Those of you that make weekly menus...

[StaceyinLA]

Do you have a standard something you follow? Do you plan according to what you have in the freezer, what's on sale, what?

 

I used to do menus. I need to do them again. I need some help trying to come up with a plan.

 

Any ideas?? Can you send me some sample menus if you have them??

[MamaT]

I do menus for every week. Usually I'll put a suggestion from one of the dc on the list. Other than that, I look at my week and see which days I need easy meals, meals I can put on to cook early in the day, etc. It really helps me to buy only what I need when I shop.

[Ria]

Stacey,

 

I do a 2-week menu, but alter it weekly, lol. Here's why - I get my work schedule for the upcoming week on Friday, and I might need to reschedule when I'm having the meals I've planned (some days I have quick meals, but some meals require that I'm home before 5 pm).

 

Anyway, I make a 2-week menu. I try to have one or two soups each week, at least one but preferably two vegetarian meals, a pasta meal, a chicken meal or two, and anything else that might strike my fancy. My method is to flip through my 50+ cookbooks and pick recipes that I have a craving for; it's really that simple. I try to stay within the guidelines I mentioned, but I really love food and couldn't limit myself to any concrete plan. For example, I might have a Thai phase and we'll have 3 Thai dishes in a 2-week period. Or it might be Mexican. I love beans, but my recipes for beans/legumes range from Lentils with Frankfurters to the basic beans and cornbread meal. I honestly find looking through my cookbooks to be relaxing. It's joy!

 

I make a 2-week menu, and then fix the meals per day once I know my work schedule. I shop every two weeks. Since I work at Wegmans (upscale grocery store) I can pick up fresh produce in between the 2-week shopping excursion.

 

Ria

[Ria]

Oh, you asked for a sample menu. Here's my current 2-week one:

 

White bean soup and bread

Huevos Rancheros

Beef Goulash Soup served over basmati rice

Udon Noodles with Mustard Greens and shiitake mushrooms

Indian Vegetable Curry with yogurt and chutney

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Spaghetti Bolognese

Tortillini Soup with fresh bread

White Chicken Chile and double-corn cornbread

Sausage and Pepper Hoagies (this was tonight's meal)

Sherried Tomato Soup and cheese toasts; salad

Taco Salad

Thai Red Curry Tofu with rice

Greek lamb patties in pitas with raita

Cornmeal-coated catfish fillets with succotash

Skillet-braised Bratwurst and sourkraut

Tostadas

 

Lots of variety, lol.

 

Ria

[bbsweetpea]

I usually look to see what is in the freezer and then look at the sale pages to buy any extra meal food we may need.

 

I make sure we always have cereal, eggs, jam, cheese, bread and Milk on hand for any days we may need a quick meal.

My hubby works nights 4 nights a week so I normally don't make as big of meals those nights.

 

A few of the meals we eat on rotation

 

-Chicken and rice (with peas and carrots in the brown rice) and a side salad

-turkey pasta with green beans and fruit salad

-white chili and cornbread

-Pesto chicken over some sort of whole wheat pasta

-chicken nuggets with 2 veggies

-Zuccini Lasagna (no noodles in this dish) with a salad

-turkey & black bean taco's

-Ministrone soup or some other type of soup with cornbread or garlic bread

-Pot roast with lots of veggies thrown in the crock pot

-Stew the next day with the leftover pot roast or roast beef sandwiches

-Chicken fajita's

 

We usually eat soups and salads for lunch or a grill cheese or peanut butter sandwich.

 

I usually make one new recipe a week from my clean eating magazine and some make the cut and go in rotation ... some do not.

[Laurel]

Do you have a standard something you follow? Do you plan according to what you have in the freezer, what's on sale, what?

 

I used to do menus. I need to do them again. I need some help trying to come up with a plan.

 

Any ideas?? Can you send me some sample menus if you have them??

 

I sit down every Saturday (usually, though I haven't done this week's quite yet) with this planner and try to plan our meals.

 

I start by putting in what I know we will have. (FYI: Our main meals are lunches, and then dinners are leftovers or something light and easy, not usually as planned.) For example, on Thursdays we have a class from 11-12. That doesn't give time to make lunch, so we need sandwiches or something with no prep work. And Sundays are my day to make bread, so that's usually incorporated into the Sunday menu somehow.

