I recently put a new use to my Google Calendars app. I turned one into an interactive Monthly Meal Planner, grabbed my html code for the widget and added it to my blog. Now everyone can see what's cookin' in the South Shore Kitchen!
A very good friend of mine (Hey Khriss!) gave me a fabulous idea to add the recipe of each day's meal into the calendar. Why didn't I think of that? However, seeing as how most of the recipes will be posted in the blog, I ran with her idea in a whole different direction and decide, "Hey, why not just include the shopping & pantry list to the calendar description instead?" So I want to say "Thanks" to Khriss for plugging your fabulous idea into my brain! haha! (I will hop onto that task in a jiff.)
Ok so back to the Menu Planner. Not only does a monthly dinner plan save time in the kitchen but it helps save on impulsive spending at the grocery too! When your meals are planned in advance, you then know exactly what should be jotted down on those nifty little magnet grocery lists that you never use, but have set on the side of your fridge, and you "Save Money" too because you're sticking to your list!! Right?? haha! Ok, we stick to the list for the most part!
(Click image above for larger view)
Menus aren't hard to make. As a matter of fact there are many websites where you can print free monthly calendars to pencil in your meal plan! For your convenience I've listed a few websites below that I've used in the past. A few of these offer Chore Charts too!
Give it a Personal Touch!
If you'd prefer to generate a calendar where you can type out your meal plan as pictured above try
CalendarsThatWork ! This site is awesome! Not only was I able to import my Google Calendar "Menu Planner" (to save myself from retyping everything), but afterwards it gives you the option to view your ready to print calendar in Microsoft Word where you can change the font, color, and add clipart to give it your own custom touch before sending to printer!!
Now let me see about updating my Google Calendar Widget on the sidebar to include shopping lists for this month's meals!
P.S. "FFYS" stands for, "Fend For YourSelf"! It's a little acronym we adopted from our good 'ol friends Eva, Bryan, Brennan & Jenna!! The kids love FFYS Nights because they get to choose what they want to make themselves for dinner on these nights when the kitchen staff is off-duty being lazy. These are perfect nights to serve up your leftovers from the past week so make sure you incorporate FFYS nights into your monthly menu plans at least every seven (7) days!!
2 comments:
Love it! Your blog is so cute!!! I'm going to have to revisit this post and see about making one for myself. I do my menus once a week, but I imagine that will have to change when life gets crazy and I have kids!
Fabulous!
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