So who plans out their dinner menus a week or so ahead of time?

[maslex]

I've heard of people doing this and I'm quite intriqued.

I would LOVE to be so prepared and organized to be able to plan out my menu for the week and know exactly what I'm going to make from day to day instead of trying to figure things out when coming home at night after work.

Just wondering how people do it? Do they sit down with their cookbooks and pick 7 things to make for the week and then prepare a grocery list for that week? Or are their other factors involved?

Please share your tips!!!

 

[Janepod]

I do. I base it on the supermarket circular and what's on sale. I plan for two dinners of fish, three of chicken (usually one of them is leftovers) and two dinners of meat (beef, pork, whatever.)

I have a lot of cookbooks, I've taken a lot of cooking classes, and I'm always trying new recipes. But it does stay in that balance. I also look at the week and try to figure what nights we need a quick dinner - e.g., a late sports practice - and plan for something easy (or leftovers) that night.

I have been doing this ever since I got married and it works for us. I think it is the most economical approach.

 

[andysgirl360]

Yep! that is exactly what we do. We sit down with a pen and notebook - go over the week (DD is in TaeKwonDo so we plan easy meals for those nights). Check what we already have in the pantry - uses it up as well as keeps the grocery costs down. Lately we have been trying new recipes from our cookbooks and the internet/Food TV, and also try to use the crock pot at least once a week.

And we don't always stick to the meal of the day - during the week if things come up (or we don't feel like eating what was planned) - we just switch the days around. But we really try to stick to the 7 meals that we had planned out that week.

I really find it helpful to keep us organized and keep food costs down. No more whining "there's nothing to eat" and going out/ordering in instead.

 

[Southernmiss]

I used to plan for the week and even month, but I got tired of feeling tied to that menu and needed some flexibility for using up what I have on hand and what is happening in our lives that day. ((And sometimes oldest DS would eat a key ingredient I needed for a meal later in the week and I wouldn't know it. Arrgh!)

I instead keep a well stocked pantry and fridge and then each morning before work I decide what's for dinner that night and set out the appropriate meat to thaw. As I go about my day, I then plan what sides go with the meat. Occassionally, I will plan for 2 days and put something in the crockpot. This really helps me with the coming home from work what to cook blues.

 

[NCRedding]

I try to do this and even if I don't hit it 100%, it does help with food costs and the stress of "it's 5:30...what's for dinner."

The budget board has a huge thread about this where people post their menu plans and some recipes.

I realized I collect recipes, but never use them, so I have been working on going through, paring down my recipes and actually trying them. These days, it is so much easier to go to a recipe website, fill in a few ingredients, and have a choice of recipes using those ingredients.

I usually look at what meat I have in the freezer, what's going on for the day (how busy or easy it looks). Then I look for recipes for using what I have. I make a grocery list based on what I am planning.

Another thing I did over the last few weeks: I have saved those Kraft food recipe magazines over the last few years. I grabbed one of those, and started making every recipe in the magazine that I thought we would like. As I made it, I crossed it off. If it was successful and the family approved, I copied the recipe in my tried and true recipe list on my computer. It if wasn't good, it stayed crossed off. When I had tried all the recipes, I recycled the magazine.

 

[suejai]

I do make up a meal plan for two weeks, but don't go so far as to plan which days I will make a meal. I find it easier and less expensive for grocery shopping and I'm more aware of what I have in the pantry. I have to say I don't always follow the plan and will ad lib some days.

 

[clm10308]

I don't plan for a week and I never have. For many, many years I worked full time and my husband worked in the evenings, so I was not interested in cooking full dinners when I was the only one who would eat and my husband is bad scout not eating left overs.
My situation has changed now, and I do plan 2-3 dinners each week. Most of the time one I cook enough so that each meal will feed us 2 or more days.

 

[Creativebeth]

I love to have a plan. I sort of do it like a PP and have a general plan for the week but am flexible day to day on what I will fix. Today I laid out ground beef to thaw and grabbed the stuff for tacos and yellow rice on the counter for dinner. My boys like to know what we are having, so they saw it on the counter (and celebrated cause they love tacos!).

It really saves you time and money when you have a plan. It saves you running to the store all the time, or worse stopping for fast food on the way home from work!

Sometimes I fall off the planning wagon, then I find myself at the grocery store every day spending too much money. Now I cut coupons on Sunday and look at the circular for the store to plan my week. It's really nice to have all the ingredients for recipes and not have to have unnessary trips to the store!

 

[Malibustyle23]

I,ve been too lazy to do this as I should but have been getting back into the habit of this recently.

