So, my friend Lauren (over at the Momnivore) has inspired me to talk a little bit about how I plan meals. Plus, my baby, after a morning of being in my arms and nip-napping for a reeeally long time, has a sudden interest in being away from me. So, while lunch cooks:

For a while, I did the Saving Dinner program, and then for a long time, my own variation of it, which basically is 6 meals, preplanned, with the accompanying ingredients in a shopping list on a one-page document already sorted by group (dairy, produce, dry goods, etc.).

Then, I made a radical decision to do something I've always wanted to do: Go plan-free. Eek!

This was a couple of months ago, and I'm really loving it, even though it means that sometimes my husband comes home and whips up dinner after a long day at work, because I've forgotten to do it. Or because the baby held onto me all day.

The plan-free plan is basically three parts:

1. A repertoire of recipes that we use over and over and love.
2. A full pantry list that gets purchased once a month (I check the pantry, fridge, and freezer to see what we need, then circle it on the list).
3. A weekly plan for our meals that goes like this:

Monday Mexican
Tuesday Veggie Burgers or Patties
Wednesday Quiche or Casserole
Thursday Soup (Salad in the summer)
Friday Stir Fry
Saturday Pizza
Sunday Pasta (or leftovers, but they mostly get eaten for lunch)

The key to making this work was going through all of our recipes, making 6 or 7 categories for them and then dividing them up so that I could serve one kind each day of the week. Then, recording ALL the ingredients in all of the recipes (plus the recipes for things we like for breakfast and lunch and snacks) and putting them all in one document, with some space to add the odd extra need.

It looks like this.

And then I wing it. Like yesterday, which was Mexican night, I decided to try a new recipe, Tex-Mex Pot Pies, which I was going to partially make up and partially copy from a website, but then time ran out. And my husband threw together some delicious bean and cheese quesadillas with corn soup.

Okay, that didn't work out so well. But he swore he didn't mind. And mostly, it works out great, and allows me to save leftovers by using them up at the last minute instead of being locked into a meal plan.

Anyway, it's only one way to do it, and there are many great ways, but that's what works for us. Thanks Lauren for the idea!