An Efficient Way to Use Pinterest to Meal Plan

Posted on April 15, 2013 by herbabysteps

You all know my theory that if you are going to spend hours on Pinterest (like I do!), you better be DOING some of the things you are pinning! I love how pushing myself to “Become My Pinterest Self” has made me a better person. One of the ways it has improved my life is by making me a better cook. I love trying out new recipes. But sadly, my “Cooking” board has HUNDREDS of recipes on it and it is so tough to leaf through the entire board every time I want to find a recipe while I am cooking.

That is why I came up with this far more efficient way to use Pinterest to meal plan. And I promise, this takes less than fifteen minutes….or else I wouldn’t do it!

First off, I create a “Secret” Pinterest board titled “This Week.” (You can create a “Secret” board by scrolling to the bottom of your Pinterest Boards page and select “Create a Secret Board”)

Then I go through my “Cooking” board and re-pin everything that I want for the week, onto the “This Week” board (I make it secret so I don’t drive followers crazy re-pinning the same amazing chicken broccoli every week!).

(You’ll see I don’t have all food on there, I also post some learning activities that I plan to do with my kids for the week)

I also add to the board by photographing pictures of recipes I find in books and magazines and putting it in there (another reason why the board is secret, since the photograph would violate copyright issues and I want to respect the authors of the recipes). (<–I don’t do this too often, I prefer using Evernote for this…maybe that’s another tutorial!).

When the week is over I go back through the page and delete the pins on my secret board (I normally do this while meal planning for the next week). BUT, before I delete the pin (and remember, it is still saved on my “Cooking” board), I re-pin it to my “Pins I’ve Actually Done” page with a small review of how it worked for me. This is a great way for me to remember how we liked it, make notes on how to modify it, or warn me to never make it again. Just now as I was going through my “Pins I’ve Actually Done” board I found recipes I tried (and gave rave reviews to!) and totally forgot about (I wrote about this in this post too).

MY RANT: It drives me crazy that there is no recipe accountability on Pinterest. Someone could post total GARBAGE and say it is the most amazing thing ever (sadly I totally fell for a pin that was called “best chicken ever”….I think it could pass as dog food). So I feel like my small contribution to the world is to write mini reviews on how a recipe worked.

Then I just delete the pin! DON’T delete it from the Pins You’ve done board. Make sure you go to the “This Week” board and select that pin. I select “Edit” at the top of the pin and it takes me to this page where I select “Delete Pin”. After doing this, that means I still have the recipe pinned on my “Pin’s I’ve Actually Done” board, as well as my “Cooking” board, but NOT on the secret “This Week” board.

This entire process takes me less than 15 minutes to menu plan. It’s easy, I can do it anywhere.

Plus I am not fiddling through my Pinterest Boards looking for this week’s recipes as the kids are climbing up my legs while I am making dinner. Instead, I can pull up the recipe in seconds.

I’d love to hear how you use Pinterest to meal plan! Also, are there any recipes you found on there that you highly recommend?

Create a “Pins to Do Next” Board – Step 3 of the Be Your Pinterest Self Challenge

Posted on August 9, 2012 by herbabysteps

How has everyone been doing with pinning and actually DOING stuff? If you’ll remember, in the last step of the challenge I had us all create a “Pins I’ve Done” board where you write mini reviews of the pins you tried. This time, you do a “Pins to Do Next” board.

When I first created my board, I then went through and looked at all my pins (so fun to go through it all) and pinned to that new board what I wanted to do. Everything past that has been maintenance. When I find something I want to do, I pin it to whatever board I would normally pin it to, but then I pin it again to my “Pins to Do Next” Board. It may bug your Pin followers to have duplicate posts in their feeds, but who the heck cares, you’ve seen their bazillion pictures of Ryan Gosling, or if you follow me, a bazillion pictures of Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

Then, once a week (normally when I menu plan), I go through and see what I want to do that week and be sure I get supplies if I need any. It takes just MINUTES to plan and is so much fun.

