Menu planning has been a skill that for me has taken time to learn! Here are a few things to think about as you try to menu plan!
1. Get the family involved
What do they want to eat? I try to get the plan down every Sunday afternoon.
When I first ask “what should we make for supper this week?”, they
always say, “I don’t know, I don’t care, whatever, doesn’t matter”…
and I totally get this! If you’re not hungry at the time it is hard to
come up with ideas! But they have to make a choice (even if it is just
tenative). My youngest usually wants pizza or corn dogs (pizza.
especially homemade I’m OK with, YUM! ), my sweet middle child always
requests a breakfast like meal- either pancakes/french toast/waffles
& BACON, and my oldest usually comes up with new ideas every week!
Lasagna, mandarin orange chicken, stir fry
…whatever she’s hungry for at the time! I usually have 2-3 suppers of
my choosing so that is where I can really be picky/frugal;)
2. Plan based on what you have
After I know what they would LIKE to eat, I take a look at what I have and
I’m up for making adjustments. They want lasagna? A lasagna-like hotdish
will be fine if i don’t have to run to the store just for the lasagna
noodles. I call that close enough!
Do you have some produce that needs to be used up? Maybe some potatoes that are almost past their prime, put mashed potatoes on your menu for the week!
3. What’s on sale?
Well maybe lasagna noodles are on sale, even if my kid didn’t request it for
this week. So I’ll stock up if I can because I know we will use them!
Our local sales ad is usually delivered on Sunday morning so we can look
at it before we start planning. (I buy lots of things at Walmart and
Aldi but the local store has awesome sales so I really try to take
advantage of them!)
4. Leftovers
Ahh leftovers… never a kid’s favorite but to parents its like a night off
from cooking! I love making a little extra and then having a leftover
night during the week! I really try to utilize leftovers, even if it
means freezing them for awhile. Made too much turkey and sick of eating
it day after day after day? Freeze it! Bring it back out in a few weeks
and make a hotdish out of it! Or turkey melts!
5. Plan based on your schedule
On Sunday I look at the week ahead and try to plan our meals according to our schedule. If I know I have a late meeting one or multiple nights during the week and won’t have much time to prepare supper I throw something in the crockpot, or let everyone know I’ll be home late and I’ll leave them a “suggestion” of what to cook;) Sometimes it works best to just stop at DQ and pick up some burgers, and thats OK! Life is crazy!
6. Have a plan for quick meals
So this is an absolute must!! For the days when you had everything planned
out but a big monkey wrench got thrown in…you thought you’d be home
at 4:00 but it’s more like 6:00. Yeah, not fun. So instead of resorting
to fast food, frozen pizza, or ramen (which I LOVE all of these:) I’ve
got a few very quick meals that I like to make! Home-canned soup, grilled cheese, crockpot meals, YUM!
