How Google Calendar came to my rescue in menu planning!

I am a firm believer in eating dinner at home with my family. I really like cooking, and for the longest time made what I felt like eating every day. However, taking this approach meant I might not have the ingredients on hand. Or it meant tweaking a recipe too much to substitute ingredients.

Some days I wasn’t in the mood for anything specific. I’d stand in front of the refrigerator to see what I had. Five pm would roll around, and I was still trying to figure out what to make for dinner.

What did I do?

The stress of not knowing what to make for dinner was getting to me. I had read so many reasons on why menu planning was important. How should I go about menu planning? I searched for menu planning sheets. There were so many pretty ones online. I printed out some and wrote down a menu plan. Thinking, I’ve got this! This isn’t too bad! Five pm would roll around and guess what? I couldn’t find the recipe! Or I’d forgotten to buy a key ingredient.

I kept trying. Month after month. Some weeks were better than others. But I diligently kept up with menu planning even though it wasn’t working out quite how I had envisioned!

Time to go back to the drawing board and figure out a better solution.

Google Calendar to the rescue!

Then the idea hit me! Why not use Google Calendar to plan my menu for the week? I was already using it to plan out my day. The calendar is accessible no matter where I am at since I can access it on my phone.

This is the perfect solution to my menu planning angst!

So every week, I sit down and plan my menu. I create an event in Google Calendar and put down the title of the recipe, and the sides I am going to be making for dinner. I then copy and paste the recipe into the description for the event. Problem solved! No more losing recipes and it’s easy to copy the link so I know where to find that particular recipe should I want to share it with someone else.

I also found it so much easier to plan my grocery list. I have everything in one place. My Google Calendar and the app from my grocery store to create my grocery list and schedule my curbside pickup.

It’s a win-win. No more losing recipes, no more not having ingredients for meals, and best of all… it keeps me on budget! I know exactly how much I am spending each week, and with curbside pickup, I no longer buy something that I think I might need.

What solution have you found for your menu planning? What’s working for you? Share with me in the comments below.