The beginning of a new school year is right around the corner for us. Our summer has been full and flexible and inconsistent. Our meal planning? Inconsistent at best.
So I’m thinking a lot about schedules and structure and consistency and how much I look forward to all of that back in our life again here soon. Specifically, I’m thinking about meal-planning. And I’d like to ask you — how do you do it in your family? What’s your system? How do you plan what you’re going to eat on what days? How often do you shop for food? Do you repeat the same meals every 2 weeks or every month or something like that? Do you try new recipes very often or not really? Do you keep all of your favorite recipes in one place? Do you use any online recipe organization service that helps you?
I’ve tried different things over the years but I’m ready to try something different. So leave a comment and let us know — what’s your system for meal-planning?
And yes, if I’m feeling pretty good about whatever system I settle into, I will most certainly let you know.
Trying to figure this out for my crew also…definately watching your blog for inspiration.
I’m in a phase of trying new recipes right now….My current new recipe book is by Southern Living called Busy Mom’s Weeknight Favorites….Many good easy meals…I have a paper pad the stays on our refrigerator labeled with meals for the week–makes it easy to decide what to have what night.
we just signed up for e-mealz.com. It costs $15 for 3 months and you get a menu with shopping list. Just signed up so no review yet.
What I do otherwise is on Saturday I go through my cookbooks, kraftfoods.com,and other options and sit down and write out what we are going to do for dinner the next week. I usually leave a night open for going out with the family. Here is an example of this weeks: Monday – Pasta; Tuesday – Chicken & Rice; Wednesday – Hamburgers & Hotdogs with fries; Thursday – Breakfast; Friday – Pork Chops & Mashed Potatoes; Saturday – dinner out; Sunday – Ribs & Corn on the Cob.
Then I write out the shopping list and send the hubby out shopping for the food on Sunday afternoon. On the weeks I don’t do this we end up eating out a whole lot or eating bits and pieces found in the fridge or freezer.
We do e-mealz also. While we don’t try everything on the list, the good news is we normally have a lot of the ingredients already on hand (ground beef, canned tomatoes, etc.) It is really a time-saver and money-saver, and we’ve found quite a few new meals that we consider “keepers” to make again. Each week is a good variety. Definitely recommended!
Wow~ this is almost exactly what we do!
On Saturday or Sunday morning I go through my recipe binder, cookbooks, online recourses (Kraftfoods.com, Foodnetwork.com, etc.) to look for ideas. Sometimes they’re new recipes to try, sometimes not- it depends on how I’m feeling and how busy our week looks. Also, I could make the same meals on rotation every 2 weeks, but I enjoy cooking and looking through recipes too much to give up looking at the pretty pictures!
Then I use the meal planner/grocery chart that I made myself. I searched online endlessly for one that would work for me and in the end I made my own (I can share it if you’d like it!). Ususally Sunday evening or Monday morning I go to the grocery to stock up on our goods. Again, I could go every two weeks, but we plow through our fresh goods too quickly and I end up going back anyway.
When I don’t do this method (which has worked consistently for me for probably 10 years), we end up eating out or piecing together leftovers. Noone ever feels quite as satisfied, we spend more money and our health suffers.
If there were a better way, I would love to know about it, but for now this is working for us. When I’m stumped or tired, I turn to our staple meal ideas which include: Spagetti, stir-fry, chicken soft-tacos, tuna-noodle casserole, home-made pizzas, etc.
Thanks for asking and I look forward to hearing your plans!
Lori,
I would love to have your homemade chart- i have been struggling with meals for so long, that I want tthis to be the year of change :O)
I grocery shop once every 2 weeks (on payday). Of course I go throughout the week for things I forget or run out of (which happens very often). For the big shop I plan 14 meals, including a few to eat out or a few for leftovers. Then I have the list of meals that I have groceries for and each morning I pull out anything that needs thawed or put in the crock pot for dinner that night. If I forget, I make something that doesn’t have much prep like brinner (breakfast for dinner) or spaghetti or something.
I plan and freezer cook meals monthly. In the beginning, I took our favorite meals and tried this out for 2 weeks at a time. After the first month, I decided to try and cook for a month…have never looked back since (it’s been about 4 years now)!
I keep track of ingredients on a spreadsheet (as I plan meals) so everything is organized by type and quantity. We grocery shop for everything I need the night before I cook, and then spend the next day cooking. As dishes get finished, the kids run them down to our chest freezer. At the end of the day, we go out to eat! I also have a file on my computer for each month’s menu, so the closer I get to Christmas (for example) I can pull a previous months menu and have ingredients etc.. ready in a flash if time doesn’t allow me to create a new menu.
Hope this helps! By the way, your Garlic Chicken Farfalle freezes beautifully!!
I should also mention that we keep a record of what is in the freezer, and decide the next nights meal as we clean up that night. One of the kids will go down to the freezer and bring up the meal for tomorrow night. This gives the dish time to thaw in the refrigerator before cooking the next day. I freeze main dishes and side dishes, so meal preparation is very minimal on a daily basis. This leaves only staples such as milk, fresh fruit etc.. to be purchased throughout the month!
I absolutly love this idea, but since I am not much of a cook- how to you know what can go in the freezer or how to bake it for that night?
Thanks
I freeze practically everything! All you need to do is pull the meals out the night before (we take turns choosing), and then heat the meals up. I usually heat main dishes between 325-350 (time depends on amount). Most side dishes I heat up in the microwave. Takes about 1/2 the time as cooking!
An exception would be meatloaf. I prepare it, dish it, and freeze it without cooking. Once it’s been thawed out – cook as you normally would. Another example is cookie dough. I’ll mix up 4-6 dozen at a time and flash freeze the dough balls (place item on a cookie sheet in your reg. freezer long enough for them to keep their form). Then, I toss the dough balls into freezer bags, label them, and toss them into our chest freezer. Cookies anytime without the mess!
Hope this helps!
I keep a running list of what I’ve made in the past for dinners, then on Sunday evenings I look it over and pick what I want to make for the week to come. I also browse through the recipes i’ve found online and try something new maybe once a week. Any more often than that and my family gets uncomfortable!
I am in need of assistance on this as well. Can’t wait to see what everyone has to say
I usually try to come up with two weeks worth of ideas by looking through recipe books like Rachel Ray or whatever I have around. I try to get my family to help out with this part. I tell them it’s like ordering off a menu at a restaurant. Then I put together a pretty ridiculously ordered list that I have saved as a pages document on our Mac and a Word document on our PC laptop. Prepared for any situation! It’s divided by each meal and then into the Pantry, Frozen (or refrigerated), and Fresh items needed for each recipe. Once I finally get myself psyched up to go to the store-because it’s a BIG trip-I buy all of the Pantry and Frozen items that will keep for the whole two weeks, or three, depending on how often I actually end up cooking. I only buy the Fresh items for two to four of the meals so they won’t spoil. Then the list gets a prominent spot in my kitchen and my purse when I need to pick up the staples, i.e. bread, milk, so I can pick up a few more fresh items depending on my mood and what I feel like making. It works most of the time, and I think it saves us money, I haven’t really put that to the test. Unfortunately I’m the only real foodie in my family so I end up sick of the kitchen a lot, so what started out as two weeks’ worth gets stretched to a month’s worth with a lot of eating out thrown into the mix. But, maybe it will work for you. It sounds like your hubs likes to cook too, so he would probably be a big help. Good Luck. It’s my least favorite part of being the CEO of our family, which is funny, because I love food.
I too just started meal planing and so far what works for me is planing 2 weeks worth of meals…We are military so we get paid 2 a month, so thats when we do our shopping…I have a little white board on my fridge were I write down the meals for the two weeks and then just do my shopping according to that. I tend to stick to the same meals in different variations unless I find something I REALLY want to try…Hope this helps!
Tuesday’s are Taco night (I make homemade tacos – an old family recipe) every Tuesday, and Thursday’s is Jalapeno’s night because Thursday is family swim night (as a family we go together to swim after everyone comes home from work/school so there is no time to cook. Jalapeno’s is a cheap restaurent meal). The rest of the days are planned around schedules (work schedules mostly because I’m a meteorologist I work shifts and that impacts our meal plans).
I have compiled a lengthy list of meals (main entree), a list of side dishes too (I add to the list as I make new recipes and they go into my ‘keeper’ file). I generally peruse that list for ideas, make my list of meals for the upcoming week or two (sometimes a month), then I make my grocery list from that.
I’m always trying new recipes. I’ve also been keeping a ‘record’ of our recipes (pictures+recipe) for a future recipe album to give to each of my kids. They love my cooking and family meals together are of high priority for us.
I’m with Lynn….I’m trying a new system (on my 3rd week) called E-Mealz. I use the WW Point System and my selected store is Wal-Mart. What E-Mealz does is plans my menu for me based on Wal-Mart’s sales for the week, gives me the necessary recipes, and the WW Point Value for each food. It even gives you a shopping list with expected cost. So far, we love it. My kids are eating the foods and I’m staying in budget. It costs $1.25/week for the service which is well worth it for my sanity!
Check it out at http://www.e-mealz.com
My husband gets paid every two weeks and I get paid once a month. Plus my husband is the athletic trainer for the school system (lots of games to attend), my oldest daughter dances, is a varsity cheerleader, in the marching band and concert band, member of the Acappella choir and football manager, plus church and 4-H. Younger daughter is also invovled in dance, church and 4-H. All of this makes for a very busy life. Needless to say, I sit down every two weeks, figure out what the schedule is going to be and then decide what meals I will fix when, based on what is quick and easy for busy evenings or what the family is hungry for. I also ask them for what items they would like to have again. Sometimes I will slip in a new recipe, but I have to be careful as my DH is very picky. I then compile a grocery list and go shopping for two weeks. For a while I tried fixing all of my meals on Sunday so that all I had to do was put them in the oven and set the time back every morning, but haven’t done that for awhile.
A couple times a year, we do a cook-all-weekend. I stock up the freezer with prepared (not always cooked) meals. Sometimes its just filling a baggie with meat and marinade, sometimes its cooking stews. Usually I do about 10 recipes on that weekend and make 2 or 3 of each to freeze. Then during the rest of the month, I have plenty of meals ready to thaw and cook without any other preparations — works great when I am busy. Somedays I’m just in the mood to cook and I always make more than one meal. I prefer to freeze it and revisit it in a couple of weeks instead of leftovers for a week.
On Sundays I make a menu and grocery list. I pencil in “frozen” meals for the busy days, but plan on some cooking depending on how the week looks. Monday I shop. Tuesday I chop (veggies for snacks, onions for Thursdays stew, etc.) With the veggies all cut, even when I do cook it goes quickly. I keep my menus in a folder so when I run out of ideas I can flip through to see what’s worked. I try at least two new recipes a month, and use the crock pot a lot. Maybe I’ll just blog what I do — this turned out long.
We get paid twice a month. I sit down pay bills, make a two week menu, and a grocery list in one sitting. I try to mix recipes we like with a new one at least once a week. Our kids are pretty open to new foods, so new recipes aren’t usually a problem. But, I try to balance family friendly recipes with more adult recipes.
When planning my menu, I do take into consideration what activities are on tap and usually note those on my menu. If it is a busy night of activity, I try to pick something that is quick (tacos, hot dogs), can be cooked ahead or can be done in the crockpot.
I shop every two weeks, planning not to repeat a meal during that time. When I plan go through the meals I want to prepare I make a shopping list from there. If I use a recipe very much I make recipe sheet on the computer, each recipe includes side dishes. I include quick meals like sloppy joes as well as more involved meals like roast and root vegies.
One thing said, keep a running list of things you use during the two weeks. I HATE to get ready to cook and find I have only one can of tomato sauce. (this happened to me last night)
I do like to try new things, my family not so much!!! I go to Food Network and put in the food I want to use—and recipes come up. One thing I found and used with great success are McCormick Recipe Inspirations. The spices are premeasured and the recipe card is on the back. But the really great thing is they give you the amount of each spice so you don’t have to buy the card again. My husband said they want you to buy the large spice—but after he tasted the Apple & Sage Pork Chops he didn’t talk about marketing anymore.
I have to plan my meals based on what nights I have to take my son to Boyscouts, Karate, etc. We try to have sit down meals even on those nights (except for Karate night – no heavy meals). I use my crockpot a lot making pot roast, pulled pork, etc. and on short nights we grill out so when I get home from work I can finish up pretty fast.
I’ve been thinking about this also. Currently, what I do is make a list of meals that my family likes and put them on a 6 week calendar-type table, so I end up with about 30+ meals (including pizza night every Friday of course). Then each week I look at the meals and decide which ones I want to do that week and write those out on an actual calendar that hangs on our pantry door. Then I just grocery shop for whatever meals have been planned for that week, taking into consideration schedules/eating out/being away, etc. and just look at the calendar each morning to see what I need to do for that night.
I’m in the process of putting all of my recipes that are specifically summer recipes or fall recipes or Holiday recipes in 3 different binders. My plan is to just pull out the binder each season and already have the 6-week meal rotation calendar and recipes all in one place for each season. I have a pocket insert in there to catch any new recipes that I want to try, and then once they have been tried I will put them in the binder permanently. I saw this on someone else’s blog but cannot remember exactly where – sorry!
Also, since you probably have pictures of most of your meals, I saw this cool idea on another blog. She took small square pictures of each meal that she prepares often for her family, laminated each, and put a magnet on the back. Then she had a laminated strip of paper with each day of the week on the refrigerator. She just took the pictures and put them on the laminated strip to plan her meals each week. I thought that was a neat way to possibly get the kids involved, and would definitely eliminate that wonderful “What’s for dinner?” question I get every night. Here’s the site http://heartofwisdom.com/blog/workbox-inspired-menu-planner/ I have no idea how to make it link – sorry!
Good luck!
I’ve got the same issue on my brain.
I’m thinking about making a three month schedule that repeats the next three months. One for fall and winter and a different one for spring and summer.
My plan would be to fill each week with two standard meals, for example, tacos and spaghetti and one new recipe that we’ve never tried or have only tried a few times. This would give us 3 meals a week plus leftovers.
This schedule would make me space out my standard meals more and encourage me to try new things. It sounds good in my brain anyway.:)
Here is my system, and it has been working well for several months.
Monday: Mexican; rotate each week between burritos, tacos, quesadillas, layered enchilada bake and others
Tuesday: Breakfasts; rotate each week between French toast, pancakes, an egg dish, crepes and others
Wednesday: Home cookin’, rotate each week through roasted chicken, ham and potatoes, roast, roast leftovers/Shepherd’s Pie, meatloaf, something associated as family/comfort food- we often have guests on Wed. night.
Thursday: Italian; rotate through spaghetti & meatballs, ravioli, lasagna, manicotti
Friday: Pizza night. I always do homemade pizza or calzone’s.
Saturday: Sandwiches. Rotate through deli sandwiches, grilled cheese, BBQ burgers, German sausages, meatball sandwiches and wraps.
Sunday: Home cookin/comfort food: rotate through pot roast, turkey, ham, etc…
This system works great for us because I know what type of meal to make each night but I don’t feel like I’m in short supply for ideas by using our rotation system.
For shopping purposes I look at our menu plan and make a list of what I don’t have and add it to my grocery list. I also decide how much of something to buy, like ground beef, based on how many of my meals call for that item. I can easily purchase some things in bulk and either cook and freeze or just freeze. Also, many of the meals I make such as layered enchilada bake, manicotti, and lasagna, for example, make such big batches that I can get at least two meals out of it. So I bake it and put the leftovers straight into the freezer for a super easy meal later in the month.
Then, I add side dishes like salad or canned or frozen veggies and/or fruit to the meal.
I love that idea, Erin! I love that it provides an added level of structure to help with the planning. I’m going to implement this to my current meal planning!
My current meal planning is similar to what others have described–going through a few recipe sources at the start of the week, planning a weeks worth of menus (always include one day for “clean out the fridge night” aka leftovers). And then making my shopping list accordingly.
I avoid going to the grocery store more than once a week because it can be such a budget buster.
One thing that I do that makes things a bit easier in the long run is to incorporate some bulk cooking into my plan. For instance, I always buy our ground turkey in bulk (typically 5 lbs. each time). Then, instead of portioning up uncooked meat, I brown all of it at once and then put the cooked meat into freezer bags to use for tacos, spaghetti sauce, sloppy joes, etc. I do the same thing with chicken–instead of grilling enough for one meal, I grill the entire bulk-sized package at once and then freeze the cooked meat to be used for maindish salads, fajitas, etc. Also, whenever I cook pasta, I pull out the huge stockpot and cook several boxes at the same time. I toss the pasta that I’m going to freeze with a teaspoon or two of olive oil. These little things add up to easier meals on those busy weeknights when the kids have an activity.
I love your bulk ideas, Anne. I’ve done that in the past and it’s great. I need to get back on track, you’ve inspired me!!
After 6 kids, I finally decided that knowing what was for dinner early in the day was crucial to my sanity….and I don’t really like the mechanics of planning meals. So I will take a full afternoon, calendar sheets, favorite recipe magazines/books and all those recipes I’ve printed off the net and will plug them in. I note on the calendar activities I already know exist and try to plan for at least 2 months. I save these sheets in a notebook to make the planning easier for next time. When it comes to shopping, I’ll pull out the recipes for the week and just write down the ingredients I need and I’m set.
I have a list of our standard meals, about 20. I go thru and plan for two weeks, and leave one night open each week for a new recipe to try. We do some freezer cooking but not large batches. When I make lasagna, I make extras to freeze, the same with enchiladas. So there are a couple of choices in the freezer if plans fall apart. Try to use the crockpot at least once a week. We use our grill all year round, even if its snowing outside.
