How To Menu Plan

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In my last post on Menu Planning, I shared how having a menu plan has been a great tool in helping me be more efficient. Here I will share how I menu plan for the week.

I wasn’t going to write this post because there are heaps of blog posts on this topic but I also know that many of you don’t have the time to go surfing the net. So here goes.

General Principles on How to Menu Plan

I try very hard to cook and eat at home as much as possible. Not only does it saves us money, but it keeps the itchies (eczema) and sniffling noses (allergies) away. In order to make it work, it means that I always have to plan ahead. If I don’t, the likelihood of eating out is very high. And then the price to pay!

Although there are many digital menu plans online, I am a pen and paper girl. So I grab a piece of paper and write out the days on the left column and the meals (Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner) on the right.

I take note of days where I need a crockpot or super easy meal because of that day’s activities. Busy days often see me using either the crockpot or the oven.

Breakfasts and lunches are repeated weekly wholesale. For dinners, I try to do a 2-week rotation. The keyword is “try”.

Grocery List

Once the meals are in order, I start writing out my grocery list. For us, I do not have enough fridge or freezer space to shop just once a week even though we do own 1 fridge and 1 stand-alone freezer 🙂 so I would break up my grocery list into 2, one for Tuesday morning (shop for meals needed from Tuesday lunch to Friday breakfast) and for Friday (meals from Friday lunch to Tuesday breakfast)

And I am done! The menu goes up on the whiteboard in the kitchen so that no one bugs me with, “What are we eating for breakfast/lunch/dinner?” and the grocery lists are keyed into my iPhone.

An Update

Because I have been doing this for so many years now. I have a standard standing order of meats and amounts on my list. Unless I am trying a new recipe, my grocery list is now a no-brainer for me.

Extra Tips on How to Menu Plan

Usually, I plan for just one week. But you can plan for a fortnight or even for a month if your month is pretty predictable. Also, if your family is not as fussy as mine, you can actually rotate the same menu over and over.

For example, fried rice is served every Monday night while spaghetti is eaten every Tuesday night, and so on. Now if I can get my family to accept this, I’d be over the moon! 🙂

1. Plan According to the Calendar

On days that I know we will be out, I will usually slot in a crockpot meal. Then I won’t have to worry about rushing home and then stress about getting food to the table on time.

2. Plan According to Health Needs

When dealing with children with food sensitivities, it is crucial not to keep on eating the same foods or one may develop a sensitivity to that food as well!

3. Plan According to Protein Choice

Some moms I know plan their meals according to the meats they eat. For example, beef is always served on Fridays. So the menu plan may have beef stew the 1st week of the month, beef noodles the 2nd week, beef burgers the 3rd week, etc…Or chicken is always served on Tuesdays, so one week has chicken chops on the menu while the next week has roast chicken. Get creative as to how you want your menu plan to look.

4. Plan According to What You Can Cook and What is Preferred

This is a no-brainer, right? The only time I may try a new dish is on weekends when I don’t have to teach. That is when I would scour websites for dishes that are a bit more complicated. Weekday meals need to be whipped up fast.

Then I listed all the dishes we have been eating all this while. I also asked the children what they would like to eat. No point cooking what is easy for me to have black faces around the table. Yes, sometimes it is what it is but I try not to provoke my children 🙂

Occasionally, when I am feeling motivated and creative (seldom but it happens!), I would insert a new dish to be tried, usually for lunch so that if it were a failure, we could have a snack and not end up starving the whole night compared to if I had tried it out for dinner.

RELATED POSTS

So What is For Dinner?
Cook Once, Eat Twice
Home-cooked Food is Not Necessarily Healthy

***Post Updated 18th August 2017***

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