Now I know what to eat!!

What???  Two blog posts in a row???  Don't get used to it...but I've been building up some post-worthy material, so here goes.
I created a FABULOUS new menu board with the hopes of revolutionizing our lives.  This post really isn't meant to be an advertisement (I didn't get anything free for posting, and we all know I don't have enough people reading this blog for me to start getting sponsored!) but I just really loved this board and wanted to give props where they are due.  So without any further delay, here's more about the awesome Menu Board I created a few weeks ago.

We've only been using it for a few days, but here's a few things I've already noticed.

(1) I actually knew what to buy at the grocery store (made a list in advance).
(2) I'm cooking meals...not just crap out of a box.
(3) I know when to thaw something out so that it will be ready for dinner.  In the past, I'd regularly get home, realize I didn't thaw out any meat, which would mean time to eat out and/or order pizza.
(4) I've realized I'm a terrible cook.  I'm not real great at following recipes and have sort of already screwed a few of these up.  BUT, I'm trying and I think I'll get better over time.  And I learned that pork chops don't need to bake at 350 degrees for over an hour...unless you want really dry, overcooked pork that requires a huge gulp of water to get down.  The great news is that Chris patiently ate it and pretended like it wasn't terrible, and agreed that the flavor was awesome and probably just needs to be cooked for a little less time.

So here's the finished product:

See, the organization, color coordination, all of it really appeals to my OCD nature.  I got the awesome idea from Robin over at RobbyGurl's Creations.  She has a great tutorial here that goes through everything from where to get the materials to how to use the thing.  I purchased her Menu Board Files - she emails them to you within a day or two (I think mine came within a few hours) and she's already compiled and formatted a number of recipes.  Plus it's a good template to add your own recipies and categories.  Do you need to download the files to create the menu board?  Probably not.  Should you download it to create the menu board?  Absolutely.  It saves a ton of time and only costs a few bucks ($3.99 plus tax).  Plus, she designed the whole concept so I was happy to give back to her in the process.

Here's a few things I did a little bit differently so this board would work best for our needs:

I changed the colors up a little bit.  They're still pretty bright but we don't have kids so I didn't want anything too crazy in the middle of our house.

I also used buttons on the magnets instead of the acrylic jewels that Robin uses.  I actually made two of these menu boards and I'm giving the other to my sister.  My sister's menu board has acrylic jewels on the magnets because she has kids and they will love the sparkle.  Chris and I weren't super keen on the jewels because it just didn't really go with anything else in our house, and of course I have a decent button collection so I went through and picked out some that were about the same size as the sticky magnets and stuck them on instead.

With Chris' job, he unfortunately has to miss dinner about half of the time, so I created a category for that and marked those days accordingly so that I wouldn't be picking out full meals for those nights.  I then pulled a fee simple meals (such as BLTs) and put them on the left side of my board under the categories.  I'll use these as fillers (along with leftovers and frozen meals) for the evenings Chris is at work.

I found the majority of the supplies, including the white board calendar, at Wal Mart which is where Robin said she was able to find them.  I was thrilled i was able to find the same calendar because I love having a section for the catgories, the magnets, and then the cork board strip across the bottom.  We didnt' use a ribbon to hang ours and instead drilled two small holes on the top corners and just put screws through them and screwed it straight into the wall.  Then I put some magnets on top of the screws to cover them up.

So, if you have some free time this weekend and a desire to get your meals organized, then seriously head over to RobbyGurl's Creations and learn how to make this menu board.  I've since purchased her Cyber Specialities file which is another 1,000 recipies.  I will probably slowly print them out and add them to my board over time.  It adds a few more categories and a ton more options (great for a picky fiance).