Meal planning ahead of time each week not only saves time but money as well. I started this in dental hygiene school when I was EXTREMELY busy. I would plan my meals every Sunday for the next week. Sit down and write them out - including the meat, sides, etc. that would be used each meal. This prevents you from not knowing what to cook at the last minute on your way home from work and gives you a plan instead. No more expensive take out or going out to eat since you don't have anything ready. I also like it because you can plan to make double batches, freeze ahead meals, and 2 part meal. If I make a large beef roast in the crock pot and know I will have left over meat, I can plan to use it in another meal later in the week in a different form (ex: shredded beef tacos, roast beef sandwiches, etc). Making a double patch of something on the day you plan to initially make/eat it will benefit you later since you can freeze the rest and use later on in the month. I have started my to meal planning on Thursdays. This works for me since I work M-W and the grocery sales start over on Wed. I usually look at my ads to see what's on sale and look in my kitchen to see what's available during the planning process. I write out my menu for the week and write out my detailed grocery list as I go. I recommend using a dry erase board or using a meal planning template - there are several online, I happened to find this notepad at Michael's. See my post on how to write the perfect grocery list.
Sites I like to use during meal planning:
http://www.foodonthetable.com/about - a free meal planning site that features your local grocery sales to plan inexpensive meals
http://allrecipes.com/Search/Ingredients.aspx - All Recipes is a GREAT website,I have posted the link to a wonderful feature they offer to find recipes based on ingredients you enter into a database
http://www.5dollardinners.com/
http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/
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