gets raised if I don't stick to it. (What! Chicken! I thought we were having pizza tonight!) Sometimes it's hard to accept the fact that the cook always has the right to shuffle things around a bit if she so chooses 🙂
I've been using Ziplist lately and I love it. You can meal plan up to 30 days and it's free and web-based. The have a huge recipe index plus you can add new ones either manually or capture them from webpages. It also generates shopping lists and organizes them by grocery section. You can also tag recipes to quickly re-find favorites.
I use the same method my mom used, and it seems to work pretty well.
We have one family calendar hanging in the kitchen for everyone to write their schedules upon. So, the kids' swimming lessons, MOPS, homeschool events, days when B knows he's going to be working late, church events, etc. I do better with a calendar with lines on it, so we use a vertical wall calendar from At A Glance. It's a bit larger than some other calendars, so there's plenty of room for schedule-writing while leaving 2 lines at the bottom of every day for me to write in the menu.
The reasons I've continued my mom's tradition:
1. I can see what's going on that week while I'm making the menu without having to pull out any other calendar or electronic item.
2. Everyone can see the calendar. When I was a teen, the standing rule was whoever got home first started dinner, as both my parents worked. My kids aren't old enough for that yet, but my husband is! Really helps cut down on the before-dinner snacking, too.
The other rule is if it isn't on the calendar, you can't expect me to know about it. Again, my kids are too young for this to matter yet, but growing up it meant my mom and dad had an "out" for those last-minute projects or field trips or evening events. If we didn't get it on there, they weren't responsible for our transportation. Really helped us learn to be responsible for our own schedules, too!
Have you tried PlanToEat.com? I know some other bloggers have recommended it... I'd definitely be interested on your take on it since there is a monthly fee, but I'm wondering if the time savings and the grocery savings would make it worth the fee...
I meal plan the old fashioned way. I use a notebook. I write down the days of the week, then next to them I write anything that's going on that afternoon or evening so I know what time dinner needs to be served, or whether it will need to be simple and fast. When I write down a recipe that comes from a book, I'll abbreviate it with initials and put the page number. I always write comments in the recipe book regarding how well the kids liked it, any substitutions, how long it took to make, etc. As time goes by, I will frequently look back and repeat dinners that worked well.
If any of you are not meal planning yet, I will say that meal planning has saved my sanity, especially on work nights. It only takes about 20 minutes and I'm done thinking about "what to eat" for the rest of the week.
Dawn,
You are way ahead of me! Although I have planned menus for years, it just occurred to me that it would be smoother if I put it my planner with everything else instead of on the foreign door. My husband cooks a night a week, but I tell him what to make, or at least give guidance-make something with hamburger-so it's not as of he looks at it much. Trying that when I paln for next month!
http://www.foodonthetable.com/preset
Awesome site!
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