What’s also neat is you don’t have to sift through all you boards to find pins when you write your mini reviews for you “Pins I’ve Done” board! Instead, they are all in that place!

I have found that this is a great way to stay organized and not get lost in a bunch of your pins. It also helps me stay on top of actually DOING my pins.

This will most likely be the last Baby Step in the Be Your Best Pinterest Self Challenge. I can’t begin to describe how much challenge has changed me. I now am so eager to take on different recipes, crafts, etc. I now see each day as an opportunity to create something awesome, so I hope you have the same experience!

Be Your Pinterest Self Project: Baby Step 2

Posted on July 19, 2012 by herbabysteps

(Quick note: Please don’t pin the pictures in this, unless you are pinning the additional information I have on it. Pin the original post! I’d hate to take credit for someone else’s genius. I did link up those pins for you)

How is everyone doing on the Be Your Pinterest Self project? I have been having a BLAST doing a bunch of my Pins. It feels so good to actually DO the things that I think are inspiring, rather than sitting on my bum scrolling through the inspiration.

So Baby Step 1 was to do FIVE pins a week. One reader asked me when the end date was on it. My answer? When you want it to be! It is my hope that we can all continue building off of the inspiration on Pinterest and not resort back to just sitting around and scrolling through other people’s awesomeness…make your own! But for those who need and end date..try Baby step 1 for two weeks and then move on to this next Baby Step. Try to keep up the habit of doing Pinterest Pins, but maybe don’t give yourself a strict number to do per week.

Baby Step 2: Create a Board of all You Have Done

So many of the pins on Pinterest are from the original posters. So of COURSE they are going to say their recipe is the best, and kudos to them! But my favorite Pins on Pinterest are ones where someone else has tried it and put up their review. For Baby Step 2, create a board and repin all the things you have done, and write a little note on how it worked. You can see a sample of my own board here. My sis in law calls her board “Been There, Done That.” So cute, right?

Why this Baby Step?

This Baby Step is twofold…1st of all (and most importantly), it shows YOU how much you’ve been up to! Isn’t it neat to see all of your wonderful projects right there? 2nd, it helps add to the Pinterest community by adding to the review of things. Seriously, aren’t comments on pins so much more reliable when someone else said they tried it and loved it?

How Long Do I Do This Step?

I hope this step isn’t too cumbersome to just continue as a habit. But if you find it isn’t working for you..it isn’t inspiring you, encouraging you, etc. then stop! Remember, my philosophy with Baby Steps is that if a Baby Step isn’t working for you, then you just try another. I do that all the time!

Well anyways, let me show you all the things I’ve been up to!

“Best Chicken Ever”?

This pin was dubbed the “Best Chicken Ever” by the pinner. I tried it out. I did find that there was far too much mustard in it. When I read the comments on the site, I noticed that other had the same issue and there’s a possibility that it may depend greatly on the brand of mustard used. I was going to never try this again, but when hubby came home from work, he raved about the smell of the house. So I want to re-try, but with less mustard. If I think about it, I’ll let you know how it goes!

Plastic Bag Storage

This is genius! I have a wad of plastic bags under my sink and am always pushing them around. I don’t use the bags often, since I use reusable bags, but I like to keep some on hand in the event that I’ve run out of wet bags for diapers or bags for lunches. I found that this has worked GREAT. I am yet to embellish the container, simply because I am actually waiting to empty a Clorox wipes container that’s bit bigger. This only first about 20 bags. Just make sure that only the handles overlap the bag–I had a little more overlap and it made them all come out!

Award-Winning Lemon Cookies

These cookies were fabulous. The pin said they were award-winning lemon cookies, and after trying them, I sure do believe it. They did get a little firm on the edges, I’d like them a little more chewy, but I think I could have cooked them for less time to accomplish that. My toddler had such a blast rolling the dough in the powdered sugar (which excited me because she NEVER wants to cook with me!).

