Menu Plan in Action

I finally have this up and running and thought I'd share!!  It turned out pretty good, although I don't think I'd print double ideas again.  It just makes too many magnets to find storage space for.  There are a couple that I would do twice, the ones that I know we eat often -- Hannah's cheesy rice being one!!  That child would eat cheesy rice everyday if I would let her :-)

After I came up with the list, I put it on a Word table and then printed it out on magnets sheets.  I have never done that before and when I went to get the magnet sheets, I got the thinner ones that say you can print pictures on them -- I think next time, I'll get the normal thicker sheets.  Anyway, learned a little bit, mainly, leave the paper on the bottom as you run it through the printer and help it along a little bit so it uses the whole sheet.  The first sheet I did I could only use part of it because it printed weird.  Oh well, lessons learned.

Once they were printed, I used highlighters and colored the categories I had decided on.  Then cut them out.  It took a little bit of time, but I was in a church board meeting, so had time to spare!!

Found some pretty paper tape at Target, it even matched my kitchen!!  Had to experiment a couple of times to get the dimensions right, but that wasn't too hard, just ended up cutting one of the tapes in half. 

All in all, this turned out to be a super easy and mostly inexpensive project.  I think it cost less then $15, and I have lots of tape left over and a bunch of highlighters!!

So here's the finished result!!

 

 



Food Plan

I've put a little more thought into this "plan" of mine and changed it up a tad.  Instead of printing on paper and taping to magnets, I'm going to try running a sheet of magnet through the printer and then taking a highlighter and coloring each square according to what category it fits into.

My categories are: Breakfast, Lunch, Pasta, Mexican, Sides (veggies go here), Soup, Complete Meal.  I put things like haystacks, burgers, hot dogs and such into the complete meal category, mainly because at our house it's pretty standard what we have with those things and I didn't want to take the time to write out all the stuff.  For example, haystacks, would have beans, chips, lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream, the list goes on and on.

I  decided to do two of each food - that way if I get really good and plan for several weeks, I'm not stuck moving the foods that we eat often.  (Hannah could eat cheesy rice every day!) I also left myself several blanks to write in foods and just now as I'm typing I think I'm going to add a couple more - one being leftovers and another cook for yourself and maybe eat out!  I also need to add one that says cafe, because when Kevin is on supervision we eat at the school cafeteria.  Hopefully that will take care of all the tweaking!!

Here's what I put into a Word document and am going to print on the sheet of magnet --

Bowtie w/Yellow Pepper & Dill	Bowtie w/Yellow Pepper & Dill	Buttered Poppy Seed Noodles	Buttered Poppy Seed Noodles
Spaghetti	Spaghetti	Lasagna	Lasagna	Stromboli
Stromboli	Gluten & Noodles	Gluten & Noodles	Mac & Cheese	Mac & Cheese
Baked Ziti	Baked Ziti	Fettuccini Alfredo	Fettuccini Alfredo	Lasagna Roll-up
Lasagna Roll-up	Haystacks	Haystacks	Burritos	Burritos
Tacos	Tacos	Fajitas	Fajitas	Tamales
Tamales	Mexican Rice	Mexican Rice	Enchiladas	Enchiladas
Sopas	Sopas	Chicken Noodle	Chicken Noodle	Potato Chowder
Potato Chowder	Lentil	Lentil	Potato Cheese	Potato Cheese
Poblano Potato	Poblano Potato	Minestrone	Minestrone	Tomato
Tomato	Vegetable Beef	Vegetable Beef	Lasagna Soup	Lasagna Soup
Chili	Chile	Vegetable Cheese	Vegetable Cheese	Cheesy Rice
Cheese Rice	Sweet Potato	Sweet Potato	Broccoli	Broccoli
Green Beans	Green Beans	Corn	Corn	Peas
Peas	Curly Fries	Curly Fries	Burgers	Burgers
Hot Dogs	Hot Dogs	Pierogies	Pierogies	Subs
Subs	Pizza	Pizza	Mung Dal	Mung Dal
Swiss Steak	Swiss Steak	Fried Gluten	Fried Gluten	Black Beans
Black Beans	Salmon Patties	Salmon Patties	Falafel	Falafel
Summer Sausage w/Fruit Tray	Summer Sausage w/Fruit Tray	Pinto Beans & Cornbread	Pinto Beans & Cornbread	Scrambled Eggs w/Rice & Tomato
Scrambled Eggs w/Rice & Tomato	Sweet n Sour Tofu Patties	Sweet n Sour Tofu Patties	Swedish Chicken Meatballs	Swedish Chicken Meatballs
Eggrolls	Eggrolls	Chicken Pot Pie	Chicken Pot Pie	Crepes
Crepes	Grilled Cheese	Grilled Cheese	Grits	Grits
Yellow Rice	Yellow Rice	White Rice	Cashew Loaf	Cashew Loaf
Corn Dogs	Corn Dogs	Turkey Sandwich	Turkey Sandwich	Chicken Salad
Chicken Salad	Pizza Rolls	Pizza Rolls	French Toast	Muffins
French Toast	Smoothies	Smoothies	Eggs	Omelet
Stripples	Stripples	Biscuits	Biscuits	Baked Apples
Baked Apples	Breakfast Patties	Breakfast Patties	Cinnamon Rolls	Orange Rolls
Toaster Strudel	Pop Tarts	Cereal	Cereal	Granola
Granola	Bagels	Bagels	Oatmeal	Oatmeal
Instant Breakfast	Instant Breakfast	Eat Out	Eat Out
Leftover	Leftover	On your Own	On your Own	Cafeteria
Cafeteria	Pancakes	Pancakes	Waffles	Waffles
Cottage Cheese Loaf	Cottage Cheese Loaf	Rice Cake w/PB & apple slices	Egg Gravy  w/Toast	Egg Gravy  w/Toast

These are mostly food that all of my family will eat or at least not puke at.  I would love to add some more -- so if you have any favorites, please pass them along!!  I love tried and true recipes!!

Now off to town to get some magnet sheets and something to use as tape on my frig, although for right now will probably just use blue masking tape -- Wish they made it in purple!!!