Menu Board

Okay, I came across this menu board idea on Pinterest.  If you've not heard of Pinterest, where have you been?!  Just kidding.  Pinterest is a site that "lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes."  So, it's basically virtual bulletin boards.

Someone else actually posted it on Pinterest and it showed up on Facebook, which is where I saw it originally.  After following the link, I discovered there was so much on Pinterest that I could use, so I signed up, and then pinned the site where this menu board was created.

We used to spend hours trying to think of meals for the week.  I mean, it was EXCRUCIATING!  I had tried a couple of sites where there are already menu plans created for you, you just print it out with the ingredients and recipes.  Those each worked for about one week, until we realized we don't like any of their recipes. So we were back to sitting down with our recipe book, cookbooks, and the computer, to find any recipes we could that sounded appetizing.

Until I saw this idea.  I have to say, this has literally revolutionized the way we plan our meals!  Here's a picture of my finished product:

This board uses little cards, with a dinner meal listed on one side, and the ingredients on the back.  To plan meals, I take cards from the bottom box, place them in the clips on the board on the days I want to have that meal, and then write out the ingredients on my shopping list. That's it, I'm done.  When I'm ready to plan the next week, I remove the cards and put them in the top box.  This way it rotates through, and then I start over when the bottom box is emptied.

To set this up I went through our recipe files and collected all the recipes we use that are "keepers", which made me clean out my recipe binder in the process, discarding any recipes that were not "keepers" (I mean, why keep them if they were awful?).

Then I created a table in Word with two columns.  I put the name of the recipe in the left column, and the ingredients needed in the right column.  So when I print it out and cut out the recipes, I can fold them over onto themselves.

I followed the directions on the original blog to build it.  I bought an 11x14 frame, and a scrapbook paper pack that has coordinated papers and stickers, for $5 each.  I also bought a couple boxes of 16 count crayons for the boxes.  I already had self-laminating sheets on hand for the cards.  However, after laminating a bunch, I realized it wasn't necessary and it was more time-consuming, so half of my cards are laminated and half aren't.

To design it I just used different papers from the scrap pack to fit on the mat inside the frame.  I also covered the crayon boxes with more paper, and used some sticker borders to trim them out.

I'm so excited I got this done!  I still have a few recipes to add and print out.  I also made a couple cards that say "Eat Out" for lazy special occasions, and "Try New Recipe" to mix things up.  If the recipes work, I'll make new cards for those, too!  Another option I'll be adding is cards for lunches, since I frequently draw a blank when it comes to figuring out what to have for lunch.  Then I'll add a third box to hold those cards.

So that's it!  If you want more details on how to create it, I encourage you to visit Claire's blog, where I got the idea.  I do not want to pretend that I came up with this on my own, because God knows I'm not that creative! 

Do you have a method that works for you?  What is it?