Why should we plan meals

Life. Is. Busy.

and the thing I’ve learned is you’ve gotta eat no matter how busy you are.

When we plan out the week’s meals, not only do we EAT BETTER but we also WASTE LESS food and money.

I don’t know about you, but I also STRESS LESS when I have a menu plan for the week.  I hate coming home from work, looking in the fridge at 6:00 PM, and not knowing what to cook.  Sometimes I can pull it off like I’m on the show Iron Chef, and other days, I’m just pulling out a frozen bag of potstickers and edamame since my creative cooking brain isn’t working.

Dinner menu planning that has worked for me

I created a handful of dinner menu planners in my Etsy shop and it’s based on my weekly menu planning workflow.  I’m going to take you through it step by step in case it’s something that will work for you as well.  Pretty straightforward and easy to follow, don’t worry.  I can honestly say since moving to this method I’ve thrown out less spoiled veggies and meat, saved money, and also SAVED MY SANITY.

It all starts on the weekend.  Some days I’ll start brainstorming the menu Saturday night and other weekends I do it all on Sunday.  Either way, this is where I use my menu planner printable.  Link for menu planning section in my Etsy Shop

I typically print out 4-5 of these each month and then it’s ready to go each week.

I usually sit on the couch with my planner or at the kitchen table and then write it all in pencil.  I’ll start adding any favorite menus that my family likes to fill in a few of the days on the left-hand side.  Then I usually open up my favorite food blogger websites or Pinterest to get some inspiration for the week.  Two of my favorites places to visit are Taste and Tell and Half Baked Harvest.

Plan: 2-3 NEW Recipes

Plan: 2-3 Family Favorites Recipes

One upon a time I tried cooking the same menu plan EVERY SINGLE WEEK but my family and I got pretty burnt out rather quickly.  So I usually will plan a few new recipes and a few family favorites that I use in rotation.

Another fun idea a lot of people have done is to assign a theme to each day of the week.  Taco Tuesday, Meatless Mondays, etc.  This was fun for a while but it kind of interrupted some of my planning.  Especially since if I pick up my groceries on Monday then I’d want to cook the meat that same day or in the next few days.

Dinner menu planning tips

A few tips:

• Think about the day of the week you’ll be grocery shopping, it’s best if you use the fresh meat within the first 3 days.
• I usually plan a meat dinner Monday and Wednesday, then use frozen chicken for Thursday or Friday.  We usually go meatless 2-3 days of the week or at least a small amount of meat as a flavoring.  Meaning using bacon to flavor a soup or topping a pizza with a few slices of salty prosciutto.
• Pay attention to the life span of your veggies too.  Precut lettuce in bags needs to be eaten rather quickly compared to a head of cauliflower that could last up to a week and beyond.
• Think about what you could use in multiple recipes when you’re researching recipes for the week.  For example, if you’re buying cilantro for a Mexican type meal on Tuesday, can you also use it for a Curry on Thursday?  I try to get creative with this for a list of items:
  • 5 lb bag of Potatoes | Loaded baked potato soup on Tuesday and as a side of roasted smashed garlic potato side dish on Friday
  • Herbs, bunches of cilantro, thyme or rosemary
  • Lemon zest and lemon juice
  • Can of Tomato Paste
  • Large bag of baby spinach  | use for a Sundried Tomato Creamy Penne Pasta one day and then use it up in smoothies for the rest of the week
  • Cremini or Shitake Mushrooms in Bulk or from Costco
  • Head of Romain Lettuce | use it for your Beyond Beef Burgers on Tuesday and then have a salad on Thursday

That last tip is what saves me money in the long run.  Less spoilage and fewer ingredients that I need to purchase.  This is also why I mostly always stick to my menu plan for the week too.

After I decide on the menus for the week…..get this….. I PRINT THEM!

Yes, I print them, in this day and age with our Pinterest boards I found that I stay the most organized with my recipes printed.  Not only do I stay organized but I can jot down notes on what I did to the recipe and how the family ranked the recipe.  Any “keepers” will go into a three-ring binder with page protectors for future use.  Another perk of this method is that I’m not looking at my phone or computer to see what the next ingredient is so I can keep my hands and phone as clean as possible while cooking.

Now sitting down with all my recipes on hand, I start filling out the grocery shopping list in the other columns.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE putting everything down in their respective sections.  This saves me time while I’m at the grocery store or even ordering everything online for pickup.  When you just add everything to a long list, you’re rereading and rereading that list over and over again to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

This is also the time when I add our typical breakfast and snack items to the menu planner.  If your family also plans lunches, this is the time to do it too.  Several of my printable menus on Etsy have sections for both lunch and dinner.  At our house, the kids eat school lunch, and then Fri-Sunday, it’s typically the same items available each day.  Almond Butter and Nutella Sandwiches (we have a peanut allergy) and fruit, Easy Mac and baby carrots, leftovers, etc.  We’re pretty straight forward on breakfast too.  Low sugar cereals, oatmeal, whole wheat bagels, and cream cheese.   I don’t put a lot of time or energy into breakfast, lunches, and snacks.  Sometimes I’ll have some fun with morning glory muffins or pancakes on the weekends but that’s about it for us.  I save my energy for dinner 🙂

Dinner planning and grocery shopping

After I’ve gone through my recipes and written everything down, I also double-check my pantry staples and my freezer.  Anytime I run out of a pantry staple during the week, I write it on the currently posted menu, like so:

The last year has been an interesting change in shopping.  Depending on if we’ve got germs or even just busy schedules, I’ll either go online and order my groceries for pick up or I’ll go to the store and pick them up.

Every once in a while, I’ll have to adjust my menu plans on the fly.  The grocery store is out of beyond beef burgers or miso paste.  That’s why I usually wait to type up the menu until after the shopping is done.

Typing up the family menu forecast for the week

My family loves to look at the posted weekly menu on the fridge.  I’m not sure why, something to look forward to?  Maybe my husband will eat a smaller lunch when it’s his favorite for dinner?  Either way, I post it on there for ME so that I can remember what I’ve got planned.

After I’ve gotten the groceries put away I’ll usually head to the computer and then open the family dinner menu printable in Google Slides.  (I’ve also even done it on my phone before while sitting on the couch)

This is where I’ll add the menu titles and any side dishes to go along with it.  THEN PRINT AND POST!  That easy.

There are several different menus to choose from in most of my listings on Etsy.  My favorite is the menu that has the grocery list on the right-hand side and then ideas of what you can eat for breakfast, lunch and snacks at the bottom.  I use this grocery list throughout the week when I run out of pantry staples or snacks/fruit.  I used up the cinnamon, I’m out of garlic, or we need more canned tomatoes.  There are usually main ingredients I always use every week like onions, garlic, canned tomatoes that are essentially my staples for how I cook.

And that’s about it, friends!  I follow my menu plan each week while also staying flexible.  So for example, I usually plan 5 dinner menus and then either pull something easy out of the freezer for the 6th or order take-out.  Quite often we have dinner with extended family as well.  Sometimes on Fridays, I’m ready for a break and we’ll order pizza, then I’ll save Friday’s dinner menu for Saturday and so on.  Other times, I’ll make pumpkin pancakes for dinner since I already have all the ingredients always on hand.  So the tip is to stay a little flexible but don’t get crazy on switching things around or you may have items go bad in the fridge.

I hope this was helpful in giving you a new strategy or some inspiration for your own home.  If you have any family favorite menus in your home, please leave a comment in the section below and share.  I’m always on the hunt for a good new recipe!

If you need some help on the basics of Google Slides, follow this link for a tutorial I wrote. Google Slides basics for editing your template