One of my very special gifts that decorate our kitchen is a handmade Menu Planner from our daughter Melanie. Isn’t it gorgeous? Thank you, Melanie!
The need for a meal planner
There are people who are so good at planning anything and everything, and then there are those who find planning what’s for dinner to be harder than actually making the meal. I’ve wanted to do menu planning for a long time. Like most families, we have some favorite meals, that are mostly simple family recipes. With a history of picky eaters, most of our recipes aren’t online – so trying an online service had no lasting success for us.
Stephanie Langford’s book Plan It, Don’t Panic: A Complete Meal Planning Resource was very interesting. It is great for people who get all their food from a grocery store and can plan a month in advance. However, I did not stick to it. I explain in my post: 7 proven steps to feed a family on a budget, that things do not grow and ripen according to our meal plans, they just ripen whenever the conditions are right. We prefer to make a meal from what is grown or is on sale. We needed a plan that was flexible and a bit more fun too. Strict planning is not so much my thing.
The handmade meal planner
Then I saw this wonderful Menu Planner at heartlandpaper. I thought this was a great idea and the free ‘days of week’ template was easy to use. We went shopping with the instructions and my creative daughter put it all together for me as a present. Now, this is a planner that looks beautiful and feels like fun doing. Two important factors for someone like me.
The planning
First I wrote down a list of all our favorite recipes. Then Melanie wrote all the names (well, some recipes do not have real names) on the paper slips, including ones such as Dine Out, Wild Card, Try Something New, Leftovers, and Specials. Then we planned our first week. I also like Heartland papers advice to sit down with the family once a week to plan the meals. I’m curious to see how it will work in everyday life. Maybe it is the real solution to our menu planning.
Simplified update
After using the planner for a while, I have come up with a simplified version. I just have a few categories and lots of options for the days of the week in each category. For example, on Monday I make some kind of dish that goes well with rice or has rice as the main ingredient. I can go with seasonal vegetables of all sorts, or use canned or frozen veggies in the winter. Sometimes I buy veggies if they are on sale because they are in season somewhere else. This works better for us, as we grow what we eat and eat what we grow, even if we can’t grow everything our self.
Hope this gives you an idea what a meal planner of a ‘not so planned person’ looks like, read more here. However you would use this planner, it is a beautiful art in the kitchen.
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This is super cute! I love it. Very nice and special gift from your daughter.
What a cute Menu Planner!!! Thanks for stopping by my DIY blog hop!! 🙂
Thank you Melanie, glad you like it. would love to see you on here again!
I absolutely LOVE that Menu Planner! How fun! We currently just use a big wall calendar (Where we put everything else we are doing) for where we write in dinner. We were doing great until September started. For some reason, the August page got ripped off and no one planned out dinner for September! Although planning it may take a little bit of time, it is so nice to come home and not wonder what is for dinner because you have already decided! Plus, it helps with creating those grocery lists or simply shopping from your own pantry! Thanks for the post – 🙂
Glad you like it! I too love it to have meals all planed, however we did not do well with planing in the summer either. Summer here is so short and it seams like there is so much other things to do.
Anna! I love this idea. What a great way to plan your weekly meals. I wish I had this when my kids were still at home. Thanks for sharing at Throwback Thursday.
xoxo
Denyse