The weekly menu

Photo from eleven Magnolia Lane

About 6 months ago, I was inspired by the fabulous pantry reorganization photo above and decided to chalkboard paint my pantry door. I vowed to plan out weekly meals and write them on the board using the menu to make a grocery list and shop just once a week instead of my almost daily trips to the local grocery store. 


The meal planning was going pretty well through the winter and spring. But then... the warm weather hit and as pathetic as this sounds, I just do not have the energy to come up with a new menu every week and a new grocery list for that matter! Luckily, I spent some time with a good friend last Friday who mentioned that she has come up with a standard weekly menu for the summer. What? One menu all summer?  That means I could create one grocery list and just use the same one all summer long! Why didn't I think of this? Brilliant, just brilliant!  


I told my husband the plan and he seems a little skeptical. The same 7 meals all summer? Can we at least have one day that is a "wild card," he asked? But when I reminded him of the meals we've had over the last few weeks (or lack of meals rather), he agreed. Though we're still negotiating the "wild card" day!


So what do you do to make meal planning easier at your home? Do you have a standard weekly menu? Do you just wing it daily? Or are you somewhere in between?