Spiers' Family Meal Planning!

 

In May, I wrote 2 posts on my dinner themes/meal planning. One post, Creating Order, explained how I was using my Iphone to help with planning. Well, I thought that was key to creating order and preventing the "what's for dinner" question at 4:00 p.m. Although it helped and I did get much better at meal planning, it was not the answer I thought it to be and it only worked for a month or so. I went back to a paper system and found that it is actually what I need. I love the idea of using my phone to waste less paper, but I just function better with using paper (And, since I use a calendar page, I am only using 1 page per month. I plan to save all the monthly menus to copy for next year and add only a few changes if I want something different). I printed off cute, free monthly calendars from the web and went to work. This is my third month doing it this way, and I can tell you I have been so much more organized with meal planning/cooking.

 

I still use the nightly themes, which I find absolutely awesome. :) It's helps narrow down the options to a manageable list for each day. I found an awesome tip from a fellow blogger- this lady only creates a two week menu and then repeats the same menu for the remaining two weeks of the month. Get more information on how she does it at Meal Planning Made Easy! This has seriously helped me to get through my meal planning in the beginning of the month and not to dread it as much as I have in the past as I only have to come up with 2 weeks of meals. Ben and I will sit down at the end of the the month to plan meals with a paper and pen in hand. Usually, I will plan one meal of each day/category and Ben will choose the other meal of each day/category (I am responsible for 7 meals and Ben is responsible for coming up for the other 7). Then I jot them down on the calendar (pictured above) and make sure to alternate meats so not to have two chicken or two beef/turkey days in a row. When we come up with meals, I just write them on the back or a scratch piece of paper and then I will put them in the order I like on the calendar.

 

Since I make the same meal twice, I will often make a double batch of the meal and freeze 1 portion (if freezable), making the 3rd and 4th week of the month extra easy. :) I love that about this meal planning idea!

 

I placed the calendar in a protector sheet in my Home Management Binder, which is becoming a go-to tool! That way if I have a change (going out to eat/going to some one's house/lots of leftovers), I can change it with a dry erase marker. P.s. we don't have a lot of leftovers for dinner because we usually eat them for lunch the next day. That's how we roll! :) I'm liking the Home Management Binder a lot, but I still have a lot more to put in it. I have heard about this idea quite a lot rolling around the web, but only decided to make one after reading this post about a Home Management Binder. Good stuff!

 

I really, really like this meal planning system. It has taken years of trying to find something that will actually work (for more than a month) for our family. :)