For the new recipes, if I have not already found one, I like orgjunkie.com, because they do menu plan monday and I find lots of recipes thru the links of other menu planners. I also use website like Kraft, Taste of Home, CDKitchens, etc. Or I pick something from one of the numerous cookbooks I have. Sometimes with the new recipe we have failures and they get marked as not successful in our house, and others get added to our list of standards.
This is the plan that my friend, Nicole Green, uses. She posted it on her facebook page, and since then most of our neighborhood uses some form of this plan. I realize it’s kindof long, but it’s very explanitory.
Many of you have asked for this, so I thought I would post it. I simply make my grocery lists based on one selection for each day, and adjust it as needed. It answers that dreaded question of the day, “What’s for dinner?” I keep prep time low and recipes simple. Any recipe can be found at http://www.allrecipes.com . You can always use convenience food on days you know you don’t have time. I have enjoyed the flexibility, variety, and ease of planning ahead. Enjoy! Feel free to pass it on.
Main Dish Schedule
Sun.= Soup
Mon.= Oriental
Tues.= American
Wed.= Italian
Thurs.= Mexican
Fri.= Sandwiches
Sat.= try something new/ eat out
Sun. Soup possible sides: garlic bread, mimi’s bread, breadsticks, green salad, fruit or vegetable
1 stew
2 tortilla/ taco
3 broccoli cheese
4 chicken & dumpling
5 beef/ veggie
6 creamy potato
7 chili
8 chicken noodle
9 corn chowder
10 pasta e fagoli
Mon. Oriental possible sides: rice, asian noodles, steamed veggies, fresh fruit, wontons, egg rolls
1 chow mein
2 sweet and sour chicken
3 bulgogi rice wraps
4 kabobs
5 stir fry
6 beef and broccoli
7 orange chicken
8 pork egg rolls
9 mandarin chicken salad
10 Thai curry
Tues. American possible sides: garlic bread, mimi’s bread, breadsticks, green salad, fruit or vegetable
1 breakfast for dinner
2 Jambalaya
3 BBQ
4 chicken rolls
5 goulash
6 pot roast
7 lemon pepper chicken
8 chicken nuggets/cordon bleu
9 London Broil or steak
10 potato bar
Wed. Italian possible sides: garlic bread, green salad, fruit or vegetable
1 spaghetti
2 ravioli
3 fettucine alfredo
4 manicotti
5 lasagna
6 calzone
7 chicken parmesan
8 pizza
9 penne gorgonzola
10 beef stroganoff/ macaroni & cheese
Thurs. Mexican possible sides: chips & salsa, bean dip, guacamole, green salad, fruit or vegetable
1 fajitas
2 tostadas
3 enchiladas
4 tacos
5 burritos
6 tamales
7 taco salad
8 quesadillas
9 super nachos
10 ranchero
Fri. Sandwiches possible sides: chips, pasta salad, potato salad, acini salad, green salad, fruit/ vegetable
1 club
2 chicken salad
3 grilled cheese
4 turkey avocado
5 hamburgers/ sloppy joes
6 crispy chicken
7 BLT
8 Italian
9 french dip/ roast beef
10 BBQ
Sat. Try something new/ eat out
or leftovers
Desserts
cookies & milk, ice cream, milkshakes, smoothies, brownies, cake, pie, cheesecake, cobbler, fruit crisp
Breakfast
cereal/ oatmeal, fruit, toast, pancake/ waffles, muffins, juice, milk
Lunch
Frozen entree, leftovers, snacks
Snacks
Cheese & crackers, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, bread, fruit snacks, cookies, etc.
Thanks for sharing Michelle…I love it! (not sure I can do it…but LOVE it!!)
This is a great system. I’m going to try it. Thanks!
My system is pretty basic, I have 3×5 cards and one of those $1 mom calendars from Michaels. First I have everyone in the family give me their favorite dinners, then I put them on the cards and any ingredients needed and what cookbook and page number the recipe can be found if needed. For example spaghetti, that one is a no brainer, but cashew chicken I usually need a refresher on. Then with my cards in hand I sit down at then end of the month and plan the meals for the next month. I like putting them on the calendar because then I can see what activities everyone has so I know whether it’s a crock pot nite or not
, I can also make sure we’re not having chicken/beef etc e nights in a row. Once the menu us set then I can go thru pantry and freezer to make the shopping list/stock up list/when it’s on sale need to get list. The whole plan the menu/make the list process takes me about 30 min once a month.
I do plan some “leftover” nights, and if there aren’t any leftovers then this is where we’ll try a new recipe. If we like it, it goes on a card and in the menu box to get put on the calendar again.
My latest big “ah ha” moment (okay well actually it was a “DUH” moment, when making something that freezes easily like chicken enchiladas, I make two batches freeze one and just add it to the next month ahead of time with a little note that it’s in the freezer.
Some nice things about this system,
If we don’t feel like what’s planned I can just go a different day and come back to the that one later, since I made the list for the month unless if it’s a meat item that I’m out of & hasn’t been on sale in a while I should have all the ingredients.
I don’t have to think up what to cook, it’s already thought up!
Because the family gave me the menu items, there shouldn’t be any “Ewww I don’t like that”
While we do have some of our fav’s once a month, for the most part it recipe’s are being recycled about every 6 wks so it keeps things new and different.
Hope that helps! I live in North Phoenix so feel free to come one over and take a peek at the process!
I am proud to say we eat dinner together every night. I’m embarrassed to say there is not system. We eat lots of fresh foods. My kids are way too picky for me but them eating a balanced diet is important so side dishes for them are usually raw veggies they like (both different of course) or fruit. We eat lots of fish or chicken on the grill. I buy talapia at Costco and freeze 4 pieces together and buy our chicken individually frozen. I buy my meat from a local butcher who’s been around forever and has fresh, healthy meat at the best prices. If I make tacos I freeze half the meat for another time. If I make stuffed green peppers I make another batch to freeze. We do have nights when we eat tomato soup and grilled cheese because my picky kids like tomato soup and it’s good for them. I try to think ahead but making casseroles etc. ahead of time doesn’t work for us because my kids won’t eat it. I do make many things in the crock pot and I like to try new recipes. My kids love pork tenderloin and I usually have enough for left overs. My son LOVES your chicken garlic farafelle btw…it’s one of his favs although we had to tweek it with less bacon…ff cream and less pepper. My kids love eggs once every 2 weeks or so we will have omlets or I make a really good egg casserole that you make a day ahead and leave in the frig. I have no wonderful meal planning system or grocery system. I just started Super Couponing 6 months ago so I shop what’s on sale and usually plan meals from there. I am just happy that we can sit down together every night and be a family!
I TRY to plan a 2 week menu and go grocery shopping every 2 weeks. It doesn’t always go that smoothly, but I try. I do like to try new items on the menu, but sometimes it’s just easier to cook the same things I’ve been cooking for a while. I do know of some people that post their menus on their blogs, and that is how they keep track of it. Good Luck!
We’re suppose to have a PLAN???? Oh dear…..
Ha! Love it!
I’ve been an E-Mealz.com subscriber for almost a year and I can’t tell you how much money it has saved, not to mention sanity and WW points
. I print out the weekly menus and put them in a three ring binder so that I have a recipe book, of sorts, to thumb through when something they have menu’d doesn’t jive with what sounds good to the family on any particular night.
I menu plan and shop once a week. I try to plan out breakfast, lunch and dinners. We have been trying to fix at least one new meal each week. I usually plan meals based on our weekly schedules. If it is a night where we have events at school then we have an easy meal like panini’s/chips or tacos/quesadillas.
Yes, I start the week on Thurs. Which is our grocery stores new flyer of sales for the week, I buy the paper the day before and make menu based on sales. I use notebook paper, put days down the left with the date and skip a line to add notes or events. If I change my mind or in a time crunch I just switch the meal around. I post it on the fridge after I grocery shop I also add to the bottom of the sheet w/menu other grocery list items so this is also my list, then cut off the bottom when I get home and post. I hope this helps I would have uploaded a photo to make it easier than it sounds. I also save them sometimes and then just pull them out a few weeks later and have a menu ready, just make a fresh one w/grocery list on the bottom. I hope this helps or inspires you. =)
I plan with my calendar!
I make a menu plan every two weeks and factor in meals that fit our schedule. Easy meals for nights we’re on the go–more involved meals for days that I have extra time at home. I don’t assign specific meals to each day, I just decide each morning (or the night before) what we’re having based on the meals available on the plan and on my schedule!
I shop every two weeks for the main ingredients and fill in more often with milk, eggs, fresh veggies and fruit. I’ve been doing this for 3-4 years and it’s pretty effortless now.
I mix our menus up a lot. I shop according to what is on sale and make my menu plan accordingly. I often bookmark recipes I see online and add a few new ones in every time I make a plan. And I keep my recipes on a personal blog…and I post my menu plan there every two weeks as well!
I don’t use anything on line. I subscribe to Cooking Light and cut out tons of recipes from there, as well as from other places. I have had my own home made recipe book for years.
I take a look at our calendar for the next 7-10 days to see which days I may need a quicker meal, which days I”m home from work and do a more labor intensive meal, etc. I have learned to build in a day for leftovers though. I try new recipes every week, my family loves different foods and we’re always up for something new. I use a simple template from Microsoft to list my scheduled meals for the week and then put that along with the recipes I’m using into a clear folder that stays in the kitchen. I make a grocery list from my recipes, usually dividing my shopping up into 2 trips. So I make 2 lists, one for now and then decide the date that I need to shop again. We have a local farmers market so I stop there every other day anyway for produce too. Menu planning is such a life saver for our family of 4!
I make a menu every 2 weeks. (Follows with payday which is when I grocery shop) I make my menu before going to the store so I don’t waste a lot of money on things I don’t need. I keep my recipes in a recipe book and I also use http://www.allrecipes.com for new recipes and you can store the ones you like in a recipe box. Whenever I want to try a new recipe I look through the recipe box. I usually don’t repeat the same recipe in a month. I’ve learned to only try new recipes once a week or once every two weeks. You hate to have 2 duds in a row.
Oh, man! Some of you really get into this!
Here’s my system: Sunday night or Monday morning I plan the week’s menu. Then I am usually making the grocery list on Monday morning (I type it into and application on my iPod…I can’t remember the name right now, but I can organize the aisles according to my grocery store and as I type the stuff in, it puts the list in order for me…I LOVE that!!). Grocery shop every Monday. (I would love to do the monthly freezer cooking, but all we have is a little – full – refridgerator/freezer. If we had a deep freeze, I’d definitely go for that!)
As for the menu rotation, there’s not much variation from week to week, but I do like to try out a new recipe every other week or so. My husband has suggested making a “rotation box” where I put the meal/recipe of our tried-and-true dishes on an index card and just rotate through those for each week’s menu. Reading through these comments, I just might have to get this started after school starts! It’s a great idea and it wouldn’t take long to get it started and not too expensive, either. Look…now you’ve inspired me to get after this rotation box!!
We’ve done this a few different times and seems to work the best for our family. When it’s time to meal plan, I give the whole family a heads up. Each person is responsible for coming up with 2 meals they would like to eat which gives me 10 meals. If I decide I need more than 10, I fill in the blanks. I’ve been happily surprised that we don’t have chicken nuggets once a week (and most often when we do it’s some sort of homemade nugget). One rule we do have it there is no more complaining about what we eat. Obviously you don’t complain on your meal, but you can’t complain about someone else’s either. Everyone gets a turn. Good luck with your meal planning!
E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families
This is a great plan because you can choose from different types of plans, fatfree, family size, choice of store using store specials, etc. There is a menu and a grocery list. Most meals are simple and quickly prepared following directions provided. I do tweak them sometimes to my liking which is another thing I like, a recipe is just a guide. For $15 a month you can’t believe it and the family loves it.
I’m a once a week planner. I match up the grocery store sales with a mix of new and old recipes . (I am constantly magazine clipping and saving online ideas onto my “springpad” account.) I plan ahead so on swim team nights the slow cooker is going and on Scouting nights I make something ahead because we have to eat earlier. The menu is written on a white board in our locker/mud room area.
We sit down for a home cooked dinner every night. No fast food. No take out. I save restaurant dollars for good meals in nice places (and yes, i write that on the board if we’re scheduling that in as well!)
I create a five week menu plan that I rotate through. I actually have one plan for spring/summer and one for fall/winter. For each week of my menu plan I have created a customized grocery list so once a week I print off the grocery list and check off the items that I need to purchase that week. I grocery shop once a week ( I have four teenagers; no fridge is large enough!). To keep the plan from becoming repetitive I leave space once a week for trying a new recipe and some spaces on the plan for take-out. I am a full time teacher and I love that my menu planning and grocery list are basically always ready to go. I have a huge collection of recipes books and I also keep a file on the go of recipes I want to try that I have ripped from magazines.
It’s just my husband and me, so we probably do it pretty different than everyone else.
Our schedule changes every 15 weeks (college terms) so we find a day that we’re off but it’s been shopping on Friday or Saturday the last few months. As we’re walking through the store – the conversation is something like:
him: “how many meals? we’re home for [and then he counts them up], so we need X amount of meal events.”
We look for our favorites (tried and true, not much different) and ‘cravings’ (like spaghetti last week!) and purchase what we need. We eat out some but plan more around the best meals for his tennis playing (like chicken – not beef – before a match, etc.) but go from there.
He picks out the meal – all parts – and I cook it. Sometimes I use a receipe (not very adventureous) and sometimes I just throw it all together (like the spaghetti sauce) from what I think sounds good. He helps me remember what to cook and asks if I have all of the ingredients and will help cook, if I ask…but he’s usually off doing some other household task (like the clothes, vaccumming, dishes, etc.) to keep us on track! I love my husband!
I know this wasn’t much help to a family with kids, but it works for our little family of two.
Oh, and we do make a grocery list EVERY week to remember what to get.
I’m with Debra B.
I’ve been a meal planner for years! I can’t function if I don’t have a list for the grocery store and know what we’re having for dinner. There’s no stress during my week, because I know what all our meals are going to be.
I start with our CSA (community supported agriculture) box. We receive farm fresh veggies each week and those are the basis for your meals. Then I turn to our local grocery circulars. We have 2 grocery stores in our little town, approximately 1.4 mile apart. I shop at both, as they are so close. We eat based on what is on sale and fresh that week.
I plan my dinners first – we have favorite meals that we rotate in and out. I also try to have an “experiment” night every week or so – I try out a new recipe and if we like it, it goes into our rotation.
We homeschool, so I feed 4 people 3 meals plus snacks a day all year long. I include lunches and breakfasts into my meal planning – these are much looser…I know what we have, but it’s up for grabs any day of the week.
I made a shopping list that coordinates with my main grocery store, so I just plug what we need that week into the appropriate department. It’s set up according to how we shop the store – right to left, by department.
Being a homeschooling mom of 5 (ages 2-11) and a full-time college student, there is not a lot of extra time to stand around and ask what’s for dinner. Our pantry is generously stocked and make our own bread every other day.
We also coupon shop, once a week and build our menu around what we have in out pantry.
Also, once a month, we make a handful of freezer meals that I can just take out of the freezer and put right into the oven (“Don’t panic, Dinner’s in the Freezer” is a GREAT book)
Because I have a child allergic to Red Dye, we make EVERYTHING from scratch. Last month, we even bought a pasta crank machine.
On our fridge, I have a weekly white board calendar where I write meals and weekly activities to make sure that we can juggle everyone.
First to answer your ?s—I shop once a week
I like to try new recipes
I keep all my favorites in an index card file box
I don not use online organization
What I like to do is cook MEGA on the weekend (this is when I have more time to cook)—then we eat left overs through the week.
If I’m browning ground beef for a recipe—I’ll go ahead and brown several pounds of it and them freez it cooked—that way if I’m in a hurry through the week–I have the meat all ready waiting for me.
I always have one of those rotisserie chickens from the grocery store deli frozen and chopped in the freezer.–again waiting on me
I usually plan my meals based on what is on sale at the grocery store that week.
I’m not really much of a meal planner (although it would make my life much easier). I have tried meal planning, but it doesn’t seem to work really well for me. (my husband is either not in the mood for what I had in mind or not that hungry, schedule changes, etc. My husband is a physician and does not always make it home at the same time every night.) I’ll usually come up with an idea on the day of and go with what I’m in the mood for. The 3 kids are picky eaters and I often end up making more than one meal… not good. I will be looking for lots of inspiration here! I’m trying to find a way to make my life easier.
I have recently started a monthly meal plan. It turned out FAR easier than doing it every 2 weeks!! I printed a cute monthly calander. Then I make a list of all our fave meals. I add a couple new recipes to try. Then just start filling in the blanks! I make sure to add spots for left overs when I make stuff that yields them. Also- I put our very faves in more than once. Also- when I make the next months calendar- I will use the previous one for inspiration. I often forget about some of our fave items!
once my month is full, I make 2 shopping lists. I shop every 2 weeks (payday!) so I make a list based on the things I need to get for that 2 weeks worth of meals. Then I just grab it and add the other things we need- breakfast items, etc. when its time to shop.
http://www.hoosierhomade.com has a good menu planning section. She does a monthly plan EVERY MONTH and posts a weekly breakdown as the month goes on. Also- she has lots of tasty, kid friendly, easy meals.
Also- Womens Day magazine, of all places, has a monthly menu in the back of the magazine each month. I blogged about it and there is a link to their online menus here- http://theflickfour.blogspot.com/2010/06/womans-day-monthly-menu-calendar.html
Hope this helps!!
