I have been menu planning for a while now, using the method of looking in the cupboards/fridge/freezer on a Sunday night to see what needs to be used up and writing up the menu plan for the week onto the blackboard that we painted on one of the kitchen cupboards.  This has worked well for a few years now.  I recently discovered Mini Mom on You Tube and she does a monthly meal plan so I have decided to try her method and see how I go.  I own a lot of cook books that I have been trying to use on a more regular basis so I have decided to pick 2 cookbooks per month and cook at least 3 recipes from each book.

The first 2 books I am cooking from this month are River Cottage Everyday by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Together Our Community cookbook which is a charity cookbook put together using recipes provided by women who were affected by the Grenfell Tower fire in London.

I printed out a years worth of calendar pages from this site and got to work

I had so much fun deciding what to make from the 2 books I chose.  I also had a look through the cupboards etc to see what I had that needs to be used up.  I added the more involved recipes that will take more than 20 mins to make to Saturdays and Sundays and saved the quick makes for during the week.  I do my grocery shopping once a fortnight and had just done a shop before I did my meal plan for the month so I put the recipes that I didn’t quite have everything for in the second half of the month so I can get what I need when I do my next grocery shop.  I will still use my blackboard to write up my weekly meal plan and will check back in at the end of the month to let you know how it went.