Menu planning has always been a pretty big deal at our house – even when I had less kiddos to cook for. I enjoy the process of menu planning to an extent (finding new recipes, dreaming about how much my family is going to love the meals, etc.), but it is a big chore that typically takes several hours to complete.
I’ve also found that no matter how great my plan, it ALWAYS changes. I have to cross things off the list, move them to another day, or sometimes just skip the meal altogether. After reading Mystie Winckler’s Paperless Home Organization, I decided it was time to ditch the pen and paper when it comes to menu planning and find a better way.
(See my full review of Paperless Home Organization HERE.)
Mystie introduced me to using Google Calendar to handle my menu planning, and I LOVE IT! It has fixed a lot of the issues I was having with menu planning, and has simplified the process altogether.
So, let me share how I do it…
I use Gmail, so the calendar is built in to my email program, and I have it set up to sync to all my devices (my phone and my iPad – this is important for reasons I’ll explain in a moment.)
If you click the squares in the right hand side of your Gmail screen, you will get a drop down menu in which you will find your Calendar.
A large calendar pops up and you can add all sorts of things to it. I have a household calendar, a blogging calendar, an appointment calendar, and my menu planning calendar. I usually have all of them together where I can see everything at a glance; however, you can turn on and off whatever calendars you would like. You can also share the calendars with anyone who has a Gmail account. When I am menu planning, I usually keep all the calendars on, so I can see what might be coming up that week and plan my meals accordingly.
I only put in lunch and supper on my calendar. Breakfast is almost always the same – whatever you can find! Actually, I keep cereal, bread, yogurt and fruit on hand as our staple breakfasts every day but Saturday, when we make a bigger hot breakfast.
As I work through my Pinterest boards and cookbooks, I am able to add the meal to the calendar and add a link if need be into the description section of each calendar item. (Read more HERE about how I do this – you will notice I was not using Google Calendar when I wrote that post.)
I can also make notes and set timers for anything I need to do to get the meal ready…thaw meat, start sourdough, etc. I can set the calendar to sound an alarm, put a pop up on my screen, or send me an email. This is a great feature for me because I am forever sidetracked it seems!
The great thing about syncing the calendar with my phone and iPad is that I can use those devices in the kitchen to cook. I can simply click on the link in the calendar and it opens up to my recipe! If the recipe isn’t online, I can make a note of what page and what cookbook it is in.
And the best part? If I don’t use a meal that day, I just drag and drop it to another day! It really has taken a lot of the headache out of meal planning for me
If you need a little more information on using Google Calendar itself, Mystie has a great tutorial to help you:
And if you are interested in learning more about managing your home in a paperless way, take a gander at Mystie’s ebook Paperless Home Organization!
Belinda Letchford says
I am so excited to read this … really! I have just moved to google calendar – in fact we are moving the whole family there (adults and older teens). It has been fantastic to communicate to each other when our plans involve or interact with another family member. My husband and I share our calendars with each other too which is great.
Anyway… menu planning. I’ve tried a few different ways to go paperless (and I’m going to read those links you shared here in a minute) and nothing has worked but I can see google calendar working for us too. Not only that I will be able to assign to my kids their recipe for the night that they cook! love it!
Thanks for sharing.
Jessica says
What a great idea! I thought it was great just at using the Google calendar so you can drag around changed meals, then adding the link…genius! But the real lifesaver for me will probably be setting reminders…time has a sneaky way of disappearing around here 😉
Rebecca says
Can’t do without my paper and pens/pencils. I am just not connected enough to a phone or ipad and actually dread when I have to get in front of a computer to check email or do something related to home schooling record keeping or trying to find something. Pinterest and surfing and eliminating emails is a huge time suck for me. I can’t imagine that this would be any different. Besides that, I have a “dumb” phone that just basically calls/texts and that’s it. Nothing fancy, which I’m glad of. I guess I’m stuck in my rut and okay with it!
Tanya says
I like menu planning as well, although I don’t follow a rigid schedule for our little family. For lunch I almost always have leftovers. For supper I only plan the meat part so that I have a little bit of play, so that if I can do what I feel like having for veggies,etc. On Monday we always have sausage, Tuesday steak or roast. Wednesday soup, Thursday chicken, Friday leftover chicken or steak/roast usually in a stir fry. Saturday is an easy supper, it might be macaroni or hamburgers on the grill with fries, or something similar. Sunday is always soup. I find with 3 little’s under 3, I have to keep my meals simple otherwise they won’t like it, and the easiest way to get them to eat veggies is to mash them through their food.
🙂 I always enjoy reading your posts!
Adina Campbell says
I’m gonna have to try this for sure. I know I need some help with my meal planning. If this makes it easier then I need to check it out! Thanks.
Rachel says
I’ve been doing this for years, and I love it! For me, it’seems a great option because I keep a spreadsheet for my grocery inventory (what I am willing to buy, what we have, and my buy price). Since I use that spreadsheet and the sales circular to for my shopping list, meal planning electronically as well just makes a lot of sense.