I try new recipes 80% of the time and do repeats the remaining time. I plan 5 meals a week and figure the other 2 nights something will come up. I’m going to read through all these comments for some tips on how to be more streamlined in my process. I record my favorite recipes, the ones we would enjoy again, on TasteBook.com.
Hey Becky
I’m excited to share something back with you for a change, since you share so many great ideas with your blog audience!
Meal planning has become a Sunday ritual around our house. I’ve been doing this for a year or so and find it makes our weeks flow much better in our busy household.
I start by sitting down with our weekly calendar and mark down our activities/outings/appointments at the bottom of a weekly blank page (I pick up stacks of these at Michaels). That helps me decide if meals need to be quick or if they can be a bit more elaborate. Then I go to the freezer, see what we have for meat and prepared meals. From there I just start inserting ideas for supper that fit each day…it is usually inspired by a meat we have on-hand or a recipe. I get alot of inspiration from food magazines for new recipes to try, I usually try one new one a week. Another big help for me is having designated nights of the week such as Taco Tuesday, or Pizza Friday…we also have Pasta Thursday.
I began planning our breakfast & lunch a while back also. I was finding if I planned for it, we had more variety in these two quick meals. And we weren’t grabbing an un-healthy choice.
Our weekly list for three meals a day usually comes together in 15 – 30 mins, my family usually leaves me to myself for this time and it is bliss. I make my grocery list along side the meal plan and then know what I am shopping for on Monday (as the stores aren’t open here on Sundays). One other thing I do is keep a list of meal ideas that pop into my head for next week at the bottom of the current week’s meal plan…that usually fills up quite quickly with requests from the kiddos.
There are so many benefits for us meal planning this way
-less food waste!
-budgeted meals are easy to plan for
-my husband can help out easily by knowing what’s on the meal agenda
-no more of the dreaded feeling of ‘what to make for supper???’
-I feel less stress in the food prep department, since I am the sole meal maker in our home
There is lots of room to be spontaneous too, if we change our mind on the fly, that’s OK too…I always love a night off eating at a local restaurant or a family picnic on the beach!
Here’s a look at a meal plan I posted on my blog a while back: http://starrmercer.blogspot.com/2010/01/192010.html
Hope that helped. I think you have inspired me to post a detailed look at our meal planning on my personal blog…hope it can help someone out.
Take care
Starr
I have a really fluid way of planning. Depending on what’s on sale at the store {I shop organic, so I MUST shop sales}, I usually have a list of things in mind that I can do with certain ingredients. I also tend to pick up everything for those meals, and then make what I feel like/fits into our schedule for that day. It usually ends up working out fairly well. I hit the grocery once every two weeks for meal planning, one stop in between weeks to pick up odds and ends like milk if we run out. ^_^ Good luck! It’s pretty essential for me to maintain my sanity!
I have done this when I have time but I take out a calendar and put a dinner for every day of the month. I try to space out my meals and have one-two crock pot meals a week. I also try to make double the first half of the meals that I do cook and freeze them to eat on weekends and the second half of the month. I prefer this to leftovers because no one ever eats left overs but frozen it is like a new meal.
I like it because I can even take stock of my pantry and freezer and try to use that stuff and make my list of stuff I need for each week. takes about two hours of work for the month. But easy not to think the rest of the month.
Hi Becky,
I adapted this idea here:
http://littlenannygoat.blogspot.com/2009/05/what-heck-it-30-meal-plan.html
Basically, it is a meal planning binder that I made with all the recipes and meals we like to eat. I have added everything in this binder so I don’t forget ideas. I scanned and photocopied the meals so that I didn’t have to rewrite everything. Each meal is put in a sheet protector and then placed in the binder. I also have a section for new recipes that I have scanned. As a family we vote to see whether to keep the recipe in the binder or toss it once I have made it. I was trying to make something new once a week whether it was a side dish or main course. I use a meal planning magnetic pad from Michaels and keep them for ideas to mix and match for future week. My kids each pick a supper and then my hubby and I do the other nights. I usually only plan for week nights as our weekends are not as busy. I decorated the front to make it cute and something that is fun. If you would like photos I will gladly email them to you Becky just let me know.
I realized that I am raising kids. That being said, I wanted to teach them skills they will need later on. One being…cooking. So I have four kids and each Saturday we sit down and go through the next two weeks. They pick a day each week where they will be LESS busy and sign their name to the calendar. Then they pick a general area they would like to cook. (e.i. breakfast for dinner, mexican, italian, chinese, family favorites, etc) Then if they know what they want they write it down. If not we get out recipes books or go to the internet and find something they would like to cook (within budget and being healthy). Then my husband and I pick up the other days. The older the kid, the less help I give them. But I am usually there and it is a great time to talk to my kids. We also on Saturday mornings sign up for dish day. It can’t be the same day they cook. That day they do all the dishes. (Everyone is required to carry their plate to the sink, rinse and load into the dishwasher.) It has worked great for us!! I only shop twice a month, my kids are learning basic cooking and no one complains about the food because they will be cooking soon.
I used emealz for a year and loved it, but got burned out- in need of help (I hate meal planning and cooking) I came up with a system that has really helped. I shop on Mondays and Fridays. I can’t seem to think past the weekend. I was always at a loss of where to start so I came up with a simple guide. My husband is against having the same thing often so this helps.
Monday: something new
Tuesday: Crockpot
Wednes: Out to eat
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Kid Friendly
Saturday: grill
Sunday: Soup or Salad
I hope this loose guideline helps others who are like me that have a hard time planning.
There are four in our family, and I started with the youngest and asked for 5 favorite main dishes. The next person could not duplicate any of the first person’s favorites and so on. That gave me 20 basic meals for the month. Then, I went in and added a few the meals that we typically have that weren’t included in the 20, that left me with a few days of “play” to try new recipes or for occasions when we will not be eating at home.
I now rotate those 20 + meals – never in a specific order, but trying to have a beef meal, chicken meal, pasta meal each week. I never have the same meal twice in one month (even if it is a favorite) so that we don’t have pizza every Friday for instance – but maybe will have pizza for lunch on Saturday since it is a favorite! I also rotate veggies and fruit. I don’t have the same one twice in a week for instance. I have a meal notebook and have the 20 + main dish items listed with 12 columns to cover the year. As I schedule a main dish for a month, I put a check in that month’s column.
I shop once a week – I like to have fresh fruits and vegetables that are in season, and I go to get staples that are on sale (may buy multiples of those to last through the month). On Saturday, after I decide on the 7 main dishes, I write them down in my meal notebook, list the side dishes I will be serving, as well as the dessert. I check cupboards, freezer and refrigerator and make a shopping list for any ingredient that I will need for these meals.
I like to try a new meal generally once a week – any more than that and I get unhappy family members at my house! It is a great way to get a new recipe in the mix and they also like the idea that if it isn’t a favorite, I won’t make it again!
This has worked well for me for over a year and a half now. We started as a New Year resolution in 2009 because we were determined not to eat a meal outside of the house for one whole month (we made it to Valentine’s Day!). By looking at the calendar for the upcoming week, I know who has an activity that may prevent them eating dinner at home or the family eating a big meal, and plan accordingly.
Great ideas Sara…very organized….I may have to try this out!
Angela-
Thank you, Angela! I appreciate the comment! Let me know if you try any of the ideas and how they work for you.
Sara- I just wanted you to know I think your ideas are fantastic! Thanks for sharing!
Kerra-
Thanks so much for the compliment! I am happy to hear I was helpful!
My recipe system has taken some time to organize, but it’s starting to come together. I started by making a document for each recipe that I have (same font and style for everything) – if I find a recipe online, I copy and paste it into the document and just format. I also include pictures as well as the source of the recipe.
An Excel spreadsheet is the main organizational tool. I include several columns – the recipe, the meal, whether it’s a main or side, and a subcategory (like poultry, beef, salad, soup, etc.), as well as a column for the cut of meat if applicable. In the recipe column, I create a hyperlink to the Word document. This way, I sort/filter and organize possible recipes based on what meal I’m planning, and with one quick click, I can view the recipe.
In my Excel spreadsheet, I have 2 other worksheets: the weekly meal plan and ingredient tags. In the weekly meal plan, I type in the planned meals for breakfast, lunch, supper, and a snack, as well as a column of any prep that needs to be done for the next day. I print this off and keep it on my fridge. The worksheet with the ingredient tags is a new addition to my repetoire. In this worksheet, I listed each of the ingredients for which I may need to find a recipe, and in the columns beside it, I list any recipes which use the ingredient. For example, if I have a recipe that calls for 1/2 block of cream cheese, I can find other recipes with which I can use the other half of the block.
Between the recipe tags and being able to filter by meat cut, we save a lot of money. We use the weekly sales to plan – if boneless, skinless chicken breasts are on sale, we can plan a few recipes using them. When we sit down to meal plan, my husband will make a grocery list on my iPod touch – we have a free app that organizes the grocery list by grocery store aisle. As we shop, we can check off what we’ve picked up and delete the items – and if, for some reason, we weren’t able to pick up an item, I know what we still need, and I always have my iPod with me, so if I’m driving by the store on my way home from work, the list is with me (no little pieces of paper to get lost!) The application also lets us input a price, so we know approximately how much our total will be. It’s also a good way to double-check that a sale price is really a good price.
Of course, I love trying new recipes, so I have a small binder where I keep recipe ideas that we come across. I like to try at least one new recipe a week. Once we decide if it’s a keeper, I make a Word document and add it to the recipe database.
At one point, I was going to organize everything and print it off in a binder, but I like how the current system allows me to add new items without messing up the organization. We’re lucky that I have a laptop that I can put off to the side in the kitchen, and we can be paperless. So much paper comes into our house on a daily basis, and this system allows us to be clutter-free.
This whole system has been a work-in-progress for some time, but it has really evolved and I’m very happy with how it’s working for our family.
Oh you must share you document, sounds great the way you do it so efficiently
I would love to know what the grocery list app is for your itouch. I just got an iphone and it would be great! Thanks in advance
Can’t wait to see what others are saying. I to am trying to find a system that works for our family. Seems every time I start to get into a groove my husband is out of town a lot and then all the meals I have ingredients for go to waste because the kids and I just do simple “mac and cheese” and breakfast dinners
I plan on Mondays and make my grocery list based on the plan, then do the shopping. Actually dh does the shopping because it’s on his way home from work and he’s great about sticking to the list. I consult the kiddos but they always want the same things so I don’t really let them have their own night–yet (they’re 8, 7 and 5). Sundays are leftovers and popcorn. Tuesdays are our busiest night so it’s always slow-cooker. We have a lot of favourites that we return to again and again, but I try to introduce something new about once a week. I get easily bored. I love checking in with orgjunkie.com for support and new recipe ideas too. Good luck Becky!
We too do popcorn, cereal and leftovers on Sunday! Once in a while I will make something special, but usually dh makes a big breakfast before church and it is fend for yourselves the rest of the day! I love that it keeps the kitchen fairly clean and takes the stress out before heading back to the norm on Monday!
I usually ask others in the family if they have any special requests for the week, and then I make out a list of meals for the week, taking into consideration planned activities. (Evenings with dance class might mean quick chicken salad sandwiches.)
I try to plan so that I can work one day’s cooking into two meals when possible, so if we have grilled chicken breasts one night, I’ll cook extras and use them a following night for chicken salad, or to top caesar salads, etc.
Once I have come up with the week’s meal ideas, I have a categorized shopping list that I use to make sure I get the ingredients I need for the planned meals. I made up my own blank list with categories like “frozen”, “deli”, “Target”, etc., a few years ago, and love it…
Every family has their own system… Hope you find one that works well for you!
I don’t really have a meal plan. What I do have is a very large, well-stocked pantry, deep freezer, and a garden. ( I try to keep about a 3 month supply of the basics. ) I usually only shop twice a month or so.
I then cook meals based on what we have that needs to be used or what we are in the mood for.
i wrote all about it here…
http://clairsfairytale.blogspot.com/2009/09/grand-opening.html
the highlights are a restaraunt name, theme nights, a monthly plan, and weekly grocery shopping
i am currently revamping our menu a bit to introduce more healthy foods, but the overall plan is here to stay.
Have you tried “Let’s Dish”? I love the concept of these pre-planned meals. You prepare all of your meals for the week (takes approximately 2 hours), slap the cooking directions on the bag and freeze the meals until you are ready to cook them.
Most meals cook within 30 minutes and do not need thawing out. Love them!
Bonita
I loved Let’s Dish and used it for months. It’s a little pricey, at about $20 a meal, but I found I was able to use them for really busy nights and then handle the rest. Unfortunately, ours closed here.
I’m still refining my meal planning. Ultimately I want 6 weeks worth of meals (6 for summer, 6 for winter) that I rotate through. But for now I plan it on a week by week basis. I have a list of all of my family’s favorite foods and I sit down with the list, the grocery ads, and my coupons on Sunday morning (it is our habit to make a family fun activity out of grocery shopping on Sunday – this really works for us) and jot down 5 recipes for the week. The other two days of the week are for leftovers, eating out, family get togethers, getting the husband to cook, or one of my quick Go To Meals that I purposely never put on the menu (I keep the supplies on hand all the time for things like spaghetti and tacos).
I don’t assign meals to specific days since the schedule is never the same week to week and I hate to be tied into anything. But I do use a bit of a “formula” when deciding on my meals for the week. For summer I try to select at least one meal on the grill, one meal that is salad and/or sandwich, some sort of international-type meal (mexican, pasta, chinese) and one for the slow cooker. I also try to use at least one new recipe every couple of weeks. If we love the recipe it goes onto our master meal list, if not, we toss it right away. I keep an ever-growing file of new recipes I want to try and add to it whenever I run across something that looks good, so finding a new recipe to try is never very hard.
I also try to make my life as easy as possible by incorporating foods that can be used for a second meal later in the week (or freeze for whenever). Some of my favorite ways to do this are grilling extra chicken one day, then cutting up the leftovers and using it for salad (ceasar, chopped salad, pasta salads, etc), in pitas, etc another day. Works for all kinds of stuff. Chili one night, navajo tacos the next. The same applies for cooked/shredded chicken (and would for hamburger but our family hates that). I shred a huge batch of it then freeze in meal-sized portions to be used in many many different meals – soups, burritos, chimichangas, tacos, salads, chicken salad, BBQ chicken pizza, etc etc.
One final thing I’ve been trying to get in the habit of is deciding as early as possible in the day which of the 5 meals I will be making that day and doing any of the prep work that can be done ahead of time. That way I don’t end up thinking “oh it 3:00, no time for the crockpot meal even though it would have been perfect tonight!”
I don’t know if you have run across Kat @Inspired to Action…She is on Facebook too. You mentioned trying to get in the habit of deciding early what to make. In her Maximize your Mornings ebook, she recommends having a planning session every morning. During that time you choose 3 things that HAVE to be done that day AND decide what you are going to make for dinner that night. That way you can look at your schedule and decide what you have time to make!!!
I love your idea of not assigning meals to a certain day. I find myself get caught up in that and it throws everything off. I also love your idea of 6 weeks of meals for summer and for winter. I definitely don’t make the same things in such drastically different seasons.
Thanks for sharing
So far, I haven’t been a big “meal planner” (which is odd, because I over-plan every other aspect of my life!). But this is what we do: We keep a notepad in the kitchen drawer. It always has an active grocery list of things we need and an active MEAL LIST. When I put away groceries, I write down every meal on this list that we have to eat. So, at some point during the day, my husband and have the “what’s for dinner?” and “go look at the list” conversation. It’s not ideal, but it works. It keeps me from having to pilfer through the pantry or freezer to see what’s there. And once we eat something, it gets crossed off. I think one reason this works for us is because I am NOT a cook…though I shamefully admit that. I do very easy meals that are mostly pre-prepared OR we have a handful of super easy favorites (like chili or spaghetti) that I know the ingredients by heart.
As for grocery shopping, I go every week. I used to hate grocery shopping and would go as infrequently as possible. However, about a year ago, I started “couponing”. I’m saving a ton of money and I maximize my opportunities by hitting at least one grocery store each week. I have two favorite stores, so I check online for the deals that week and see which of the two stores is a better stop for me that week.
I have recently started doing a new “weekly plan” process and included meals in that (basically taking the “meal list” mentioned above and applying each meal to a day). My husband swings shifts so I note what nights he might be working (then it’s just me and the baby to feed). I note what nights my stepson is with us, versus not, so I can plan meals that he does or doesn’t like accordingly. And of course any nights that we may eat out, or have a sporting activity (or something) that would affect supper. This is the first week I’ve *really* put this into action, but I think it’ll help!
I like to keep it SIMPLE. Which for me requires an initial organization step and then only five minutes of planning every couple of weeks. I printed all of the recipes I actually use (including the ones from cookbooks, which I then got rid of except for “special” ones, clearing off a lot of space on my bookshelves) on 4×6 cards and put them in a simple 3-ring binder. I organized by appetizer, sides, entrees, desserts, special occasions, but you can do whatever works for you. Then the day before payday every two weeks I sit down for five minutes (or less) at night and pull out the recipe cards that sound good to me. I look at the calendar and calculate how many meals I need to plan, and pick out that many cards from the pile of recipe cards. Make shopping list. Done.
I love meal planning. I have done it in some form or another for our entire marriage (9 years). I even did it for the five years before we had our children.
I have varied from planning for the month, planning for two weeks, and for one week. My favorite of the three is planning for one week. I like to have fresh produce but don’t see the point in making little trips back to the store for fresh items when I already purchased the big items. So, once a week has been wonderful.
