How to Use Pinterest for Meal Planning

When I first started using Pinterest, I would pin every recipe under the sun that looked delicious. Since my days of pinning-glutton have somewhat passed, I now take the task of pinning a little more seriously… just a little! And by that I mean I’m more likely to pin a recipe based on its healthfulness and functionality for fitting in to my weekly menu.

While I occasionally pin the fun holiday craft or salted caramel nutter butter bar recipe, most of my pins are recipes I plan on trying for weekly meals. This step-by-step system has worked for me, but if you are a pro Pinterest pinner yourself, you might have something that works even better. Be sure to share!

1. Organize and/or Create Recipe Boards.
   My board categories are organized by main ingredient, course, and side. I’d suggest organizing in a way that’s easiest for you to keep track of the recipes you’ve pinned, so when you need a recipe fast they are easy to find!

   

2. Search for recipes based on keywords that interest you!
   Now this one seems like a no brainer, because that’s likely why you are even pinning a recipe. I’ll poll the family for recipe ideas or “what are you in the mood for this week?” for a little inspiration too! This step happens throughout the week so that when it comes time to make my grocery list (step #5), I have an array of recipes to choose from!
3. Create a special Weekly OR Monthly Menu Board.
   I do this by month. I’ll pin recipes to this board and pull them from my other boards (step #1) when I want to put them on that month’s menu. I would do it weekly if I consistently spent time removing and adding boards—but that takes time. My board is titled “On the Menu: [Month].”

   

4. Create boards for recipe “keepers” or those recipes you want to try again.
   My board is titled “I’ll have seconds!”
5. Put all this pinning to work.
   Make your shopping list from your special Menu Board. Grocery shop. Eat throughout the week. Pin more recipes throughout the week to your Menu Board from your existing food boards, your Pinterest homepage, or general recipe search. Start all over again the following weekend!

Phew! Seems easy enough, right?!

Because I’m a firm believer in meal planning as a time saver, money saver, and waistline saver, I’ll be sharing my weekly Pinterest meal plans every Sunday morning! Even though we won’t run into one another in the grocery store aisles, perhaps we’ll both come back for seconds on certain recipes.