Meal Planning 101: Picking Out Your Recipes

Before you head out the door and scramble dreadfully travel to the grocery store, you must set out a portion of the day to work on your actual meal plan. I would suggest setting aside about 30-45 minutes a week to gather your recipes and make your list. I do my meal plan and grocery list the night before I go to the grocery store.

Step One: Gather your materials. I highly encourage you to use some form of calendar and list to plan your meals. I have provided a few pages that you may print out and use in the free printables section.

Step Two: Find the recipes for the meals that you are planning on cooking for an entire week. Keep in mind the amount of time you have each day to prepare your meals. I find a lot of my recipes off of pinterest and sites like the food network.

Step Three: Make your lists! Be sure to double check what you already have at your house. You don't want to spend any additional $$ on items you already have. I like to use both lists that I have above. It really helps make your trip a lot faster if you have all of your products categorized. You don't want to get to the last item on your list only to find out it's back on aisle 3 that you've strolled down 5 times already.

Step Four: If you are using coupons, go through your stash and clip the coupons that you are planning on using for your trip to the lists. This makes things much quicker when it gets time for checkout. 

Voila! 

Grocery List made simple! In my opinion, actually sitting down and picking out recipes it the hardest part. Especially if you are trying to please other people in your home. After you find a couple of weeks worth of recipes that work for you, reuse them!   

Be sure to check back tomorrow for tips on the actual shopping day!