The Meal Plan

Got together with a great girlfriend to create a summer meal plan.  The idea was to create a series of weekly meals and a prepared shopping list for each menu as well as a cookbook that's easy to navigate and change whenever needed.
Here's what you do:

• Scour through your cookbooks, magazines, websites searching for your favorite dishes.  GO AHEAD and rip them out of your cookbooks!  It will hurt a little at first, but you get used to it quickly.
• Figure out what kinds of things you want to eat each week (do you want a combination of beef, pork, chicken, fish, veggie or would you prefer an Italian, Mexican, Grill, etc variety?)  Separate your recipes into these different piles.
• Start creating the selection of recipes (and good side dishes) that you'll have for each week.  We always keep Fridays with no menu to allow one night a week for leftovers, pizza or a night out on the town.
• Once you've selected your weekly menus, take your recipes and put them into a three ring binder with plastic sheet protectors.  Number each page (I simply use masking tape and a marker).
• Type up a "menu" that will be displayed on the fridge, bulletin board or other central location to help you stay focused and avoid the "What's for dinner Mom?" Save your menu under standard names e.g. Summer Menu Week 1.  You'll label each recipe with the page number in your cookbook.  i.e. Chicken Salad, p 14.
• Sort through your recipes and make a list of all ingredients.  I developed a form using Smart Art in MS Word that divided my list into the following sections: check pantry, produce, bread, isles, meat, dairy, frozen.  Save your list under a similar name e.g. Shopping List Week 1
• Each week, print out a new menu and shopping list, check off what you already have on hand and go for it! 
• Each time I make a meal, I try to write myself notes about what to try differently the next time.  If I have to add or remove ingredients I have to remember to go back and alter the shopping list too.

The process may seem extensive at first, but goes rather quickly especially if a good friend and bottle of wine are involved!