menu planning via pinterest

for the last few months, i’ve been planning my meals three weeks at a time.  i designed a meal planning sheet that lists days of the week with general menu ideas assigned to each day (mexican, pasta, something new, etc.).  the way i laid it out on the page, i could actually fit three weeks onto one sheet.  originally, i’d planned to slice the full page into thirds (one strip for each week) and print up a notepad’s worth, but the first time i wrote out three weeks, i realized it was just as easy to plan three weeks of menus as one week and then i was done for three weeks!  granted, we don’t stick strictly to the menu plan and i often forget to buy all of the necessary ingredients, so we end up punting anyway, but it is so nice to at least sometimes not have to ask the “i don’t know, what do you want for supper?” question at 6:15 when we’re all grumpy hungry.

i thought maybe some of you might like to try out my menu planning schedule, so i’m including it as a pdf here.  if you’d rather have a copy you can edit (maybe you don’t eat pasta at your house?), leave a comment here and i’ll e-mail you a copy in word (although the formatting will be screwy if you don’t have the exact same fonts as me).

what about pinterest? a)  i’ve been finding great recipes there b) i just recently realized that most of the recipes i discover in magazines (did i mention i have a magazine addiction?  thank goodness for the free magazine exchange bin at work!) are also available online and i can pin them!  no more sticky notes and paper clips and files and photocopies!  just pin the recipes and put the magazines back in the exchange bin!

so now, when i’m ready to plan menus, i just go to my pinterest “try this yumminess” page (plus the “favorite recipes i don’t want to lose” page and my regular paper recipe book full of family classics) and pick and choose stuff that looks good!

one of the blogs i read writes a “menu plan monday” feature.  would you like to see what i’ve chosen each week?