Is your family growing tired of Taco Tuesday (and Wednesday, and Thursday)? Have you spent the past hour staring into your fridge, praying for a sudden burst of inspiration?
Coming up with creative meal ideas can be tough, especially if you are trying to stick to a budget.
Today, we are going to show you how you can use Pinterest to create—and stick to—a weekly meal plan that works for your body, your budget, and your bored eaters. If you are more of a visual learner, watch our latest Tech Tip video to follow along with tech expert Riley!
Meal Planning with Pinterest
Creating a meal plan for your entire week keeps you from grabbing food on the go or running to the grocery store several times a week, saving money in the long run. And when you already know what’s for dinner every night, you can enjoy cooking, rather than worrying about what you’re going to make.
Organization is key to successful meal planning, so your first step should be to create specific boards dedicated to each meal. For example: Breakfast, Dinner, Side Dish, and Dessert ideas. If you want to take it one step further, Pinterest now offers sections within boards—so you can divide your dinner ideas into categories like Vegetarian, Chicken, Sheet Pan Meals, and more.
Now comes the fun part: pinning! Enter your search terms, like “Easy Weeknight Casseroles” or “Chicken Noodle Soup,” and scroll through the curated results. When you find a recipe you like, simply “pin” it to the appropriate board and section.
Once you’ve pinned several recipe ideas, you will want to create another new board titled “Making This Week.” Move any ideas that you plan to make this week onto this board. You can even create a separate section for each day of the week! Now you can use this board to create your grocery list. To cut down on grocery costs and prevent food waste, try to identify meals that use similar fresh ingredients—you don’t want to be left with half a bag of slimy spinach once Friday rolls around.
There you have it: a plan for an entire week of delicious meals! Once you make a recipe from Pinterest, save it as a “try”—this feature allows you to upload a picture and any notes you may have (like “I substituted whole wheat for the white flour” or “Add an extra pinch of salt.”). All of your “tries” will be automatically uploaded to this separate tab on your profile.
That’s it for this edition of Tech Tips! Check back soon for another tip to make your technology work for you.
