Alright, I know this isn't rocket science. In fact, it's fairly similar to what I already do on my own in terms of meal planning. Nevertheless, I find this downloadable sheet from Real Simple magazine pretty useful. I like how it links the shopping list to the menu while simultaneously breaking down the shopping list by sections of the grocery store. I find that going to the store with this kind of sheet really limits the extraneous things in the house we don't need (goodbye potato chips!) and decreases the number of necessary return trips to the store for the one item I forgot. I now have this downloaded on my desktop for easy access each week.

You can download it at realsimple.com/mealplanner.

Fun story -- I found this in this month's edition of "Real Simple." My friend Liz mailed it as part of a package of "Liz's Favorite Things" that was styled after "Oprah's Favorite Things." She sent her favorite magazine, her favorite brown sugar cookie recipe from Cooks Illustrated, earrings from her favorite earring designer, etc. It was such a fun gift -- and so fun to think how each thing was really heartfelt from Liz. Yes, I will be totally stealing that idea in future years.