Organized, and I Love It! My Menu Planning System

STEP 1: Choose a filing system.  For now I've got it all on index cards because they fit so nicely in this organizer thing that I bought at a yard sale about 100 years ago.  I'm so happy with the use that I FINALLY found for it!                You will have 3 things to file: Theme Lists, Shopping List cards, and 2-Week Meal Calendars.

Here's the inside of my organizer pouch thing.  The alphabetized tabs turned out perfect for my system.  I file my Shopping List cards* alphabetically (I find this makes the meals easier to find than filing them according to theme).  In the front there's a compartment for my Theme Lists*, and in the back, there's a compartment for my 2-Week Meal Calendars*.       (*shown below).

                       STEP 2:  Choose Themes.  You could choose 7-14 themes, and assign them to a day of the week, or just rotate them.  I just rotate mine.  I just added an extension card to my "Mexican & Misc." card because I've been learning new recipes, but later I'm sure I'll want to just separate that into two different categories.  Some other category suggestions are: Fish, Meatless, Kids' Favorites, Foreign Foods, Grill...  The important part about my theme cards is that I have a visible LIST, not just loose recipes to choose from.                       

Just a closeup of two of my theme cards.  My dots on the right side mean that we had them recently.  I want to do each recipe on the card before I use it again, then I'll mark them in a different way next time around.  When it gets too marked up, I'll either re-write the card, or come up with a different marking system.                   Another option I'm considering is writing my THEME LISTS on a full size sheet of paper, put it in a sheet protector in a binder, and then I could put removable stickers on the meals as I use them (with sheet protectors, stickers can be removable, or you could even use dry erase markers to make a check-mark or something.  When each meal on that theme gets a sticker/mark, then I'll take them all off). 

STEP 3:  Plan your meals for 2 Weeks.  These are my 2-WEEK MEAL CALENDARS.  You can see that I haven't chosen 14 meals for my 2-week span, because surely there will be a Left-overs Night or two in there, or a "We only have time for a 5-minute meal" Night so we'll just  insert Quesadillas or something in there.  For our family, planning 10-12 actual meals for the 2-weeks is enough.  I SAVE THESE, because someday in the future I'll be able to just grab a 2-week Meal Calendar and just re-use it AS-IS, or I can modify it slightly, and BAM!  Planning time is all done in 1 minute for that next 2 weeks!

I write my meal calendars on the cards that can be filed, but I also write the plan bigger on this mini dry-erase board on our fridge.  Now I don't have to answer the kids 5 times a day "what's for dinner tonight, Mom?"  They can just check the fridge.

 As a quick aside, I want to add a plug here for DRY ERASE CRAYONS!  (That's what I use on my fridge menu board).  They are AWESOME!  They won't ever dry out, and I think they're going to last 100 years!  They write beautifully on glass and plastic, and they wipe off dry or wash off completely with water, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them.  If you ever see some in a store, buy them, and you will love them too! 

STEP 4:  Make a Shopping List Card for each meal.  Notice:  These are generally not full-recipe cards.  For recipes that are found in my cookbooks, this is just a list of ingredients for the meal (the recipe location is referenced in the upper right corner of this shopping list card). 

If I don't have the recipe in a cookbook or other location, then I can write the whole recipe here, and this will just be my recipe card and shopping list card at the same time (the "R" in the upper right corner means this Shopping List Card is also the recipe itself).

The best parts about this system for me are:

1.  I do my planning and major shopping now only once every 2 weeks.

2.  We're saving money on groceries because I'm at the store less frequently.

3.  It's SO much easier for me to try new recipes now.
I used to avoid new recipes like the plague because we never had the right ingredients, but now I am using probably 3-5 new recipes every 2-weeks, and my planning ahead assures that we have all the stuff we need. Now we don't have to eat the same things all the time!  Even the kids are getting more brave about eating unfamiliar foods because we're discovering lots of yummy new meals.

4.  Now I am so much happier at pre-dinner time.  So much less stress!
Feeling less stress at dinner time makes me such a nicer person.  No more "I don't know what's for dinner and everyone's already hungry" worries.  

I'll admit, my planning sessions still take some work, since at this point I'm still in the process of making my shopping list cards during my planning sessions (I have just been making my shopping list cards as I plan the meals).  When those shopping list cards are all made, it will cut down my planning time considerably.  BUT STILL, this is only planning stress once every two weeks at this point, and no longer every night!

Please let me know if you have any questions...and good luck in your organizing endeavors!