Menu planning

[miss_thenorth]

Does anyone plan a weekly menu for suppers? I ask, because I find it a valuable tool for several reasons. When shopping the sales in the flyers, you can plan around what is on sale,, also it makes it easier if it is already planned-you don't have to think aobut it, and you can engage the kids in deciding what to eat so that everyone gets a meal they like. Those are my reasons. How 'bout you?

 

[Beekissed]

I feel so unmotherly right now..... :/

I generally start to get hungry, start shuffling around in the kitchen, ask anyone if they want so-and-so? only to find they have already snacked around and are not hungry, or that they don't want that but I do, so I fix it anyway and hope they have found something THEY like to nourish their bodies cause I'm not making two meals, grouch, grouch, yada, yada, snipe, snipe, snipe!

Well, you get the picture.....not a pretty one but a dose of reality at MY house!

 

[patandchickens]

I do a sort of mental (I have often been called 'sort of mental' <g>) plan for the main dishes and make the side dishes up as I go along. It is usually pretty fuzzy past the four or five day range, though, on the order of "I should really do something with that frozen pork that keeps falling out of the freezer onto my toes every time I open it" or "gee, we have not had chili for a while".

One advantage I find of having a well stocked pantry is that it makes it really easy to make use of whatever is on sale, or turns up on the half-price scratch-and-dent produce rack, or is given to you buy a neighbor, or whatever. Things like that, I usually promote to 'today or tomorrow' and the longer-term stuff on my list is more stuff from the freezer or pantry, or based on eggs.

My mom, who loathes cooking although she is pretty good at it, makes out two weeks' menus in complete detail on a piece of notepaper ont he side of the fridge. I think she is nuts

Pat

 

[miss_thenorth]

Another reason I make a menu, is b/c I got soooo tired of hearing---what's for dinner, followed by EWWWWWWW! ! why can't we have this or that?

Ihave a white board in my laundry room, I write my menu on it, (we decide the menu on sundays), this way it saves me the stress of having to deal with that every day of the week.

but it actually helps me save money by planning it out. so put me in with the nuts, right beside your mom

 

[FarmerChick]

I kinda do. not set in stone at all...subject to change definitely. I plan more of my shopping list around what is being made that week and it is on hand to be made then, but it might be subbed for something else. I always have enough of everything in the house to make meals, no problem there. I do a mental checklist of what meat to thaw for the week.....cause ain't nothing worse then it is about 3-4 pm and you forgot to thaw something..LOL-LOL---not a big fan of micro defrost of meat at all......so usually defrost 2 meats and then work around those for meals for 2 days and so on from there.

 

[Homesteadmom]

I have been known to do a monthly menu. But I do better with menus.

 

[punkin]

Most of the time, I'm like p&c. I know what I have in the freezer and the pantry.

However, sometimes we get bored with the same ole stuff. I pilfer through my recipe books and pick out some new things. I make the menu for that week, sometimes 2 weeks. I check what I have on hand and make a shopping list for the other stuff.

When I do that, I am much more efficient. At home and at the store. I know what we are going to have and how much time it will take me to fix it. My grocery bill is cheaper because of less impulse shopping. And, I'm not standing in front of the pantry for 30 minutes trying to figure out what we're having.

 

[ams3651]

I find it hard to plan every meal. I usually have fixings on hand for several and make it when we want it. I also have basics on hand so I can make things like homemade mac and cheese or hamburger helper, meats in the freezer. I did something yesterday I dont usually do. I started a few days early and kept a running list of things I needed, when I thought of something I added it to the list, along with the meals I wanted to prepare, many of them had ingredients like ham or potatoes in common. I walked out the grocery with more than 9 bags for about $100 and I think we are set for a while. My older son usually stays with my grandmother more and the last couple weeks has been here most of the time. Feeding a 17 year old hard working farm boy.....

 

[heatherv]

On a good organized week (and depending how low we are on money too) I plan out my menu for the week or two ahead. I go through the freezer and pantry to see what we have and what can be made w/ it... then go through the sales ads and see if there are any great bargains... then see what couopns I have or can get online to go along w/ those great bargains... then I plan the meals for the next week or two based on those circumstances. Our family all works best when I have the time/energy to do that. They like knowing what's for dinner ahead of time, and know whether it's something they like to help make or not.

I also have back ups available/ precooked in freezer/and the old standby of mac 'n cheese and beans and apple sauce. (a kids fav. meal around here) So if the week gets off kilter, and I'm gone too late for appts... or we have unexpected errands or just a stressful day where I don't have time to get to that particular meal prep for the day... then we pull out a bag of spaghetti sauce out of the freezer and cook up some pasta. Or have tacos (meat already cooked/seasoned and froze)

It definitely saves $$ when I can plan out of the pantry and sales though! Just busy weeks (like last week) get the most of me!