Meal Planning Calendar

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my desire to become more organized in meal planning. There's a variety of reasons in wanting to do so; mostly, I'd like to establish a dinner ritual for our family (as we grow to three later this summer).

Growing up, my family ate dinner together every night. We gathered around the dinner table; we talked about our days; we spent quality time together. I'd like my own family to develop the same tradition. Plus, I think it's REALLY IMPORTANT for little kids to have manners around the table. I want my kid(s) to know how to eat a meal at the table, talk about their day with the family and spend quality time together. A few months ago, Andi and I were eating breakfast at a restaurant in San Diego. There was a mom with three little girls (ages 3-7 probably) and those little girls were so well behaved. You could tell their parents WORKED WITH THEM on how to behave at the table, how to be polite and how to eat their food at meal time. I was so impressed! It obviously takes lots of practice and patience to get there and I'm determined to do it. So I'm thinking, if Andi and I start to develop a dinner tradition now, it'll be easier to reinforce to our budding family.

I've read some blogger suggestions to create a recipe binder of meal ideas or lay out plans on dry erase boards in the kitchen. With much thought, I decided to create a Google Calendar for our family's meal planning. Between Andi and I's work schedules (mostly his), there are several days during the week where no meal is needed. I thought a Google Calendar would be the best way for us to lay out our month's commitments, plan ahead for the days we are both home for dinner and share the calendar electronically between the two of us.

For my calendar, I color-coded travel (no dinner needed) dates in purple. I marked meals in yellow. I also used the "calendar description box" to copy/paste the recipe into the calendar, along with the website link where I found the recipe.

So far, Day 1 of my menu calendar didn't go as smoothly as I'd planned. I failed to share the calendar with Andi beforehand and my menu plan for BLT Sandwiches wasn't so appealing to Husband as he'd eaten one for lunch. However, I quickly bumped tonight's meal plan for Chicken Divan Casserole up to last night and we were all set. (We'll have BLTs another night I guess). Andi was happy to have dinner on the table after a long week of traveling for work and dinner preparation was much easier for me as the recipe was already selected and loaded into my computer.

I'm hoping this new plan helps me stay organized and develop a great tradition for our family.