Butterflies and Ants: Meal Planning

If you Google "meal planning" or look into Pinterest you'll come up with dozens of different ways to create a meal plan. From note books, to chalk boards to using your cell phone; there's something for everyone and the hardest part is figuring out which will work best for you.

For meal planning to work in your favor you need to choose a system that you'll stick to. If the cool chalkboard looks like a lot of fun but the thought of chalk going across the board gives you goose bumps...you're probably not going to get much use out of it. I do think there can be some trail and error involved, often times we don't know what will work for us until we give it a try. If you're going the white board/chalk board or bulletin board route you may want to do a mock up first and see if it's actually something you'll like using.

One thing I know I don't like using is my phone. I've downloaded more apps for meal planning, grocery shopping and list making than I care to admit...and I don't EVER follow through on using them. I do like having pen and paper, something I can hold onto, write on, mark up, something more substantial than my phone or laptop.

What I ended up with is a 3 ring binder. This certainly took some trial and error and it's still evolving but it's what I've found really works for me right now.
I bought a 3 ring binder (1 inch) and page protectors. I downloaded a calendar template from Google that just showed a weekly view. And lastly I downloaded The Ultimate Grocery List from www.grocerylists.org both of the downloads are free so all I paid for was the binder and page protectors.

To set up I just started with that first week. I went through recipes I had saved on my lap top, looked in magazines I already had at home and Googled others that I thought sounded good. Then I got it in paper form, so if it was in my magazine I just tore out the page, if it was online I printed it out and into the page protectors they went. I just add recipes as I go. I don't have 100's saved in this book.

To start meal planning for the week, I open up the calendar I downloaded and type in the meal I want to make. You'll see in the photos that I plan, or at least have space to plan, Breakfast - Snack 1 - Lunch - Snack 2 - Dinner.
I don't always use all the spaces but I like having it available. I made this with my daughter in mind who was being watched at our home by her grandma so it helped having everything laid out.

The great thing about the calendar I use is it saves frequently added words, just like am excel document ( I think that's pretty much what it is) so as I use the same thing often it was easy to fill in the slots. Once I know what I'm making for the week I take the corresponding recipe and put them in order in the 3 ring binder. So each week my binder changes. It's incredibly easy to open up, change around the protected papers and put them in order of the week. I've also tried just tabbing them with numbers and not moving them around but it was just easier for me to open it up and move them.

The next step is going through my kitchen and making sure I have what I need for the week. I bring my grocery list, mentioned above, in the kitchen with me and start marking off what I need. With this particular list I've found it best to just highlight my list since they've already written it out. That way I can see it better when I'm going through the store. Really when I'm on top of things this list is already in my kitchen, on the fridge, and as we run out of things I highlight them on the list. Then when I need to add things for my meal planning it's a bit faster because I've most likely already added it to the list if I ran out of it. Does that make sense?

I staple or tape (depending on what's available) the grocery list to my meal plan and take them both to the store with me. That way if I forget why I needed something I have the meal plan with me and I just like keeping them together.