Weekly Menu Planning

Do you start planning a meal when someone asks, “What’s for dinner?” Do you wonder what you ate this week, why you’re eating out and wasting food so much?  Wasted money and wasted time. I don’t know about you but I don’t extra to waste.

The solution: PLAN Plan your menu for the week.

How to Plan

  1. Grab your blank weekly planner or blank paper.
  2. Section it out into days of the week and meals (Sun-Sat and B, L,D).
  3. Check your calendar to see what’s going to interrupt your cooking or meal time and note that on planner.
  4. Inventory pantry, refrigerator, freezer, anywhere else you stash food and note at the bottom of weekly planner.
  5. Gather ideas- look at cookbooks, food magazines, and food blogs (I list many to the left)
  6. Now having an idea of how long it takes to prepare dishes start entering them into the planner.  Use a PENCIL.  Make sure you rotate the foods around the week.  A good rule of thumb is 4 days in-between.
  7. Make grocery list from plan of items you don’t have on hand.
  8. Grab those reusable bags and hit the store.

Now there are a few ways to approach the food.  Keep in mind it’s best not to eat the same thing for breakfast every day or any meal every day.  4 menu-plan-on-frig days is a good time to rotate your foods.  This means if you have chicken on Monday then you don’t want to have it again until Friday.  This also helps keep things interesting.

Don’t forget about the less expensive cuts of meat that you can cook once and use in many meals. If you are rotating you might want to freeze it until needed.   Or you can use the leftovers from one meal as part of the next meal.  Use your leftovers to create new dishes, not just reheated meals.

I like to plan on Sunday but pick a day that works for you.  My meals are not always exact but I have a plan to start with.  I would love to hear if you try this, how it works out and any changes you make.  You can leave your comment below.

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