What's for dinner? - Meal planner

Some time last spring I got tired of always rushing dinner cooking. I was fed up of never knowing what to make, and the food we made was boring. So we did something about it. My FIL feed the kids when they come home from school, so they weren't exactly starving when it was dinner time, either.

I started to cook everything from scratch (well, uhm, I don't hunt or have chicken in the garden so I don't grow it myself, except some veggies during summer), which mean basicly every dinner is made from fresh veggies and herbs, and preferably fresh meat and fish, too. Home made food tasts so much better - and the kids love it, too.

Decoreted front page containing last week's dinners

Usually I spend about an hour to cook dinner. The kids do homework while they wait for it to get ready. As I work full time, and hubby often work the late shift in his store, I need to plan the dinners so I don't have to go grocery shopping every day. Honestly, I think the dinner planning saves us both time, and money, in the long run - and the food is probably much healthier, too.

I have had grocery lists, and recipes, all over, and I wanted to get more organized. I found a cheap binder at a local store, with room for an insert at the front, and I made myself a dinner planner:




Binder with fron page insert.
Patterned papers, cut outs etc: Michele Singh for CSI (CSI coordinates #38)


As you see the front is covered, so I don't have to worry about stains on my pretty front insert (unless somebody (like me) spoil 1/3 gallon of milk on top of it). I also sewed a plastic pocket onto the insert, so I can replace the week menus easily.

I use simple plastic protectors for my recipes - since they are in a binder they are easy to move backwards during the week.

And the hubby? He's all happy! Some weeks he has plenty of time off, and he's then the one in charge of both dinner planning and grocery shopping :-)


How do you organize your cooking?