Finished: The Interchangeable Weekly Dinner Menu!

Confession: I am not one of the awesome moms who has all of her {gourmet} meals planned out every week.  However, I would like to be one of those super moms who always has dinner planned ahead of time!  In working on this goal, I discovered a challenge: when I plan out a week or two of meals, someone or something ALWAYS messes up my plans!  Life is like that; no use in fighting it!  But, I needed another method of meal planning that didn’t involve marking out meals and drawing arrows all over until I couldn’t find what meal went where anymore!

Enter: the interchangeable meal planner!

It’s extremely simple.  Someone else may have already come up with this.  {If it was you, I’ll happily share the credit!}  This version is a piece of wood a bit shorter than the side of my refrigerator.  It has six small, strong, circular magnets (found at the hardware store) glued onto the back with E6000.  Underneath are seven painted dollar-store frames, each with another of the aforementioned magnets glued onto the back.  You can write on glass with dry-erase markers. 

Write menu options.  Place frames under appropriate day.  When you realize Monday morning that a certain child ate a certain ingredient necessary for that evening’s dinner, and there is NO WAY you will be forced into a supermarket trip that day, simply switch that frame with another!   No arrows, no marking through, no messy and unreadable meal calendar.

It’s working for me!

Unfortunately, this is a gift for my sister.  Along with what I said was going to be a pot holder, but actually turned out to be a mug rug.  I will most definitely be making another version for myself.  And, lucky me, I found some little frames at a craft store recently that already have a magnet on the back!

Check out previous in-process posts if you’d like to see more details!

In-Process Meal Planner #1

In-Process Meal Planner #2

In-Process Meal Planner #3

You may note that this board previously had hooks in it above each day; the frames were originally intended to hang by pretty ribbons from those hooks.  However, the magnets were not strong enough to hold that entire assembly on the refrigerator.  If you would prefer to have your menu board on the wall, however, it would be an excellent option!

Linking up this week; be sure to check out everyone’s creations at these great parties!