Add recipes that you want to try to your planner.You can serve Lemon Chicken twice, but the second time, serve it with potatoes instead of rice pilaf. Or Meatballs can be used for Sweet and Sour and then later in the week for Hoagies. For example, BBQ chicken on Wednesday can become BBQ chicken pizza on Friday. You can vary the sides or the appearance, but left-overs save time and money. I like this method, because then I can incorporate seasonal foods and my menus for July are distinctly different from the ones for December. Then, you can bring it out a year later and have something to work from. Or, at the end of the month or week, file the planner away until the next year. You can make three months worth of planners and then rotate them throughout the year. Your meal plan can be reused from month to month or week to week.The planner gives you a starter list that you can add to or amend to fit your needs. This will give you a start on your list of meals and you can add to it when you find new things. Make a list of everything you like to cook or everything you have eaten in the last month.My wife has graciously provided the following tips meal planning tips, including ideas for how to use the meal and menu planners. Click on the little filter arrow and uncheck the "-" option to temporarily hide the unneeded rows. Go to Data > Filter to add a filter on this column. Here's how: First, select the Qty column, beginning with the label "Qty" and ending with the last line of the list. Printing a Grocery List: When using the "Menu Planner with Grocery List" template, instead of printing all 3+ pages in the List worksheet, if you want to print a grocery list containing only the items you need, use the Filter feature. Doing so will mess up the formula used to create the dynamic named range which populates the drop-down lists. You can delete and remove rows, sort, and do pretty much whatever you want as long as you don't delete cell A1. I designed the lists to be as easy to edit. Right-click on the Planner tab and select "Move or Copy" and select the "Create a Copy" checkbox. That will let you store multiple weekly or monthly meal plans within the same file. May this year be a wonderful one filled with great food and family fun, too.The items in the list like are used to make it easy to see the different categories as you are scrolling through the list.Įxcept for the version with the grocery list, you can make copies of the worksheet. Every week, I join wonderful food bloggers to share our favorite easy recipes. So there are tons of fabulous meals there to get your started. Here’s a link to our Meal Planning Made Easy page, too. Add it to your planner, pin to your bulletin board, or attach to the front of your refrigerator as a reminder. Just click HERE for your free copy of the meal planner printable. So to ring in the new year, I’m sharing my meal planner printable to encourage us all to get more organized in the kitchen, stick to our budgets, and get creative with our groceries to cook up something new in 2016. Knowing what you’re cooking for the following week helps better plan your grocery shopping, which can save tons of money, and keeps you from standing in front of the freezer or pantry staring at frozen pork chops or imagining just how creative you can be with a loaf of bread and one can of green peas. And, even better, makes me feel a little more enthusiastic about cooking in general– which makes my family happy because they like takeout every now and then, but they’d rather enjoy a meal at our own table that’s homemade. So I’ve found keeping a meal plan each week saves time and money. However, when I do plan, everything goes much smoother. Yes, I’ve had a huge dose of reality since.īut I still love to cook and organize.
Years ago, when I first decided to resign from full-time teaching to work from home, I imagined a beautiful clean house and delicious dinners every night prepared and set on the table by little ol’ me. Save time, money, and keep organized with this free meal planner printable. Start the new year with an organized kitchen and meal plan to make things easier. Please see my full disclosure policyfor details.