Hacking Meals: The Planning Folder
Posted on August 5, 2010 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Lifehacks,Organization,Simplification
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 20 seconds
I saw an article on a craft blog the other day about a magnetic meal planner: a place to keep grocery lists, meal plans and recipes all together. I looked at the craft and was disappointed in it because it was limited in scope and storage. But then I wondered why I couldn’t make one of my own. So here is my Meal Planning Folder.
Materials
For this project to make a two-week meal planner you will need:
- 1 plastic folder with brads in the middle to hold 3-punched items
- 10 plastic sheet protectors
- 1 pocket folder without tabs
- Tape, preferably packing tape
- 7 pieces of paper
- Inventory forms
- Menu planning forms
- A magnetic bulldog clip
Assembly
I assembled the inner pages of the folder first: 7 sheet protectors, followed by the pocket, followed by two more sheet protectors. I attached these to the three-hole section of the folder.
The front 7 protectors will hold recipes, the pocket will hold blank forms and notes, and the back two sheet protectors will hold my freezer and pantry inventories.
Next I filled the front sheet protectors with one sheet of paper in each. This is to keep the recipes for the days separate. I labeled each side of the paper with the day.
As a last step, I cut the three-hole strip from the remaining sheet protector and taped that to the front of the folder. Regular desk tape didn’t hold very well, so I ended up using packing tape. I slipped the current menu planning sheet in there.
All set to hang on the fridge!
If you enjoyed this post, please buy me a cup of coffee!
Comments (4)
This is great. I now have a meal planner. All I have to do is to really cook the meals. I need something that would really help (I think “push” is a much better term) me to cook other than the constant whining of my husband about takeouts.
I’d say take it easy on yourself. Getting over the inertia was easier when I cut back what I was making. Simple meals that took almost no cooking. (I love my crockpot – so many things I can dump in and forget about!)
Next Wednesday I will be reviewing a cookbook that does make it very easy…check back!
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