What do you use to plan your meals?

[TJ's Mom]

I have found a website called onceamonthmom. This is a website for freezer prep. It is helpful for when our schedules get busy.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

Now that DS has moved out and DD 26 has a real job and social life, about once a week at dinner I announce a meal planning sessions. I have been planning, shopping, and cooking for 28+ years so I ask for help. We all sit down together and plan out who will be home and who has meetings, etc, and then plan meals. Makes life easier.

DD and I are eating low carb so use that cookbook for inspiration.

 

[StanH]

I use pepperplate.com to store my recipes and plan meals. I love it. I usually plan meals on the website and then use the app on my ipad as a cookbook in my kitchen. The shopping list stinks, but I guess you can't have everything!

I use this as well. Works great.

 

[EmJay2001]

I used to use Plan to Eat, which is a website where you pay $5 a month to have all your recipes online (with a quick import button on your toolbar to automatically add a recipe from another website) and then you just plan all the meals you want to make for the week: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc. It creates a shopping list for you and I think also lets you put reminders on the calendar portion, e.g. "Thaw chicken for Wednesday" etc. I stopped using it because I am on a major college budget and I had to trim down every little extra expense. I liked it because of how automatic and easy it was to use, and it also supports a family--it is their small business venture.
The best part about it was the shopping list creator. The only thing I really hate about planning weekly meal plans myself is looking at each day and adding all of the stuff up (e.g. 1/2 cup milk in Monday's recipe plus 3/4 cup milk in Tuesday's recipe, etc.) Plan to Eat automatically adds all that up for you so you know how much to buy when you go to the store.
They do have a free trial and I think the ability to pay for the year at a discounted rate. There is also a tour on the website if anyone is interested.

Thanks! I am going to try it out, looks very interesting.

 

[Mom_Rides]

I start by writing out the days of my menu on a piece of notebook paper. Then I look at the calendar and take note of what we have going on during my planning time (stepsons, dance, football games, family events, etc). Then I go to the freezer and pantry to see what we have on hand and make meals out of those items. Then I ask DH and DD for input of what they want and take at least one suggestion to add to the menu.

After menu is complete, I complete my shopping list based on what I need for the meals. This way really works for us and helps to keep me within our grocery budget.

 

[SaraJayne]

I have a huge cookbook collection (1,000+) so I have lots of inspiration but lately I have been pinning everything I find that looks appetizing to Pinterest and then going through my boards to see what strikes my fancy. I put a Pin It button in my browser so I can pin anything.

I have also found that I get lots of yummy recipes from Tasty Kitchen which is part of the Pioneer Woman's site.

I shop twice a week so plan half a week at a time ~ weird, I know, but it works for me.

Oh my goodness! I would love a home where I had room for 1,000+ cookbooks! Or just books!

I have some of Ree's other recipe's (and like them) so I will check out the link. Thanks.

 

[worm761]

I have a three ring binder with all the recipes that we like in it. Though I do add to it frequently. I keep a list of all the meals that we like as an easy go to. What started out a few years ago as only a little more than 20 meals my DS would eat has quickly grown to over 60 different meals!

I look for inspiration from Pinterest. I like seeing what it looks like and there are too many blogs and recipe sites to go through them all.

We are starting a new budget this year and I am learning to menu plan for only a week at a time. First I take inventory of the pantry and freezer. I look at what is on sale and compare that with my recipes. Then I make a list, make a grocery list, and then add the menu to the family calendar.

 

[Buckalew11]

I cook a lot of Pioneer Woman's recipes (and use Tasty Kitchen also--great to search for ANYTHING!). 99% of her stuff is a hit but it is not food we can eat everyday--we'd be a big as a barn! lol Her family is out working on that ranch so they can do it more often probably.

I also use Melissa D'Arabian's cookbook, website and hints for keep costs down. Probably a lot of common sense things but I did not know them! I would have never froze ginger or bacon before.

My favorite part about eMeals is #1...my family has really enjoyed almost 100% of the dishes I have made. Haven't disliked anything but also had a few things that did not go into the "favorites" either.
#2...you can chose family plan or 1-2 people plan. This helps with portions. #3...there are many different plans (low carb, low fat, clean eating, paleo, etc.) and you can try a different one each moth if you wish. #4...they have a blog, facebook, and pinterest and keep in touch with you those ways which are nice extras.

I've done it for 1 year come February and I plan on doing it again. They usually have a groupon (or other) type of deal also.

 

[ilovepcot]

My method is wildly expensive and very time consuming. DH and I wake up and decide what we're in the mood for that particular day. We'll usually take a look online at several of our favorite cooking sites, decide on something and take off on a shopping trip...usually a store 40 miles away. Yep...expensive in time and cost but cooking has become his new hobby and we're both having fun with it.

 

[dizcrazee]

This is a great topic with a lot of excellent ideas! Thanks, everyone! Years ago, we created what we call a "master list" in a Word document of the food items that we use. There are two versions of the list - one is a list of menus, broken into breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and snacks, and the other version is a list of ingredients/food staples, broken into categories like fruit, vegetables, dairy, breads, cereals, pork, beef, baking supplies, etc.

Each week we first go over the list of menu items and plan our menus for the week. We do add menu items to the master list when we come across a new recipe that we like. We plan our menus based on four things - what we already have on hand, what is on sale at our grocery store, what we have a taste for, and what we have the preparation time for that week.

