Menu Planning... Part I The Never-Ending Search for the Perfect System

I have been on a mission for YEARS, attempting to develop the perfect meal planning system.  Sometimes it has been as simple as a shopping list stuck to the fridge.  Sometimes it is an elaborate make up of Excel spreadsheets, downloaded forms, massive recipe searches, and grocery shopping apps on the iPad.

The goals for our menu planning are (keyword here is "goals")
-to stay within our budget
-to eat healthy, eat together, eat at home
-to avoid eating junk food
-to have yummy meals

I love to try new recipes when I am in cooking "seasons".  But lately, I would say I have been in a cooking drought.  It's time for the recipe-rain to begin again!  In my dream-world menu planning system, I would shop for most things once a month, cook all my delicious, family-approved meals for the month, and put them in my spacious freezer. I already told you what really happens - "honey, can you pick something up on your way home from work?"

But my family is done with fast food, and we are literally starving for good nutrition again.  (Let me add here that our newest addition to the family, Baby Jack, is now 4 months old.  He is #7.  For those of you who have added children to your family, you know about the adjustment period.  A wise mother of 10+ once told me you don't get back to "normal" for at least six months after a new baby.  And even then your normal is a new normal, in my opinion.)  Okay, so we are ready for Mom to get it back together and menu plan again.

Our road back to Healthy starts with menu planning.  The most recent Menu Planning System is as follows:

Part One: The Menu Plan
1) take inventory of what we have on hand (would like an easier way to track pantry and freezer items and needs)
2) choose some of our favorite recipes based on what we have to use up
3) supplement those with more recipes, enough for two weeks (I shop for two weeks at a time currently) from our recipe notebook, the web or recipe books on hand. (The recipe notebook I have put together of family favorites includes side items and their recipes for each main meal.)
4) write it all out on these menu-planning forms from donnayoung.org (great site for planner printables!)

Part Two: The Grocery List
1) select all the needed items from an Excel spreadsheet, sort the list by store (I often shop at 3-4 different locations, including coops and online), and print the lists (This Excel sheet has been a labor of love over time.  It includes prices and price per unit for comparison on hundreds of items.  So, I am able to watch how much I will be spending as I add to my list.  Helps me stay in budget.)

Part Three: Shopping and Beyond
1) power shop at all locations usually on one day.  ARGH!  I despise Costco on Saturdays.
2) put away all groceries
3) eat fast food this day because I don't have energy or presence of mind to cook something.

Part Four: Meals
1) make about half the meals on the two-week recipe list because of poor food prepping and time planning

Changes to make:
1) find ways to save time in each step of the process
2)  find better ways to implement and stick to a menu planning system
3) find a way to shop and do food prep in one day
4) plan to do once a month, or at least once every two weeks, cooking
5) find ways to avoid the most stressful question I am asked every single day - What's for dinner?

I love this little prize floating around the internet. Makes me laugh every time I see it.

Source: sphaha.alone.at via Patrice on Pinterest