Don’t think you have time to plan and organize your meals? I’m about to introduce you to the easiest meal planning method and recipe organization out there, the Meal Planning Binder. Know exactly what you are going to make and how to make it each week!
Creating a Meal Planning Binder
With a growing family and a growing to-do list that just seems to get exponentially bigger each day, I always enjoy finding more and more on ideas to make our lives a little more organized and easier. One area that I seem to always struggle in is meal planning. Even with the various solutions I’ve come up with for meal planning (seasonal, bulk buying, etc.), it’s always seemed like I need a little something more to put it all together.
Thus several years ago, The Meal Planning Binder was born.
I have a ridiculous love of binders and notebooks. I’m sure my husband thinks it’s some kind of obsession, and maybe it is! On the dining room table, on the kitchen counters, on my desk, you can always find a plethora of binders and notebooks filled with thoughts and ideas. I also have binders with schedules for blogging, work, and daily life. It just makes sense to have one for our meals as well!
Supplies for a Meal Planning Binder
You don’t need a bunch of fancy or expensive supplies to get your binder started. Just pick up a heavy-duty 3 ring binder (I use a 3-inch binder, it’s big!), a 3 Hole Punch, a pen, and your favorite recipes.
How the Meal Planning Binder Works
Print out your favorite recipes. The ones you have saved on Pinterest, the ones you’ve bookmarked from various websites, or ones that you have saved on your computer. You can print a few new recipes if you want, but try and stick to the tried and true recipes that you know your family loves. (For meal planning balance we try and use no more than one new meal idea a week.)
You should also add recipes that you don’t print off the computer. For these, I will use an 8 1/2 by 11-inch piece of paper (so it’s the same size as all the rest) and write down the recipe that is in my brain or from a favorite cookbook or type it up and print it off like the others. In my Recipe Binder Printables Bundle, there are special pages with “recipe cards” to write down all of your favorite recipes.
You can also tear recipes out of magazines and put them in the binder.
Meal Planning with a Meal Planning Binder
Now here’s how meal planning with your binder can be so simple! At the beginning of the week or the month, open up your binder and pull all the recipes out and lay them on the floor. Pick out which recipes you want to make for your family that month and place them back into the binder in the order you plan on making them. Separate the rest of the recipes that you don’t plan on making that month back into their respective categories in your Recipe Binder.
If you have my Recipe Binder Printable Pages, you can put all of the recipes you plan on making behind the “Recipes For the Week” page in your binder.
Once you’ve done that you can easily see all the recipes you plan on making, as well as the ingredients. Go through the recipes and make a grocery list of the items needed for the week or month based on what you don’t have on hand.
This entire process can take less than 30 minutes and you will have all of your meals planned and your grocery list made! This really is the easiest method of meal planning there is, we love it!
–If you are new to meal planning in general, you may want to take a look at my ebook, Meal Planning Made Simple.
Using a Meal Planning Binder
Now the best part! Store the binder in your kitchen so that each morning you can grab it and see what you are making that day and see if you need to start thawing any meat or get anything going in the slow cooker.
Want a different recipe that day or need to change it around? Simply move one recipe in your book to another place. All your recipes are right there in the binder and you don’t have to waste time chasing them down or trying to figure out what is for supper. I know for our family this has saved a huge amount of time and frustration!
We can always add to our binder when we find more recipes that we love but once you’ve got your basic family favorites saved in your binder you’ve got the hardest part of meal planning done AND you know your family already loves the meals you are planning!
Looking for a lovely way to create your meal planning binder? My husband and I created these fun Old Fashioned Recipe Binder Printable pages in both blue and red. These are what I use to organize my meal planning binder and keep track of all of our favorite recipes. The printable bundle includes everything that you need to create a beautiful Meal Planning Binder and keep track of your recipes, plus it has a bunch of printable helper pages that are useful when you need substitutions, are preserving foods, and more. Check it out here.
Have you tried this method of meal planning yet? Do you have a meal planning binder?