I have varied the days I go shopping. I used to pull out all the cookbooks and go online searching for recipes on Saturday morning followed by my big grocery shop. I felt like that ate up most of my precious Saturday morning. I have recently been going on Monday mornings and I love it. Instead of planning for hours at home, I just give myself a rough idea on the way to the store of what I want, then I adjust it at the store according to what is one sale. I keep paper and pen with me so I can write down my ideas and essential ingredients in the parking lot and as I go. This has saved me so much time! And I find the grocery shopping more fun because I can be spontaneous and creative at the same time.
No matter what I get, as soon as I put the groceries away I write down the meals on our chalkboard in our kitchen. I avoid assigning meals to certain days because I like the freedom of making what I feel like on a particular day. But, by having the meals written down I don’t waste ingredients and make sure everything gets used up.
Hope this helps!
I started to meal plan when my son was in K–5 years ago. I cannot live without it!
I plan 5 meals each week (we eat out one night a week, usually on Friday). I am pretty flexible about what night we eat those meals. One night is making a meal from leftovers. I call it a “two for one”. Ex: If we have spaghetti and meatballs one night, then later in the week we can have meatball sandwiches. I first look at our schedule: does my son have football, does my daughter have dance class, is there an activity that evening, are we going to be home, etc. I plan the easiest meals (crockpot, leftovers) on nights when we will be the busiest. I do a “big” shop every week, but I do go to the store during the week to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. I like to cook and I try to make at least one new recipe a week. My biggest challenge is trying to organize all my recipes that I get from cookbooks, to printouts, to magazines, etc. When I do need inspiration, I will pull out some of my recipe binders and cookbooks and go through those. And I have a HUGE collection of Taste of Home magazines. Some of my favorite recipes come from there.
I also want to recommend a cookbook I bought this year. I don’t follow it religiously, but I enjoy reading the cookbook and the recipes are very good. It’s called “The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner” from a mom of 7 who lives in Utah.
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Nanny-Rescues-Dinner-Family/dp/093527877X
I look forward to reading all of the comments on this post!
I print out a monthly calendar and then based on family activities for each day, I choose the type of meal (i.e- crockpot, oven, stove top). Because I have meat-eaters, I rotate the type of meat throughout the menu – chicken, turkey, pork, beef. Then I fill in the other with pasta meals, soups, sandwiches, quiche, seafood. I love to try new recipes and will throw in a couple of those. Also, I truly love the Southern Living Cookbooks and recipes and can adjust them pretty easily for my dietary needs. I try to shop just once a week.
I learned about Sandi Richard’s Cooking for the Rushed about 10 years ago when we received her book as a wedding gift, and we still do a modified version of her system. Over half of our ‘regular’ recipes are from her books, she’s a very cool lady and I learned a lot from her! It’s quick and easy and tasty! I would recommend starting with her first book – the blue one.
http://www.cookingfortherushed.com
I have 6 weeks planned out, with 5 recipes in each week and then we rotate through those weeks, changing a meal or two every now and then as we feel like it. I shop once a week for the meals for that week. This works well for us so far and keeps us from eating out so much and reduces the ‘after-work day’ stress!
Good luck finding something that works for you!
I plan meals a month at a time. We have our favorites which make the list every month for ease, I have a winter and summer list. Winter is more comfort, warm foods. Summer is grilling, salads etc… I make double the recipe too for leftovers to be frozen and enjoyed every two weeks. I use leftovers for those nights that are busy schedule wise. I also add in a slow cooker recipe each week on mornings that I am free to put everything together. I try two new recipes a month on my family, if they like it we add to the rotation.
I don’t do paper menu plans, I lose them or they become messy after time. I put the plan on my Microsoft Outlook Calendar and color code them. I know at a quick glance yellow is for meals. I sync my iphone with outlook so I get reminders for the day of and next for preparing.
I shop every two weeks for ingredients. I go through the month, noting what needs I have and create a shopping list from there. I use a shopping app on my iphone to make my list. I love this feature. I can take pictures of each product and price it, this helps with budgeting. I can even send my husband shopping and he knows the exact brand we use with the pictures.
Like I said I create the menu for the month in advance that fits our schedule. Things come up, schedules may change or things are added. At that point if needed I move the meals around. I already have the ingredients so I’m good to go there. I also account for eating out once a week, mostly on Sunday after church but this helps.
I bought a 4×6 picture album at Target that matches my kitchen
and created a template in Photoshop Elements. I typed in all the regular recipes we use, printed and filed in the picture album. I am happy with it, easy to grab and keep up with. I had thought to find a program that would work with my computer but our desk is a short distance from where I put things together in the kitchen, making it hard going back and forth to view the recipe.
This is what works for me, hope it helps.
Blessings on your day!
I have four kids, and it has taken me years to find recipes that most of them like and are somewhat healthy. I do try new things occasionally…usually when I’m running out of my go-to proteins or I have something I want to use in the freezer. I have a collection of cookbooks, but if I’m pressed for time, I’ll check epicurious.com, which has Bon Appetit and Gourmet mag recipes online. I love it! I’ve found lots of good recipes there that my family loves.
In general though, I plan by week, usually on Sundays. I try to make something comforting and “family-style” on Sunday nights…more rounded meal…some meat with maybe one or two sides, a starch and a veg. I will do a bread on Sundays, sometimes, too…as a treat to go with whatever we’re having.
For the rest of the week, I plan by the protein. I like to do fish at least once a week, chicken once or twice a week, red meat once a week, occasionally throw in a cured meat night like chicken sausage or kielbasa or brats or something. I usually end up doing pasta once a week. OCCASIONALLY, we do meatless, which is usually pasta.
I try to come up with 4 meals per week plus Sunday. Then we’ll do leftovers once a week and go out once or order pizza. If something comes up and we’re pressed for time so I have to deviate from the planned meals, I have a handful of go-to meals that I almost always have the ingredients for and can slap together in less than 30 minutes. Spaghetti and Clams, Breakfast for Dinner, etc.
My challenges are salads and veggies…making them interesting enough to get the kids to eat them. If we’re having a very light protein, I’ll do a potato dish or a pasta to go with…so the 5 year old can make it to breakfast mostly.
But usually, I do only a protein and veg unless it’s a pasta night.
In general, when I shop, I start in the produce section and buy staples, plus whatever looks good. If I’m feeling like we have not been so successful with veggies lately, I’ll buy stir-fry veggies or extra salad stuff. And concentrate on trying to use them. The rest of the pantry and frig stuff is the same stuff I always have on-hand. I have a running list on the frig of things we run out of or things I need for new recipes, and I grab this whenever I go out and can squeeze in a run by the grocery store, hopefully no more than once a week. I do a large pantry-stocking shop about once every two weeks.
If I ever try to get more organized than this, with four active kids, I usually just end up getting frustrated. This way is the one I always come back to, and it works for me, so I’m happy!
Good luck…hope you find some gems.
We have 6 in our family. I meal plan for the month, and shop non-perishables once a month, and perishables once a week. I am a big internet recipe printer-offer, (is that a word?) and I collect lots each month. At the beginning of each month I set down with a calender, my tried and true cookbooks and the internet recipes I have printed off, then I number the page 1-31 or whatever and look at the calendar and cross off days I know I won’t cook-out of town, date night, etc. Then I start looking at my recipes and start placing them on days to make them. I also have a grocery list paper by my side so as I write a recipe down I look at the ingredients and write down what I need to buy. Each month I try new recipes, and do old favorites. I have been doing this for several years and I keep my “last years” month menus so I look at those to plan also–what did we eat at this time last year, and write down some of those, then I throw away that year old month recipe plan. Make sense? Then once my month is planned the plan goes on the fridge and I go to the store (we live in a really small town with one grocery store, so not much variety). For perishables each week I check my menu and see what I need–more lettuce, broccoli, etc. and make my weekly perishable list from that. I let my kids pick a day to choose dinner and help cook that night each week, so they help in the meal planning too.
We have standing theme nights and all meals have to be planned around it. It makes planning with kiddos easy and leaves room for creativity.
Here are some of our days:
Mexitalian Monday (has to be either Mexican or Italian…tacos, spaghetti, lasagna, enchilada)
Take Your Pick Tuesday (my kiddo is at her dad’s that night, so it’s leftovers for me)
One Pot Wednesday (anything that can be prepared in one pot…can anyone say crockpot?)
Thurkey Thursday (Turkey dish of some sort)
Fun Food friday (if we’re home, it’s creating something fun…face sandwiches, finger food)
Souper Salad Saturday (soup and salad)
Star-spudded Sundae (Loaded (creatively) potatoes and ice cream sundaes)
I love It, can I come live with you?
My meal planning usually involves me standing in front of an open freezer at 5 a.m., look at DH sitting at the table and asking “What do you want for dinner?” He always responds “Whatever” and I continue to stare at the freeze.
Utlimately I lay something out, or start a crock pot dish and hope, fingers crossed, that it will sound appealing when I get home that night! hahahaha
Really scientific, huh?
When I worked full time for the past 30 years, I planned in advanced and shopped – even used your list! Now that I’m a SAHM (to an 8 year old), I just started something new….I decide that day what I’m in the mood for and shop for it. It’s more trips to the store, but it’s giving us a lot more variety in our meals! I do take into consideration what I have in the frig that needs to be used up, extra tomatoes and such. I also have an excel spreadsheet to use for inventory…divided into proteins, vegetables, starches, so I can see what I already have on hand and pull from that too. And I’m trying to start my own book like yours with pictures. My food pictures don’t look anything like yours though.
I love meal planning more than I love cooking and shopping. I have a white board calendar. I plan out the entire month’s activities and events for school, church, birthdays, etc., that way I know not to plan a work intensive meal when only 2 family members will be there. I plot the days where everyone will be there first. I have a list of meals that I pull from. Tried and true and even new ones. I usually keep to one type of meal per week, i.e. American, Mexican, Asian, Italian, etc. I make sure to add when we want to eat out and when we want to try a new dish. Then I shop for all non-perishables for the whole month and the first week of perishables. After that I only have to shop once a week for fresh items and missing ingredients. I do shop sales and bulk items as well. As far as side dishes, we rotate through our favorites, but we are big on salads in our family, so usually a salad. My husband and I have been doing this since we first got married and it’s worked for us for 16 years. I even taught a class or two at church on my method and it overwhelms some people, but I would be lost without it! Good luck!
Great post! This is something we all can learn from to refine what we are already doing or not doing. So I will be reading these comments completely.
However, that said, I do meal plan. I shop about 2xs a month for my family of 6, but stop by the store about 1x a week for fresh produce and milk. My husband gets our bread from a local bakery that is greatly discounted so we buy different types of whole grain breads, and buns and they go into the freezer.
I write down about 10-12 meals on a tablet including 1-2 recipes to try(will be taking it to the computer here shortly), then write down the all the ingredients for those particular recipes to be sure I am not missing something when I head to the kitchen. Some meals are more time consuming than others. I make sure I list quick meals and then some more time consuming ones that we all like.
I also keep a list on a magnetic board in the pantry so I can add items on there that I run out of so I can add those items to the list prior to meal planning and grocery run.
Then I add any additional items to the list for snacking, lunches, or BBQ’s we may be going to.
I put my weekly meal plan together 1x a week. With 6 people in my house, we ALWAYS have schedule changes. Then I plan my meals according to our schedule that week. So one week on Tues evening we may have to attend something, so I plan on something quick and easy or crock pot.
But on Wed for example, we may be home all day/night so I would add a meal that takes a little more time.
When I plan my meals, we eat better. If I don’t we then have take-out or go out when we have food at home.
Can’t wait to hear all the other comments.
This is my FAVORITE topic to go around teaching to other Relief Society’s! I am big into meal/menu planning! It is a fun passion of mine and I love how it can bless others lives!
Last year I taught meal planning at my married student ward’s “budget” night. We used a member of our bishoprics family who was spending over $500 a month for her and her husband and their one year old. In one month after following some ideas I gave her, she spent half that, including diapers, and she said they were eating like kings! The best part is, the other half of the money she didn’t use was put towards her year supply and fun on the side. It’s great to see their excitement when it works!
I will say initially it takes time to come up with a menu, but it does get easier and faster. The first thing I do when I start out any class is have them write down their top 10 favorite tried and true meals. Everyone has staple meals, right?! Then I give them a print out of a list of meal ideas. You can find mine on the right side of my blog (although it hasn’t been updated in a year or so). Sometimes this list jogs their memory of other meals they like, or gives them help for variety. I kinda tell them about my system of different meats or what not each night (ie Mon-chicken, Tues-beef, etc). Then the challenge comes. I always give them a blank monthly calendar that has been laminated. I have them make 2 weeks worth of a meal plan. You have to remember things that are going on such as family parties, bbq’s and don’t forget date night. I also do a little blurb about if they really want to save they can plan meals around food items so they won’t go to waste. So if I know I am using sour cream for tacos one night, then I will use the rest of the sour cream for mashed potatoes another night or if I am having mashed potatoes on night as a side, then I will make extra and use the rest on the top of shepherds pie. Then I give them a grocery excel spreadsheet (again a downloadable rough draft idea of one is found on my blog on the right side). This takes a little longer, but they plan most of their grocery trip (unless they don’t know the exact recipe, which they can go home and make changes or corrections). I always mention to go through their cupboards and fridge first so they aren’t buying too many doubles.
And here is the key to saving the money. Shop every other week. When you go to the store every week, at least from what I’ve heard and seen, you tend to spend more. But plan for snacks (ice cream, chips, soda, homemade cookies). For example, at our house, we always make a homemade goody on Sunday nights. I plan for that, and sometimes I have ingredients for a back up treat for FHE if we invite friends or take treats to friends.
And my last piece of advice, and the biggest is to hang the menu plan where everyone can see. I made a huge chalkboard calendar that hangs on the kitchen wall (see picture on blog). The best part about my calendar is that my husband won’t ask what’s for dinner, and I can see what meat to pull out of the freezer the night before (usually as I am making dinner).
Something I always get asked is what if it doesn’t sound good the day that meal rolls around. I have never had that happen simply because I know what I am making. When I have options, of course something else will sound better. I have the meat thawing already and I just know what I’m planning on. Also, if it’s in the crockpot and making your house smell yummy half the day…how can it not sound good?! One other question is what if something comes up and you don’t have time to make a meal or you go out instead. No problem. If the meat is already thawing, I cancel what we would be having the next day and just cook what we were supposed to have that night, the next night (that is easier to explain then type – hope it made sense).
Because I have been doing this for almost 10 years now, my husband and I sit down the last FHE of the month and make our meal plan for the next month, ad yes we have it down to a month in advance. Sometimes we can go 2-3 months without having the same thing. He likes to get involved and we always plan a night or 2 (usually Saturdays due to time) where we try something new. I do always take pictures of each meal, and I have a book (just like yours) that has my recipes and pictures on the kitchen counter.
Sorry this is so long. It’s hard to explain everything, so email me if you need any more ideas or info. Good luck! Schedules and organizing are so fun, plus I know you will figure something out that works for your family.
Just in case my blog is theorganizedchef.blogspot.com.
Oops I forgot to add that I clean my fridge out just before I go to the grocery store for 2 reasons. 1) it keeps things sanitary, and 2) I know what I am out of. I like to keep my fridge clean and organized and sometimes a little bare so that I know what I have on hand. Same with my freezer. I also come home after putting everything away, and cut up all our snacking veggies and make homemade buttermilk ranch (the best kind) and put it all in a veggie platter with a lid. That way we eat it and it doesn’t go to waste. When it is handy, you are more likely to snack on it. I do this with fruit too. It takes time at the beginning, but then again it doesn’t get wasted or buried at the bottom of your veggie/fruit drawer.
Here’s the thing . . . I’ve tried spreadsheets, online planners, charts . . . you name it.
And you know what works best?
Good ‘ol communication with the family and handwriting my list.
I grocery shop every Monday morning and I know I have about $140 to spend on my family of 5.
Every Sunday evening (or Monday morning if I’m too busy on Sunday) I sit down and look at our family calendar and figure out what night’s are going to be crazy.
I also talk to my girls and my husband and ask if they are craving anything in particular.
Then I figure out what we are going to have each night, using a binder of our favorite recipes.
I fold a 8.5 x 11 paper in half long way, list our days of the week and the meals on one side and then list the ingredients that we need on the other side. I fill in the list with items we need for breakfast, lunch & snacks and then get a fresh paper and organize it by aisle.
It’s simple.
It’s not high tech.
And it works.
I don’t think I’ve missed a Monday morning grocery shopping in over a year.
Some weeks, we have slim pickings by Sunday afternoon . . . but we try and stretch, knowing that the next day the pantry will be full!
I just pick out 7 recipes for meals at the beginning of the week (I try to base them on whatever is on sale that week or what is in season). I go shopping and buy everything I need, but don’t stay rigid as to what we eat on what night. That way if something comes up last minute, I have the option to make a quick meal. Helps with the temptation to just grab fast food when we are suddenly short on time.
Love all of the ideas! I just started using plantoeat.com and so far I love it. I’m trying to find a system that works with multiple sources of recipes, makes a grocery list and syncs with my Google calendar. This site does it ALL! It’s a little bit of money $40/year, but by using coupons and buying only what I need I know I can save that much and more. Great topic Becky!!
I plan 28 days, so a full four weeks, then I start over again. I like to have themed days such as soup day, hamburger day, chicken day, vegetarian day, then fill in with easy weekend meals and something nice for Sunday. I love this system. I shop once a week for what I need.
I once bought a cookbook “Once-a-Month Cooking” through Focus on the Family, which was a life-saver for me as busy, working single mother. The kids helped me prepare all the meals for the next month, and once they were teenagers, each day I could leave them simple instructions on what to get started for dinner before I got home.