I sit down with sales ad for the grocery store and a list of what sides and main ingredients in the pantry. Then I plan the following week or two menus based on what we have on had and what is on sale. Not only does this help my pocket, keep my pantry items from expiring from being pushed to the back but also keep me organized.

I also try to skip leftovers since my husband thinks he's too good for them and try to recreate meals instead. For instance Monday we had barbecue chicken, Tuesday we had roast beef, wed we will have bbq quesdillas with the leftover chicken, thur we will have open faced roast beef sandwiches. Every other night we use the meat or main dish from two nights before.

 

[mombrontrent]

No I don't plan out meals in advance. I did briefly try it years ago but I find I'm much too spontanient. The key to my sucess is to keep a well stocked pantry. If I load up on a bunch of staples I can whip up a great quick dinner with whatever fresh produce or protein (I am vegetarian but I still make meals with some kind of meat about half the time for the rest of the family) I feel like using. I buy what appeals to me at the grocery store and make meals around them with the staples I keep at home. For exapmle yesterday at the grocery store I saw some spinach that looked really good. I knew I had canneloni shells, a tub of cottage cheese, cheddar and parm. cheese and all the staples to make a easy marina sauce at home. I went home and made spinach and cheese canneloni, it was so yummy! Tonight I will make something with the chicken I bought yesterday, use the rest of the spinach and some other veggies for a salad, and use the organic cauliflower I picked up because it was 50% off. I'm also going to make an apple crisp with the apples I bought because I have all the other ingredients on hand (butter, whole wheat flour, brown sugar, maple syrup, rolled oats, slivered almonds, cinnoman). I try to stalk lots of spices, beans, grains, pastas, nuts, oils and vinegars, baking supplies, cheeses, frozen veggies, canned tomato ect.)

 

[queendisney]

I do make up a meal plan for two weeks, but don't go so far as to plan which days I will make a meal. I find it easier and less expensive for grocery shopping and I'm more aware of what I have in the pantry. I have to say I don't always follow the plan and will ad lib some days.

Thats exactly what I do but only for one week. Its a great way to count the pennies. I go through a load of tried and tested recipes and every week we do one new recipe to see if its going to join the tried and tested ones or not! The following week we never have the same because we just like variety.

I even go as far as having a spreadsheet that I complete with all the ingrediants I need and all the meals I am making. We then score each new dish out of 10 and see where we could maybe make improvements according to our tastes. If it doesn't score over 8 then thats it for that one, it'll never be made again..

Yes I know its all a bit sad!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rascooby]

I really like it when I'm organized enough to do this. It makes things run so much better around here. I started using www.plantoeat.com. They'll give you a free 30 day trial and I just finished that and started subscribing. It allows you to store your own recipes or pull recipes from websites and save them to your account. You can organize them however you want and drag them to the calendar to plan your meals. It will generate a shopping list based on ingredients. I've only used it for a month, but I already have 28 recipes in there (I just do a couple at a time). I try to plan 5 meals a week and then we do left-overs or eat out the other days. I don't care what we eat which day, but it's so nice to know I have a plan. I highly, highly recommend it.

 

[sbell111]

Plan a week ahead of time? I only have a vague notion of what I'm going to eat for lunch in a few hours.

 

[NMAmy]

I've planned weekly meals for years. In the last six months, I changed to a slightly later work schedule so I've begun cooking meals on the weekend to use later in the week. It only takes a couple of hours on Saturday or Sunday and I don't have to worry about cooking most nights. The other nights, I plan to have easy things on hand. Last night, I made grilled portobello "burgers" with onions (10 minutes) and had a spinach side dish that I'd prepared ahead and just reheated. Boom, dinner's on the table 15 minutes after I get home.

It helps DH and I stay on plan with healthy, low-fat meals that we use for both dinners and lunches throughout the week.

 

[bigbabyblues]

We do, or I guess DH does. He plans out dinners for the week and then goes to the store. It doesn't always turn out that he fixes what he planned, but most of the time, he does.

 

[scrapquitler]

I kind of plan, but in a very loose and flexible way.

I try to keep the fridge/freezer/pantry stocked with all the ingredients to make a variety of my family's favorite dishes. I also keep a variety of convenience foods in the house so that they can throw things together to eat even if I'm not there to cook.

I often don't know that I am going to work until the last minute, so precise planning doesn't work for me (for example, I might get a call at 10AM asking me to work the 1-9 shift...I'm the per diem sube, so that is very common if someone calls in sick).

