Menu Planning

**Shelli_wnj** · 07-14-2011, 11:42 AM

those of you who menu plan, how far ahead do you plan for? Do you use a rotating plan, or a new one each week? Do you shop for your menu or shop, then make your menu? Can I have a sample idea of what your menu looks like? Thank you!!!!

**missyali** · 07-14-2011, 12:17 PM

I plan a month in advance based on my stockpile. We have a rotation; Sunday ~ large meal with potential left overs, Monday ~ fish, Tuesday ~ chicken, Wednesday ~ pork/beef, Thursday ~ meatless, Friday ~ kid-assisted cooking, Saturday ~ leftovers/whatever strikes me.

I put mine in a binder with monthly dividers. I print a calendar and hand write the meals on the calendar. I keep the recipes in a clear sleeve behind the calendar for ease in finding, unless it is a tried and true recipe that is in the recipe box.

Hope that helps!

**Contrary Housewife** · 07-14-2011, 12:48 PM

I make mine up on a week to week basis, sometimes planning as far in advance as 14 days out. I find that if I go any farther than that my tastes change and I no longer want to eat what I wrote down 3 weeks ago. Or that we run out of some ingredient sooner than expected.

I make menus from a combination of what we have, what I feel like eating, and sometimes what is on sale. I shop the sales to stock my pantry, and work from that later in the month. But if I find a good deal and I'm in the mood for it I might make substitutions.

I try to have heavier meals with leftovers early in the week so DH has choices for lunch. IE a roast or stew on Sunday night, or a large pan of chicken fajita meat Monday night. Then by Thursday I make the dinners that won't have leftovers because they'll just sit in the fridge for the next 4 days....

This week was:
S- grilled chicken, rice, carrots
M- falafel, pita, cucumber salad, caesar salad
T- turkey pot pie
W- leftover beef fajita, brussel sprouts
Th- out
F- stuffed pork loin, swiss chard
S- teriyaki salmon, veg

And next week is looking like:

S- homemade pizza
M- turkey wraps, salad
T- out
W- sloppy joes, veg
Th- chicken kebabs, yellow rice, veg
F- ?
S- ?

I will see what vegs are on sale or look good for next week, and what we have in the garden.

The week after that the only thing I have down is chili dogs on the night I have class, since DH can handle those by himself.

**savvy_sniper** · 07-14-2011, 01:04 PM

Menu planning is WAY to much work and forethought for me - LOL! I cook almost totally from scratch and have an extensive stockpile/pantry. I pretty much have an idea what I am going to prepare during the week. That's as far as it goes.

**dinah** · 07-14-2011, 03:50 PM

i menu plan only a week at a time. we have our standards (ie. [pizza, spaghetti with sauce, tacos) that show up a lot. other then that our menu is just based on sales, what we feel like, what's in the pantry/freezer, and what's in season.

i keep meaning to save them perhaps make more of a formal plan up...but i never do.

i also only plan for 5 meals per week. i don't like overplanning in case we are invited out or not hungry or whatever.

**zakity** · 07-14-2011, 04:44 PM

I do it a little differently from everyone else. Here is the list of things that I do:

I do an inventory of the pantry and freezers in January. The menu plan is adjusted for what is older and needs used up. Anything that was there last year and is still good leaves the house (either foodbanked or given to a friend). If it is past date, it is either composted or trashed. Side note: I plan an afternoon to complete the inventory because it is a total inventory. I even inventory the plastic bags and such. Usually, I reorganize the pantry and freezers while I am in there.

I use Outlook to schedule our meals. It is easy to move things around and I can put notes in the "body" of the entry. Before I used Outlook, I used a freebie calendar that a vendor gave DH and wrote everything in pencil. The electronic method is lovely because it is easier to shuffle the meals around or move them to the end of the menu plan if a meal doesn't work out that week. It is also nice because I can make notes about making sure I use up the frozen broth or what kind of steaks we are supposed to use. I used to do the inventory twice a year, but, since I started using the electronic calendar with the notes, I have found that I didn't have to do the extra inventory.

I only schedule meals Monday through Friday. Weekends are for using up leftovers or for fixing meals that didn't work out through the week (the ones where things are thawed and has to be used up and can't be moved to the end of the menu plan list).

Around Thursday of each week, I take a look at next week's meals. I then adjust things to work for the schedule. Sometimes, that just means swapping out the day's meals. Sometimes, I have to look to future weeks for meals that will work and swap things around.

