What’s for dinner—menu planning made easy! Unlock the secrets to stress-free meal planning and transform your dinner routine.
What is menu planning?
Menu planning is the process of deciding what you will eat. Either just for dinner or you can also plan the whole day, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
Meal planning also entails knowing how many meals to plan for and when to serve them.
If you’re new at this and have never even heard of meal planning before let’s take a closer look at what meal planning can do for you:
- Meal planning is an opportunity for you to go through your groceries in an organised manner, helping you to save both time and money.
- Meal planning helps you see what your family is eating, and what are your favourite recipes and can even help you to work on healthier eating habits if that is what you want.
- Meal planning can reduce stress, you won’t have to deal with decision fatigue every day about what’s for dinner.
Meal planning is not:
- A set-in-stone plan you’re never allowed to deviate from.
- Something that should take hours of your time every week.
It may sound more complicated than it really is but as soon as you’ve made a habit out of menu planning and have built a collection of go-to recipes it becomes second nature to you and takes no time at all!
How to meal plan
Once a week, when you have about 10-20 minutes to spare sit down with a notebook and a pen or a meal planning kit. This may take a little longer for the first one or two times but after that, it will be easier!
Step 1: Create a menu master list
This step will set you up for an easier workflow later. In your notebook or in a Notes App on your phone start writing a list of meals that you already know how to cook, your family loves, and your regular go-to meals and favourite quick-fixers.
If you don’t have a long list, use this time to also do a little research. Give yourself time to browse your recipe books, Pinterest or your favourite recipe websites. Write down a few recipes you would like to try or add to your menu master list.
Having a list of recipes nearby when you plan your menu is going to make the process much quicker – plus if you already know what kind of food your family likes to eat, it will help with food waste.
Step 2: Take inventory
The next step is to look at what you already have. Check your freezer, fridge, pantry and cupboards and write down what you have hiding in the corners. (You can also use this time to do a little bit of kitchen decluttering and throw out expired food items).
Step 3: Planning the weekly menu
Now that you know what you can cook and want to cook and have checked what you have on hand it’s time to start working on your weekly menu. It’s totally up to you how many meals you want to plan. You can plan every meal of the week, breakfast, lunch and dinner or just the weekday dinners!
While creating your menu plan it’s worth checking your family’s schedule for the week to see what meal fits best for what day. For example, if your child has soccer practice on Tuesdays and you know that you’re crunched for time. Plan something quick and easy for Tuesdays to make it a bit less stressful. The purpose of a weekly menu is to make life a little easier so that you have more time for the fun things in life.
Step 4: Create your shopping list
Look at each meal you’ve planned and the ingredients in each recipe. Write all the ingredients you need on your shopping list. A quick tip: Also write down how much you need!
And that’s it!
These are the four simple steps to successful menu planning. Once you get used to using an easy-to-follow planning system it will completely change how to do your menu planning and shopping. It might even save you a few pounds while you’re at it!
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This week’s menu at our house
This week is going to be a bit different as I am not planning anything on Thursday. I usually plan lunch for me and my husband Monday to Friday and then dinner for the family for the whole week. Here are our dinners for the week:
FREE Menu Planning Template
I’ve put together a FREE menu planning template for you to use when you start planning your menu. It’s easy to use and gives you a great start when you’re starting your menu planning journey!