What I do is I plan 4 or 5 meals to have during the week and I don't plan which day each of those meals will be unless something specific is going on. The other days I figure I'll either grab something from the pantry, everyone will fend for themselves, or we'll get pizza. I do try to plan at least one crockpot meal each week.

Often my plans are not very specific...I don't plan all the side dishes for each meal, I pull those when I start cooking. The plan might be "Pasta/Sauce/Sausage" or it might be "do something with those chicken breasts in the freezer".

This weeks meals: 1. Sticky Chicken 2. Sausage/Sauce/Pasa 3. Leftovers from the sticky chicken used some way 4. Steak on the Grill 5. Tacos

This way I don't feel like I'm a slave to the menu, but I at least have SOME direction and idea of what to make.

 

[Tralliam]

I used to do this. It was very economical and much less stressful. Life has gotten in the way and we don't really do this as DW and I are following the Paleo diet which the kids aren't terribly fond of.

If you're looking for an easy way to plan a weeks meals take a look at e-mealz $5 a month and the menus are done for you.

 

[Sorsha]

I do this, on usually a bi-weekly basis.

DH gets paid every other Wednesday, and the sales circulars for the grocery stores also come out on Wednesdays. So when I browse the flyers, I plan out recipes based on what's on sale that week. Once I have done the major shopping for the two week's time period, I just have to go every three or four days for milk, fresh veg, etc. DH takes leftovers from meals for his lunches at work, so we save money because he doesn't have to purchase lunch.

Like a PP, I tend to keep a well-stocked freezer and pantry, so that makes it easier too.

I have been cooking for my family long enough to know how we will eat on certain nights of the week too. Friday night is "casual night" - we either eat leftovers or just have soup and sandwiches, etc. DH doesn't need a lunch the next day, and by that time, I need to clean out the fridge. The nights I am at work (Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday) DH has to cook, and while he doesn't mind cooking, he's usually quite tired from a 10-12 hr day at work, so I try to make it as easy on him as possible. I either plan things that can go in the crockpot, or I throw something in the oven that can cook for a long time and DD17 can keep an eye on it until he gets home - roasted chicken and baked potatoes, etc. Also, when I make homemade spaghetti sauce, I always make extra, and freeze it. Then DH can just defrost the sauce at a later date and boil up some noodles.

Saturday nights are often "fish nights". DH and the kids love fish - halibut, salmon, etc - me, not so much. I have tried, but I just don't care for it. I am usually at work that night, and DH has had the day off, so he cooks it for them. This also works well because he doesn't like to take leftover fish to work for lunch - he doesn't think it reheats well, and it makes the lunchroom "stinky". He doesn't work on Sundays so Saturday's meal doesn't have to be lunch the next day.

I think the keys to planning meals out ahead of time are organization, shopping the flyers, having recipes that are tried-and-true, making extra and freezing, keeping a well stocked pantry and fridge, etc. That doesn't mean that some days I don't wake up and just not FEEL like pot roast, so I swap it out for taco night. That just means that the pot roast still gets used, on the night where tacos used to be.

It helps me keep the budget down and helps DH and DD17 on nights when I am not home!

 

[Buckalew11]

I used to do this. It was very economical and much less stressful. Life has gotten in the way and we don't really do this as DW and I are following the Paleo diet which the kids aren't terribly fond of.

If you're looking for an easy way to plan a weeks meals take a look at e-mealz $5 a month and the menus are done for you.

I've always planned our meals. I use the sale ads on Sunday and plan from there.
However, as life gets busier and I get more tired of planning (thinking in general, lol) I'm trying what the above poster suggested--http://e-mealz.com/

I'm on week 2 and it has been great so far. I shop at Kroger and it matches its meals Kroger's sales for the week. Then, all I have to do is check the coupons for what is on sale for further savings.

You can do a regular menu, a low fat, low carb etc. It's really nice!

 

[Aristocath]

I usually plan out meals two weeks at a time. So every two weeks I make a major trip to the grocery store and Costco, getting most of what we need for a two week time period. On the "off weeks" I just go to the store to get whatever fresh produce we might need.

When I do the menu planning I sit down with the calendar to know what we have going on that might effect dinner plans. If it is a crazy busy evening and we can't all sit down together for a family meal, I plan something that can be dished out of the crock pot. Also, I leave myself the freedom to change up plans if I want or need to. If I have planned chicken for dinner but I don't feel like chicken that day, I just switch meals with another day.

As other posters have mentioned, a well-stocked pantry makes a big difference. A variety of meats in the freezer, lots of staples in the pantry and keeping fresh produce around means I can fix a lot of our favorite recipes without making a special trip to the store.