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How To Use Pinterest When Making A Menu Plan

PINTEREST-MENU-PLAN

Do you find yourself pinning a bunch of great looking recipes on Pinterest, but then never get around to actually making them? Do you want an easy way to streamline menu planning each week? Then this post is for you.

I don’t know about you, but the weeks that I actually take some time to make a menu plan go so smoothly compared to when I don’t.  It is a great feeling to know exactly what foods I plan on making each week, and it saves so much money in the long run, as it keeps me from quick grabbing food on the go or running to the grocery store several times a week.  When I know the recipes I am going to make, and make a grocery list to make sure I have the groceries on hand, then making meals actually becomes an enjoyable process!

Pinterest is a GREAT way to not only find great recipes, but to simplify the menu planning process.

Most of the recipes I use are either on my blog or on Pinterest, and I am always wanting to try at least one or two new recipes a week.  Using Pinterest for menu planning helps me to easily find and gather recipes from both sources.

I simply made a board titled Recipes To Make This Week. This is where I will gather ONLY the recipes that I plan on making that week.  I then go search my own New Nostalgia board and New Nostalgia Food board.  This is like my own personal recipe box.  My blog is full of recipes that I love and use often, so it makes sense for me to pull from there first.  I then go to my Recipes: Menu Plan board.  This board is where I pin recipes that I am craving, or recipes I find that look so good that I want to make them ASAP.  The last place I search for fun recipes is among all my other Recipe boards, that are sorted alphabetically according to food/cuisine type.

Pinterest-Recipe-Boards-organize

How To Use Pinterest When Making A Menu Plan

  1. Make a board titled Recipes: To Make This Week
  2. Make a board titled Recipes: Menu Plan
  3. Gather pins from New Nostalgia board and New Nostalgia food boards. (a shameless plug!)
  4. Gather pins from your general recipes boards…or come visit mine.
  5. Put ‘must make soon’ type recipes in your Menu Plan board
  6. Put ONLY recipes you are committing to make for the week in your Recipes: To Make This Week board.

Once I have all of my recipes for the week gathered on my Recipes To Make This Week board, I then make a grocery list by clicking on each one and making sure I have all of the ingredients on hand.  If I don’t have it, it goes right on my grocery list.

Reminders-app-menu-plan

I use the Reminders list app on my iPhone, I type the list, then go check my cupboards, speaking to Siri to add anything I am missing.  I also use Siri if I am out and about and remember something I need to add to my list…this is especially helpful when I’m in the car! I simply say “Reminders Grocery List” and she will then ask me what to add to that specific list, I answer, and she adds it for me.

It saves paper and I can access it on my laptop and on my phone.  I usually do this while at home on my computer, but the beautiful thing about this is I can do it all on my phone while sitting in my car waiting for my kids! I can access all my Pinterest boards, and gather ingredients I need on my Reminders app. It is such a timesaver.

I do not get so detailed as to assign each day of the week its own meal and recipes.  I just gather a few  meals, snacks, & breakfasts, enough to get us through the week. My mood can change each day as to what I feel like eating, so I try to just have a handful of recipes that make pretty balanced week. To do this, I am purposeful to keep in mind a variety of meals.

I talk about having general recipe dinner categories during the week (fish, pasta, chicken, breakfast for dinner, meatless, one grass-fed ground beef recipe, etc) in this post if you would like to read more on that subject.

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What about you? Do you use Pinterest to menu plan? Do you have a method that works well for you? Was this post helpful?

 

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  • AmyT
    January 26, 2016 at 12:14 am

    Hey Amy ! I am doing similar planning style and have my several food boards. What I’d like to do is sort them by main dish vs sides and I now have a salad board but it’s not updated and would like to make a soup one. I will check out that app. Sounds better than how I do it now which is to copy and paste ingredients list into my notes and then go check to see what I need. I do find that making a good menu plan takes time but this is the healthiest, most efficient and most flexible method. I’m the same with mood changing from day to day so having a handful of options but loose definition on what days we make it helps. I was copy/pasting recipes and like the idea of board for keeping them avail without having to remove them from Pinterest for reference. I have found Pinterest a godsend for menu creation too. Happy planning and thanks for the tips. Good one!

    • AmyNewNostalgia
      January 27, 2016 at 12:22 pm

      Hi Amy! I like your way of doing things and yes, the simpler the better! Pinterest is the best!

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