Think meal planning is too time-consuming? Meet the Meal Planning Binder: your ultimate shortcut to organized recipes and stress-free weekly menus!
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Creating a Meal Planning Binder
With a growing family and a growing to-do list that just seems to get exponentially bigger each day, I always enjoy finding more and more ideas to make our lives a little more organized and easier. One area that I seem to always struggle with is meal planning. Even with the various solutions I’ve come up with for meal planning (seasonal, bulk buying, etc.), it’s always seemed like I need a little something more to put it all together.
Thus, several years ago, TheMeal Planning Binderwas born.
I have a ridiculous love of binders and notebooks. I’m sure my husband thinks it’s some kind of obsession, and maybe it is! On the dining room table, on the kitchen counters, and on my desk, you can always find a plethora of binders and notebooks filled with thoughts and ideas. I also have binders with schedules for blogging, work, and daily life. It just makes sense to have one for our meals as well!
Supplies for a Meal Planning Binder
You don’t need a bunch of fancy or expensive supplies to get your binder started.
Just pick up:
- a heavy-duty 3-ring binder (I use a 3-inch binder, it’s big!)
- a 3 Hole Punch
- a pen
- and your favorite recipes.
How the Meal Planning Binder Works
Print out your favorite recipes. The ones you have saved onPinterest, the ones you’ve bookmarked from various websites, or the ones that you have saved on your computer. You can print a few new recipes if you want. Mostly try to stick to the tried and true recipes that you know your family loves. (For meal planning balance, we try to use no more than one new meal idea a week.)
You should also add recipes that you don’t print off the computer. For these, I will use an 8 1/2 by 11-inch piece of paper (so it’s the same size as all the rest) and write down the recipe that is in my brain or from a favorite cookbook or type it up and print it off like the others.
In my Recipe Binder Printables Bundle, there are special pages with “recipe cards” to write down all of your favorite recipes.
You can also tear recipes out of magazines and put them in the binder.
Meal Planning with a Meal Planning Binder
Now, here’s how meal planning with your binder can be so simple!
At the beginning of the week or the month, open up your binder, pull all the recipes out, and lay them on the floor. Pick out which recipes you want to make for your family that month. Place them back into the binder in the order you plan on making them. Separate the rest of the recipes that you don’t plan on making that month back into their respective categories in your Recipe Binder.
If you have my Recipe Binder Printable Pages, you can put all of the recipes you plan on making behind the “Recipes For the Week” page in your binder.
Once you’ve done that, you can easily see all the recipes you plan on making, as well as the ingredients. Go through the recipes and make a grocery list of the items needed for the week or month.
This entire process can take less than 30 minutes. After that, you will have all of your meals planned and your grocery list made! This really is the easiest method of meal planning there is; we love it!
Tip: If you are new to meal planning, you also may want to take a look at my ebook, Meal Planning Made Simple.
Using a Meal Planning Binder
Now, the best part! Store the binder in your kitchen so that each morning you can grab it and see what you are making that day. You’ll quickly be able to see if you need to start thawing any meat or get anything going in the slow cooker.
Want a different recipe that day, or do you need to change it around? Simply move one recipe in your book to another place. All your recipes are right there in the binder. You don’t have to waste time chasing them down or trying to figure out what is for supper. I know this has saved our family a huge amount of time and frustration!
We can always add to our binder when we find more recipes that we love. Once you’ve got your basic family favorites saved in your binder, you’ve got the hardest part of meal planning done. AND you know your family already loves the meals you are planning!
Looking for a lovely way to create your meal planning binder? My husband and I created these fun Old Fashioned Recipe Binder Printable pages in both blue and red. These are what I use to organize my meal planning binder and keep track of all of our favorite recipes.
The printable bundle includes everything that you need to create a beautiful Meal Planning Binder and keep track of your recipes. It also has a bunch of printable helper pages that are useful when you need substitutions, preserve foods, and more. Check it out here.
Have you tried this method of meal planning yet? Do you have a meal planning binder?
Merissa Alink
Merissa has been blogging about andliving the simple and frugal life on Little House Living since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to freedom on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from theContact Page.
This blog post about the Meal Planning Binder was originally posted on Little House Living in August 2014. It has been updated as of February 2024.
