The Outline of a Menu Plan
Do you make a menu plan? Well I have been woefully neglectful of any type of menu planing for awhile now. It takes time to make a menu but it’s time well spent because I don’t have to wonder every day, “What am I going to make for supper?” Here are some of the advantages I thought of that menu planning gives.
Advantages of Having a Menu Plan
- Wake up each day knowing exactly what you’re having for supper; no more stressing. YES!
- Meat can be taken out of the freezer early in the day so it can actually have a chance to defrost (If I didn’t have a pressure cooker that cooks frozen meat, I would have been in trouble many times.)
- Grocery shop with a purpose
- Spend some time now to save time later
- Healthy meals can be planned
Yes, these are all advantages and I’ve been missing out on most of them. So this month I’m going to try something a little different. A new way of menu planning – for me anyways.
I’m going to make out a month’s worth of meals with a theme in place for each day.
Monday – Dish using Elk Meat
Tuesday – Italian
Wednesday – Dish using Hamburger
Thursday – New Recipe
Friday – Mexican
Saturday – Left Overs
Sunday – Make Ahead or Pressure Cooker Meal
I like making new recipes so I’m hoping that having a theme in place is not going to hamper that. Would you like to join me? You can go Here to print off a monthly meal planner. Also, I read about a very helpful tool called Delicious.com at Simple Mom’s blog. It is a way for you to bookmark your favorite sites and then you can access them at any computer. You also can tag each recipe for added organization.
For example: if I find a recipe for Chicken Enchiladas, I would tag it with the tags “chicken” and another one with “Mexican”. Then when I go to look for Mexican meals in my saved bookmarks, I can click on that tag and all Mexican meals are brought up. Or vice versa, if I’m looking for chicken meals and I click the chicken tag in my saved tags all chicken recipes that I have saved will come up.
Tsh of Simple Mom finds most of her recipes online and bookmarks them for use later. Maybe you would find that useful as well.
Next Monday I’ll post my menu plan for the month. I’ll put up a Mr. Linky. If you would like to join, that would be great!
If a month seems too overwhelming or just too far out there for you to plan, just write out your menu for 2 weeks and then rotate those 2 weeks for the rest of the month.
And finally, if you have any suggestions for me, just leave a comment. I’m pretty sure I still need help in this area so all advice is welcome! 🙂
3 Comments
Carol
Menu planning has saved my sanity! I use to hate cooking because I couldnt choose the meal. Now my family chooses and I cook. I have a magnetic calendar that they put their meal choices on.
Allysgrandma
We used to menu plan, but since it is just the 2 of us now, we decide in the morning, but I keep a very well stocked pantry and freezer and frig1 We never know if we will eat leftovers for lunch, make a salad or have a repeat meal.
Lily
I have a plan similar to yours, but find that I don’t necessarily stick to it. We eat mostly venison, so I have a roast day, tenderloin day, ground meat day, soup day, and 2 chicken days. It works best for me to plan 14 meals and then choose which one of those I’m going to make for that evening. Especially, when it’s a snowy day and a roast or soup sounds better than what’s on the list. ;0) I love having a meal plan, and all the ingredients for the meal, but like a bit of flexibility too.