 

Then if I have any recipes that I've been wanting to try, I fill those in. (That could be a new muffin or quickbread for breakfast, or something fun for a snack, or a new entree for lunch or dinner.) And if there are old favorites that I have been craving, I fill those in as well.

 

And then I look to see if there will forseeably be any leftovers that will need to be used up. (i.e. if I make black eyed peas cooked with bacon for lunch one day, the next day we will have bacon and eggs for breakfast to use up the extra bacon from the package.)

 

Finally, if there are blank spaces, I think about what's in the freezer, or what we haven't had in a while, and fill those in. I don't do it based on what's on sale, necessarily, but I do base my menu plans on what I have available (in the freezer, canned in the pantry, or the few local veggies I can get this time of year).

 

I'd start by writing a list of your family's 10-14 favorites. I've found that when I sit down to make my meal plan, all the things I've been thinking about making fly right out of my head.

[Jennifer in MI]

Once a week I sit down with the calendar, the sales circular from Kroger, and my coupons. I figure out what nights need to be fast dinners and which ones I'll have time to work on. Then, I plan.

 

This week:

 

Enchiladas

Nachos

Jambalaya (this from a thread here last week!)

Creamy Sweet Potato soup

Sausage/cheese quiche

pancakes

coconut chicken/rice

 

This week I needed nearly nothing for our menu, but meat and cheese was on sale at Kroger. So, I bought the few things I needed and stocked up on the sale items (seriously stocked up - we nearly filled our second freezer!!). The next few weeks will have items from these sales.

 

I always cook enough for dinner so we'll have leftovers for lunch. Breakfast is always eggs, oatmeal, and toast.

 

Fruit and veggies are what's on sale. This week, it was oranges, apples, and bananas.

Edited February 16, 2009 by Jennifer in MI

[Tina]

I started by making a list of all the meals I could think of by beef, poultry, pork, soups, foreign, etc. I also worked into the list some recipes I'd printed out to try, to make sure they'd get in the mix. Time to pick one of my cookbooks to do that to, so I can systematically get to using more of them regularly.

 

Then I try to rotate beef and chicken nights, with some ground beef/soup/pasta/chinese or mexican each week, as the mood strikes. I actually tried quite a few new recipes last year this way! Otherwise, it's generally the same old things. Dh is pretty much a meat and potatoes guy, but I've stretched him a bit. ;)

 

We do eat out once a week a lot, but here are some samples. Let me know if you want the whole list of meals to get you brainstorming some new things. :)

 

-ham, baked potatoes/sweet potato, scalloped corn, coleslaw

-Wendy’s—went to town

-pizza for kids; business Christmas dinner out

-wet burritos, Spanish rice (Cook up cut up chicken for chicken and dumplings in the freezer)

-roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, green bean casserole, salad

-tomato soup/grilled cheese for kids, Mexican date Night for us

-ham potato bake, salad

-chili, biscuits

-Hungarian goulash over noodles, cream corn, banana cake

-sweet and sour meatballs, rice, eggrolls

-spaghetti carbonara, homemade italien breadsticks

-smothered chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans

-chicken noodle soup

[Hoggirl]

B/c there can so much variety of activities in our weeks, I just do them one week at a time. So, the first thing I do is sit down and write down the days of the week and input any activities we have each day. Recurring stuff (like piano lessons, church activities, and basketball practice which are at the same times/same days every week), stuff that changes from week to week (like the TIME of basketball games, my husband attending U of A basketball games), and stuff that is hit and miss (doctor appt., orthodontist appts - that sort of thing). Once the day-to-day list of things we have going on is all filled in, then I decide what and when I am going to cook. Wednesday night is always pizza so I don't have to think about it. But, then looking at our schedule I will decide what kind of cooking needs to be done on that day. Does it need to be a crockpot day? Do I need to plan for leftovers for another day that is going to be really busy? Can it be something I prepare right before I serve it b/c we will be home that afternoon? Those kinds of things. I probably have about 40 or so recipes that I use that I keep organized more by method of cooking. So, if I see a crockpot day, I go to my 8 or 10 crockpot recipes and "plug" one of those in. Of course, I also try to mix up the entrees so we aren't eating chicken or ground beef every night.

