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Tips and Tools for Meal Planning–2015 Edition

Published on April 15, 2015 By Emily. Updated on December 31, 2015

Way back in 2011, I wrote my first post about my meal planning process.  Since then, I’ve planned a lot of meals, tried a lot of new recipes and grown up a little bit.  It’s no secret that I love menu planning – I post them here regularly (they’ll resume when our CSA shares do in June) and I talk about it all the time.  That said, I’ve been slacking since the end of our CSA season…and we’re really feeling it.  I am so over wondering what’s for dinner every night.  I really don’t know how people do it, I survived about a week before I started planning again.  I’m just a planner.

Tools & Tips for Menu Planning

The Tools

Menu Planning Spreadsheet

Google Drive with the Vertex42 Perpetual Calendar Template

As I’ve written before, I use Google Drive to organize a lot of things in my life.  I use the calendar template to sketch out what I plan to cook.  The nice thing about having the whole year before me in one place is that I can plan far in advance.  If I see something I really want to make, I add it to my calendar for sometime in the future.  This eliminates those new recipes from getting buried under other recipes and makes future planning even easier.

Evernote

The obsession continues (See more Evernote posts here, here, and here).  I use Evernote primarily to store recipes I’ve clipped from the internet, though once in a while I create a note for something else.  At this point, my note count is 3,470.  I credit Evernote with making my menu planning as easy and fast as it is.  In addition to the notebooks and tags I’ve set up, I can search by keyword.  So, if I know I’m getting a bunch of radishes or tomatoes at the CSA or that cheddar cheese is on sale at the supermarket, I can find recipes that will utilize those ingredients.

Screenshot_2015-04-15-19-44-43

Our Groceries App

Once upon a time, I wrote about the app GroceryIQ.  A while back, the app or my OS was updated and after that it kept crashing on my phone.  I’ve switched to Our Groceries, which is overall very similar, but it doesn’t crash, always syncs and makes it easier to type your own names for items.   I have several lists for various stores (including Target and the hardware store).  I’ve shared the lists with Brian, so either of us can add to it at any time.  I love using a grocery list app because I can add items that I’m waiting to purchase until the price is right and don’t have to worry about losing the paper that includes items I didn’t pick up when I was at the store.  That, and I can send Brian to the store at a moment’s notice.

Trello-Web-Macbook-Pro

Trello

Trello is one of my new favorite things.  Trello is a project manager on which you create boards for different projects, add lists to those boards and then put cards on the lists.  I’m finding it really helpful for creating overviews of multifaceted, long term projects.  I’ve created a Home board and shared it with Brian and one of the lists on the board is going to be a freezer inventory, which will help with planning and budgeting.

Supermarket Circulars

I’m less strict about checking out the fliers on the day I receive them than I used to be, but I definitely still use the weekly fliers to inform my menu planning.  Once you’ve been planning and shopping for a while, you get a good sense of what the average prices are and what a good sale is.  The fliers definitely don’t impact my planning as much as they used to, but if a specialty item is on sale it might make a difference.

My Menu Brainstorming Planning Printable

I created this printable to help you all follow the basic method I use when I plan my menus.  I think about what I have on hand, what I need to pick up from the CSA or various stores based on what’s in season or on sale and then list what I’m going to cook each day.  Click the link above or the image below to find out more!

Get-my-menu-planning-printable.jpg

Some Tips

  • Spend time now to save time later – Menu planning takes time.  Sometimes it takes me much, much longer than I expect.  That said, I save so much time during the week when I make sure there’s a plan in place.  I have all the ingredients I need, I plan leftovers or easy meals for busy nights and it helps me stay on schedule by not resorting to eating out.
  • Check your stock before you plan – I’ll be the first to confess that I’m still pretty bad at this. But if you want to make sure you don’t waste food because it’s spoiled and don’t want to accidentally end up with 5 bags of frozen corn in your freezer (I’m speaking from experience), check what you have before you go to the store.  That’s the idea behind the whole first column of my brainstorming printable.
  • Use that stock to plan – this may seem obvious, but planning around the foods I already have helps me stretch my creativity in the kitchen and reminds me of special ingredients (Arborio rice, anyone?) that I’d like to use.

Previous Meal Planning Posts on Relishments

Creative and Healthy on a Tight Budget, a guest post from my friend Caleb

What I Cook When I Can’t Really Cook

Making My Menu Planning More Efficient

Please share – what are your favorite tools and tips for menu planning?

This post includes affiliate links.  Thanks for supporting Relishments!  Trello image provided by Trello.

Related Posts

Old and New, a Menu Plan
Catching Up (CSA Menu Plan #37)
Menu Plan 10/19-10/25
TECH: My New Task Management Tool: Todoist
Did you enjoy this post? Share it!