Campfire Strawberries

These marshmallow covered strawberries were excellent, but difficult to make. I didn’t put them over a fire, but used a creme brûlée torch instead. I had every intention of drizzling dark chocolate over them, but sadly they made it to my mouth before I could do so.

Stuffed Southwest Peppers

I made these and they were great. This mix was a bit dry, so I added a full can of diced tomatoes. In the future, I think this needs a little more taco seasoning. It was a little bland. But my picky eater of a husband really liked them!

Marshmallow Craft for Letter “M”

I thought this idea of teaching the letter M was fabulous. I didn’t have glue on hand, so we just used tape and that worked great. Of course the best part was that we ate about 50% of the marshmallows!

Lemon Chex

I did these lemon chex, but wasn’t too keen on the white chocolate taste. If you like the lemon girl scout cookies and white chocolate, then you’ll love these!

Homemade Goldfish

I made the homemade goldfish and LOVED it. First off, there are only 5 ingredients, so I can rest assured my kids aren’t eating stuff with a ton of preservatives. Although my daughter is not a fan of baking, she LOVED this. We made little molds out of strips of aluminum can tins and she liked pressing them into the dough. I am modifying the recipe quite a bit and will be putting up a tutorial shortly.

Regrow Lettuce and Celery

I am also excited to try and regrow my lettuce and celery. I saw this pin about the celery and wondered if it worked on lettuce. I then read this tutorial on how to do lettuce. In my research, I have heard mixed opinions on the lettuce, many say it is more bitter, or that it rots before you can plant it. I’ll keep you posted!

So that’s what I’ve been up to! I’d love to hear about what all of you have been doing!

Be Your Pinterest Self Project

Posted on July 8, 2012 by herbabysteps

So my Pinterest self is pretty awesome. She has daily preschool activities for her children. She does clever things like uses a hair straightener to iron clothes or she turns the pant clip from a store clothes hanger into a chip bag closer. She knows 10 make at home cleaning solutions, 13 things your camera wishes you knew, and 101 ways to use your first sewing machine. She’s pretty fantastic, right?

But the fact is, she isn’t me.

Through pinning a little bit of this and a little bit of that (essentially fragments of bragging moments from several OTHER people), I created this version of an unrealistic, ideal me and often feel that my real self looks rather pathetic compared to her.

And today, while knee-deep in pinning this and pinning that, I came across this beautiful quote:

“Please don’t nag yourself with thoughts of failure. Do not set goals far beyond your capacity to achieve. Simply do what you can do, in the best way you know, and the Lord will accept of your effort.”
–Gordon B. Hinckley

My beauty does not come via orchestrating all 101 indoor activities for kids, but instead comes by my desire to try and do the best that I can.

That’s why I decided to take on this “Be Your Pinterest Self” project.

My goal? Do 5 things a week that are on Pinterest. This could be a recipe, an activity for kids, an outfit idea, etc. The point is…if your Pinterest Self looks pretty good, why not emulate her, right? BUT, that is with one caution, don’t envy her to the point where you feel like a failure. Embrace that ideal woman as just that, IDEAL–and you, in your imperfect form, striving to just do your best if far more beautiful.

I want to cherish the giddiness I feel when I do these out of ordinary Pinterest projects that make me feel like I went just a bit above the average effort. I often joke that iI never actually DO anything on my Pinterest page. So why not do those little things that make me feel a little awesome?

I hope you will take the challenge with me. If you have a blog, it would be great if you could link up and share the things you are doing with Pinterest (but please be sure to cite your Pinterest source, no idea copying!).

Have fun everyone! And please check in and tell me all of the fun, inspiring things you are doing!

Her Baby Steps

Category Archives: Be Your Pinterest Self

An Efficient Way to Use Pinterest to Meal Plan

Create a “Pins to Do Next” Board – Step 3 of the Be Your Pinterest Self Challenge

Be Your Pinterest Self Project: Baby Step 2

Be Your Pinterest Self Project

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