Let’s Get Organized (Step 5)

Step 5 – Create A Meal Plan

You never know the value of a meal plan until you have one!

I don’t know about you, but the hardest part of cooking, for me, is figuring out what to cook and if we have everything needed to make it.

One easy solution to this problem- a meal plan!

Several years ago, a friend and I sat down one day a made the most awesome meal plan ever. We took a cheap photo album and some index cards and got to work.

We wrote the meal plan on the front of the index card and the ingredients and recipe on the back.

For example if you were having enchiladas the front looked like this…

And the back like this…

We wrote down a months’ worth of meals and separated them into 4 weeks.

For each week, we made one grocery list on an index card and put the items in order to save time at the grocery store.

We put our cards in the photo album and wrote on the plastic page of the album the days of the week. We put our weekly grocery lists behind the Monday meal card so when we needed it we could take it out and go to the store.

I loved this and I showed it to everyone who came over. I was quite proud of the work I had put into it!

I had taken the time to not only put my list in order by categories, but I had organized them in the order of our grocery store…AND THEN THEY REARRANGED!!!

I never updated my album and eventually quit using it but looking back, it was one of my most successful meal planning stradegies.

I now use Cozi
to do my meal planning which is also very easy.

You can only get this option if you sign up for Cozi
Gold.

First of all, add all of your recipes to the recipe box

Then all you have to do is drag and drop your meals onto the days of the week…

Finally just click on the recipe and select add items to grocert list and there you have it…a meal plan!

There are many different options in Cozi
. You can make different lists, rearrange them how you want just by dragging and dropping.

I know that I have said this before but…I LOVE Cozi
!

So now you have 2 very different options to create a meal plan…you better get busy!!!

Check out my recipes for picky eaters here

Do you have any different ideas for meal planning? Please share 🙂

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