My Menu-Planning System...for now!

How long have I been cooking meals and I am still on the hunt for the 'perfect system'? Someday I hope to find that perfect system, but in the meantime, I enjoy trying new techniques to make my meal-planning easier. I used to use a big calendar for planning my meals and record what I would serve daily. My frustration was that often I wasn't home to cook what was on the calendar or we had leftovers that I wanted to use up. It left me with a calendar of good 'ideas' but uncooked meals. Often I would re-copy the menu onto the next week in hopes of using those recipes then.
My new system consists of a 4x6 recipe card that I fill out at the beginning of the week with meals that I could make for the up-coming week if my days went according to plan! I paperclip this card to the bottom of my calendar. If some meals need fresh ingredients to make that dinner, I write that on my grocery list as well as on the 4x6 card. As the week unfolds, I look at the card to see what my choices are to cook. (I usually try to include 2 easy dinners, a harder one, a new recipe to try, and fill in the rest with old stand-bys). After each meal I write on the calendar what I made. Recording my menus after the fact allows me flexibility yet gives me direction. Last night we had leftover lasagne from Monday night's meal. Tonight I can choose a meal from my 'card' according to how my day looks. At the start of a new week, I look back on my card to see what I didn't make and transfer those choices to a new card for the new week if I still want to make that dinner. I toss the old card and can look back at the calendar as a reference to what we actually ate and can plan accordingly for the future. My calendar is accurate without any changes and I am in control of planning my meals around my family life.

Women aren't in the kitchen as long any more to have time to plan and prepare an exact meal everyday. Be wise and keep that in mind as you think about setting up new systems.

Keep evaluating your present systems. Are they working for you? If not, go for plan B. There are so many ideas to be shared, pick a plan that works for you and your family. Try it out and see if life doesn't get abit easier.