HOW I DO IT: MEAL PLANNING FOR 2

I am going to start a new series called "How I Do It". I got the idea from one of my all time favorite bloggers, Sweet Southern Prep, who I have followed for years. She started her series of "How I Do It" back in 2012 and I have loved reading them, and I look forward to watching mine change over the years.

So today I am going to share how I meal plan for 2 (I am secretly excited to, Lord Willing, see what number this will eventually change to in the future once we have a full family!) I tried and loved the website Plan To Eat, but didn't want to pay for a service like that when I could spend an extra 5-10 minutes and do it on my own. They have a 30 day free trial, so give it a try to see if it works for you.

I just started meal planning this way back in December, and it really works for me, so I'm sticking to it. I used to dread meal planning, but now I look at it as a way to serve my husband, save us money, and try new things in the kitchen. It's all about what kind of attitude you have towards things, and when I think of meal planning in those ways I look forward to it and enjoy it now.
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First off, I start meal planning on Thursdays, usually, and finish up on Friday nights. I meal plan for the following Monday through Sunday (ie. 3/22/16 - 3/28/16).  I'll share in another post how I grocery shop. I meal plan through a spreadsheet. My husband is an accountant, so it only makes sense that I use Excel. ;) I just used a calendar template and edited it to my liking. Here is what one looks like before I go in and add meals/notes. I had some extra time on my hands one night so I edited each month color wise!

I love the extra space to add notes. So if we'll be out of town or have company coming over one night then I'll add it in the notes as a reminder. 

The sheets at the bottom are color coded each month as well. Each month has an extra sheet, and that is where I add each recipe.

I saved this spreadsheet on Google Drive for a few reasons:
1.) I can just pull it up on the app on my phone or tablet while I'm in the kitchen cooking. This saves me SO much time instead of searching for the recipe on Pinterest or flipping through cookbooks.
2.) I can pull this app up on my phone right before I go to sleep at night and check what I'm making for dinner the next night to see if I need to set anything out the next morning or start the crockpot before I leave for work.
3.) I also like having all of the recipes that I have tried in one place, so that if we liked it and I decided to make it again I know exactly where to find it.

This also helps with making my grocery list because I have everything in one place. So when I get ready to make out my list I just go through each recipe and mark off anything I already have. So easy, and only takes a few minutes. I mentioned that I start meal planning on Thursdays and finish on Friday nights...that is because I like to check my list with the stuff in my pantry to make sure I'm not buying something we already have. So usually by Friday nights I have confirmed that my list is ready to go.

Here is what February looked like with my meals and notes added. Not sure why the first week is blank, I think I forgot to save it after I finished meal planning that week....mental note: always save it before closing out lol.

Usually recipes I find online are for more than 2 people so I either freeze the leftovers we don't use, or I try to use it in another meal. That's not always easy and sometimes, as much as I hate it, plans change and I end up throwing the last little bit of leftovers out. If you look at Wednesday, February 17th you'll see that I made a meatball casserole, well that made a big dish, so I took leftovers for lunch on the 18th (it says "out" because Matthew went out with clients) and then on Saturday, the 20th we used the rest of the meatball casserole to make meatball subs. When we first got married I tried to be super wife and make a new meal every single night, not only was that expensive but we ended up throwing out so much food because we couldn't eat all of it before it went bad (insert palm to forehead.) I hate throwing out food, because you are basically throwing money in the trash.

I pull recipes from Pinterest, family recipes, cookbooks, and different blogs. There are SO many resources out there, so get online and explore them or get recipes from different family members! Recipes on my Pinterest can be found here, here, and here.


Please don't think that I have meal planning all figured out and that we follow it 100%. There are still times were I have everything planned and we only follow 3-4 days of our meal plan for that week. Like I said, plans change, we get sick, or we just aren't feeling what's on the menu that night and order pizza. My way of meal planning may not work for you, or you might think my way is complicated, but it works for me. If you have any question, feel free to contact me!

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HOW I DO IT: MEAL PLANNING FOR 2