We just broke down and signed up for e-mealz…I have done lots of other things in the past on my own, but I’m sick-preggo with #5 and just don’t wanna do my menus right now
For $5 a month to do the work for you, I’m on board!
I took 9 weeks of meals, (actually 5 days a week only) plugged them into my ical to rotate every 9 weeks. done! I did it all last year. Over the summer it has gone to pot though. I would lOVE To try other ways too. Let me know what you pick!
Right now I plan monthly, and have for a couple years now. My husband is very willing (and I’m so thankful!) to go with me once a month and we hit our local Aldi’s for basics, Sam’s for bulk, and then Walmart for the last remnants we can’t get at the other two places. I also usually have a few set meals a week that are picked based on schedules. For example, Wednesday (during the school year) we have a church program at night so I always make quesadillas for my kids because it’s fast. Friday night is our family pizza and movie night so that night is covered. When my daughter took ballet on a Tuesday that was our crockpot night. Little things like that take the stress out of our days because I know what’s coming when it’s the busiest.
Good luck!
In our family, there are 5 of us. I usually make a list of what we will have for the week or 2 weeks depending on how often you go to the store. I then look up the ingredients for those dinners and make a shopping list according to what is in the recipes I chose and what we are out of. If we are having something that someone doesn’t like they can choose to eat cereal if they want but I don’t make more than 1 dinner.
Mine is pretty straight forward but organized. I like to do my meal plans in 3 month stages. That way I can rotate my 3 month supply as well. Once a week we have a left over night for any leftovers that we might have, I usually plan this on the busiest night of the week. Then once a month we try a new recipe that gets added into the rotation the next time if it is a hit. This way we can try new things, and have the staples that we love and have less waste of food too. Also, I use my big deep freezer for the monthly items, and every week, we bring the frozen meat and things we will need for the meal schedule that week to our fridge freezer. That way I don’t have to run around finding what I need. Way easier to do it this way I have found. So I basically just make 4 week plans and write down the breakfast, lunch and dinner, and shop every two weeks for what we will need. I write out enough for 3 months as I said, and then at the end of the three months, start again, but with all the new foods we try the schedule for the next three months changes and keeps changing. It has worked for us for a few years now.
We really love this system, keeps shopping down to a minimum and the time spent on planning and cooking. Plus the reciepies in the book are absolutely amazing and super simple to make.
Um, hello?!? Make a Project Life Meal Planning Manual!
Include photos and recipes of the family’s favorite recipes. When it’s time to do the shopping, pull meal ideas from here or any other cookbook.
The front cover or an insert in the binder could be a dry erase writable surface to plan out each night’s feasts! When that week (or two weeks… ) is over, just erase and start over.
Everyone’s happy and the Project Life book becomes a necessary staple in every kitchen!
We are a family of six. I shop twice a month for freezer and pantry items and weekly for bread, milk, eggs and produce. As for planning, I plan for the month. Saturdays are our pizza nights. Weds are crock pot nights. Sundays I usually do a roast of some sort (oven or crock). Usually I can use the left overs of the meat on Mondays meal. Then I can fill in Tues and Thurs (sometimes pasta, sometimes breakfast, sometimes something new). Sometimes I try new things, but its tough since I have a couple super picky eaters. If I made something they don’t like they can choose a quesadilla or a PB&J sandwich.
Usually when I try new things, its ways to make things we love from scratch. In the winter I make all of our bread and baked goods. In the summer I can and preserve as much as I have room (and produce) for. I recently tried to make pasta and it was a huge hit, and much easier than I thought!
OH! I forgot to add that I use a google doc to plan the monthly meals (and I can sync it to my iPhone). I have a few cookbooks I love and a few recipe sites I love (Martha Stewart, Pioneer Woman, epicurious)
i am a huge meal planner and have been for the last 3 years. my system is really easy, on friday i clean out my fridge {left overs, etc. and to take inventory of what i have and what may go bad} i have a chalk board with all the days of the week on it that i hang in the kitchen. i make my list starting first from what i need to use in my cabinets and fridge then moving on. i make my list and then monday i go shopping for the whole week. i have a recipe book that i have divided and i pick recipes from there and i always try to include one new recipe a week. keep things new and so i don’t get bored.
good luck.
I love, love, love to cook and to be inspired by the day and don’t like to be regimented to a meal plan. I honestly don’t understand why anyone would want to be tied down with a rotating menu or a weekly menu that reads similarly each week. Overplanning takes the joy out of cooking. We eat very healthy (w/ a little dessert thrown in here or there) w/ healthy carbs, whole grains over white breads, and I love that my cooking is relaxed, since we are busy, busy people, (and don’t know what each day will bring) so things are better this way…and so that I don’t have to say: “Oh no,tonight is pot roast night. I don’t feel like that” I buy a lot of produce and cryopacked deli-meats (so that we don’t have to use them w/i 2-3 nights) and keep a very well-stocked kitchen. We don’t do anything like Hamburger Helper or food-in-a-box type meals or overly processed/overly salted foods. I don’t overplan weeks in advance. This way, I can easily say: ” I’m craving BLT’s with juicy tomatoes and crusty bread w/ crisp watermelon” instead of chicken parm, for example, and not be tied down to a menu that was “planned” a month or two weeks in advance. So we buy foods for breakfast, lunches, and around 4 dinners per week. The other nights, we make reservations, or take-out (not fast food) or go out. Cooking -to me- is my way of showing people that you love and care about them. Overplanning way in advance, to me, looks too stressful and like you are just cooking to get it done. I say, relax, make a menu for a week, give yourself wiggle room, and try new things. Let the foods around you, the day, and the produce inspire you. It is so great this way.
I plan a week at a time and shop once a week for things other than the “staples” that we generally always have on hand. We rotate the same recipes but I try at least 1-2 new recipes every week and those that we like get added into the rotation so it’s not like we eat the exact same things every week. There is usually one crock-pot dish every week, one casserole and the rest just depends on the week. I don’t necessarily assign meals to each day…just 7 meals and then cook what sounds good that particular day. My friends and I also started a recipe blog to share recipes so we don’t get stuck in a rut. http://food-between-friends.blogspot.com
Hi Becky!
I plan meals every season and rotate 3 weeks of menus for 6 days a week. This gives me a chance to try something new, or eat out! We eat red meat no more than 3 times a week, and meatless once a week. I make up the menus, compile a shopping list for each week, and print them into a binder with a page protector so that I can use a dry erase marker to mark off what I already have and to cross off items at the store. Doing it this way enables me to organize my list by aisles which makes for easier shopping. The initial planning takes a couple of hours, but pays back nice dividends in time and cost savings. For example, when spaghetti sauce goes on sale, I know how many I will use in the next three months!
Happy planning!
My husband recently lost his job, so money is tight at our house. To cut down on grocery expenses, I’ve really been better about planning meals and doing smart shopping. I do a two week shopping list, and only go to the store twice a month. Staying out of the store keeps us from spending too much money. There’s a local fruit stand just down the street from our house, so we go there for all our veggies and fruit. My two-week list includes suggestions from my family, new recipes I want to try, and our standard family dishes. I also try to do meals that will carry over to the next day – chicken breasts used in a chicken salad, or roasted chicken becoming soup, etc. I also try to plan for left over days. I don’t assign meals to certain days just because we may have plans that come up, or we may be in the mood for something else. I have a “menu” printed and posted in the kitchen and we ask the family what they’d like “order”. That way we don’t get any complaints. Since hubby isn’t working (and I do) he does most of the cooking now. The menu is nice and handy for him since he knows we have all the ingredients and he can be prepared to unthaw something if needed.
INDEX CARDS
I have been using my current system for the last 4-5 years. I initially had each family member make a list of their 7 favorite meals. Then I put 5 of each person’s favorites on index cards and color coded by person. That was 25 meals for my family. I have the ingredients needed for the recipe on the back of the card and the location of the recipe(i.e. which cookbook and pg #).
When I meal plan I leave out the cards that we used last week. If the kids are around I ask them to each pick one or two meals they want for the week. If they are not there, I just make sure that I pick at least one of each color. That way everybody has one of their favorite meals each week. Usually if I want to try something new I pick that as my meal choice for the week. If I make something that almost everyone likes we add it to the stack. We now have close to 50 cards and remove some based on the season.
If I am in a big hurry to get my grocery shopping done I just grab the cards and take them to the store. When I get home I clip the cards to the front of the fridge. We take them off once we have made that meal. Since my husband and I alternate cooking nights, we know what is left to make for the week without calling each other at work.
I use a “menu” for planning purposes and make sure I have all the ingredients for the planned meals but don’t worry if I wrote down something for Monday but decide to make it on Wednesday. I usually try to cook the meals that involve the most perishable items before moving onto things that may be in the pantry, like spaghetti. I like to try a new recipe or two each shopping trip.
Each Sunday, I ask my three teenagers for one meal idea. I then make a grocery list off those suggestions. I shop either on Sunday evening or Monday. I make those three dinners on Mon, Tues and Wed. Thursday has become leftover night since I was always throwing away leftovers. Friday night, my husband and I go out and usually our teens have plans. Saturday night is pizza and Sunday night my husband cooks! That is our week. This works well for us and this way I only have to cook 3 nights and shop once a week. Only took me 17 years to figure it out!
I am in a dinner group with two other families the same size as mine (two kids that are five and under). I make dinner one night (Monday) for my family and the two others and deliver it between 5:30 and 6:00. Then, the other two do the same…one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. That means I don’t cook those night and dinner comes to me. We have “rules” like no casseroles, healthy-ish, etc. We also use an online calendar so that we know what eachother is fixing each day. It’s GREAT for those busy night when you’re tired or feel too busy to cook…and the doorbell rings and dinner is there!
Hi Becky,
My DH loves variety and rarely wants me to make the same things twice a year, let alone once a month. A benefit to that is that my two kids (6 & 2) eat just about anything and everything. On the downside, I find it really difficult to always make something new. I had to figure something out because I probably could have the same thing every Wednesday night, if you know what I mean? Also, we go out to dinner every Saturday night to give me a break and on Sundays my DH makes us breakfast and, in lieu of a big Sunday dinner, we basically scrounge around for dinner.
Here’s what I do. I collect cookbooks and read through them dog-earring the pages with recipes I’m interested in trying. On my menu planning day usually Wednesday but sometimes Friday, I look through the dog-eared pages and pick 5 meals. In my meal plan notebook, I write the name of the recipe and the name and page # of the cookbook. Then I write down any items I might need to make the dish on my grocery list. Each morning I look at my list and decide what to make for the day. (I don’t plan days because I may not be in the mood to make/eat the dish for that day.) I try to write in the cookbook my thoughts on the meal and make note of any changes I make to the recipe. If my DH says he’d like to have the meal again then we have a winner and I can put the recipe on my twice a year list!!
I call my sweet DH anti-picky because he’ll eat anything and everything he just won’t eat it more than twice a year!!
I have a friend with 12 kids. She has 4 laminated, seasonal monthly menus that she rotates through each month with 30 meals, one for each day of the week. I thought that system was just wonderful. Basically a repretoire of 120 recipes that were easy, healthy, and plentiful. I couldn’t do it in my family but I love the idea.
Good luck,
Shannon
I make a grocery list once a week, I usually make my list on Friday or Saturday and shop on Saturday evening (the store is empty!). I make a list of days of the week, put a meal next to each day and then make my list of groceries based on what I’m planning to have for dinner each night. I check my cupboards for items I might already have in stock. So if I’m planning a spaghetti dinner for Wednesday I usually check to see if I already have meatballs in the freezer and pasta on the shelf, etc. and if I don’t I add it to my list. I don’t always stick to the schedule of meals I’ve planned but at least I know there will be dinner for each night and I’ll have the ingredients to make it without having to run to the store 3 times! This system works in my house—I hope you find a suggestion that works for you!! (I love your blog.)
I have two little magnet white boards on my fridge. One that has snack/meal ideas for the kids- stuff like apples & cheese, yogurt & granola, sliced peaches, etc. Whatever we have in the fridge. I update it weekly when I have new produce. It’s easy to just select whatever, pick and match from that list for the kids’ meals & snacks. For meal planning, I just plan dinners. The 2nd white board has Mon- Sun written out with what the meal is. (at least one day is reserved for leftover night) Then I go to my recipe box. I pair up recipes that use some of the same ingredients like cilantro, black beans, ground beef, or tomato sauce, etc. Some weeks I have a wild hair and write things like EAT OUT! or FAST FOOD NIGHT!
I haven’t seen Saving Dinner mentioned yet … that’s what I’ve used for a couple of years, and it works pretty well for us (SavingDinner.com). She’s FlyLady’s dinner guru, which is how I found her. Every week, she mails out six main-dish recipes, with suggested veggies and sides. She’s very health-conscious, so there are lots of veggies, no processed foods, and the cooking is easy and quick. You also get access to a low-carb menu, and a heart-healthy menu, and shopping lists. So that’s 18 recipes to pick from for the week. I usually use 3-4 of her suggestions, as I also want to make our own favorites sometimes. When I’m totally out of inspiriation, I just use her menu. At least I know there will be healthy meals on the table and I don’t have to think about it very much! I also like it because she goes with seasonal things, and doesn’t have me heating up the kitchen in the summertime. It works for us, and I know that I save money and that we are eating much more healthy food — before the system, we did a lot more spontaneous drive-throughs and that was not good for our pocketbook or our bodies! Oh yes, she also includes lunch ideas, and some days that helps too. There are some free sample menus on her site, so you can try before you buy.
I make a shopping list and go once a week. I plan meals out for Sat-Fri (I shop on Friday nights). I make at least 1 new meal a week, and I won’t make something if we’d had it the week or even maybe 2 before. The one thing I do repeat is pasta on Wednesdays, though I do try to do different pasta dishes and keep it fresh.
My system might seem a bit antiquated, but it works for me and doesn’t really take up much space. I’ve been doing this for over 10 years.
I print up a year’s worth of calendar pages, portrait, one page for each month with the blocks as big as the paper will allow. I make two complete copies of the year. One copy of the year goes in the menu binder, the other pages stay loose and are tucked in a pocket at the back. The loose pages are my original menu pages that I fill in and post on the bulletin board in the kitchen.
I make up a month’s worth of menus, taking the kids sports and music schedules, and my husband’s frequent business travel, into account.
I don’t plan a new meal every day. Leftovers occur at least twice a week during the week, so I cook quantities accordingly. Leftovers are good for days when the kids are in and out the door alot.
I will often use a cook book to plan meals for the month. I’m a collector, so I rotate through those I haven’t used recently. But I try to stick to just one cook book for new recipes, for the month. Makes planning the groceries easier.
When I choose a recipe from that cook book, I indicate the book name and page number so I can find it.
Sunday or Monday I do food shopping for that week, and refer to the meu and sometimes the cook book.
It’s nice to wake up in the morning and not have to think much about what we’re eating that day.
At the end of the month, I recopy that menu into the menu binder, with appropriate changes that inevitably come up. I circle the recipes we liked, and if something new was really bad, it gets a big ‘X’.
Some months, I refer to the menu binder to make up menus. It helps when I’m stumped during a particular season, to refer back to those same months from years past. It’s easy to spot good recipes since I’ve circled them. And I revisit recipes that we’ve forgotten about.
I do now also have a small folder tucked in along side my menu binder with recipes I’ve printed online. Sometimes, my kids will request things, like when my son wanted mussel soup for his birthday dinner. And of course we found it online!
As I said, this might seem a big primitive compared to maintaining things online, but it’s working for me. We get variety and I’m less stressed!
My hubby is the cook, so he usually will make the menu. We plan on Sunday night, I make a grocery list and then shop on Monday mornings. We like to try new recipes but try to limit them to once a week. If we love it we put it on a menu list that we keep on our phones. We try not to eat something more than 2times a month. We keep our recipes in a 3 ring binder. We plan about 6 meals a week, so if we want to go out or when we eat with friends we can do that.
I love looking on pioneerwomen.com … She has a wide variety of yummy food and gives you a complete shopping list with pictures for each dish.
I plan for 30-31 meals and have a calendar up with what day we are having what in the kitchen and I rotate the meals around each month so we are not always having spaghetti on the 5th day. I also have a list of the ingredients needed for those meals and I print that each time I go to the grocery store. I shop once a month with quick stops for fruits/veggies, bread and milk as needed. It makes it so easy so that if I am not home to start supper on time, my husband or teenage daughter can get things started before I get home from work and don’t have to call me 20 times to figure out what they are to make. And the kids love it as they know in advance what we are having. And when I have leftovers, it just extends my time inbetween shopping trips. I have gone as long 6 weeks before needing to go grocery shopping (can you tell I hate to go grocery shopping). And I have simple meals as well as more elaborate meals on my menus. It can be as simple as mac-n-cheese one night because the kids have practice or it can be pot roast or meatloaf that takes more prep time on the nights we are free. And you can still build in a night to eat out. I also know people who only cook one day a month for their families and freeze 30 meals. Now if I only had the energy and kitchen space to do that!
I plan and shop for meals weekly. I try to try one new recipe for dinner each week. I recently got better organized with this. I had collected so many recipes that I wanted to try, from online (including lots of yours!) or from magazines, that it was getting out of hand! I finally bought some folders and sorted the recipes by type: main dish, breakfast, bread, cookies, dessert, etc. Now when I find a new recipe I simply place it in the appropriate folder. Then when I plan my menu it is easy to find a recipe. If my family likes the new recipe, then it makes its way into my main recipe binder. If they don’t, I throw it away and move on! This way I am acquiring lots of new favorites. I try not to have the same thing for 3-4 weeks.
