Calendar Challenge: Monthly Menu Plan & Recipes by Karen Hanson

Hi everyone! It's Karen from ScrappyCanuck Studios and I am excited to share my take on the Design Team's Calendar Challenge this month! I have a confession to make - I am not a huge fan of cooking. Part of my aversion comes from the dishes that result, but some of it comes from feeling like I have to come up with ideas at then end of a work day when my creative energies are running on empty. So for the calendar challenge, I tried to make the menu planning process a little more fun for myself by playing with Doodlebug product at the same time!
Now I have to admit that I have done a digital version of this in the past, but well, this was WAY more fun, especially since it gave me an excuse to dive into my Cream & Sugar collection again! I started off by adding the month stickers to my Daily Doodles and then penciled in most of our meals for the month, including some traditions like a little visit to the golden arches and dinner at my Mom's on Sunday evenings! While I went over most of them in ink, I did leave a few spots blank to remind myself to try something new. I also left my daughter's birthday "penciled in" as she tends to change her mind at least four times before we hit the jackpot (we've had two different ideas since I took these pictures)!
And then, I had fun! Fun decorating up the header with some mini icon stickers that happen to be the perfect size for the Daily Doodles...and fun adding a little baking list complete with Sprinkle bullets...
...and fun adding some little dimensional tabs to hide some new ideas to try during the month... And just when I thought I was finished, I realized that I had the whole back of the Daily Doodle page that I could work with as well! So I flipped it over and got to work featuring a new recipe I wanted to try this month!
The cute Love You Lot's 12x12 made the perfect place to add my ingredients and instructions...
...which I actually added as a removable tab so I could take them into the kitchen while I was baking.
 
 I couldn't resist using one of Doodlebu's Cream & Sugar cut files called "Yellow Cake" that you can get over at Lori Whiltock's site if you are a Cricut user like I am, or over at the Silhouette Design Store which I created with some textured cardstock and gingham-linen paper. 
 
The Odds and Ends were perfect little embellishments...who knew this Valentine/Coffee themed collection would be such a perfect match for this recipe layout?! I am actually really excited at the prospect of having a year's worth of meal ideas together with some really cute layouts that will capture not only some new recipes, but also layouts that I hope to use to feature special meals that we share or little moments of triumph (an probably disaster) in the kitchen. At the end of the day, I have a nice variety of meal ideas for the month...and while I probably won't stick to it day by day, it sure will take of that mad search for some sort of idea at the end of the long day! So tell me, what "go to" meal ideas should I add to next month's menu?! Thanks for stopping by! Hugs, Karen