How to Make a Meal Plan and Comprehensive Grocery List

Shop efficiently with a list based on your family's weekly menu plan.

At last, you figured out what to make for dinner to satisfy all your picky eaters – only to find you need to make a last minute trip to the grocery story for the ingredients. End the dinnertime scramble and rushed trips to the grocery store. Simplify menu planning and organizing grocery shopping with a simple system customized for your family.

Things You'll Need

• 3-ring binder
• Sheet protectors
• Notebook
• 8.5-by-11 inch paper

Instructions

1. Make a family recipe book. Use a plain 3-ring binder to organize all your family’s favorite recipes. Transfer recipes scribbled on slips of paper and snipped from magazines as well as your favorite online and cookbook recipes to letter-sized paper. Slip the recipes into page protector sheets to shield them from cooking messes. File the recipes in a binder. When your family gets bored with a recipe, pull it out and replace it with a new recipe.

2. Set up your weekly menu. Make a simple chart with days of the week and a slot for the meal. Start with slow cooker recipes for busy days with little meal preparation time. Save meals that are more complex for weekends or days off. Restrict your choices to recipes in the family recipe book. Once the weekly meals are penciled in, start working on the grocery list.

3. Keep a notebook for your grocery list on the kitchen counter. When you get low on something, write it in the notebook. When it’s time to prepare the week’s grocery list, grab your recipe book and notebook. Transfer every ingredient for every recipe on the menu that week to the notebook. Don’t write everything down individually. If several recipes need onion, write onion once and mark how many you need next to it with lines.

4. Go grocery shopping in your kitchen and pantry -- before heading to the store. If the kidney beans for Tuesday’s casserole are in the pantry, label the can with a permanent marker. It will help organize preparation as well as keep your shopping list organized. Cross items off your list as you go – you may find that half the shopping is done before you get to the store.

5. Write the final grocery list on the next page in the notebook. To save time at the store, organize the list by aisles in the store.

Tips & Warnings

• Keep your weekly menus in the recipe book and soon you'll have a library of menus that will make meal planning a snap.

References

• Good Housekeeping; Menu Planning: How 15 Minutes Can Save You Hours Each Week; Lorie Marrero