I’ve always done meal planning & continue to do so even though it is now just my hubby & I. I basically shop for two wks. at a time, but have to fill in one other time for fresh produce. I have a large 3-ring binder that I have divided into my many favorite recipe categories. This is where I put all the recipes I have torn from magazines, etc. In each category I have inserted a couple of sheet protectors & that is where I put the recipes until we have tried them. Once they’ve been tried & approved, they are given a more respectable spot on a piece of cardstock & then into their own page protector & put back into the same 3-ring binder. When I sit down to plan my 2-wks. worth of menus, I always pull out this binder & try 2 or 3 new recipes. It’s also very easy to flip to the recipes that have already gotten the nod & fill in with some of those. I also have a section in this binder labeled “Where to find?” & this is where I list recipes from certain other cookbooks that I might otherwise forget which book they are in.
Now this suggestion may seem very OCD, but I have made up my own shopping list master. I always shop at Walmart & Sam’s Club, so my sheet reflects how Walmart is laid out & has all the items that we normally purchase already typed in with some space below each category for extras. I just circle items on the list as I’m planning menus & it’s super easy. By looking through the master list, I am less likely to forget something. Then there is a section for Sam’s Club where I can just write in what we need from there. This shopping list fits one of the small clipboards. I also have an envelope attached to the clipboard to hold any coupons.
The master grocery list is something I started just a few years ago, but the menu planning & recipe binder are things that I have been utilizing for 30+ years. It works, it’s fun, & it means more time for scrapbooking, home decorating, quilting, etc., etc., etc.!
Would you mind sharing how you did this? I would love to be able to use mine like that.
This was to be posted on the entry about using iCal. Don’t know how it got here. Sorry.
With 4 kids, budget is a big part of our meal-planning so this is a lot of how we shop. When chicken breasts are on sale, we buy a bunch (I’m talking 6-8 cases) and take full advantage of our deep freeze.
For meal planning, we usually rotate so that the “staple” meals (BBQ burgers, steak, etc. in the summer/pot roast, roasted chicken, etc. in the winter) may be repeated a few times a month. I have a weekly plan, but won’t generally repeat an unusual meal or a new recipe for the remainder of the month.
I’m a weekend shopper (thankfully my hubby likes to grocery shop – makes going with all 4 kids less daunting – they are 6, 2 and 5 month old twins). I will look at the flyers first to take advantage of what is on sale, be it proteins, veggies, etc. We also do the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings. These two shopping trips will dictate the meals for the week.
I have a binder (some typed, handwritten, photocopied, and ripped out of magazines). Back in the day with fewer children, my recipes were nicely typed and I had photos attached…but there is no time for that these days!). My binder is separated pretty specifically (fish, chicken, beef, stews/soups, ethnic, veggies, salads, pasta, breakfast, etc.) and I will go to the section of the best sale items. That fills a good part of the week.
I usually try something new maybe once a week, sometimes once every two weeks. It it’s good – it goes in the binder, if not, I jot the recipe down in the back of the binder – that is the recipe graveyard…just so I remember when something was a real failure.
My recipes for the week go to the front of the binder (or the recipe site noted on my chalkboard if its a new one and is online). This is pretty archaic, but it works!
A few years ago I bought a book called “Daily Meal Planner” by Joan Day Brady. At the end of each month, I gather up a few cook-books, then go through them and plan out my menu for the month. I write it in pencil so I can erase it and use it again. While I’m planning out the meals for the month, I also write out my grocery list, so I know what I need. I also put the dates next to the perishable items, so that I know when I need them.
The system works well as long as I can remember to get the meat out of the freezer ahead of time!
I have a weekly habit .On Sundays, I do my meal planning for the week, as well a school lunch planning and food prep.
I have a binder of JUST dinner meal ideas. I add it whenever I find one that my family of 4 enjoys.
On Sundays, I ask my children for 1 meal request and I pick out 3 others from the binder.
I meal plan for Monday to Friday and write it on paper and place it on the fridge for everyone to see. My husband cooks or grills on Saturdays and we leave Sunday open.
applevalleygirl.blogspot.com/2007/10/drudgery-of-making-school-lunches.html
I then move on to my school lunch planning. My daughter does not care for sandwiches, so I usually make a pasta salad for her and put it in lunch-sized containers in the fridge so I can just pop it in her lunch in the mornings. I also bake a treat, such as cookies or muffins, for their lunches that week. While my treats are in the oven, I wash and cut up fruit and veggies for their lunches for the week and put into little containers in the fridge so they are ready to pop into their lunches. When the treats are ready, I wrap muffins or cookies (sets of 2) in waxed paper and place in a Ziploc bag in the freezer to take out for lunches as needed.
Yes, this takes some time, but I want to set a good example for my children by being a good steward to the earth and not using all the little packaging that holds treats that are often full of too much sugar, salt, fat, artificial colors and flavors. I really try to limit these foods. It also saves us money in not buying all the pre-packages snacks. I also want to encourage healthy eating habits in my children.
I grocery shop once a month at Costco. I buy everything we need: meat, dairy, fruits, veggies and pantry items. I also read the flyers and take advantage of terrific deals from other grocery stores…like cases of beans or fruit, etc. I am trying to be a smart shopper and use our money wisely and wastefully.
My daughter is almost 14 and I am teaching her how to cook the meals in our recipe binder. She is already a terrific cook and when she leaves home for university, she will have amazing cooking skills that will server her a lifetime. My son is only 9 and I am starting to encourage him to cook with me more.
I loved reading all of the great planning tips here. Great post discussion Becky!
To read my post on school lunch planning, please go here:
I have a weekly habit .On Sundays, I do my meal planning for the week, as well a school lunch planning and food prep.
I have a binder of JUST dinner meal ideas. I add it whenever I find one that my family of 4 enjoys.
On Sundays, I ask my children for 1 meal request and I pick out 3 others from the binder.
I meal plan for Monday to Friday and write it on paper and place it on the fridge for everyone to see. My husband cooks or grills on Saturdays and we leave Sunday open.
I then move on to my school lunch planning. My daughter does not care for sandwiches, so I usually make a pasta salad for her and put it in lunch-sized containers in the fridge so I can just pop it in her lunch in the mornings. I also bake a treat, such as cookies or muffins, for their lunches that week. While my treats are in the oven, I wash and cut up fruit and veggies for their lunches for the week and put into little containers in the fridge so they are ready to pop into their lunches. When the treats are ready, I wrap muffins or cookies (sets of 2) in waxed paper and place in a Ziploc bag in the freezer to take out for lunches as needed.
Yes, this takes some time, but I want to set a good example for my children by being a good steward to the earth and not using all the little packaging that holds treats that are often full of too much sugar, salt, fat, artificial colors and flavors. I really try to limit these foods. It also saves us money in not buying all the pre-packages snacks. I also want to encourage healthy eating habits in my children.
I grocery shop once a month at Costco. I buy everything we need: meat, dairy, fruits, veggies and pantry items. I also read the flyers and take advantage of terrific deals from other grocery stores…like cases of beans or fruit, etc. I am trying to be a smart shopper and use our money wisely and wastefully.
My daughter is almost 14 and I am teaching her how to cook the meals in our recipe binder. She is already a terrific cook and when she leaves home for university, she will have amazing cooking skills that will server her a lifetime. My son is only 9 and I am starting to encourage him to cook with me more.
I loved reading all of the great planning tips here. Great post discussion Becky!
whoops! Not sure what happened…but my post is posted twice in the same comment form. Sorry everybody!
Things have been a bit off for us this summer but during the school year this is what I did. I set up a separate calendar on my computer called “Dinners”. Once a month my husband and I work together on the menu noting where the recipes are located(ex. cookbook and page number). Then on Sunday night I write my grocery list for the week so that I can go grocery shopping on Monday. This works well for us since we don’t repeat meals very often and allows me to add comments later about if it was a hit or not with my family.
I only plan a week at a time. I spend an hour on Sunday afternoon, perusing cookbooks, websites, and my own recipes in order to pick 5 dishes. I write the menu across a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet folded in the middle lengthwise. That way I can get 4 weeks menus on 1 paper. The reason I do this is that I file them away and periodically check them to get ideas for things we like but may have forgotten. I mark on the sheet how successful the dish was and where I located it (very helpful).
Under each day’s menu I write a small grocery list. I check my pantry and fridge for any items I may have and I list the ones I don’t. I then shop on Monday for all the items required and this provides us with meals for a week. The reason I do 5 is because there are inevitably leftovers (which my family loves) so we make a meal of those and one easy meal (soup & grilled cheese, pancakes etc.) I’ve been doing it for over a year and I like this system. Works great for us!
I shop every two weeks. I look through my freezer and pantry before I go to the store to see what I have and I ask every one if they want anything special. I make up a list of meals–some more time consuming than others. Some are as simple as frozen pizza. I plan 10 or 12 meals. I post a list of those meals on the fridge door. I look at my calendar on Sunday nights and kind of get an idea in my head of what I am going to make for the week. I try to be flexible if when I get home from work in case the kids really want something specific on the list–as long as I have time to make it that night. And 2 nights a week we have a “fend for yourself” night. We go out as a family on Friday nights–or try to and then one other meal on the weekend. Some things we have every week–hamburgers on the grill and spaghetti, but I try to mix the rest up. I typically have 2 meal lists that I go back and forth with–changing a meal here or there. If we get sick of something I quit making it for awhile.
I try new recipes all the time and hate to repeat the same thing more than once a month unless I’ve really got a craving. I usually plan meals for two weeks and then make my shopping list accordingly. I keep a list of the meals (and where the recipe is located) on my fridge and cross off each one when we it’s made.
I don’t assign each meal a specific day because I don’t like feeling like I have to make chicken when I’m in the mood for burger (just for example). I try to decide the night before, or first thing in the morning, so that if I need to thaw something out it has plenty of time.
Wow. I’m shamed by some of these organized women. I just wing it most of the time. I hit Walmart with a list of things we need and then while I’m there, I start thinking about our week, when we’ll be gone, when I’ll want to cook and what I’m in the mood for. My tried-and-true recipes include: lasagna, roast in the crock-pot, a meal of just pinto beans, potatoes, fried corn bread and sliced up raw veggies like homegrown tomatoes, spaghetti, tacos, grilled or baked chicken, grilled hamburgers and the like. I’m not a very adventurous cook. I guess I get that from my Mother as she wasn’t either. We eat out on the weekends and if we want something spicy or a steak, we get it then. I don’t fry anything (too much trouble) and rarely even grill so it has to be oven baked, all veggies or EASY.
I have a four week meal plan, week 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each fortnight i have put “something new” on a day when i know i have more time so that means that i have to try a new receipe. I shop once a fortnight and i find this works so well for us as it does not feel like we are eating the same food everyweek and it lets me structure our meals to fit around our busy days. I hope this helps.
Great idea to ask what others do Becky. I blogged it last month
I love this system, enjoy! http://www.scrapbook-society.com/2010/06/menu-planning.html
i have 2 binders for all my “keeper” recipes. this means they are tried and LOVEd by all 4 of us! We like to try new meals all the time so it’s very rare for me to make something more than a few times per year, except for main things we come back to over and over in the winter: meatloaf, chili, soups–but we experiment with those and try maybe 4-5 different recipes and then keep the best couple.
My mom gave me one journal that she wrote out her fave recipes in also, so I use that sometimes too!
Good luck! and can’t wait to hear what you do! tara
I have a system that’s been working for us for a while now and I can’t live without it. Every other week I sit down and make a list of menus for the upcoming two weeks. I include input from my husband and kids and together we come up with a menu for those days. At the same time, I am making a grocery list which includes all items needed to make these meals. Throughout the week we will also add any additional items we need from the food store. Our local grocery store delivers groceries, so I enter the items into their website and they deliver them. The completed list then sits in the kitchen for us to look at throughout the week. I also indicate on the list if there is something that needs to be defrosted the day before or anything else we need to do to prepare ahead of time for a meal. This system has been working very well, but I am always open to other ideas and am interested to see what everyone else has to say.
I do a plan weekly. I listed all the meals that my family will eat. It filled a whole page front and back. Sunday I plan out my week and ask each family member to choose a dinner idea. Then I work it in to the days depending on what I have going on that day/night. It makes it so much easier because eveyone gives an idea and feels like they have chose something for dinner. I don’t allow repeats the next week they have to chose something different. Then after two weeks i will allow a repeat. This has worked really good for our family.
I have a list of all of the meals that we eat. I go through the fridge/freezer and plan out the next week and what we need to make up at least 5 meals. Then I make up my grocery list and list the meals planned on a white board on the fridge. This really keeps me from ordering pizza or grabbing something quick on the way home from work. I plan my more involved meals for my days off and they usually create leftovers for at least one night.
I plan a weekly menu most of the time, always taking into consideration our schedule etc. A few years ago I created a 6 week menu and rotated that for awhile. Now I mainly use that as a springboard for ideas. I need to start incorporating more new recipes to add more variety to our menus!
I designed a weekly planner for women that includes a menu area and perforated grocery lists. This helps you keep everything together in one place! One neat thing is that you can look back through the the planner and see what you have been putting on your menu!
If you would like to check out The Time Keeper, visit my website at http://www.wellkeptlife.com.
I started using a method which I will refer to as the “Big Cook” method a few years back. Check out this site to get started: http://www.thebigcook.com/. Here is another good resource: http://www.fixfreezefeast.com/. Basically it involves: picking out a number of recipes, doing one big whopper shopping trip, cooking (or really assembling the meals), and freezing. Then you grab a main dish on the day and cook it. The only other thing you have to do is a side dish. I did this with a friend of mine quarterly. We found we spent less time grocery shopping. (You only shop to pick up perishables). Our clean up time after supper was very minimal (only the dish you cooked in and the dishes you ate off of). We also saved a considerable amount of money. We included special dishes as we planned ahead for the holiday season. We also found that we ate out less often. I did not use this method last year and it made suppers considerably harder. On the nights I was not home for supper, my husband was able to grab a meal from the freezer (or one thawing in the fridge), and he was able to prepare a wholesome meal for the family, rather than relying on Kraft dinner or frozen pizza. Overall, I think we ate more healthful meals as a family. I would highly recommend this method as a time saver. I certainly still did cook some, but only when I had extra time. I am planning on doing a “Big Cook” before school starts and am looking forward to not having to meal plan for several months to come!
Wow. You people are or.gan.ized! I love it
We are terrible at this. I do all of the grocery shopping on Tuesdays and Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. We don’t buy much processed food (just milk, butter, cheese… and don’t eat grains- like bread, pasta…) all of our meat is grass-fed & organic and we buy it online. We get our eggs from my MIL. Here’s the BEST part: every night, my husband opens the fridge and creates something fabulous! The only planning is what type of protein we will have so that it can be defrosted in advance. I highly recommend a husband that cooks! 
I probably has been said, but we plan at Sunday night dinner. Everyone (3) picks one meal. Then we plan on left overs one night. My husband is on call one night, so my daughter and I eat simple on this night. Friday night is pizza or salad order out night. This about covers everything. It works well for us and my daughter loves being a part of the process!!
It’s fun to read what other people do! I have a really simple system, but I think that’s why I like it.
I have a 28 day (4 wk) schedule, with a basic meal idea each day. The meal ideas are basic enough that I can switch up recipes when I feel like it–like every 2nd Thursday is “tomato based soup”, every 3rd Friday is “warm deli sandwich”. This keeps it structured enough for ease, but flexible enough for mood swings. And of course I sometimes switch around my days just for fun.
I shop on Monday mornings, and try to stay away from packaged mixes. I make most things from scratch, so I spend most of my money in produce, dairy products, and meat. Maybe I should just become a backyard-farmer, then I’d never have to shop, right?
We love E-mealz.com. It is the most simple plan I have ever used. You pick the store you shop at. The 7 day menu, And grocery list is all there for you and you just print it off and go to the grocery store. So EASY! Lots of new yummy recipes too. All for $5 a month. It saves me so much time, money and answers the 5 o’clock whats for dinner question. We love it.
The system I currently use I guess is similar to what you have talked about before, planning for the week based on activities. I have been wanting to change it.
I try to only shop once a week. We are also in a local CSA and member’s of Sam’s Club…like Cotsco, but not as cool ; )
I like to try a new recipe, whether main dish, side, smoothie, etc, once a week. I get burnt out from cooking and I’m not sure if it is because of this or change my system or just find easier recipes or how I do my prep.
I keep any recipes that I have obtained from blogs, friends, allrecipes.com, etc in a cookbook binder that has page protectors. If I don’t think I will use the recipe again or haven’t used it in a while I toss it.
***My friend, however, has an approach I want to try. She has 4 young children. She stocks up on dry goods one time a month and then goes shopping for just a few items, like less than 10 items, twice a week. She uses what is in her pantry and the pantry is not very full. I would love to try this because I have stuff in my shelves from months ago when it was on sale and I have yet to use it.
I have another friend who uses these coupon sites:
coupons.com, redplum.com, super-saver.com. If you use these I was told to start a new email account for these so you don’t fill up your regular email with spam.
I have not been much of a coupon user, never seems to be for what I want or the brand I want is still cheaper, etc.
Good luck!
Amy
I started designating each day of the week with its own “theme”, and it has really helped me plan. For example, Mondays are Japanese night. Sundays are Soup and Sandwich night (since we usually go to Sunday brunch after church). Tuesdays are Chinese night. Wednesdays are Italian (which means some sort of pasta!). etc etc. It forces me to focus on certain kinds of food instead of being overwhelmed with all the possibilities.