This blog post about the Meal Planning Binder was originally posted on Little House Living in August 2014. It has been updated as of August 2019.
This is a great idea. I am going to try this and see how it works for us. Thanks for sharing.
I love this!
Oh my goodness–this is exactly what I have done over the last 4 months! I’ve had to buy a bigger binder to replace the one I started out with. I also added dividers for the type of food it is (main dish, bread, etc.) For me, this binder holds all the vegan recipes, as we have a member of the family who is vegan. I must always cook at least one vegan main dish, a vegan bread, and if we are having dessert, a vegan one of those, too. By having the dividers, I can easily put the week’s recipes back in their proper places. I also note recipes with page numbers from other cookbooks not in the binder. On Sat. and Sun. I plan my meals for the week, too.
Great minds think alike! 🙂
I do this too. I keep all of my pages inside plastic sheet protectors since it’s pretty much inevitable that something will get splashed or splatted on my open book in the kitchen and I don’t like having to re-print damaged pages.
I use the page protectors also.
Merissa you are so organized! I love the idea and your binder inspires me…thanks so much for sharing at Twirl and Take a Bow my friend xo
Great binder idea. Thanks for sharing.
This would be great with an added checklist as to what you still have in the freezer!
This is such a useful way to keep track of favorite recipes. I’ve been fortunate to have gotten to live overseas and used an idea similar to this to help me adjust. I took a binder of my mom’s recipes plus “how to make from scratch” recipes for everything I could think of since local markets wouldn’t have packaged foods we were used to: granola, seasoning mixes, salsa, bbq sauce, etc. I found I enjoyed making these things as they cost less and really don’t take more than an extra minute or two to prepare. I now have three binders: party foods, scratch recipes, and family favs. We recently began a vegan & gluten-free diet for health reasons, so I guess a 4th notebook will be added soon. Your method really does make menu planning easier.
I love the binder idea! I only have 2 (I have binder envy LOL!) but my favorite is the pretty, colorful binder with all our favorite recipes. 🙂 I put them in plastic sleeve protectors to keep them free from wrinkles, tearing, splashes, etc. There are some great recipes out there on Pinterest – some day I will try them all! 🙂
Great idea, I will have to try this! The worst part of my day is coming up with a dinner plan 🙂
Ooh, I had an idea – if you want to change it up and make new recipes regularly, you could put the “old” ones you just cooked at the back of the binder, and only use them again when you’ve cooked everything else! That way, you’ll actually get to all those Pinterest recipes. 😛
I have one…I put the menu for the week on the frig, and then star the meals that they like, so I can make it again. My Grandmothers had a version of this, and so did my Mom and my Dad. I was given my Grandfathers “recipe book binder” when he passed. So to see others doing this, is exciting. I have a section that has plastic holders for the recipes that are 3 x 5 and 4 x 6 so that I can take them out of the boxes and just keep them handy. I bought the plastic units from the stationary supply store.
I am so glad you shared this idea.
I also struggle with meal planning. My problem is that I don’t use recipes. If there is something I have never made before I may look up a recipe and see what is in it but I never follow it. Most recipes I make are in my head. I tend to get into a rut and make the same things over and over. I would love to come up with some kind of binder. What would I put I it? I do have a binder with some of my baking recipes that I do follow but it is a huge mess. I mean huge mess. I have old grocery flyers from over the years that are fun to go back and look at and compare prices, recipes that were my grandma’s, manuals to kitchen appliances, menus.from holidays and birthdays…you get the idea. I also have all the Amish Cook newspaper articles from the last few years. Please help me get organized so I can not be stressed about what to eat. Winter is easier for me then summer. Summer seems to always be grilling and garden sides. It actually gets a little old. Thanks.
