Menu Planning Made Easy

I don't know about you but I tend to struggle with dinner time if I don't have it planned out before hand so I thought I'd share with you how I plan my meals to make my meal planning go as quick and easy as possible.

First my Inspiration came from All Things Beautiful's Menu Planner Board

I modified mine a little bit and am still in the process of finishing it so you just get a picture of hers for now.  I didn't put the recipes on mine and I am working on adding lunch.  I've got 40 meals to choose from and I always plan a few days to come up with a new recipe or try someone else's out but those 40 are my mainstays and still give me plenty of room for creativity.  I have a few that use up leftovers, a few that only plan the meat or the ethnicity so that I can make whatever I feel like and still know that I have everything I need on hand.  I'm also really flexible with it, I plan it a month at a time but if I'm in the mood for Tuesdays Dinner on Friday then I just switch, keeping in mind what fresh items need to be used up.  I don't plan mine with Sides and a dessert but My mom does and I figure some of you might too, so I threw them in my planner as well in case you want them, along with plenty of blank spots to write in your personal favorites.

You can find my menu planner here in Google Documents, I included a blank shopping list as a bonus.