I’m really impressed at how organised people are! I like planning and making lists etc with the best of them – but some of you are FANTASTIC!
We had four kids and were both working, although I was only working part-time. For over 15 years we were in a “market group” which consisted of about 8 – 12 families who took it in turns to go to the wholesale fruit and vegetable market (serving all of Sydney Australia) once a fortnight. (This involved leaving home at 5.45am to be there at 6.45am, shop til 10, pack the cars then go back to the house where you sorted everyone’s orders, then took your order home and unpacked – a long and exhausting day but the freshness, variety and quality made it all worthwhile!) For this you got to write a fairly specific order each time which the families doing the buying that time did their best to fill. So I only shopped for meat and other staples from the supermarket, and sometimes fruit and vegetables occasionally towards the end of each fortnight – which made it easier!
Each season/three months, using my current favourite recipe books and folders with cuttings, I would compile a list of meals which fitted in with what would be available that season and get the kids to nominate a couple of their individual favourites from that list. Then during each fortnight I would juggle those favourites so that each child was likely to have a meal that was their favourite at least once a week! I didn’t particularly decide what meal would definitely be on what day, but I could do the main supermarket shopping once a week and just pick up things like bread and milk every second day.
Now it is just hubby and me and has been for a few years but I still have trouble cooking just for two!! So I tend to cook meals suitable for four people and we are quite happy to have the same meal two days running – the BIG advantage of this is that on the second day I can do my scrapbooking or whatever right up until the last minute before getting the meal ready!!! Retirement is great!
I shop bi-weekly for meats, eggs, bread, etc… I shop weekly from local farmers/ markets for my produce most of the summer/ fall.
I have made a pack to cook 1 new recipe per week. I am into semi- homemade ( just easier with our schedule). I use a weekly meal planning format for my meals.
I cook 1-2 red meat meals, 1-2 meatless meals, 1-2 poultry/ fish meals per week, and 1-2 pork recipes per week. We eat leftovers for lunch or dinner one day per week. If i use ground beef I will cook it all at once and divide it for both meals such as; spaghetti with meatsauce and chili. I cook my chicken (grill, boil, broil, or bake) all at once and divide it to make chicken salad, enchiladas, grilled salad etc…
I sometimes feel like I’m flying by the seat of my pants … but we tend to rotate the same dozen or so meals around and do 1 bulk shopping for meat and a perishable trip as needed. I’m only “allowed” to try recipies on days where the hubby doesn’t work the next day LOL … but a few do sneak in. Very interested in seeing what others do as well!
So my routine is pretty common, it seems, but I have one or two things no one else has mentioned. First I shop twice a month, on paydays. We have a family of 4. Aside from 10-15 staple meals that rotate in, I love trying new recipes. I have recipe books that I love (that are currently packed, because we’re getting ready to move. Gotta love the Air Force!) I have one spiral notebook for my family recipes. I keep an ongoing grocery list, and the night before I go shopping I sit down with my recipe books and favorite recipe websites and decide what looks good right now (we’re starting a diet this week!) I write the list of meals on the back of the grocery list so it’s always handy (and where to find the recipe again when I go to cook it!)
I also watch Food Network and look at some favorite online sites for recipes. Aside from printing them all out, how do I save them, and more importantly- find them again?
EVERNOTE!
I use a program on my laptop AND phone that organizes everything for me. http://www.evernote.com. And it’s FREE!
This is what I do. I watch Food Network, and see a recipe I like. I go online to the website, find the recipe, and save it to Evernote (easier than copy and paste… just click “save to evernote”!) A popup window opens with my recipe and the link where I found the recipe, and let’s me tag the recipe (so later I can click on my chicken recipes, and all of them are shown so I can find them). Two things I love about this are 1. I can search by any word and find what I’m looking for. If I want a Becky Higgins dessert recipe, I type in BH and dessert, and all of your recipes come up. If I want cookies, but don’t know what kind, I click cookies, and choose all the best ones. If I want cookies with chocolate chips and nuts, I type all those things and that’s what I get in the search results. (Works for dinner, too!! lol) The number 2 reason I love this came in handy today at the grocery store. I plan to make a recipe that calls for cream of mushroom soup. But I’m trying to be more healthy, and I know I have a recipe for homemade cream of mushroom soup. Most people would say they are out of luck, since the recipe is obviously at home on a shelf. I turned on my phone, opened the Evernote app, and searched. There it was. I found out how many ounces of mushrooms I need, and that I needed evaporated milk! Right there in the store!
Plus if I saw something on sale and knew I have a great recipe for it, I can search and buy all the ingredients right then.
Isn’t that awesome?! Did I mention it’s FREE?!!
(I also organize ideas for craft projects, lists like things to do with the kids without the TV on, and photoshop articles I find online. It keeps the link for me, so I can go back to the source if I want to!)
I hope some of you can get some use out of this application! It’s awesome!
I too love Evernote. Although I have not organized my recipes and meal planning in it. I should try that. I use it to organize all the awesome ideas I find online.
Anyhoo, this is what I do. I use this FAB document to plan my meals in two week plans. I love it and I love her blog!
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2010/01/kitchen-tip-menu-planning-101.html
Then I just make sure I have lots of basics in my pantry so I can whip up several easy dinners on a moments notice.
I am actually starting to put together this idea:
http://www.pocketmealplanning.com/
I love their idea and I think it will work for me. PLUS I think I can make it myself. I have a ton of paper, after all. LOL.
Good luck Becky!
Deanna,
We also use e-mealz and love the system! We have some food allergies, so not all of the meals work for us. With e-mealz, we do about 3-4 of the per week, one day of pizza (usually a Friday night with our movie and popcorn), then I attempt a new one from a Food Everyday magazine (get 10 per year or so – and yes, it is published by Martha Stewart) or add that family favorite.
My husband has loved this stating that “we are not in that rut anymore of the same foods”.
We have used e-mealz for about 18 months now and love it. Did I say that?
We are saving money each week even after going completely organic. It has kept us organized and not eating out as much.
I shop on Sunday afternoons to get ready for the week.
Check it out!
We have just started a new way to plan our menus. We have 3 boys 10, 9 and 6. Each Sunday night we ask them to name one favorite meal. Then my husband and I pick one. That leaves 2 left to agree on together. We are trying new foods too. Last night we had Indian butter chicken. Gone are the days of me making chicken nuggets for them as we eat something different. They are required to try all meals including new ones or ones they think they don’t like. So far so good. After the meals are planned, I make a grocery list after checking in the pantry/freezer. Then shop on Monday for the week. We do order pizza once in awhile as well but this keeps us eating at home. It is also helping to use up what is in the pantry/freezer without over buying foods we don’t need.
Hi Becky…
I look at the food circulars that come every week. I plan my meals around which things are on sale and what we have as staples in the pantry. I write our meals into my calendar on the weekly planning days. Then I make my list right in my calendar on Mondays. As the week goes on, I start the following Monday’s grocery list for staple items or anything anyone requests. I don’t limit myself to what is on sale, but it is a good guide and helps me keep my grocery bill lower. I also try to always shop at the same store, and I have learned the layout so I can make my list in the order I find everything in the store, to cut down on time. Then, when I drop my two oldest at elementary and pre-school on Mondays, I do the shopping for the week. I try to come home and put everything away and wash and cut all produce so it’s ready to go for the week. I also fill in all of our weekly activities in my calendar that impact dinner time, so I know which nights to make something quick, and which nights can have a dinner that might be a little more involved. I’ve been doing this for a year, and it’s been working really well. I may have to stop at a store for any produce we run out of during the week, but limiting my big shopping to Mondays has been great. I used to shop on the weekend, and that cut into family time and any time for me to have a break from typical Mommy-ness. Good Luck, and I would LOVE to hear what you come up with.
Hi, Becky!
I’ve loved watching The Food Nanny on BYUTv, and so I do a two week plan, with various “nights” (i.e. Sunday is comfort food, Monday is Soup&homemadebread night, Tuesday is Casseroles, Wednesday is Breakfast for Dinner, Thursday is fish/meatless, Friday is Ethnic, Saturday is leftovers/husband cooks). And I have my own way with recipe storage, as I just can’t remember where recipes originated. When a recipe is anything I’ll do again, I type it down on a quarter sheet (4 1/2 X 5 1/2 vertical) of paper, then laminate. I punch a hole in the top left and keep them together with those loose-leaf “o” ring things. That way my recipes don’t get ook-d up. I love being able to get my hands on things quickly. I’m looking forward to what you come up with! You’re my heroine!
I use to have a daily theme for my meals. Mondays were a Pasta or Rice dish, Tuesday Chinese or Mexican, Wednesday was Breakfast for Dinner, Thursday Quick & Easy, Friday’s Theme was “Fun” because it’s our family movie night when we have homemade pizza with either milkshakes, rootbeer floats, or popcorn with candy. Saturday was soup and or sandwiches, and Sunday was “Sunday’s Best”. I made a one month calendar of these meals, and if I wanted to try new recipes I would just trade them out for other recipes.
Because we are on a pretty tight budget now, I have made a monthly menu of fairly inexpensive meals and I just repeat the same meals each month. I do through in a new recipe every now and then when I find something I want to try.
About every other month I freezer cook with two girlfriends. We prepare 30 meals (we each take a meal off the list and prepare it 3x and so on). It’s so nice to be able to pull something out of the freezer each day. If it needs to go in the crockpot, just dump the contents of a zip bag into the crock and by dinner time, good to go! For casseroles, let it thaw and then pop into the oven. Right now, my freezer (which is getting empty), has mainly meals to be grilled which is perfect since it’s hot and summer and we are all getting loads of fresh veggies from our gardens. We’ve been doing this for almost 6 years now (with one friend change as one gal moved 3 years ago).
I love freezer meals and am always looking for good recipes to freeze”
I make a menu and list for a full week. With both of my children involved in after-school sports, I have to take into account their practice/meet times and whether I can feed them before or after their event. Sometimes we have to eat in the car on the way and I am desperately trying to cut down on fast food stops. So these past six months, I have been trying to find healthier dinner options that travel well.
I tried to only go every two weeks but the consumption of milk and fruit in my house makes it impossible to hold off shopping that long.
Great topic Becky! Someone sent me this website just this morning, and although I haven’t tried it yet I think it looks great…and will probably sign up!
I didn’t see that anyone else posted about this site, if they did…sorry for the duplicate idea!
http://e-mealz.com/index.shtml
God love all of you!!!! I pick a frozen dinner from the freezer, nuke it and call it a day.
I put my recipes on 4X6 index cards. I laminate them. I put six dinner recipe cards together, being sure to include one or two crock-pot recipes for busy days and then add one dessert. Then I make a cover card that says Week 1: and titles of each of the six meals and the title of the dessert and then on the back of cover card I write a grocery list for all seven recipes. My list is separated into “Produce”; “Canned/Box Goods”; “Dairy”, etc. Then I punch a hole in the side of the cards and add a binder ring.
I only do six because we tend to go out on Friday and order pizza for the kids.
When I’m bored with my current recipes, I just add a new week’s worth of cards to my collection. I think I’m up to seven weeks. It has worked well for me for quite awhile.
The great thing about this system, is I can send my teenage daughter to the store with the back of my cover card and have her grocery shop for me at a moment’s notice!! YEAH!
This is a great system! Easy. I’ll have to give it a try.
my favorite cookbook of all time is “life’s on fire – cooking for the rushed” it has 5 meals for every week (leftovers or going out on the other 2 days). grocery list already in the back of the book for each week. a place for everyone in the family to rate each meal. it has worked well for our family. some of the meals have become family favorites (not rated well on the first go around
)
I am so inspired by this post and comments. This is an area I definitely need to improve in. It has caused me embarassement, frustration and money to not have a meal planning system. I attempted a few times but didn’t follow thru. My “problem” is that I have a husband who is an amazing cook. But now, I am home with our kids and he works long hours and during the years I could have been learning he cooked and I did other things. He shops, I shop and I guess two cooks spoil the stew. He likes to get involved when I cook and he is home and its difficult. I find if I make a plan it works better. I have read all the posts and will combine what sounds like will work for me…I will start by organizing my untried recipes first. Thanks Becky and all those who commented.
probably similar to some of the comments above, but I have a 5 year old, 2 year old, and one on the way, plus add in a little gestational diabetes and still the desire to make ONE MEAL for all of us so here is what we do…
–I plan for the entire month on a sunday afternoon.
– I make sure we have one chicken meal, one beef meal, one vegetarian meal, and one breakfast for dinner meal each week, and then sundays are usually “leftover” days.
– it works for us to know we have 5 dinners a week as a family. sometimes we have more and wing it or get to order out, but this freedom allows for soccer practice, dad’s meetings to go late, or if I just don’t feel like cooking.
–I only write down the meal idea on the calendar, but then every monday after school drop-off, I will shop for whatever we need that week. This includes our produce, snacks, or milk= anything we are running low on.
–I do try a lot of new recipes, mostly from Kraft.com because they have kid-meals and fast/30 minute dinners and then I just tweak them to fit our needs.
Good luck with whatever you do, we don’t have too many repeats- though we do have a lot more memories and conversations from sitting down together! totally worth it!
I plan and shop weekly- gotta have fresh produce. I try not to duplicate within the month, unless it’s quick meals like tacos or spaghetti, those pop up ever other week or so. My husband likes to try new things, I try something new every week or two. I really want to organize my recipes, but it’s just not a priority, I would way rather catch up on the scrapbooks!
I have a friend that uses e-mealz meal plans and I have also been thinking about giving it a try.
http://e-mealz.com.
Check it out!
One of the best things I ever did when I myself was going to school was take all of my favorite recipes that freeze well and do all the cooking for the month on a Saturday. Of course it took some thought, a long shopping list and a day to cook it all but what a relief when I would come home from a long day and school and not have to worry about what we were going to eat. By the end of the month, of course you are ready to do it again but I always think of it as using 1 day to prepare, cook and freeze, – rather than time every night to think of something to cook and have to spend time preparing. Wooked for us and loved it!
We have 5 children who all have their own idea of what to have for dinner so one day a week we all sit down together and plan the menu for the up coming week. We get out the cook books and recipe boxes and just brain strom. Each child gets to pick what is for dinner one night a week and that is their time to help prepare dinner with mom. It’s a great way to teach kids to plan and cook and it’s a great to have a little one on one time not to menntion it sure has helped in taking away the “I don’t like that”. Friday night is our “dinner out night” and Sunday is Daddy’s choice night. It works for our family and has taken the pressure off me to always have to figure out what’s for dinner and trying to please everyone.
So funny that you posed this topic. This is definitely something I want to be better in doing. With three active kids, I have had to be organized when it comes to meal planning.
I sit down on Sunday, and plan my meals for the week. Monday is the day I shop for groceries, however, I may have to return for more fruits, and vegetables. Each day is a theme: Sunday is chicken, Monday is pork, Tuesday is taco night, Wednesday is crock pot, Thursday is chicken , Friday is fish, and Saturday is beef.
We are trying to make healthier choices, so I use recipes from Cooking Light or ww.
My kids are extremely busy, so my goal is to have dinner ready by 4pm. I spend about an hour in the morning prepping my meal. Ie, cutting vegetables, assembling stir fry ingredients, etc.
I do have one binder that holds recipes we love, and those to try.
I am hoping this system works, because school is around the corner. I am trying to limit fast food, and fast meals like Mac n cheese, etc. Our schedules are constantly changing, so I just do the best I can(:
Hello Becky, about a year ago a friend of mine told me about http://www.e-mealz.com. It is a wonderful service that provides family friendly menus and coordinating shopping lists for busy moms. You can choose your menu by store, by diet (low-fat or low-carb, etc.) or by size (two people vs. a larger family). It has simplified my life tremendously. We have tried many new recipes because of this and there have been many stand outs. They even try to include items that the store has on special that week. Of course you are free to substitute in your family’s favorites whenever you like but the hassel of list making and menu planning is all taken care of. We love it. Best wishes!
I suggest you look into thescramble.com This has saved my sanity. You get a weekly dinner menu (can substitute other recipes or just go with less meals). And they give you a grocery list.
I’ve recently gotten very into meal planning… mainly because it saves us loads of money at the store! I went online and found a meal planning chart that works for me — it’s a weekly calendar format, with a space for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for each day, with a space on the left side of the page for a shopping list and a Notes area on the right side. The chart goes from Monday through Sunday. I printed off a bunch of these and keep them clipped to my fridge with a giant magnetic clip. Once every two weeks, I sit down on either a Friday night or early Saturday morning and plan our meals for the next two weeks (I shop by pay periods); I write everything down, even lunches for my husband and me (even if sometimes we don’t manage to follow the lunch plan… yet!). Then I gather whatever recipes I need and do my shopping list based off those, and I clip the recipes behind the week’s meal chart so I know exactly where they are when it’s time to cook them. Usually I take the charts and the recipes to the store with me, in case I forgot to put something on the list. The planning and gathering of recipes takes me only about 30-45 minutes TOPS, and saves me both money and added trips to the grocery store during the week. Sometimes I still pop in for produce that just doesn’t keep for a full two weeks, but otherwise, I’m getting almost everything I need for two weeks’ worth of meals.
At first, I was afraid we’d fall into the “But I don’t FEEEL like having that” trap by pre-planning. But I’ve found over the year that I’ve been doing this that we are less likely to do that by having a plan, and it’s by not having a plan that the whole family argues about what to eat.
I will try to find you a link to the weekly chart I’ve been using. There are some really cute ones out there that are more appealing, but I went for function over prettiness.
I like to look at the food ads while I plan my menus. If pork chops are on sale then we will most definitely eat pork chops during the next week or 2!
