Here's another basic skill for do-it-yourself moms: planning a weekly menu. This is important because it frees you up from that dreaded 4:00 what's-for-dinner-tonight panic. It also keeps you from making multiple trips to the grocery store each week, thus saving time and money. Ultimately it will save you having to reinvent dinner plans every night when you could be spending your creative energy on other things.
Here's the Plan
This is my basic plan. You can use it or modify it as you see fit. Start by reviewing any past menus you may have created or writing out all the main dishes you can think of that you know your family will eat. You can browse through your favorite cookbook to jog your memory, but this is not the time to be looking for great new recipes to try. Note cookbook and page number on your list. You might also want to put a sticky note on the page that the recipe is on so you can easily find it later. If you bog down, ask other family members to tell you their favorite dishes. You can also try thinking in categories like chicken, beef, soups, casserole, etc.
Make a list of side dishes following the same method. Categories might include salads, potato, vegetable, pasta, etc. These lists will become your master list. I'd type them into the computer so you can easily alphabetize or move things around into categories. Remember, this is just a list, so don't try to copy recipes or anything like that.
Once you have your master list, take a blank sheet of paper (or whatever you decide to put your weekly menu on) and put each day of the week on it followed by some blank space. Get out your shopping list (or start one) and sit down with the weekly grocery circular that comes in the paper or mail and take a look at what's on sale that week. Seeing that chicken is on sale will prompt you to take a look at the chicken dishes on your master list and decide on a few dishes. Write those down under the appropriate day. Keep in mind the days of the week that are busy and plan quick, easy meals for those nights or even leftovers from another night.
As you write out the main dishes for each night, pick appropriate side dishes to round out your menu. When you finish, go through the menu dish by dish and add any ingredients you will need to your shopping list. You may need to check the freezer or pantry to see if you have items.
You will probably also need to look recipes up in your cookbook to remember all the ingredients. This would be a great time to quickly copy out recipes to put into your master recipe binder or index box so you don't have to constantly try to find the recipe in a cookbook. A regular 3 ring binder with page protectors makes a great recipe book.
As you go through the week, put a star by any exceptionally great menus
and other notes that will help you remember things like "recipe doesn't
make enough for leftovers" "better with a salad" or "loser!"
Most important step: SAVE all the menus you make! After you have made
menus for 6 to 8 weeks, you have a great collection of already planned
menus. Assuming you haven't repeated yourself too much on these menus,
this can be the base for your no-brainer menu planning of the future.
All you have to do is go through the old menus to pick out the winners
and make modifications for future menus.
Let's Review
Here are the steps again in short form:
- Make a master list of dishes
- Make a blank one week menu
- Go through the grocery circular and fill in menu from master list
- Make shopping list from menu
- Save weekly menus (with notes) for future use