 

I hope this makes sense, but this is what works best for me in terms of how I approach my weekly meal-planning.

[Murphy101]

Do you have a standard something you follow? Do you plan according to what you have in the freezer, what's on sale, what?

 

yes.

 

there's the standard fare

cereal or eggs or rice or frozen pancakes/waffles for breakfast

grilled cheese, lunch meat, pbj, leftovers for lunch

 

so the real stress of menu plannign is dinner

 

First I make what I can with what's on hand

second I make what I can with what's on sale or what I have coupons for.

Third I make what is neccessary to fill out the week, taking to account our calendar activities,

Fourth, I buy any staples that I'm low on. I keep a list to check. (condiments, spices, herbs, honey, flour...)

 

That pretty much does it for us.

I can't really do more than 2 weeks at a time though. The kids keep eating to capacity!:D

[Nestof3]

White bean soup and bread

Huevos Rancheros

Beef Goulash Soup served over basmati rice

Udon Noodles with Mustard Greens and shiitake mushrooms

Indian Vegetable Curry with yogurt and chutney

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Spaghetti Bolognese

Tortillini Soup with fresh bread

White Chicken Chile and double-corn cornbread

Sausage and Pepper Hoagies (this was tonight's meal)

Sherried Tomato Soup and cheese toasts; salad

Taco Salad

Thai Red Curry Tofu with rice

Greek lamb patties in pitas with raita

Cornmeal-coated catfish fillets with succotash

Skillet-braised Bratwurst and sourkraut

Tostadas

 

 

Wow -- what variety! You sound like a great cook!

[StaceyinLA]

I haven't been cooking Thai nearly enough. I LOVE Thai. It's so easy to throw a curry together!! I think I'm going to do some of that tonight.

 

You guys are inspiring me. I just guess I needed some fresh ideas!

[StaceyinLA]

I tried to link to that menu planner, but the link just brought up Donna Young's site - something particular I should look for??

[Laurel]

I tried to link to that menu planner, but the link just brought up Donna Young's site - something particular I should look for??

 

I don't know why the link doesn't work. This should be the page for all the kitchen planners. I use the first horizontal menu planner.

[StaceyinLA]

Thank you!

[MomOfOneFunOne]

I plan out all meals for two weeks at a time. During the winter, now, I don't really plan by what is in season b/c not much is. During the late spring and summer, I plan by what is in season. In autum I do as much as I can by season. Back to winter, I just buy what's there.

 

Before I started this way of shopping I sat down with my husband and daughter and made a list of foods we like. So, now when I can't think of anything, I have a list.

 

I sit down with my calendar and list of foods. I make a menu based on the Church calendar, our calendar of activities, and what we like. Last week for example,

Sundays we go to mass and bible study but also like to have something a little nicer than usual for our meal. I do things like bbq chicken, et c that we all like but don't usually have.

Most Mondays we stay home all day. This is our Baking and Beans and Rice day. I do all the baking for the week (bread and muffins, usually). I generally make enough of everything to have later in the week, too.

Tuesdays are long days away from home. This week I'm putting baked potatoes in the oven and will set it to come on at 4.00 pm, they'll be ready by 5 when we walk through the door.

Wednesdays are usually at home but we may have company or meet a friend to play. On this particular Wednesday we had company AND it was the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. For the Feast, we wanted to make something that was both easy and quick b/c of company but also special for the feast. We found a simple french soup (artichoke and potato soup) and my daughter made lemon mousse.

Thursdays we're home almost all day but we're out all evening. We had quesadillas with refried beans and rice (l/o from monday). I got them ready except for the cooking and set out on the counter. When we come in all I have to do is heat them on each side while my daughter heats up the beans and rice.

Friday we never know. We're usually home but then again, we're out a lot too. We like to plan for homemade pizza for this day. It's really the only day we can do it but sometimes it's derailed by unexpected plans. We keep a stash of canned soup and crackers for stuff like that.

