Meal Planning & Recipe Planner Set Up in a Travelers Notebook

February 27, 2018

Two set up posts in a week!

Very unlike me. Particularly as both of these set ups have been for travelers notebooks.

When I finally gave up on my standard sized Midori TN as a shop and blog planner I didn’t really know what to do with it. While debating whether to keep or sell I realised that I’d been using an insert for it pretty religiously without it actually being in the cover. That was my meal planner insert from Travelers Notebook Times.

It got evicted from the cover as it didn’t really fit in with the shop/blog set up. However every week when doing the food shop, this was used religiously.

One thing that did irritate me when doing the weekly shop was having no consistent place for recipes. Some were online, some were in books and some were just on random planner pages. I therefore realised that the perfect new set up for my Midori would be a meal and recipe planner.

The set up

I’ve kept this nice and simple.

I’ve got some of the adhesive pockets in the front and back covers. They’re perfect for housing these super cute Midori sticky notes.

In terms of the first insert I have a plastic wallet wrapped around. While it’s empty at the front, I’ve found it useful (particularly the large back pocket) for stuffing recipe ideas from magazines etc until I’ve decided I like them enough to put them in the recipe insert. I’ve had to use two clips top and bottom to attach the wallet to my first insert. This is because I’ve found if I don’t, the wallet moves around and irritates the hell out of me. This is one thing I hate about the Travelers Notebook concept, that things aren’t really all that secure and can move around.

Next up is the meal planning insert.

I may do a more in depth ‘how I meal plan’ post at some point but at first glance this is pretty self explanatory. I make a note each day if there’s something that will impact my meal that day and then as soon as I’ve decided on a meal, the ingredients go in the right hand column. This is a lovely little insert and I can’t recommend this enough.

Next up is a homemade recipe insert.

The cardstock I used for the cover is from Project Life. I thought it went beautifully with the blue of the planner. This was my first attempt at making TN inserts and I’m pretty happy! The scale is a little large so future ones will have smaller fonts but it’s got everything I need. A list of ingredients I can easily convert into my meal planning list and then the method for when I get around to making it.

Finally I just have the back of the plastic wallet.

Possibly the most useful set up I have…

I love a good functional planner set up. This isn’t super flashy, or full of pretty die cuts but it does a fantastic job. As I only use this once a week, it doesn’t need to be in my main planner taking up lots of space. Keeping it separate means less bulk in my personal Filofax and also means I can easily take it to the supermarket if I choose not to online shop one week.