Filed Under: menu plans, technology Tagged With: evernote, menu, organization, trello

« Highlights: Spring 2015
Cheesy Potato, Spinach and Egg Breakfast Casserole »

Trackbacks

  1. Get Started Menu Planning -- with a Printable! | Relishments says:
    October 7, 2015 at 8:22 pm

    […] written a bunch about all the tools I use for menu planning: Evernote, Trello, and Google Drive, among others.  It recently occurred to me however, that all […]

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Emily
Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring Last week Brian and I finally got around to hiring a sitter for a rare night out. We went to dinner at @publicna and took advantage of the opportunity with drinks, appetizers and dessert.

Pictured:
- Citrus Braised Beef Tacos
- "Chicken and Waffles"
- House Fries with Garlic Aioli
- Fried Chickpeas
- Blood Orange Cheesecake
It was no surprise that Public was close to full on a Wednesday night - everything was so good. 

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#igers413_food #igers413 #BerkshireFoodies #InTheBerkshires #EatLocal #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #NorthAdams #NAmazing #PublicEatAndDrink
New year, new theme word! This year's word is "enr New year, new theme word!
This year's word is "enrich" and I'm really excited about it.

I've written more about this year's theme on the blog. Click in the link in my profile or follow the link below to read the post.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/my-2023-theme-word-enrich/
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#YearlyTheme #MyOneWord #2023 #enrich2023 #NewYearsResolution
It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post. It's It's not New Year's Eve without a Top 9 post.
It's almost all #Berkshires content this year, which is great.
1. A pasta salad reel that took longer to create than the recipe took to make.
2. A reel from North Carolina where I could have watched birds all day.
3. The @thelazygenius book giveaway.
4.@plantconnector 
5. @berkshiremuseum 
6.@sculpture.now at @themountlenox 
7. @massmoca 
8. @mountainviewfarm413 
9. The #AshuwillticookRailTrail
New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year' New on the blog: My 2022 reflections on last year's theme word - resume. 

I was able to get back to many activities that were meaningful to me this year and I'm calling this theme a success. Follow the link below or click the link in my profile to read more.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/reflections-on-resuming-in-2022/
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#resume2022 #newyearsresolution #myoneword #yearlytheme
New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022. For New on the blog: My Favorite Recipes of 2022.

For the fourth year, I've recapped the best new (to me) recipes I made this year in the hope that they'll give you some new dishes to try. This year's list is short, but delicious. It includes @budgetbytes My Favorite Recipes of 2022
Published on December 30, 2022 By Emily. Updated on December 30, 2022

It’s hard to believe that 2022 is basically behind us. Though overall this year found me getting back to the person I want to be (post-babies and “post”-pandemic), I did not try nearly as many new recipes this year as I used to. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I’d made note of any new-to-me recipes I wanted to share in this post. This year’s list is short, but delicious. It includes recipes from @budgetbytes, @smittenkitchen and @howsweeteats.
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Read the post by visiting the link in my profile or 
https://www.relishments.com/blog/my-favorite-recipes-of-2022/
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#RecipeRoundUp #BestRecipes2022 #FavoriteRecipes
@coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one @coastalmainebotanicalgardens continues to be one of the highlights of all my return trips to Boothbay and their annual Gardens Aglow event continues to impress. It was great to be back to walking the gardens instead of the pandemic drive through and there seemed to be more lights than ever.  I'm already looking forward to next year.
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#Boothbay #BoothbayMaine #CoastalMaineBotanicalGardens #GardensAglow #BotanicalGarden #MidcoastMaine
It has been a while, but there is finally a new CS It has been a while, but there is finally a new CSA menu plan on the blog! Visit the link below or in my profile to see how I plan to make use of some of the @mightyfoodfarm produce seen here.
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https://www.relishments.com/blog/welcome-to-winter-farm-share-csa-menu-plan-148/
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#MightyFoodFarm #EatLocal #EatSeasonal #VermontGrown #CSApickup #CSAshare #KnowYourFarmerKnowYourFood #MenuPlanning #MealPlanning #igers413 #igers413_food #BerkshireFoodies
Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but t Fall in the Berkshires is always incredible, but this year we've had weather that has also been outstanding. The past 2 weekends have included time at Jaeschke Orchards, the Greylock Glen, and the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail as well as stopping to photograph any random foliage I see. 
Check out the last slide for video of some feathered friends we saw on a walk.
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#igers413 #InTheBerkshires #EatLocal #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #FallFoliage #FallColors #autumn #AshuwillticookRailTrail #JaeschkeOrchards #GreylockGlen
@freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favo @freshgrassfestival continues to be one of my favorite events each year, and it doesn't hurt that it's just minutes away from home. Enjoying the festival with my kids is definitely a different experience than without, but it's still a good time. The weather was especially cooperative today which was great for all the laps I did around the @massmoca campus pushing a stroller. I'm already looking forward to next year.
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#igers413 #InTheBerkshires #WesternMA #WesternMass #Berkshires  #VisitTheBerkshires #NorthAdams #NAmazing #FreshGrass #FreshGrassFestival #MassMoCA #MusicFestival
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