I am also a brain recipe girl. I used to hardly ever use a recipe and when I did I changed it up all the time. So, to help keep myself organized I had a binder that I wrote down all the meals I cooked for the week. On a bad day when I couldn’t think of a single thing to cook for dinner all I had to do was open the binder and look at the list and pick a few meals. Over the years this grew into page after page of our favorite meals! It’s so easy and you can even get your husband and kids involved and let them pick what they’d like for dinner.
Seems like what you have is more of a memory scrapbook going on there! Pretty cool, actually. But that should not be in the kitchen, as it could get badly damaged. To start with getting your recipes organized, just start a new binder. Only pull relevant recipes from your old/scrapbook/recipe binder and leave the rest alone as a neat artifact ;0) Don’t fool with trying to “redo” the old binder as that could be overwhelming.
This is a great idea, and I love the idea that if I made one I could pass it along to my daughter someday.
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I have all the recipes I use in one binder. All recipes have their own page (they’re in page protectors). Once a week, I go through the binder, and through any new recipes I may have printed out and see what I want to make. I make a list of the meals and use that to make the grocery list. I don’t remove the recipes from the binder, just look at my list in the morning and see what I want to make that evening so I know what to thaw, etc.When we try a new recipe that we liked, it goes into the binder. I also keep a calendar online where I keep track of what I made when – so that’s a planning source too.
Thanks for sharing this great organization idea. I love how your favorite recipes are all in one place. I especially loved the tip to write down the favorites tried from pinterest. Sometimes I forget about them since they are out of site.
Hi, i followed you here from Pinterest and i wanted to add a suggestion to your already fantastic idea! I cook at a private residence, so when i get to work i write down all the items i will need for my recipes, and in the margins i make a circle next top each item. I then use my list as i check all the items in the refrigerator and pantry, checking of what i already have on hand in the circle. This leaves me with my grocery list. You can do this also, ahead of time (leaving the circles unchecked, of course!), photo copy a few pages and keep them in the binder along with the recipe, either in
the sheet cover, or behind each corresponding recipe. Always making sure to keep a master copy to duplicate before you run out. 🙂
I’m wondering if you could help me. I found a weekly meal planning template, and I could’ve swore it was on your site but now I can’t find hide nor hair of it. It had the space of three meals for 7 days. Thanks for your time!
Sally
This is great .. We sit down as a family on the 1st day of every month or the night before the monthly shopping trip and each child picks out meals for the days they work in the kitchen as a helper and as they do that we place those ideas on our calender on te fridge so I have my whole month planned out and I go shopping to stock up on what we need for the month for recipes and some extras incase we have to change a day . It makes things very simplified. Left overs are lunch the next day most often ( except each child chooses one cool lunch a month ) and breakfast is always fun for choosing . This has worked for us for the past 5-6 years. And of course daddy get homemade pizza Sunday ( during fall and winter ) where we make homemade pizza as a family , different kinds every week even pizza boats , pizza tacos, tradition pizza, mexican pizza etc as long as it’s pizza for daddy and in the spring and summer daddy likes making his famous burgers on Sunday or grilled pizzas .. And of course momma throws in the healthy salad or veggie stix !!
I happened to see you had a couple of days of leftovers. When my children were young I would have leftover day that all would be set on he table an you could help yourself and put it in the microwave. This way everyone got what they liked and I got it all out of the refrigerator.
I did this years ago when my now 27, 25, and 23 year olds were young. But I went ahead and made 3 sets of 2 week menus, and grocery lists that matched. Then I didn’t have to go through this step either. I simply rotated through the 3 sets that used mostly, printed my list for those 2 weeks, marked off items I already had in the house, then bought what I needed. I always left space to try a new recipe during each two week period. It helped me survive for several years while I was a busy mom of 3 little ones.
ALL of my recipes are in binders according to what they are – I have 6 of them. My problem is there are too many choices and ideas out there so my hubby made the “rule” of no more than ONE new recipe a week. If they don’t make the cut, they get tossed instead of hanging around as clutter. Also, ALL of my keeper recipes are put in plastic sleeve covers so they don’t get trashed while I’m cooking/baking since I am a rather messy cook. I think I am going to try a monthly menu binder though – then like you say, it will all be in one place!
