[Note: This is part of my series on Creating a Homekeeping Book that I posted last year.]
Getting started:
- First, decide how many meals a day you’d like to plan. I originally left out snacks, and then started over when I realized I hadn’t bought snacks at the store. My plan includes: breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner. We’re big snackers.
- Once you have your meals set, decide how many days per week you’ll plan for. I did seven days, but our weekend lunches, snacks, and Sunday breakfast are TBD (To be decided). That means whatever we have left in the fridge if we’re not out, which we often are on weekends.
- If it is possible, plan leftovers one night a week. We have leftovers on Fridays.
- If you eat out regularly, plan these times as well. We eat out on Saturdays. This comes from our grocery money, and fortunately for us our favorite food comes from a burrito place and is under twenty bucks. We usually bring food home for a family night, which ends up being even less expensive.
Gathering ideas:
Decide how many weeks you will plan. If you plan 13 weeks, you’ll repeat your menus just 4 times per year. Let’s say you’ll plan 13 weeks.
Now, start a blank sheet of lined paper for each meal you have selected. Decide for each meal how many ideas you’ll need per week.
For example, for breakfast, we have hot or cold cereal 3 days during the week, a hot breakfast once, and a bread like pancakes, muffins, or waffles once. On Saturdays, I plan a big breakfast.
So for my breakfast idea sheet, I only need to come up with 13 cheap and easy hot breakfasts for school days, 13 breads, and 13 bigger breakfasts for weekends. Only I don’t actually worry about coming up with 13 because I can repeat things. In fact, in my menus I have 9 hot breakfasts and breads for during the week. I do have 18 Saturday breakfasts, though, because there are so many recipes I love.
For Snacks, we will typically have one morning and one afternoon snack all week long. It’s cheaper that way, and easy. Mornings always include a fruit and afternoons a veggie. I don’t plan which fruits and veggies, I just buy what’s in season. So I only need 26 ideas for snacks: One morning and one afternoon. Of course, snacks are easily repeated, so if you can only think of 13 ideas, no problem!
Every lunch includes a veggie and a fruit. We have sandwiches 3 days during the week and one “hot lunch” a week. On Fridays, we have a “snack lunch,” which means I cut up a protein, a grain, and some fruits and veggies and put them on a plate. It’s just more fun that way.
My idea sheet for lunch will need 13 hot lunches only. On weekends, I don’t plan out lunches, we eat whatever’s around. For our snack lunch, I use little bits of leftovers.
Planning Dinners. Every dinner has a main dish, a side if needed and at least one veggie. I lead a Bible study every Monday evening, so our dinner has to be something easy. Every Sunday, we have a family dinner that takes a little longer to prepare and encourages sitting around the table for a while longer than usual.
For dinner, I actually put my ideas into categories, such as healthy fare, quick and cheap (for Mondays!), Mexican, Italian, Chinese, etc. Think about what is important to your family and how you want to eat. This will help you later in planning menus.
So, for my idea sheet for dinner, I will plan 13 cheap and fast meals, 13 super-healthy meals, 13 ethnic meals, 13 chicken based dinners, and 13 Sunday family dinners that include a dessert and a couple yummy sides.
Where to find ideas? Get out all your cookbooks and magazines, look online, and ask your family for ideas. Especially consider family favorites! This may take a few days to complete. Finding 5 dinners a week for 13 weeks that meets your criteria is no small task.
One of my favorite sites is Kraft foods. They have lots of kid-friendly meals that take under 30 minutes. Another is Cooking Light.
Consider these things when filling in ideas:
Your budget
Your family’s likes and dislikes
Your health
The time you have for preparation
Now it’s time to spend some time gathering lots of ideas. Fill in all your blanks for each meal. Tomorrow, I will share how I plan each week out.
Read the complete series:
Homekeeping Book
Menu Planning Part 2
Shopping Lists, your Key to freedom
A Cleaning Plan for the Housekeeping challenged
Mini-Homekeeping Book for Girls
I usually poll everybody in the house and ask their favs so I have a list of meals. My categories are: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Once I have a list of these ideas, I repeat them to fill the calendar. I plan ground beef, or beans, or like items together. for example, if one night we eat benas and rice, then next night we can have burritos, then tostadas. That way, I can cook lots one night, and have a short, cheap dinner a couple nights after. Same thing for gr. beef: If I cook spaghetti sauce with it, then I make a large batch, use some, then plan a gr. beef meal for the next night, then the next, like tacos, or toppings for baked potatoes. It eases up the cooking part of prep–especially in summer since I hate the heat in the kitchen during July and August. I usually plan for two weeks, or four, since we get paid every two weeks. If I plan for a month, I usually have to return to the store for milk, bread (when I’m not making my own), and fresh produce. Meal planning also makes it easier for everyone since the kids help make some meals. There’s no guesswork!
GREAT ideas! Saves time and money, and who doesn’t need more of those?
I was really happy to find your blog post today. I was just writing about our menu planning yesterday. I can’t wait to read more of your posts about this topic. I’m going to go do that now…
Blessings
Honey
I too HAVE to have a menu to go by. The days that I don’t are the days that I can’t figure out what is for dinner and we eat late or eat out – or both. Not good with 5 out of 7 children still at home!! Loved your tips and tricks!! Thanks for sharing it!
I usually plan a month at a time. We sit down as a family once a month (usually the last week) and brainstorm. Everyone gets to pitch in with ideas and then all I have to do is put them on the days. LOVE IT!! So easy! I also just started having my three oldest (at home) choose menu (B,L,D and 2 snacks) items for one day a week for a month. I just started it this month. They were so excited to pick what THEY wanted and it gave them a chance to work on lists, handwriting and keep in mind things that they like as well as things everyone else likes!! 🙂 I’ll have to blog about it! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your ideas, again!! Just found you and I love it!! Keep up the great work!!
I just started making a notebook/system and wish I had known about this 10 years ago. I hope to pass this on to my daughter ( maybe DIL someday). Anyways, I like your idea of repeating menu plans, I usually toss mine after I’m done. I use a “staple” list including things we eat on a regular basis. I laminated it and put on fridge so I can circle what we need as we run out or menu plan. Then, I just grab it and go!!
Sorry this turned into a poorly written novel, I get excited about organization and lists:)