Today is Monday and I am back at work after the longest shortest weekend.  It wasn’t a long weekend, no holiday, no extra days off or anything.  The weeks before were hectic, we had a long 4 day weekend, me and the kids going out-of-town Fri-Mon, coming home to a husband out-of-town, me working on Tues.

Off Wed, taking my nieces and kids to OMSI & going to grocery store for upcoming camping trip.

Working Thurs (husband is still out-of-town till upcoming weekend, when I will be gone again) only to come home and pack for camping.

Work all day Friday, longer than expected, pick up boys. Stop at grocery store for three needed items (water, ice & newspaper), 40 minutes & 3 bathroom trips later leave store with water, ice, cookies, rice krispie treats and one missing shoe (no newspaper to start camp fire, but I did get a paper bag so it worked out).  Stop one mile down the road for another bathroom break and finally head up the mountain to meet up with my cousin and her kids for our weekend camping trip.

So I am back at work and not wanting to think about cooking or all the projects I have coming up, how summer is basically over.  How I completely missed out on August, school will be starting and Ian will be in Kindergarten.

I have meal planning I need to do, grocery shopping, bills to be paid, actual work at work that needs be done.  I have loads and loads of laundry at home because here in the Pac NW all the Forest are on fire (well it seems like it) and our camping trip was visited by smoke, so everything I brought with me smells like camp fire.  I am pretty sure the only I know is that we are having tacos tonight because it is the only thing I don’t have to go to the store to make.

*sigh* I feel to tired to think or do any of that….

but I have a plan!  Because Aug is almost over, I am going to sit down and figure out my meals for the rest of the year.  This seems pretty daunting when I put it like that it is.  But really it is only 4 months left, and each month has about 4 weeks and each week I only cook 5 meals.  And I don’t have to have new meals each month.  So really I need about 20-30 meals to organize over the next 4 months.

With Plan to Eat online meal planner it is super easy to do just that.

First I just go through all my recipes (400+ dinner recipes) and pick some that sound good and add them to my queue.

My Plan to Eat queue

Here is where I will have the meals; main courses, side dishes, soups, back up, etc, that I will be adding to my planner over the next 4 months.

See the recipe? The little picture of the food? The check mark in the bottom left means ‘add to queue’ the clock means ‘add to planner’.  So when I am scrolling through my recipe book and see one that might be yummy, I just click on the check mark and it is added to my queue. Easy-peasy-lemon-breezy!

My next step is to plan.

The planning calendar

So once my queue is full to my liking I head to the planner and I can just drag and drop the meals where I want them.  If I have a main course and a side dish, I drag both recipes to that day.  If it is something I don’t have an online recipe for, I can create my own note on the day to.

For every recipe I add to the planner the ingredients automatically get added to a shopping list for me.  I can then access that list from my phone while at the store.  I can also alter the list, adding and removing items as needed, like telling it that I already have water and won’t need to get it at the store.  If I say I have salt, then salt will not be added to my shopping list until I remove it from my shopping list.

an old example of a shopping list, I hadn’t updated my pantry yet

I have been a member for over 4 years now and I absolutely love it.  It does take some time collecting recipes but I use it all the time, and I think it is very easy to use.  It is also really easy to share recipes with friends.  Plan to Eat offers a 30 day trial to see what they are like, and also you can do a month-to-month payment, but when you purchase a full year it is a much better price.  I will also let you know when they offer their black Friday 1/2 off sale! It is an awesome deal1

When I plan my month-long meal plans I will still post them on a weekly basis.

Now, what to cook the rest of the week…..

Menu Plan 8/24-8/30

Mon: Tacos and Spanish Rice

Tues:

Wed:

Thr:

Fri: Leftovers

Sat: Kitchen is Closed

Sun:

Happy Cooking

Be a HERO by clicking picture and donating today.

Need something to help plan your meals?  I use the Plan to Eat online meal planner.  Try it free for 30 days

Find more recipes at I’m an Organizing Junkie