Saturday we never know. We generally get up late, eat breakfast late, eat lunch late, and aren't very hungry by dinner. We OFTEN plan for dessert only meal Saturday evenings. We don't usually make desserts so finally planning one in for the week is fun.

 

I like to make sure that everything gets used, too. For example, if I buy a can of pumpkin for muffins, I'll also plan pumpkin oatmeal for a couple of breakfasts. That way the whole can is used. If I plan to buy fresh spinach for quesadillas, we also have spinach/artichoke pizza. I make enough rice for beans and rice on Monday, fried rice for lunch on tuesday, and rice and beans on thursday, and apple fried rice for breakfast on friday. I make enough beans for beans and rice monday, refried beans on thrusday.

 

I'll try to post my week's menu later. I just tried but it won't cut and paste and I don't have time to type it out just now.

 

Good luck. We think it saves us money to shop every two weeks and plan our meals to use left overs, et c.

[PenKase]

I have a 6 week menu that I typed up in Word. I used to have cookbooks I would reference but decided it was just too much work! I rotate the menu every week. I made sure to ask my family what they wanted to see in the menu because it was going to be a staple and not many changes were going to be made to it. Just doing this has made my life so much simpler!!

 

Every Sunday morning (grocery day) I look up the menu for the week and check off my grocery list (also typed up in Word) for any extra items I need that week. Because I usually keep my pantry stocked with staples, the extras are not many. Yes, it did take some time to set up my system initially but now I could do it with my eyes closed and takes no time at all.

 

This week's menu was:

 

Monday-Turkey Sausage & White Bean Stew with salad and whole wheat italian bread

 

Tuesday-Oatmeal Pancakes (homemade) with fresh fruit and sugar free syrup

 

Wednesday-Baked Salmon with Quinoa and salad

 

Thursday-Spaghetti and meat sauce with Broccoli

 

Friday-Eggs and Polenta with sauteed spinach

 

 

So for this week, the extras that I needed were:

*Turkey Sausage

*Italian Bread

*Salmon

*Polenta

 

Everything else I already had on hand. The rest is on my list and I grab items according to my stock. Since I typed the list according to the isles in my grocery store it really takes no time at all to be done, especially when dh tags along and does half of the shopping!

 

We usually wing it for lunch, most days a sandwich or leftovers.

 

 

HTH!

[jenadina]

We plan 2 weeks at a time, with the aim to keep our grocery bill under $130 for 2 weeks, including non-food stuffs such as toilet paper.

 

I plan dinners only; we all eat leftovers for lunch the next day. For breakfast we eat arroz con leche or oatmeal during the week and pancakes and egg sandwiches (one each day, not both) on the weekend.

 

Here's our dinner plan:

 

1. tortas (big mexican sandwiches)

2. chicken enchiladas

3. pasta primavera

4. chili & cornbread

5. chicken & salad

6. eggs, baked or mashed potatoes, and salad

7. spaghetti

8. calzones or pizza

9. sopes

10. chicken & salad (again)

11. burritos

12. chicken alfredo

13. chili & cornbread (again)

14. tuna melts

 

I sometimes rearrange them and sometimes substitute something else entirely, but this is our basic 2 week menu (and we use it over and over and over).

[WTMCassandra]

I don't have time to read all the responses, but here's what we do:

 

1. My DH and I sit down and make up a meal plan for the week based on what's going on--if we are going to be out all afternoon on a particular day, that's a good day for a quickie skillet thing or a crockpot thing. If I'm going to be tutoring someone that afternoon just before dinner, a casserole that can be cooking while I tutor is best. On a day where I will be home all afternoon, perhaps that's a good day to roast chicken. We also decide what to eat based on what we like that we haven't had in a while or to leave something off that we are tired of. ; )

 

2. We then make the shopping list based on the ingredients needed to make the meals we planned, and then go to the store.

 

3. We post the sticky with the meal plan on the fridge right under the shopping list area. As we run out of staples, we write them down right away on the shopping list for next time. For example, when I use the last jar of spaghetti sauce to make something, I write down "Spag. sauce" right away on the list.

