This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Elmer’s #gluenglitter #collectivebias #CBias but I came up with the idea and did all the work, so you can direct all your adoration to me in the comments.

One of my absolute least favorite questions in the entire world is “What’s for dinner?” For the first 5 years of my marriage the answer was almost always “I don’t know, what do you WANT for dinner?” – and then we spent 30 minutes saying “No, YOU pick” and “No it’s YOUR turn”. Honestly, sometimes we still play that game all night. Most of the time we end up having popcorn and throwing Goldfish at the kids.

Since I made providing a homemade, somewhat balanced meal a priority, I’ve found and cooked more than a hundred recipes. Approximately once a week I go through my cookbooks/favorite recipe websites, write down what I plan to make, then list all the ingredients I need to get at the grocery store. But since I keep my list of meals in the notebook with my grocery list, E STILL asks “What’s for dinner?” and I still don’t always know the answer.

I tried this method:

List of recipes on a tackboard

But that didn’t help. I don’t think E even knows that list is there, plus it doesn’t give me any idea of WHEN we’re eating those things. Enter my weekly menu board!

Here are my basic supplies:

– Elmer’s Pink Foam Board (I was planning to use the white side right up until I realized the white pieces of paper wouldn’t show up very well against it)
– Instant Krazy Glue Craft Formula
– CraftBond Gel pens (True fact: I didn’t NEED these but I am a sucker for gel pens. Especially glitter ones!)
– Clothespins
– Stick-on letters (from the scrapbooking aisle)
– Patterned paper
– Plain white printer paper
– Craft knife
– Classic Elmer’s glue
– Ribbon

Caroline is skeptical about the gel pens, but now agrees they were a good purchase

And here’s how I put it together during exactly one naptime:

One end of the board was a little squished, plus it was a little bigger than I wanted so I cut it down a couple of inches with the craft knife

I used the scrapbooking letters for the title and glued the clothes pins on with the Krazy Glue. I suppose someone less lazy would have measured to make them exactly even, but that someone is not me.

I discovered the best way to make pockets with the craft paper was to fold up about 1/2 an inch on one of the long edges...

...Then glue down the flap, put a little line of glue down the upper part of each short side, and press them down while pinching the sides together just a LITTLE to make it puff out.

For my menu, I cut up plain white paper into strips and used the fancy gel pens to write the name of each recipe

I made sure to include WHERE each recipe was from on the paper, so when it's time to make dinner I know where to look

I labeled the four pockets "Easy" "Favorites" "New" and "Other". Now instead of of going through my entire cookbook pile to find ideas, I can just look through my slips

I tucked extra slips behind the board with a clothespin - so when I get tired of my regular recipes I can add more as I find them

I glued the ribbon and hung it from my sadly underused wine rack right across from the fridge

I love using clothespins to hold my menu items, because that means I can add more than one slip – like for side dishes or desserts – to each day, plus they’re really easy to switch around if I decide I don’t FEEL like having chicken again tonight. To get my library of recipes started I went back through all my What’s for Dinner posts and picked my favorites (and the healthiest options). I also made one for “FREE DAY”, which means dinner out, and “LEFTOVERS” which means leftovers. I’m a genius, I know.

 Want to know something kind of hilarious? E came home from work tonight, stood RIGHT in front of the giant pink board and said “What’s for dinner?” So maybe it won’t TOTALLY solve my problem – but I really love it anyways.

I linked up with my favorite craft linky – Mique’s Weekly Pity Party on 30 Handmade Days!

Tags: cooking, craft projects, DIY, elmer's, good ideas, menu, sponsored, what's for dinner