Meal Planning & Menu Board {tutorial}

I decided about 6 months ago to start meal planning in an effort to save money at the grocery store (and loose weight!). It also keeps us from eating out too often. When we know what we are having for dinner and something is planned, there isn't temptation to just grab something quick out. Here, I will share my process for how I meal plan.

First, I went through the mess that was my "recipe cabinet". I got all my cookbooks, ripped-out-magazine pages, recipes I have scribbled down, etc. and I wrote down the recipes that we liked/looked good on index cards. It took a lot of time and several hand cramps to get everything down, but now I have a nice stash of recipes that are easy to look through and uniform. (Have I ever mentioned I'm an organization junkie? No?) Now everytime I get a recipe, I write it down on a index card and stash it in the recipe box and everything is in one place. No more looking through books, papers and pages for good recipes. There were a few things we like to eat that don't require a recipe (tacos, breakfast, ect) and for these I just wrote them down on a colored card stock.

Now that I had all my recipes in one place, it was easier to decide what we want for dinners every week. I do all of my grocery shopping on Sundays. So, Sunday morning Chad and I go through the recipe cards and choose what we want to have for dinner that week.

Then, I make my grocery list based on our meals. I have all the ingredients written on the index cards. I go through my pantry and fridge and then whatever I don't have goes on the list.

I take the index cards and put them on my awesome Menu Board that I made (see below). I don't necessarily plan what we are having each night specifically. That night, depending on what is thawed out, any time constraints and what we feel like, I decide what to make.

Menu Board:

In January, I saw this really cute menu board on pinterest and decided it would fit perfectly into my menu planning. It was super simple to make and it's adorable. Here's how I made it.

Supplies:

1)1 piece of canvas (or anything large and flat: cookie sheet, piece of wood, etc)
2) Hot glue gun
3) 7 Clothes pins
4) Markers
5) 1 piece of fabric large enough to fit over the canvas
6) Nails (to hang)
7) Card stock

Steps:

1. Hot glue the fabric to the canvas.

2. Cut out your card stock and write your days of the week on them and make a cute "menu" title.

3. Hot glue the clothes pins evenly down the side of the canvas.

4. Hot glue the card stock letters to the clothes pins

5. I covered a small box in card stock and hot glued the box to the board to keep pens and misc papers in.

6. Glue the "menu" title on.

Enjoy!

I love having this in the kitchen. I can just look at the board and see what's for dinner that night and it's decorative!