How to Meal Plan for the Month Using Pinterest

What’s For Dinner?

That question used to drive me to a near panic as I searched through the fridge & pantry with no direction and depressing hope that I’d find enough pasta and some sort of jar sauce to appease my family. That was BEFORE I started my weekly, then 2 week, now MONTHLY meal plan using Pinterest.

Can I just say- GAME CHANGER!

Meal time is NOT stressful anymore. It all started with my BFF Pinterest.  Let me show you how I started. It’s really SIMPLE &  has truly changed my life.

First, if you haven’t been living under a rock for the last 4 years, log onto your Pinterest account, and if you HAVE been living “off the grid,” go sign up for a free account for goodness sake!

Create Your Boards

These are the boards that work for me.

Recipes to try: include all those DELICIOUS recipes that you haven’t tried yet, but want to make.  Actually CLICK on the recipe.  If it’s a dead link or has some CRAZY ingredients you never have on hand don’t bother pinning it!  Only pin recipes here that you plan to actually MAKE!

And the rest of the boards. This has been my life changing organization tip for making meal planning easy (and kinda fun when you don’t have a screaming toddler holding onto your leg).

Mine include the following:

•   Main Dishes  I LOVE
•   Desserts I LOVE
•   Sides I LOVE
•   Baking I LOVE
•   Soups & Salads I LOVE
•   Apps I LOVE
•   Slow Cooker Recipes I LOVE

After you have cooked one of the meals you previously pinned to “Recipes to Try” decide if you love it or not.

If not, DELETE that dud! If it’s love, move it to the correct category.

Easy enough?  This is where it gets GOOD!  There is ONE more important board you need to create:

Recipes for the Month (or week)

Throughout the week, move recipes over to this board so that planning is easy on Sunday (or whenever you plan). Start SMALL- just start by adding these new boards to your account. It will take awhile to get all your recipes ORGANIZED. But once you do, it is so easy!

Creating a Meal Planning Calendar

After I have picked & “pinned” all my favorite recipes, I use a calendar to write in all the plans we have for the month so far.  This may mean transferring events from a school or sports calendar or from your phone onto one main calendar. If you have a kid’s sports event or late work meeting, then you know to make something easy or in the crock pot that day.

I plan for meals 5 days a week. That allows one day for leftovers and one for eating out.

After that, fill in all those DELICIOUS meals you pinned on Pinterest. I TRY to do this during nap time throughout the week.  Pro tip: USE A PENCIL!  I rearrange my meals all the time because of my cravings that day, a time crunch, or other various factors.

Make Your List

As you fill in your calendar, make your list as you go!  This saves SO much time when you go to get your groceries (or order them online like a meal planning PRO)!  Make a master list of all nonperishable items.  Under that number the weeks and write anything perishable under that week’s groceries.  I go for a large trip once a month and a QUICK trip once a week to stock back up on fruit & veggies and other things my family has quickly devoured (think snack bars).

The LAST step is ORDERING your groceries ONLINE or picking them up at the grocery (so old school but still works!)

I also LOVE shopping at Costco so I don’t run out of staples. I’ll share my online ordering tips & Costco favorites next time!

To get you started, you can hop over to our Pinterest page and see how the boards are setup. Don’t forget to follow us!

 Hi! My name is Allie and I am an organizing assistant for Simplify in Style. I am a Kindergarten teacher and mom of 2. If you would have asked me if I would be organizing homes 5 years ago, I would have laughed.  The need for & joy from organizing came when my first child was born.  Type-A teacher & mother meant either a stressfully hectic home, or an organized life! Organized living it was!