Once we have our menus, we go over the list of ingredients/food staples and add anything that we are out of or that we need for that week's menus.

We also have a master list for household staples such as cleaners, toiletries, paper products, etc. We go over that list each week and add the needed items to our grocery list as well.

This works very well for us!

 

[CaliBear]

I use the sale page each week to help plan. I jot down items on sale- and keep a stock of frozen meat- then make a plan for the week based on a combo of what I have and what is on sale.

As for how I organize my recipes, I have a Winnie the Pooh recipe box that came with a Mother's Day Pooh bear back in the 90s. It was a gift to my mom, but I have the recipe box now. I printed cute recipe cards from one of the creative board threads and have Aladdin, Pooh, Mulan, Stitch, Mickey etc etc etc recipe cards. I love them!

 

[Fortuosity]

use more of a "who" than a "what"
wife takes care of that stuff

 

[nancycg56]

Oh my goodness! I would love a home where I had room for 1,000+ cookbooks! Or just books!

I have some of Ree's other recipe's (and like them) so I will check out the link. Thanks.

Let's just say I have alot of bookcases

 

[tink20]

Planning meals in my house is a pain sometimes. DH is a fireman so he is gone every third day, DD works sometimes 4-8 (so I need to make something that she can reheat when she gets home) and sometimes she eats at her boyfriend's home or he eats here (they never let me know in advance) and the icing on the cake... DS is very picky (DH is a little picky)

Usually I don't plan more than 4 or 5 days in advance, but I don't work, so I can go to the store if needed. I do write down on my calendar what we have eaten and try not to repeat for a few weeks. I love crockpot meals and casseroles....so easy. I like to have 1 or 2 freezer or pantry go to meals....like spaghetti. Also, I like Allrecipes

 

[MariDisney]

I use emeals.com. I pay I think $30 for 6 months and get a menu with shopping list each week. I tweak based on sales and my family's tastes, but that's what I use for a starting point and probably stick to it 90%.

 

[Zandy595]

When the Publix ad comes out I look at the meat/chicken/seafood that's on sale and plan my menu from there. Even if they're not on sale, I usually buy chicken thighs each week because they're inexpensive and I can always figure out something to do with them.

Right now I'm using one of DS's recylced school folders to keep recipes in. It has ripped apart and everything falls out of it when I pick it up. For my bday my mom gave me a beautiful Vera Bradley 3-ring binder to transfer everything to, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. I really need to get at that.

 

[TLuvsD]

I read the ads when they arrive, and plan from there. Since D is in college, I have to figure out if she will be home or not (comes home on weekends at times). There are meals DH and/or I love that D doesn't like to eat.

I generally have sauce in the freezer, so pasta is always an option!

 

[Disney Doll]

I use my DH. He does all the cooking!

 

[tink20]

I use my DH. He does all the cooking!

Lucky girl

 

[lovetoscrap]

I realized that we really have about 60-80 or so different main dishes that we make. DH and I sat down and made a list of all of them. We are trying to eat healthy so I have taken out all of the really unhealthy options. Then I also took out the "fallback" meals-- tacos, spaghetti, hamburgers, a few soups and 2 or 3 other things that we can make with very little prep and the ingredients we usually have on hand. These are always there for a night we didn't take something out or are too tired to really cook. Then I sorted the list by the main protein type-- beef, chicken or pork (we don't eat seafood). I try to do a menu for at least a month at a time but at times I have been able to do up to 4 months at a time. I alternate the protein types because DH doesn't like to have chicken 5 days in a row!

I used to put these on a calendar with days and dates but realized that was too rigid for us so now I just have a page with 30 squares and I put the meals in. We may skip one night and have tacos instead but it doesn't throw the whole month off-- we just continue on with the plan the next night. I really only plan the main dinner entree for each night. If there are particular sides that go with that meal I will include them but my family likes things "plain" so usually I just grab a veggie and a starch based on mood and what we have already had that week. We keep a pretty well stocked pantry with the basics and we buy the perishables (bread, dairy, fresh fruit and veg) as needed and buy what fruit and veg looks best when we are at the store. DH or I can always run to the store on the way home from work if there is something we have to have and forgot to buy.

I keep a few open days in the plan for trying new recipes. I have an ongoing list of the new things that I want to try so I will pick something out and try it on a night that it is convenient for all of us. We always keep frozen pizza on hand in case a recipe is a complete failure! Fortunately we have only had to do that a few times. Once a recipe is "approved" it gets added to the master list and put into the regular schedule. If I am really organized I will go ahead and pull out all the recipes-- we keep them in a few different binders-- and put everything for the week together in one smaller binder so we aren't searching for recipes.

I don't plan breakfast and lunch- those are all pretty much "on your own" at my house. For school and work everyone has their own things they pack and no one really eats breakfast. On the weekends it is usually leftovers for lunch.


Pinterest has been so great for finding new recipes and keeping them organized. I actually have one board called "Recipes I have tried and like" so I can find the favorites quickly, and just this week made one for "Recipes to try this week" because I am experimenting with a few different new things for myself and wanted to get to them easily. I try to put my own comments on my Pins so that I am not relying on someone else's opinion or instructions. The favorites from Pinterest also get copied to Evernote. I also have MasterCook software that I am working on getting all my recipes put into. It syncs to an app on my Ipod so I have my recipes handy if I am away from my computer.