Monday, October 1, 2012

Project Pinterest Week #3: DIY Kitchen Menu Board




This week's Project Pinterest addition may leave some of you thinking that I'm a tad on the obsessivelyTypeA-OCD side. I will apologize in advance for that, but this project really made my heart happy, and has been a huge positive in my kitchen!

I am a planner. A pretty serious one at that. I typically have my weekends planned out about six weeks ahead of time. I also love to cook. So, when you throw those two things together, there must be a solution to help with meal planning, no? 

I had tried the typical list planning route, and then there was the helpful magnetic fridge planner that I bought at Target. We are still using that for our grocery list, but when I saw this week's pin, I fell in love immediately. 


How amazing, right? A clean, magnetic board, and individual magnetic strips adorned with your favorite, go-to meals?! I didn't have the space for two full boards, and didn't want my entire refrigerator to turn into a menu list, but I knew I could make this happen.

So, off to Target I went (again) in search of a the perfect small(ish) magnetic board. I found one that displays the week, and I knew it was the perfect place to start. 


I loved the extra cork board strip along the bottom, and that there was plenty of white space for each day. The one downside was that this particular board was not originally magnetic. It was made to be screwed into the wall. But, with the help of a few extra magnets I had lying around, and my trusty glue gun, I attached two medium sized magnets to the back of the board, and it stuck right to the fridge! 

Once I had my board all ready, I got to creating the meal magnets. I used this template from BHG, and personalized my favorite color blocks with many of our go-to meals. This also made me realize that we eat a lot of chicken. And fish.

Once I had most of the meals that we eat regularly typed into the template, I simply ran a magnetic sheet through my printer, and voila! (You can get the magnetic sheets at Staples)

Then, I simply cut out each meal, and grabbed a ziplock to store them in.


Now, I have a simple list to go to when I am having trouble planning out the week's meals. I am sure that I will add some new recipes as time goes by, but I am loving having a list already prepared to choose from, and just glancing at the board on my fridge each night to see what the next day holds. It really has saved me a lot of time in the kitchen, and I only got a few comments from the peanut gallery B about my OCD tendencies.

So, here's a quick recap ...


DIY Kitchen Menu Board

What You'll Need
One magnetic board (you can go monthly or weekly here)
A few extra magnets (if your board isn't already magnetic)
Glue gun (if needed for extra magnet attachment)
The BHG Menu Planning Labels template 
A list of your favorite go-to meals to add to the template
Magnetic sheets (get them here)
A printer
Scissors to cut out your meal labels


Start by adding your magnetic board to your fridge, or another place in your kitchen where it can display your meal plan (attach extra magnets, if necessary). 

Customize your menu labels with your family's favorite meals. Print out your labels and then cut each one out.

Then, start your meal planning!


If this amount of OCD is too much for you, I totally understand, but I just couldn't help myself, and thought this would be the perfect project for Week #3 of Project Pinterest

What's your favorite way to meal plan?

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love this idea!

Movin Momma said...

So I just discussed this idea with hubs this week and he was all for it. But I will have to say I was a little overwhelmed with the task but you have made it look so easy that this WILL be done this week!! Thanks!

Ashley Paige said...

BRILLIANT!

Shannon said...

This looks great! I always say I want to meal plan but my husband and I always change our minds for what we want the day of depending on our moods.

{annie_loo} @ The Farrar Four said...

I agree with Ashley! This is BRILLIANT! Pinning now! LOVE THIS! way to go girl!!!!!!!

Ms. J said...

Stopping by from the link up! Love this and the size board you found!

Mrs. Mama said...

stop the madness! AH! i am making this this week! and i'm sharing this link with my readers when we wake up from our nap, LOVE LOVE LOVE this!

Aliya said...

I need to do this ASAP.

Anonymous said...

That's amazing girl!!

Desiree Lynn said...

Ahhh! The organizer in me is dying to do this!

Unknown said...

You are so crafty!! Love this idea

Shannon Dew said...

This is so cute and definitely something I could use!!!

Molly said...

Love this!

Cajun Cowgirl said...

This is pretty incredible! My wants-to-be-organized heart loves it, but I'm such a pen and paper chicken scratch kind of girl in reality!

Andie said...

oh. my. goodness. I SOOOOO want to do this now!!! This is definitely what we need in our house!