
As you write down a menu item, look at the recipe and review it, writing down what you need to get from the store. Have your shopping list next to your menu planning sheet.Even if you know it by heart, it could be that you’ll be delayed and need to call home and say, “Honey, could you get dinner started?” Or, if you’re like me and have an embarrassing proliferation of cookbooks, remembering which book a certain recipe is in can be challenging, so the notation is helpful. Make a note of where the recipe is as you write down the menu for each day.If it’s from a blog, make sure you print out the recipe and keep it with your menu plan or in a notebook just for that purpose. Save one day a week for a new dish from a cookbook or a food blog if you like to try new things.If I pick one from each category, there’s sufficient variety that my family won’t complain, and by putting the Quick & Easy meals (tacos, hamburgers, spaghetti) on harried days, dinner will get done on time. Or you could divide it into cooking styles – I find it helpful to think in terms of categories, for example: Note any commitment that will impact how long you have to prepare, serve, or eat the meal. If you have a busy day of errand running, that’s not the day to plan an elaborate meal. Note on the paper any things in the upcoming week that affect your day.Saturday is always pizza night at our house, so once I write that down my paper’s no longer blank and I only have 6 days to go. For me it is helpful to have a bit of routine built into my menu planning. The most daunting thing about menu planning is the blank piece of paper.
#Pmenu planning plus
Write Monday through Sunday down the side of the paper, leaving space enough between them to write the meal plus comments.your laptop to access Simple Bites, or your other favorite food sites, for menu planning tips and dinner ideas!.your grocery list, if you have one started.Sunday afternoon while your husband watches a football game, Thursday afternoon while the baby naps – whenever works for you. For menu planning to be done most effectively, you need to set aside a regular time to do it.By planning ahead for the week I reduce the number of trips to the grocery store, avoid last-minute fast food dinners, and totally skip over the hour of doom (you know, the hour before dinner is due on the table and you stand looking in the refrigerator hoping to be able to produce something edible in 40 minutes from slimy lettuce, cottage cheese, and spicy barbecue sauce). That magic half hour is for menu planning. Don’t you wish you had that magic half hour, too? Would you be jealous if you knew that I have a magic half hour? It magically makes my food and gas bills shrink, my family healthier, and my life less stressful.
