The Monthly Menu Plan

I’ve heard it over and over again. Writing down a menu for the week saves time and stress. I’ve known that it’s the thing to do, since it helps with planning and shopping for groceries. But, the thing is, having a weekly sit-down to think about what to cook just never appealed to me. So, I was left with many days of staring at the contents of my refrigerator, asking myself what’s for dinner. Sometimes, I even ask my husband that question.

But now, I have a written menu. It’s not weekly. Instead, it’s for 4 weeks. A full month of dinners planned out ahead of time. As I’m writing this, I feel giddy with joy and disbelief that I no longer have to think every single day about what to cook.

Making the menu is a very simple process that took me only two turns at my desk. Here’s how you can make your own:

1. Prepare a table with 5 rows and 8 columns. On the top row, put the days (Monday, Tuesday, etc.). On the left-most column, put Week 1, Week 2, Week 3 and Week 4. This doesn’t have to be computerized. You can write it down on a piece of paper.

2. On a separate sheet, write down every single dish you know how to cook. