Spinoff: weekly menu

How do you plan your weekly menu? DH and I discussed starting this last night, I feel like it will help us save $. Do you plan around what you have or do you look for ideas online?

Re: Spinoff: weekly menu

I look at my freezer first. Then I look at the supermarket fliers for sales. Then I think about what I *really* want that week.

I try to have variety - chick, pork, beef, fish. Then I think about starch, then veggies.


So I plan the meat, then the starch then the veggie. I switch it around so we don't eat mexican 2 days in a row or grilled chicken 2 days in a row.

DH doesn't care what we eat. He would eat grilled chicken breasts every night if that's what I wanted to serve, so it makes it easy because I plan what I want to eat and don't worry about him!

Re: Spinoff: weekly menu

our basic outline is this:

3 chicken
1 meat
1 pasta
1 "other"

So that is the basic formula that we use for each week.

I start off by seeing what's in the freezer in terms of chicken and meat... so I'll look to see if we have whole chicken, thighs, drumsticks, breasts, whatever... and then see what meat we have - ground beef, tri tip, flank, sausage, etc.

Next, I look at the supermarket circular to see what's on sale. I plan my sides around whatever veggies are on sale that week - tomatoes, cucumber, broccoli crowns, broccolini, zucchini, etc.

Then I look through my recipe books, the weekly menu threads, magazines, and/or food blogs to get more ideas.

We'll usually do chicken every other day so we don't get tired of that - then in between, we'll do the meat, pasta, and other.

For other... I do thinks like meatless panini, homemade pizza, spinach or cheese or bean tostadas/quesdillas, breakfast for dinner, or sometimes fish.

Re: Spinoff: weekly menu

1. Check what main items I have on hand.
2. Check what's on sale
3. Jot down what I have a hankering for (often inspired by this board or cooking shows)
4. See if the fam has any requests.
5. Check our schedules to see if there are days that we won't/can't cook.
6. Write out a list of possible main dishes
7. Make sure there aren't too many duplicates (nobody wants 5 days of chicken!)
8. Plan in sides and go shopping!

I tend to do a protein (meat, cheese, fish..), a carb (rice, corn, potatoes, noodles, etc.) and at least one veg. It's a habit that's difficult to break. I also like to throw in salads or bread here and there if the menu calls for it. And I LOOOVE color. I can't stand a totally beige plate! I like a little brown, a little red, some green..

It's not a perfect system - but it generally works!

Message edited 4/21/2010 1:10:02 PM.

Re: Spinoff: weekly menu

I think about what meat is in the freezer, what veggies and stuff we have on hand, what recipes I want to try, what events we have during the week and stuff like that.

I don't really plan for sat and sun since I don't know what we are doing on those days. I try to do pizza fridays so that brings me to 4 nights of planning. 2-3 of those nights have meat, 1 doesn't. If I am uninspired, I know I can rely on burger night, burrito night, etc.

Re: Spinoff: weekly menu

we mainly eat fresh and most of the stuff we eat (dinner wise at least, i still get sales on everything else) is never on sale, so i usually just see if there's anything in the fridge that i need to use up and plan something around that. then i factor in any other special circumstances (people coming over, dh being out of town, etc.) and plan what i want to make. at some point i look through the coupons i have and the circulars and see if anything strikes my fancy, but like i said, usually nothing dinner related is on sale.

it really does help you save though! i spent $29 this week (including cereal, juice, and a frozen dinner for me for when dh is away this weekend)!

Re: Spinoff: weekly menu

Do you write it down in a book, calendar or kitchen board. Sometimes I just get so unorganized

Re: Spinoff: weekly menu

i actually just started using recipething.com. you can upload all of your recipes and then drag and drop into a calendar to create your weekly menu. it'll even make a shopping list for you!

Re: Spinoff: weekly menu