Every year I promise myself that I’ll get more organised with my weekly meal plans but never do. This year I’ve actually done it and it has been so much simpler than I imagined. In the past, I’ve been so disorganised that I ended up going to the supermarket every day because I couldn’t think of what to make. Sound familiar? If you’ve ever struggled with making weekly meal plans, then this idea is for you.
I have about 10-15 everyday recipes that I cook often but I can never remember them when I need them. Or I remember the same few and get stuck in a rut. And besides they’re scattered all over the place – some on my blog, in cookbooks, on pinterest, on scraps of paper torn out of magazines or in my head. So I always end up wasting time finding the recipe.
I first thought about making a weekly meal planner but that would still mean sitting down every weekend and thinking about what to make, which kind of defeated the purpose. I then realised just having my regular recipes right in front of me would be the be the easiest way to make my weekly meal plans. I spent some time over my Xmas break making these recipe cards. It took me a while to make but it’s now saving me so much time. I’ve printed out 15 of my favourite go to recipes with ideas on what to serve with each dish – which has always been another cause for pain.
If you want to make similar recipe cards, create A6 (105mm x 148mm) sized boxes in word, powerpoint or whatever program you use. Type up your recipes in these boxes and print on marble effect card. For similar card, my UK readers can find them here and my US readers here.
I chose not to include pictures but you can do that too. I found the A6 size perfect as they are small enough to store easily but large enough to hold all the info even for some of the more involved recipes.
Now that I’ve got these recipe cards all I do is look at them every weekend, choose a few dishes and do a quick online shop or make a quick trip to the supermarket. These recipe cards have made my weekly meal plans so easy, I can’t even tell you. To ensure I don’t get stuck in a rut, I’ve decided to add at least 2 new recipes to my stack each month. Who knew that printing recipe cards could make life so much simpler. I’m just thinking why didn’t I do this years ago?
What type of letter are you using for the recipe name?
Hi Ximena – the font I have used is called Black Diamond. It’s a beautiful font! It’s not a free font so you need to buy it to use it. Hope this helps.
Thanks!
Fab idea! I’m so rubbish with meal planning too although I keep meaning to get organised with it. Going to look for these recipe cards – I also think if you compiled your own cards as a little recipe e-book for a download on the blog, that would work wonders too 😉 x
Thanks – and thanks for a great idea for a recipe e-book. Might just do that. My planning has been transformed just by having these recipe cards to hand. It is so much easier – I still can’t believe it. I really wish I had done this years ago xx
Hi, This is a great idea…do you mind sharing your template?
Hi Yoji – Thank you! And yes, I would be very happy to share my template but in this case there isn’t really a template. When you take away the recipe, there is just a blank A5 marble effect card. All did was change the direction of the text for the name of the recipe – you can do this in word or powerpoint. I prefer powerpoint as it’s easier to control. The only other thing I did was insert a line between the ingredients and directions – this line moves with each recipe depending on how many ingredients there are so therefore even this can’t be inserted in to the template. And finally I centre aligned all the text for the text for the ingredients and directions to make it all look nice! I hope this helps. Nomita
Hello, what font did you use for the recipe directions? It looks so clean! Thanks.
Hi Melinda – I used Century Gothic which is a standard font so it’s on all computers. Hope that helps! Enjoy making the cards.