When I go grocery shopping, I put the receipts on my desk. It gets entered into my bills spreadsheet (I use an electronic envelope system for budgeting). Then, I flip over to the calendar and add on any "meals" that I bought to the end of the menu plan list. I also can make notes if I need to use up something perishable (reminders are not a bad thing).

I plan out the menus until I run out of "stuff". I have meals planned through November 14.

I buy meat in bulk. I have a cow on order (due to come the middle of August) and I just bought 40 lbs of chicken breasts a few weeks ago. When I get the cow, I do an inventory of what we got and portion it out for meals (ie, steaks come in packs of two, we need two 2-packs for a meal). I schedule it on the calendar so that it will last the whole year and we don't wind up with all hamburger at the end or a ton of roasts in the summer.

I add the large meat purchases to the calendar on Monday's (and Tuesday's too sometimes) until it runs out. It doesn't mean they will stay there, they are just "parked" there until the menu plan flushes out that far down the calendar. Right now, I have chicken scheduled on Monday's between Nov 14th and Dec 12th. When we get the cow, I will totally reshuffle the menu plan to add in the beef meals.

Depending on the week and what is going on and what the planned meals are, I plan in a "fend for yourself" meal every other week. "Fend for yourself" is what I call "leftover night". They all groan at "leftover night", but if I pull out the leftovers and tell them it is "FFY night", they are all fine with it. I usually do them on the weeks where we will have tons of leftovers. It gives me a break from cooking without us going out to dinner. It is also used for those nights when I won't be home.

I always keep burritos and corn dogs in the freezer. They are used as "fast food". You know, those nights when you think that you are just going to run through drive-thru. Having those on hand means that we don't have to pay the fast food costs ($40 for a meal for the 5 of us). I am sure it isn't much healthier though.

Pancakes are our emergency meal for when someone forgets to pull out the meat to thaw or dinner gets burnt or the chef calls in sick or life just didn't work out. We make them from scratch so we always have the ingredients on hand.

It takes about an hour to redo the menu plan in January and then again when we get the cow. The weekly update takes about five minutes unless something drastic happens. Not to long ago, I swear that I spent a half hour trying to get the week to work out.

I have two meal lists, one for summer, one for winter, to get ideas. They are meals that we routinely eat and I usually keep the ingredients for on hand. One day I was menu planning and I was out of ideas. The guys had an activity later in the day and, while I was waiting on them, I made a list of as many meals that I could think of that we all liked. Eventually, it was broken out into two lists because we eat differently depending on the seasons. Here are my lists:

Summer:
breakfast sandwiches
biscuits and gravy (using rolls from the bread store)
grilling
grilled cheese
fried egg sandwiches
sloppy joes
fried eggs
waffles
pancakes
yogurt
cereal
hashbrown scramble
pizza bagels or English muffins
garlic bread and sauce
spaghetti potatoes
chili potatoes
goulash

Winter:
soup
waffles/pancakes
hashbrown scramble
chili
pizza
spaghetti
herbed parmesan sauce and pasta
chic and dumplings
baked chic
steaks
roast
biscuits and gravy
chili rice casserole
casseroles
homemade mac and cheese
taco/spaghetti/chili potatoes
calzones
pigs in blanket
tacos
tater tot pie (tater tots, chili, cheese)
hamburger rice casserole
sloppy joes

soup ideas:
taco soup
chic and dumplings
chic noodle
chili
split pea
potato soup

crockpot meals:
chili

**Nishu** · 07-22-2011, 09:36 AM

I have a running list in my head of what we're going to have based on what we have available and what needs to be used up before it goes bad. I have enough groceries available for several different meals and I decide what we're going to eat for dinner the morning of.

**dinah** · 07-22-2011, 11:06 AM

zakitty - what is spaghetti potatoes?

**zakity** · 07-22-2011, 02:33 PM

They are just baked potatoes with spaghetti fixins on them. It makes it nice because you don't have to heat up the kitchen boiling noodles. I usually serve them with garlic bread (like I do regular spaghetti).

The same goes for taco potatoes, just baked potatoes with taco toppings.

**YankeeMom** · 07-22-2011, 03:16 PM

I plan for the month. The only meal I really make a menu for is dinner. I just buy a few lunch things (lunch meat, bread, peanut butter, occasional frozen pizza) or we have leftovers for lunch. Breakfast is always cereal

I keep a notebook of meal ideas I've tried that my family likes and what ingredients I'd need to buy for each meal. I add to it every time we try something new that we like.

I just finished my August menu: