Feeding Your Family Series: Week 3 - Creating a Menu Plan

Okay, now onto the practical aspects of menu planning.  First I must let you know that NOTHING on here is rocket science.  Don't expect some magical way to conjure up a menu plan in 5 seconds flat (wouldn't that be nice).  I'm going to write this in step-by-step format for how I do my menu plan.  You can modify to what works for you, but this will give you the basic outlay of what to do.

1. Eliminate any distractions: I make sure dad is aware he is on baby duty, and I lock the dog up so I don't rip my hair out from his barking.

2. Get out your menu planning stuff.  For me this includes my recipe binder, planner, laptop with bookmarks to my pinterest account & blog, and sale ads.

3. Look through our personal calendar to see our schedule.  If we are super busy on a night, I'm going to try and put a super easy meal on the menu.  Also maybe you know you are going to go out for dinner, so you obviously won't need to plan a meal for that night.

4. Look at last week's menu and see if there is anything you didn't end up making from your menu and transfer it over to this week.

5. Look through sale ads to see if there are any awesome sales that I should take advantage of and implement into our menu.  If there is a great sale on a specific fruit or veggie, I brainstorm how I can use it.  Or you can go to recipematcher.com and enter the sale items to help you find recipes.

6. Put any regular favorites on your menu.  For us we would put yoshida fajitas, or buffalo chicken pizza.  There are things we eat about every other week.  I always fill in these "no-brainers" first.

7. Look through my pinterest boards, recipe books, recipe binder for other recipes to put in the holes in our menu, keeping in mind your budget and sales.  You don't want to pick meals with expensive items if your budget will not allow.

8. Once you have completely filled out your menu, go through each recipe and write down every single thing you will need.  Then write down other usual items you may need.  For us it's milk, bread, snack foods for Addy.  Basically rack your brain for anything you may need this week from the store.

9. Once your list is complete I go through the pantry, fridge and freezer and cross out things we already have on the list.

10. Go shopping!  Ta-da!!

Now there is the nuts & bolts of menu planning.  There are however some variables that you will need to determine for YOU.  Here are some different things to think about.

- You need to determine how far in advance you want to plan.  I used to plan monthly, and just make a separate grocery list for the second half of the month.  I then went to bi-weekly planning sessions, and now I plan each week.  It just depends on your schedule and how much you care about sale information.  I went to weekly because I wanted to try and pay attention to each week's ad.

- How often can your family repeat meals.  Some people could eat the exact same thing each week.  If that's you & your family, go for it!  I like variety and I like to cook, so we rarely have a week where I won't try a new recipe or two.

- Do you want to plan dinners only or every single meal?  Sometimes people will eat the same breakfast and/or lunch each day, sometimes people like variety.  Make sure to plan accordingly.

Hopefully this is a helpful tutorial for you!  Let me know if you have any questions and I will answer them!!