Easy Meal Planning Calendar

How is your weekly meal planning going? At this time of year we tend to feel overwhelmed with all the holidays coming up trying to plan out all of our meals and thinking about all we have to do. I have a system to share with you that I've been using for over a year now and can highly recommend for it's easiness and flexibility.

I've been meaning to share this for a while, but since I forgot to it's given me more time to use it and be able to tell you with 100% certainty that this is a simple system that works and I love it.

Let's start with what I'm using, a year ago I went to Staples and picked up this dry erase Martha Stewart Calendar. I chose to go with a calendar that was sticky back because I wanted to have flexibility to where I would stick it, but a magnetic calendar would also be a great idea. I really like this one. I went with the full month because I was worried that a week calendar would block me from planning in the future; I like to think big picture.

So how do I use the calendar? Once a week I sit down and write down my ideas for the next weeks worth of meals, if things change it's super easy to erase and move (or just draw an arrow). I also write down activities that will affect our dinner plans, but not all our activities because then I wouldn't be able to clearly see the meal plans. As I put each idea on the calendar I add the food I will need to buy to my shopping list. And that's it, done.

If I'm trying a new recipe I'll add the page number to make it easy to find on that day. I also tend to color code and mix up the colors each month, but that's just my preference, do what you think looks good.

On my old fridge I had it stuck to the side of the fridge, but when we got our new counter depth fridge (I talked about it here) it naturally stuck out less and didn't leave me enough room to stick the calendar in the same spot. Therefore it got moved to the side of the microwave, which mostly works except when little hands reach up to touch it, luckily Carolyn is pretty obedient and leaves it alone.

 

This is the best picture I could find showing where the calendar was on the old fridge.

 And here is it's new home on the microwave.

On the fridge I have one of those little locker organizer magnetic containers to keep the dry erase markers and erasers in.

Some of my favorite meals to make are:

• Fajitas
• Spaghetti Squash (recipe here)
• Chickpea Curry (recipe here)
• Sliders with homemade sweet potato fries
• Salmon & Veggies
• Pasta w/Veggies
• Stuffed Bell Peppers

This really has been a great system for me because I used to mentally meal plan and then by Thursday I'd be stuck, I couldn't think of what I wanted to make for dinner and you know how the story goes, I'd look in the fridge and have no ideas so we'd eat take-out. Now I can look at the calendar in the morning and see if I need to thaw anything frozen or start something in the crock-pot. We eat way less take-out now and feel a lot healthier!

Sorry I don't have much more to say about it, it's simple and easy and gets the job done. :)
Do you have any good systems that work for you? I'm always looking for good solutions to the daily tasks to make life easier.