August 10, 2008

Meal Planning

I have found that for me to keep my family eating healthy I have to plan ahead. Which means each week I spend about 15 minutes and write out a menu for the week and a shopping list.
Recently I acquired a laminated weekly meal planner and it has been great. I am usually good about planning out dinner, but I am really bad at getting a variety when it comes to snacks and breakfast (we eat way too much cold cereal). This planner has really helped.
I use a Vis-a-Vis pen, so it wipes clean with water. I generally plan out breakfast, dinner and a snack for each day and I try to vary the food groups. If we have fruit with breakfast then the snack is typically a vegetable. The dinner days often get switched around, because I don't always like what I picked for dinner, but the general calendaring helps.
Here is a sample of our week:
The second thing I made on our computer and it is a weekly food planner on one side and shopping list on the other. It is very good for keeping your shopping list organized and I like having the menu on the other side as a reference.
I keep it posted on the fridge and add to it during the week.

1 comment:

Heidi said...

I love it, so much I googled it and found this free download
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC010183031033.aspx
It isn't quite as nice but it will do. I'll just slide it in a sheet protector and use it the same way.
Thanks for the great idea!