Ann-Notated: Meal Planning How-To’s – Its Not That Hard to Homeschool

In yesterday’s post (I Hate Meal Planning! But It Sure Does Save Money) I came clean about the fact that I struggle with meal planning. So of course you know I’m gonna find some resources to help me out! Here are a bunch of helpful articles about how to meal plan. They do not include information about freezer cooking; nor do are there any actual meal plans — these posts are strictly about HOW TO DO IT. Each one adds a new great idea or two to the process, so that we can develop systems that work for us.

The Non-Planner’s Guide to Menu Planning — This sounds like just what I need, lol. Seriously, though, this is a flexible way to deal with having food ready for meals so that you don’t have to plan too far ahead.

5 Ways to Simplify Meal Planning — Ideas to keep things simple but also give variety.

How to Create a Meal Plan that Saves You Money — Which is a good distinction. Just meal planning may not save much money, if you’re not doing it with that in mind.

Free Meal Planning Printables — Of course there are tons of meal planning printables all over the internet. This article has a variety in one place, so that’s why I’ve included it here.

Free Meal Planning Printables — No, this is not a typo. In case you couldn’t find anything you liked in the first set of printables, here’s another great selection.

Choose a Meal Plan Method — This article reviews several ways of meal planning, so you can get an idea of which might work best for you.

More on Meal Planning — This is actually an update from a previous post on Just Sweet and Simple (although the first one is great, too); here she introduces several ideas to simplify what she was doing before. I love the idea of making a double batch of one meal per week.

Once a Month Meal Planning — Not JUST how to plan, but LOTSA meal ideas… and the innovative idea of changing themes each month, which I had never thought of before.

Meal Planning in 6 Easy Steps — Each of these articles has a slightly different take on how to meal plan. By reading several of them, I am combining many ideas to find a method that will fit me best. Here she just plans several meals without assigning a specific day, then chooses which one to make as she goes along.

How to Make a Clean Eating Meal Plan — again, something just a little bit new here makes this article worth reading.

Menu Planning Tricks — These are helpful suggestions for when you are stuck on your menu plan. I may use the last one a little bit too often, however…

How to Create a 30-Day Meal Plan Rotation — this is similar to my Two-Week Meal Planner in that you can use the same plan over and over.

Paleo Meal Planning: A How-To — I love this blog name: Stupid Easy Paleo. That sounds right up my alley, especially the “stupid easy” part! This article mentions a “weekly cook-up” that intrigues me.

Are Meal Planning and Saving on Groceries on Your 2015 Goals List? — I try to avoid putting links for products on here, but this article is not JUST a product plug; there are great suggestions for meal planning — mostly regarding how we think about it — that are worth a read.

How to Use Pinterest to Meal Plan — Hmmm, now this is a unique idea: make menu plan boards on Pinterest. Hmmmm…. *gears going ’round*

The Meal Planning Secret — Wow, this one resonates with me. But you’ll have to click through to see what the big secret is!! Muahahaha!

Track of the Week: I’m having trouble coming up with a song about food, oddly enough. So I decided on Tea for Two from Doris Day’s movie by the same name. You can’t go wrong with Ms. Day crooning a classic. :-)