About me...

Just a quick insight into how I do my meal planning... hopefully you enjoy Pinterest as much as I do because it's my greatest tool for success when it comes to dinner.

I get most of my recipes from Pinterest. When something yummy pops up I pin it right away under dinner. When it's time to plan a menu, I just go to my dinner board and decide what sounds easiest, cheapest, and fastest. I hate recipes with a bjillion ingredients, especially things I won't ever use again. I stick with recipes that use up what I already have in the fridge, what is already in my food storage, and what is on sale that week. Pretty much planning a menu is a hobby for me. I spend a lot of time looking through recipes, and ads, and writing grocery lists. It's super fun for me. haha

Once I decide what to make, I move the recipes into my "This week..." board. This way I don't forget what the heck I'm making that week. I don't know how many times I have purchased things for a specific dinner and then forgotten what it was for. I love that I have all of the recipes in one place and I just have to decide which one to make because I have all of the ingredients for them all. Pinterest keeps me organized.

After each dinner is made, I move the recipe to 1 of 3 boards: "My faves- dinner", "Tried recipes", and "No thanks".

What do these labels mean...
My faves- I will make this dinner again, and I usually leave a little comment about any details I may have changed and how much my family loved it.

Tried recipes- Made it, liked it, but not enough to make it anytime soon.

No thanks- I will never make this recipe again. Either the recipe was too complicated, took up too much time with little flavor payoff, or it tasted nasty.

I'm starting to get a good stash of recipes on "My faves-dinner" board so planning a menu is even easier because I have already made the recipes before and know my family loved them, I just have to pick one.

Hopefully this makes sense and is kind of useful. I would love to hear how everyone else makes a menu. I have a hard time planning my menus by day. Like "I'm making this on Tuesday", and so forth. I just don't know how our schedule will change during a week. If you have a system, please share.