[abreakfromlife]

I just started doing them after reading and reading about them and saying 'I really should do this, why can't I manage to do this'...lol. I'm on week 3 and it's going good.

 

What I did, and what initiated it, was I was fed up with cooking on the weekend. So I decided that Saturdays were going to be spaghetti dinner and a salad (which we never have b/c I don't like spaghetti, but everyone else loves it) - fast, easy, and I can have a salad, lol. Then I decided that Sunday would be homemade pizza....I'll make the crust and sauce (freezing extras) and dh and the kids can make them together. And since I don't like pizza, either, lol, I can make a bigger salad on Saturday, and have that on Sunday, too.

 

Then I realized Wednesday was our really busy night, and I'm also trying to cut down on meat meals to save money, so I decided to do a bread-based meal on Wednesdays - and a salad, since I don't like bread, LOL. One week we had italian bread with hummus and olive tapenade, another week we had herbed bread with melted cheese, and this week we did reubens.

 

And then I decided to do soup and salad and bread on Friday, so then we could have the leftovers of it during the weekend for lunches. So that just left me 3 days to plan meat meals with sides, which was a lot more doable, and cheaper.

 

So:

Monday - meat/side/veggie

Tuesday - meat/side/veggie

Wednesday - bread/salad

Thursday - meat/side/veggie

Friday - soup/salad/bread

Saturday - leftovers/spaghetti

Sunday - leftovers/pizza

 

Now I just need to do the same thing for lunch and breakfast.

[lovemywhirlygirls]

Ria,

 

Your menu sounds DE-LISH. In all of your free time, would you share some of the recipes? I don't care which ones. We desperately need something new at our house and I trust your tried and true recipes.

 

Thanks to all for sharing. It does motivate me to try harder. I'm off to the Cookbook shelf right now!

 

ETA Since you don't know me--the "in all of your free time" reference was supposed to be FUNNY.

[Ellyndria]

http://www.savingdinner.com/

 

That's what I do. I have a menu mailer subscription. They also have a lot of freezer menus, although I haven't attempted any yet. The menu mailer subscription actually comes with all 4 of the menus each week (well, it's more like 3 menus, because 2 of them are combined, it's the side options that make a difference.) Each menu comes with 6 recipes. If you're adventurous, you can pick a menu, print off the shopping list for it, and go for it. Or you can pick and choose recipes off each menu, which is what I usually end up doing. There's a daytime menu included as well, if you need daytime suggestions... I never do, but sometimes I use the weekly soup recipe included in the daytime menu. If I know I will end up with leftover ingredients that I'll need to use up, I will go over to AllRecipes site and look up a recipe or two over there to complete my menu. I also usually end up planning a leftover day into the menu.

 

Lately I am planning menus for about 10 days at a time. It seems to cut down on the work that way.

[elise1mds]

I do one-week menus, too. I go first by what's on hand - this week it was frozen pizza, cabbage, mushrooms, boneless pork, and ground beef. Then I check sales. Onions were on sale, ribs were on sale, etc. Then I go through recipes that we know and love and go from there. I also insist on a veggie for each meal, and I make sure that we eat a variety of meal types (beef, chicken, pork, fish, vegetarian). This week we are slated to have:

 

Homemade lasagna and salad (may make some garlic bread)

Pork chops, mashed potatoes, and peas

Pork fajitas with plantains

Vegetarian lo mein

Frozen pizza and salad

BBQ ribs and homemade cole slaw

Beef stroganoff and peas

Tuna casserole, glazed carrots, and ice cream sundaes (my son is fixing dinner this night, and when he does that, I let him choose the menu)

 

I guess I should add that I can't eat chicken because I have a sensitivity to it, but we used to have a lot of it. Now I have to use it sparingly or use an alternative. I can take Benadryl, but I hate doing it. When it comes to making the menus, my kids and my husband are welcome to throw in their two cents' worth. When I get around to shopping, I pretty much stick to my list. The only things I might throw in the cart spontaneously are things on sale that go well for lunches - applesauce, Fig Newtons, etc.; sale breakfast items; or snack/dessert items, though I don't usually have to get too many of those between Halloween and a month or so after Easter.

 

I love making menus... and cooking!