I usually plan my meals for a couple weeks in advance & make up a grocery list from my menu. When I plan my meals I usually leave either Friday or Saturday night blank for date night, and also if I plan a roast one night I plan a meal to use the leftover meat another night.
As far as recipe organization goes, for years I’ve had riduculous stacks of printed recipes. My husband enjoys cooking too & it would drive him NUTS to have to sort through my pile of “dinner” recipes to find what he was looking through. For Christmas he got me a Demy (http://www.mydemy.com/), and it is AWESOME! It’s an electronic recipe organizer. The bummer is you have to take the time to put all your recipes on their site {maybe hire a YW to do some data entry
}. But once you have your recipes online you just have to sync your demy & wah-lah! The Demy isn’t perfect, but I think it’s a wonderful product anyway & most of the things I would improve about it I think are in the works. And the good thing about it is that when they do make the changes to improve it you won’t have to buy a new one, you can just sync your demy to get the updates! It’s $199 & I think you can get it at Sam’s or Costco, and for sure Amazon! My husband paid $299 which is a bummer since they recently lowered the price, but we sure love having it! I highly recommend it for recipe organization!
I’m pretty inconsistent with my planning, but when I do I’ve found a couple of things that really help me.
The number one thing that helps me with a meal plan is not to assign certain meals to certain days. I will plan 10 or so meals for a two week period. I try to choose a variety of recipes—some very easy, crockpot, grill, and others with more prep time. I then make a grocery list of what I’ll need to cook each meal as well as a list of all possible meals. I post the list of meals on the pantry door. By doing that, we have flexibility with our meals. It’s really key around here bceause our schedules seem to be in a constant state of change!
As I cook meals, I mark them off so I know what I have left to choose from. Flexibility is key for us!
One thing I do wish for is a program that could take my chosen recipes and create a shopping list on my iphone! I’ve found one, but all the recipes have to be entered into my phone directly. I’d like one that could be on my computer as well as my iphone.
I use this weekly menu planner + grocery list sheet simply because it’s super cute:
http://www.mommytracked.com/files/downloads/download3.pdf
When I’m more organized, I rewrite the grocery list on to a sheet that corresponds with the aisles at my grocery store. I copied the above format and created this:
http://cindylee521.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/savvy-shopaholic-shopping-list.pdf
When I see a recipe that I think will be a hit, I scan it (PDF format) and store it in my recipe folders on my laptop. I do this for recipes that come from magazines, recipe books, websites, etc. so they are all in one place. I can easily scan through my folders for inspiration. I read the recipe straight from my laptop the first couple of times. When the recipe is a definite hit, I print it on cardstock, put it in a sheet protector, and add it to my binder. I try to make sure my binder is only filled with recipes that we *really* will use.
My favorite recipes website is allrecipes.com. I really rely on the ratings and the number of reviews. If you haven’t already, check out the top 20. Really great recipes, especially the guacamole. I digress…
My favorite cookbook that I’ve gotten the most out of is Martha Stewart’s “Great Food Fast”. A good balance between simple yet impressive.
I subscribe to Relish! It’s about $35 for six months. If you contact them they will give you a free week to check it out. New menu comes out on Thursdays, you can create a favorites list and even upload your own recipes. Once you pick your meals you click print and you have a grocery list and recipe cards. You can also select Freezer meals for the month, which are easy meals you put together and freeze..
Oh I love this subject!!!
1. I keep a folder and file all our fave recipes here. new ones added regularly and unused ones removed. white sturdy folder with clear plastic A4 inserts
2. once a week, I pick 6 meals (ask family for suggestions!) only 6 because one night will be left overs / take away / dinner with family at their house.
3. quick stocktake on what I have got and what I need
4. once a week I do a shop, tallying prices as I go (handwritten on the list)
5. later in the week I may have to do a quick catch up shop – milk, fruit, bread, or anything else we need
This system TOTALLY works for me, I always manage to keep under budget and we always have tasty, healthy home-made meals. it makes life easier as I know what we will be eating any given day, not to mention days in advance.
I plan by the month, scheduling our favorite meals for each day, mindful of which days it would be handy to have leftovers – jotting it all down on a calendar page which I then post on the fridge. Then, I shop for all the staples needed for those meals at Walmart once for that month, then shop each week for perishables. This is a great system if you only get paid once a month, like teachers do!
I am totally into this and love that we can all share ideas.
Ideally I make up my meal plan on a sunday before I go for grocceries. I mark what I have that I need for recipes that I will be making for that week. I also mark what I need. Then I get the grocceries that are necessary for any dinners and lunches that week. Of course if something is on sale, but not on my list, as long as it won’t spoil or can be frozen I will buy it.
My son gets tutored 2 evenings a week and I have yoga once a week, so I try to cook up the lengthy parts of meals ahead (like chicken to make fajitas, etc). If I can fully assemble a meal ahead of time and then just have to cook it on its scheduled night I love doing that too. Of course this takes maximum planning and prep time. It all depends on how hectic a sunday is for me!
I feel that this cuts down on wasted food and therefore wasted money.
Its been working well for our family. My son has severe ADHD and works very well on a schedule. When he knows what is coming its great, so when I have meals planned he is much happier that way too.
I plan weekly menus. I try to mix it up so we do not get tired of having the same things, but I get stuck in a rut making the same things until we get tired of them and then start again.
I would like to have a more organized approach. Some great ideas here.
So Becky, are you going to develop a binder or book on this subject? I will certainly be buying if you do!
Meal planning for me happens with the weekly adds in hand. I plan my shopping and meals on what is in season and what is on sale. Cooking or planning days/weeks ahead of time to not work for me. On a good day, most of dinner is prepared before lunch time. I do have a couple of freezer meals in case, and always grill cheese with protein shakes as an option.
My system is more of a lifestyle and it works well for us!
I have six kids, I take care of a handicapped brother and I homeschool so everyone for a lot of years has eaten almost every meal at home. This means that I have had to really work to keep on top of food. We also tend to be allergic to chemicals and I have one that can’t eat gluten, so this has equated to nothing but totally made from scratch food. I even grind our grains and make our bread.
This is what I have done to stay on top of the meals:
I always look through the paper to see what’s on sale. Then I make a list of meals that will work for 7 days that incorporates sale ingredients. I try to vary it so that not all meals are the super simple type or all labor intensive. I must admit though, that in recent years they have been leaning toward the simple.
By just making a list and not actually having a hard and fast schedule, I can figure out meals on a day by day basis. Also I’ve found that if kids can choose a favorite, they are much more likely to enjoy cooking for the family.
I have a highly stocked pantry. There are certain canned goods, grains and general ingredients that I always have on hand. This way if I get in a bind (like recently when I was out, and came home to teenage boys had raided the cheese for unauthorized natcho’s, lol) and end up without a key ingredient I can switch to another plan without going back to the store.
I have a baking day. I also have a kid whose job it is to make sure all the various grains and seeds are ground and ready in their jars ready for me. On the same day I bake bread, I try to make homemade jam or something nice to go on the fresh bread.
I have a lunch and breakfast list ~ about 15 different things for each of these meals that kids can choose from. We used to all eat the same things for every meal ~ but now that they are older they can choose. We don’t always have everything on the lists, but always have the staples like eggs and oatmeal.
I clean out the frig completely at least twice a month. Or I should say my daughter does. She’s not always a happy camper with this chore, but as the only girl for some reason she’s the only one who can figure out that stuff with mold growing on it isn’t good anymore.
Usually, she does a light clean out every week. A light clean out is one where not every item comes out and the frig gets super washed ~ instead we just try to get rid of old food and spot clean.
We mostly have fruit and veggies for snacks. Occasionally, I or one of the kids will make cookies, but we try to keep it healthy. I also buy seasonally ~ this way it varies the nutrients we get and is also somewhat cheaper. Who ever said that it is just as expensive to by junk as it is to buy decent food is someone who never had to feed as many as I do and keep them healthy, lol. All that produce is expensive. In the winter we eat 40 lbs of apples a week. But the kids are healthy, are at a good weight and have truly formed good eating habits that I’m hoping will last throughout their lives.
Hope this helps.
Cindy
Gee I think what you described in itself is a full time job. I don’t know how you homeschool and manage a household on top of all that!
One of the things I do Sunday nights is plan for the upcoming week. After the kids are in bed, my husband and I have a “board meeting” for our family. Talk about what is upcoming, where the kids are and what they need, things to work on for each child. Along with all this I plan what we are eating for the week. I love to read cook books so I often will look through them and find what I need to make them and make my list. During the school year I always go shopping in the mornings when I have kids in school so I have less to shop with. Monday mornings is my shopping day then – the stores are always less busy then
One way that really works for me since I am a working mom with 3 hungry teenagers is taking 1 day and cooking or preparing the main dish… This takes a little thought for shopping so maybe on friday night I will do the shopping and Saturday I prep and cook. Last time I did this I had 34 already prepared main dishes by noon that day. So then maybe your weekly shopping is for fresh fruit and veggies for your sides to round your meals out. I got this idea from a cookbook called “once a month cooking” it does give your recipes however I have adapted my familys favorites in the same way. This just helps suppliment some of your nights when you are busy and have little time.
Some thing are extremely simple… take chicken breast and place them into a freezer bag then add the marinade.. seal, label and back in the freezer. When it is defrosting all the marinade absorbs into the chicken to simply grill or bake. Or try a flank steak with your favorite marinade.
Just today I made 2 pot roasts in the crock pot which will be separated into freezer bags for shredded for tacos, french dips etc. cooked italian sausage for spaghetti sauce and sandwiches with roast peppers and feta, made 2 meatloafs.
Having a stock freezer makes meal planning a lot easier. Hope this helps
I forgot to answer the question about favorite recipes. I write them on 3 x 5 index cards and stick them on the inside of my cupboard. I am needing to update the favorites-our tastes and my finds are dynamic!
I have a basic structure to meal planning:
Meatless Mondays
Chicken Tuesdays
Leftovers or breakfast for dinner Wednesday
Casserole Thursday
International Friday
Home made take out Saturday
and Sunday dinner
I created a laminated calendar in which I velcro on the different months. At the beginning of each month, I write in each square what we will be having for dinner. Usually our dinners last for 2 nights-unless my husband takes it for lunch the next day. I do our big grocery shopping once a month and then do a weekly grocery shop trip for the fresh items-if need be. I have used this system for years. It works great! I know ahead of time what I need to take out of the freezer and I don’t need to stress about what to have for dinner.
Becky-
. I am also evolving to try to figure out what is sustainable in the world of my photography and scrapping hobbies. If you happen to read these posts, thanks for your time.
completely random comment. Do you have any idea where I could obtain a copy of your Best of Sketches? I have lost out on several on ebay, and just thought I would see if you have any suggestions, or any friends with extra copies to sell?
I have never left a comment on a blog before, but here goes. I recently discovered you had left CK and also discovered that the book I had intended to buy (Best of Sketches) was out of print. I realize I have been under a bit of a huge rock, but forgive me. I happened to have 3 kids around the same time as you (which was what originally drew me to your style- that baby article on Porter when I had a newborn at home also). Don’t panic, I’m not your typical scrapping stalker- just happened to notice that our 3 kids were born at same times. My last, however, was born with special needs and thus- I have put scrapbooking (and all other projects) on hold for 2.5 years. Now that I finally am back into catching up, I am sad that you have left CK, but also proud of you for making a difficult decision that likely allows more time for your great family. I would love to figure out where to get a sketches book to help me quickly make some layouts and catchup a bit….before I convert over to Project Life
I am constantly looking for new ideas, thanks!
I usually do a 8-10 week plan for dinners on a spreadsheet in excel. I figure out what nights we will be out and skip those. I try to make 1 crockpot meal a week (go to http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ for recipes), and try to make 1 dinner that morphs into another within 7 days. Like baked chicken, and chicken enchiladas.
I buy everything to cover those recipes (except the fresh stuff). Then TRY to follow the plan. If it doesn’t work, we pick what does and at least have all the ingredients we need (except fresh stuff).
Leftovers are always for the nights we are home for a short time, or not everyone is home.
Hey Becky,
Thought I would share a couple of things. Frrst, I shop for the sales. That usually helps me decided what to meals to make. Now keeping track is another story. When I get home, I make menu of the meals I can make out of my pantry/freezer/frig. Then I put the meals on my “What’s for Dinner” planner. You can see it and download it off my blog: http://princessdanell.blogspot.com/2009/06/favorite-things-whats-for-dinner.html
I keep it on my frig and everyone who comes into my kitchen thinks it’s a grand idea. It has saved my bacon (hahaa) a couple of times when I needed to throw dinner together in a hurry. Hope this helps!
I’m late in the game but…
I TRY to plan out two weeks of options. I have a magnet note pad and I just write each day and what we will have. I would rather cook a little extra one night to help another day out — so if I cook Mango Salsa Chicken and Rice and steamed veggies, then on Tue. or Wed. we will have Grilled Chicken Quesadillas to use up the extra breast or two & rice or if we have a Beef Roast on Sunday we will have shredded beef enchiladas in the next day or two. I go every two weeks so that I can look at my calendar and schedule according to how busy the day/evening might be – sometimes I go three but it seems like I end up changing so much due to scheduling conflicts. But I always schedule and plan days for leftovers.
I ask my husband – usually Sunday afternoon if anything sounds good and same goes for the kids but they would always answer crapes or dino nuggets or something like that. Friday is Family Fun Night – so we always have Pizza, take out Chinese or Cafe Rio or something fun and a break for me. (When I’m really good I make the Pizza but I am busy so I opt for store bought mostly.) On those “fun” nights we watch a movie or play games (we can do this as my 4 girls are 10-under). They wake up and ask “Is it Fun Friday yet?” We had to limit our kids to dessert a couple of times a week so they get a cup of ice cream or something on the Weekends and Monday.
My counselor in RS(church) doesn’t cook on Sunday’s – it’s her day off so they just have simple meals that are quick and easy to grab (sometimes CEREAL). I like that but I grew up having homemade rolls and roast on Sundays so it’s a shift I haven’t been able to make.
My husband won’t let me touch eggs – so when I know it’s a busy day I’ll schedule egg burritos for dinner and tell him he needs to be home earlier then 7:30pm to make them!
Also, I love Costco’s chickens. I hate boiling chicken so instead I’ll buy one and then have my husband pick it clean for me and will use it in recipes that call for it (LIKE your chicken and corn salad and your chicken & mushroom soup. With one chicken I made the stock for the soup and chicken for both dishes = that was 4 meals in a week from that chicken.)
I’d love to hear how people shop the sales – I hate newspapers because of how they make my hands feel (OCD) but I hear they have good on-line deal shopper things. We eat what’s at Costco for the most part. We purchase 1/4 of a cow slaughtered every two years and pack our extra freezer. It ends up being $2 per pound be it hamburger, steaks, roasts – it’s a great deal (I think)!
I’m a little late to the comments, but here’s my two cents. I have three kids and a husband that travels Mon-Fri almost every week. About a year ago, myself and 3 friends started what we call a “cooking club.” We get together once a month and make meals for the freezer. We don’t make a ton…usually just 6 entrees, maybe a side, and maybe a dessert or appetizer type item (this usually takes us about 3-4 hours). These meals give me at least one homemade meal that is easy every week, that I don’t have to think about or prep for. I love it! Here’s how the cooking club works. One person hosts every month. That person plans the meals and shops for all the ingredients (we split the bill…ends up very cheap) and we do all the cooking at that person’s house. The rest of us just show up and basically act as sous chefs. We rotate hosts every month. The person whose turn it is next time brings snacks/lunch for us to munch on while we’re cooking. It’s really fun girl time and we accomplish something all at the same time!
I have always been a bulk-cooker (I grew up in a pretty big family), so when I got married and was only cooking for two, I figured out that cooking the way I’m used to makes life really easy. I always make really large batches of whatever I’m cooking, sometimes even a double batch of a crockpot chili or stew, and portion everything we won’t eat that night into large (for other dinners) or small (for lunches) containers or baggies. So 1 night making chicken chili = chicken chili one night a week for a month.
Then a few months ago my MOPS group started doing Grande Cooking-see http://www.grandecooking.com/?hop=0 and articles.urbanhomemaker.com/index.php?article=649. It works great if you don’t have allergies or food restrictions in your family (we do) or the person with the allergies gets to plan the menu.
A group of friends get together and plan a menu, each person orders however many they want of each recipe, you multiply the ingredients for each recipe and send someone shopping, and then on the big day everyone gets together to chop, saute, mince, measure and bag all the meals. You divide the cost per meal by how many meals each person ordered and pay the shopper back, then take home a whole bunch of freezer-ready, easy prep meals! Meal planning then mostly consists of “which frozen meal do I get out today?”
Another one of my standbys? Cooked chicken. I can’t stand paying out the nose for frozen, super salty, additive filled grilled chicken. I buy a Costco 10lb bag of chicken breasts, thaw them and grill or poach them with nothing but maybe garlic and black pepper. Then I put them in the fridge to cool (makes them easier to cut) before I chop the whole lot of it into little cubes to freeze. I use it on salads, for tacos, in pasta, or stir fry with veggies to serve over rice.
For a class I recently taught at church, I compiled a database of information and links on meal and menu planning and turned it into a blog. A variety of topics are covered from coupon websites to cooking with kids. It may be helpful to you http://mealplanningmadesimple.blogspot.com/
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I love meal planning, because I have a simple method which makes life easy. All you need is a couple of Excel files that you make yourself. I blogged about it here:
http://loripassey.blogspot.com/2012/03/menu-planning-made-easy.html
Love your blog, Becky!