menu planning?

[rainbabies]

anyone, besides kris follow a menu when grocery shopping? im a decide in the morning what we're having for dinner girl. but was thinking of doing a menu. thoughts?

[SuzySunshine]

I do but I'm sure its harder with little ones. Some weeks I fall off the band wagon and we're trying to decide at 6pm (like this week). But what I try to do is sit down on Saturday or Sunday morning and plan the week (Mon - Sun), looking at my schedule and DH's schedule, which nights we'll both be home, other plans etc. and then I get out my cookbooks and just flip through them. I have a spreadsheet (yes, I'm a dork) - the left side is the menu for the week, the right side are the ingredients I need to buy. I then add any "general" items that we're out of like milk, chips, etc. Then I print it off, fold it in half and take it to the grocery store with me. After I get home from the store it goes on the fridge so that I know what I'm making for the week.

It works for us, I'm sure it will be adjusted once the little one comes.

[Vanquisher]

I do every time. It really keeps my costs down for groceries. I think it works out really well.

When it is time to go shopping, I pick 6 dishes and go through the ingredients I need for those dishes while I am making my shopping list. Ryan picks two of the dishes, Chad picks two, and I pick two. One of mine is usually something new that I have never tried before.

Usually some of the dishes take longer to prepare, and some are quicker. Most of the time it takes us more than a week to go through the six meals. We have leftover nights, and some nights we have quick fix meals from the freezer section, but I generally always have something to cook, and I don't have to think about it.

This week we've had BLT's and shrimp and grits (new recipe). Still on the to do list is carnitas, thai chili linguini, lobster ravioli, and chicken tortilla soup.

We have overlap of cheese, shrimp, bacon, sour cream, tomatores, lettuce, and a few other things. It helps for things not to go bad too.

So, Ibuy everything I need for my menu, breakfast cereal, french toast sticks, ramen noodles, freezer burritos (after school food for ds), and some other things that we go through. It works out really well for us.

When I have it together, I do something along the lines of what Heidi mentioned. It saves money and calories (from takeout). When I'm really on top of it, I get a lot of items to overlap. Fresh herbs is a big one for that. They expensive but nice to cook with so if I can use it up by weeks end, worth it.

I went shopping for dinner at 4:30 last night. You've inspired me to get back in the habit!

[Lo]

We do on Saturday morning before we shop (sometimes we'll even plan a menu for two weeks!!) This just makes life so much easier since we both get home from work late.

[migirl]

I do too. I look at our schedules to see what nights DH will be home late and how much time I'll have each day to cook dinner. Then I write down a week's worth of meals, make up a grocery list based on ingredients I need, and try to overlap stuff (vegetables, herbs, etc.) as much as I can so nothing goes to waste. I always know exactly what's for dinner each night, defrost meats the night before if necessary, and do basic prep in the morning if necessary (chopping veggies, marinating meats, etc.) to save myself time later on.

[Vishenka69]

I work it backwards. First I load the fridge/freezer with whatever is on sale that week and then figure out what I'm making based on what I got.

ditto with a twist

Ladybug
Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 10:48 am Post subject:
When I plan weekly menus it's so much easier. After I plan out the menus I make the grocery store list and only have to hit the grocery store once. I can pull meats out of the freezer the night before

This is what I do. Also, Vanquisher's right, I save tons of money this way. With three kids and now my mom in the house, I'm fixing for six . . . Gotta keep that budget down!

I'm not quite as organized as Suzy S. - I sat down once and made a list in Word of all the things I might buy at the grocery store (I shop at Aldi every week) and I arranged them in the order that I walk through the store. Then I printed out a bunch of copies. Each week before my grocery run, I pull out a blank paper and my blank grocery list. On the blank paper I write down 7 dinner ideas for the week, and then I put checks on my grocery list next to the items I need to buy. Then walk around the kitchen checking my breakfast/lunch/snack items.

This really helps because I always have DS age 2 and DS age 4 with me - I can do ALDI in 15 minutes because I just cruise down the aisle and throw things in the cart as I go! DS age 4 trots to keep up sometimes! (Go, mamma, go!) :rah:

[DCJenn]

When I'm cooking for two adults, I do try to make and stick to a budget/menu. Since it's just me and a three year-old, I just have lots of options available- I've been buying one chicken breast and one pork chop, etc. I just bought one piece of salmon in mango-chili sauce and I'll yank whatever sounds good out of the freezer, add in some sort of side dish and some fruit and call it a meal.

Mornings we do the basics: cereal, nutrigrain eggos, toast, the occasional egg.

I have to pack our lunches and Nikolai and I usually end up with the same things.

We usually eat out once a week. This week I was craving a burger so we checked out a new burger place near my gym.

Jenn

[MissCrabette]

Re: menu planning?

I do it too.

Like Heidi said, it saves money and my sanity. It's so much easier on days when I know exactly what's on the menu than on days when I'm trying to figure out what to make late in the evening. I usually pick 7 recipes and buy the ingredients for those during my weekly shopping trip. Some days we have left overs that we use when I feel lazy, but most of the time whatever's left over from dinner is consumed as a lunch the next day.

To be completely honest, I mostly do this because I'm not a cook by any stretch of the imagination and I simply cannot walk into a store and pick out ingredients for a meal. I cook following a recipe and once I'm done none of that information stays with me. That's where a menu and a shopping list come in handy.