Family Meal Planner

When I'm getting ready to go grocery shopping, I always sit down, make a menu, look at the ads, and then make my list from that information.

Well, I don't know about you, but I have more than one cookbook I use on a regular basis...a favorite recipes binder, a church cookbook, and couple others that I love. This means that when I sit down to make my list, I'm pulling out a stack of cookbooks to go through to find a specific recipe and the ingredients required.

So, I decided to do something about that. I came up with "The Family Meal Planner", and I love it! I got that stack of cookbooks out, found all of the favorite, tried & true recipes our family eats the most, and got to work. Now I can just pull out my meal planner, decide what our menu will be, and have a ready list of ingredients all in one place.

Initially, I was going to use 3x5 cards, which I still think would work well. However, my lovely printer wouldn't accept that size of paper, and although I could have made it work with a lot of effort, I decided to opt for 4x4 pieces of cardstock. I love anything square though, so I'm glad it ended up that way. I also designed it so I can add a new recipe on at any time.

ITEMS YOU NEED:

• cardstock
• scrapbook paper, and coordinating papers
• cookbooks, favorite recipes
• silver clasp ring
• distress ink
• ribbon

DIRECTIONS:

• Open a blank Word Document. I formatted it into 2 columns, and fit 4 recipes per page.
• Print onto cardstock.
• Cut into 4x4 squares, with one recipe per square.
• Cut your scrapbook paper into a 4x4 square, and embellish as desired. Distress edges.
• Using a hole punch, punch a hole into the left corner of each square. To make sure all the holes are in the same place, try this: punch a hole in the first square, then place each additional square one at a time underneath that first square. You will be able to then punch a hole directly over the top of the original hole.
• Stack all your squares together, and place on silver ring.
• Tie ribbon on ring.