This completely appeals to the organiser,cook and stationary lover in me!! Love it…doing it! Done!
xx
Love this idea! I have been doing something very similar to this, although your way is a lot easier than what I’ve been doing.
I do something similar, but it is all digital. We use the app “Paprika” and it’s great. Most of my recipes come from online sources and Paprika will pull the recipe and separate the title/cook time etc, the ingredients, and then the directions. If I find them in a magazine or book and can’t find them online or it’s a family recipe, I can put them in manually. The best part is that it also has a calendar so you can create your meal plan directly from the app, AND the ability to add the recipes to your shopping list! This means that I don’t need to write down each ingredient on a list which I will invariably forget at home. It pulls the ingredient list and adds everything (sorted by category nonetheless) to a shopping list I can easily pull up on my phone at the store. It also has a way to import your paprika meal plan into your google calendar, but I haven’t gotten that part sorted out yet. Though I’d mention it if some people are more digital. Though I do love some pretty binders too! 🙂
This is a great idea! I use this same method to keep our favorite recipes on hand. I print all of them out on notebook sized paper, so they are uniform. I also tear them out of magazines. I slip them into page protectors and categorize them by Beef, Chicken, Breakfast, Desserts, etc.
I’m going to make up a binder like this and use it along with something we already do…we always have Meatless Monday, Taco Tuesday, Pizza Friday, etc. The meals change, but the concept stays the same…for example: on Meatless Monday could be vegetarian chili, broccoli pie, omelets, etc. Taco Tuesday, it may be beef or fish tacos, quesadillas, taco salad, but always something with tortillas, filling, etc. Pizzas might be regular pizza, French bread pizza, taco pizza (made with leftovers from Tues), pepperoni rolls.
I love the idea of having everything in a binder so I can plan it out.
This is a good idea. I made a “menu” of all of our recipes (although now there are so many more to add). Then we look through the menu for planning, but I have to go find the receipes. They are easy enough to find, but not all in one place like yours. Thank you for the idea!
I have several binders. One is dedicated to crockpot cooking. One is for Once a Month cooking, if I would just use it more often, I would have freezer my freezer full of meals …I like your method of meal planning. I am going to try that!
I have a lot of cookbooks and I am forever using different recipes from different books, so in my meal binder I created a page to write down a list of the meals we love to eat and what recipe book it is in, so when I need it, it is easy to find. This has saved me a good amount of time searching in recipe books for that certain meal.
I also have a baking diary and I write in the recipe I made and how it turned out once it was cooked. perhaps I need to add more or fewer ingredients, plus I write out how I need to fix or change the recipe to be a better flavour or suit our family’s requirements. It works very well.
I have a question – how long do you keep your menu plans in your binder? (#newhomemaker)
I change out the menu plans each week so I only put a week together each time. On occasion, I’ve planned for 2 weeks at a time but I prefer to stick to a single week since we include so much fresh food in our diet.
thanks – that’s a big help!
Merissa,
Thank you for this article. Also, thank you for all of the information and ideas you provide without charging us. I really appreciate that you give your ideas freely; it makes me feel like you truly care about your readers and living simply and spending less money. I’ve been reading/following you for years and I appreciate your commitment to your blog & followers. I’m waiting on more ink via amazon and I’m looking forward to printing out some of your meal planning & recipe pages. Please keep doing what you do for the blog and for us followers!
Aww thank you for your kind comment!
I’m working on the Mediterranean diet and Mind diets. How do I meal plan following their pyramids. No processed foods. My husband doesn’t like these healthy meals. Three to four grains, five to four servings of veggies, four to three servings of fruits, two servings of nuts or legumes, daily. Healthy fats, two servings of fish and chicken a week. Limited red meat and sweets once a month. Portion controlled. Meals are centered around veggies. I follow My Plate concept. How would I set up a meal plan binder? There are only two of us.