Menu Planning

Tonight in Relief Society a lady shared how she stores recipes, menu plans and garden cooking. I am defiantly going to use her idea for storing recipes. After leaving I thought to myself that I should share how I menu plan. It's different from her's, but works for my family. 

-I like to go grocery shopping, so I go once a week and plan a menu for a week. 

-I have the chart saved below on my computer and print one off weekly. 

-Aside from grocery shopping, I allow myself 15 minutes to do the planning. I do this as quickly as I can to get it out of the way for the week. When I first started I would spend an hour or so working on it. 

-When I make dinner I make enough to send with Bryce for lunch the next day and sometimes Ava and I have left overs too.

-The first thing I do is write on the square for the meal and snack if we are going to be gone. 

-I keep these charts and for those times I just don't want to make a menu I use one from months ago. I have a binder they are kept in.

-I also hate eating the same foods all the time, so if during the week I find something online or in a magazine that looks good, I add it to the menu. Their are so many different types of food that it makes it easy to have variety. 

-Next I find one sometimes two new recipes to try for dinner that week.

-I then look in my fridge and freezer and see what needs to be used in the week. 

-I then pick foods for the rest of the week. Depending on how busy I am that week depends on what I make. (I get recipes form pinterest, all recipes, cook books and blogs).

-If i end up not using a recipe one week I bump it to next weeks menu planner.

-The meals are not set in stone for the day it is written on, I mix them up during the week.

-I am not a fan of processed foods, so I cook with lot of produce. During the summer I go to farmer markets, local farms or my mother in law.

-Once my menu is planned, I look to see what I need to get at the store and put it on the bottom of the chart.   

- I only buy whats on my list with few exceptions. Doing that and having a menu for the weeks saves us time and money. 

This seems like a lot, but it's not and it's super easy to do as long as your recipes are organized. 

If you would like a copy of this chart let me know and I will email it to you.  

*I saw a chart similar to this in a friends blog. I could not find it tonight. It is where I got my idea to do this and changed the format to fit my needs. 

For the Week of:                                                 :

	Breakfast	Snack	Lunch	Snack	Dinner	Notes
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

Groceries Needed: