Meal Planning Made Slightly Simpler

Meal planning is always tricky for me, especially during the school year. 

And with school year starting soon I was thinking of new ways to get organized.

I find the hardest thing is that I start thinking about what to cook about 4:00.

Then I don't have a couple of the major ingredients I need for what I have in mind.

Or I can only think of the same 3 or 4 dinners and I'm getting tired of the same old thing.

I try to plan out on Sunday but then the week gets away from me and we start doing take out and fast food more often than I want.

Because I'm out with the boys between 2:30 - 6:00 most days with activities, it makes it all that much more interesting!

So, off to Target to get a little notebook that doesn't take up too much space in my purse.

I found this cute set of 3 (London, Paris, New York) for under $3.  Perfect!

I took the London one and have listed all of the main dishes that I cook up for the family along with the main ingredients I probably don't always have on hand. 

The book is going in my purse so when I'm at the grocery store, I can pull it out and get the items I need for 4 or 5 upcoming dinners.

Today it worked perfectly. 
I flipped through the pages and picked up the items I needed for the next few days' meals.
 And now I won't have to return to the store in order to pick up those 1 or 2 critical ingredients.

I was also amazed to find that I had 20+ main dishes that I know my family likes. 
It's going to be so nice when my mind is blank!