the meal planner

So... it will always be going through changes, but my meal planning binder is done. I'm always interested when people come up with new organizational tools and I'm fascinated by housekeeping binder-type things, but I always want to know more about exactly how people make them and use them on a daily basis. So, I'll show you exactly what's inside my binder and how I use it.

I used to love cooking. I still do. At least I think I do, but at this stage in life I don't have time to plan or cook elaborate meals. It will probably be this way for several more years, so I need an easy and consistent system for planning meals, controlling the grocery budget, and keeping cooking relatively simple without getting bored of the same recipes all the time. Enter my creation, the meal planner! I could have gotten fancy and spent money on a pretty looking binder, but this was sitting in the basement with our office supplies and the whole point is to save, not spend, money- so, here she is and she looks just fine.

Her tabs are pretty.

Inside, there are tabs for categories of recipes. I combined all the recipes I use most often in the binder, so there will be no more searching cookbooks, recipe cards, or my computer to find things. I either printed out, typed up and printed, or photocopied the recipes. They're in page protectors so they won't get too worn or ruined by splatters. This is the best part of the binder, because it makes it so easy to find and reference recipes. It's no longer a hassle to see what I can make. Also, all the recipes are vegan so I'm not searching through things trying to think of what is or isn't vegan and what Chris and Celia would like.

In the very front of the binder before the recipe tabs, I put monthly menu plans. I decided to try planning a month at a time because it will save time over sitting down every week. I may even start doing two months at a time. This way I'm also not reinventing the wheel every week, because I can see the big picture and plan patterns and repeat meals into the schedule. For example, there are a couple of staple things we'll have every week and a short list of other meals I can pull from. When I want to try something new I still can- I'll just plan it into the schedule ahead of time. I circle special events or do-ahead tasks (like making something to freeze for the future) with a colored pen so they stand out. I also plan to keep old monthly menus to reference for ideas. In the front of the binder are sticky notes with shopping lists I'm putting together for the following week.

To make the meal plan easy to reference, I write a week at a time on a magnetic notepad that stays on the refrigerator. Each day I just check that to see what I'm making. I've already planned and shopped for whatever it is, and if prior preparation was involved I've already planned that in somewhere and it's done.

It was quite a project to put this together, but it's already proven itself worth the effort. It makes planning meals, grocery lists, and referencing recipes so much easier. When I'm ready to plan, I'll sit with one of my calendar pages and plan out the month. Then I can start shopping lists, quickly referencing the recipes in the binder for the ingredients needed. Everything's organized and in one place, and seeing a month in advance helps me plan occasional grocery trips to places I don't normally shop at, like Whole Foods. I can go once a month or so and stock up on everything I'll need for the upcoming weeks.

I hope this crazy over-organized system of mine will be easy enough that I'll stick with it and won't get stressed or spend too much time with planning or cooking once the new guy arrives!