Between work, school, sports, and the general day-to-day stuff that must get done because my family really likes clean clothes and the Laundry Fairy has yet to visit my house, meal planning has proven itself a lifesaver time and again.
I currently use a weekly meal plan and am in the process of creating a monthly meal plan (more to come on that). It took me a few weeks to get the hang of menu planning and find a system that seems to work for me and my family. I actually use my Gmail account to help with this, but you could just as easily use Pinterest or good old-fashioned paper recipes, which is something that I think might be in my future.
But for now, Gmail it is! Before I really got into Pinterest, I would find recipes I liked through Facebook posts or cooking/food websites and would email them to myself. Since I was essentially spamming my own inbox with recipes, I decided to create a folder for them. Once we tried a recipe, my family and I would decide if we wanted to ever make that meal again. Depending on the decision, I would either delete the recipe or move it into a sub-folder that I titled "Tried and True Recipes."
So each Sunday morning, I do a quick pantry inventory. Luckily, I have found that since we make these recipes at least once a month, I am able to keep a good portion of the ingredients for these recipes on hand by stocking up on nonperishable staples that I know we will eventually use.
I then scan the grocery store circulars for sales. We do not have a newspaper subscription, so I use the Weekly Ads and Sales app, which is available for free in the Apple App Store (This app is currently not available for Android phones, but Retale is also good app that is available through Google Play), to view the store circulars.
Once I have done my preliminary research, I do a quick glance and, based on my pantry inventory and the weekly sales, round up about five or six of our "tried and true" recipes and perhaps hit up Pinterest for a recipe I want to try.
I then jot down the remaining necessities for the meals on my grocery list and head to the store, armed with a plan and coupons!
As you can see, this can be a time consuming process but it is worth it to not have to tackle the "What's for dinner?" conundrum that inevitably pops up every night. All they have to do is look at the cute weekly menu (downloadable below) I hang on the fridge to find the answer!
Weekly Menu Planner in Pink - Free Download
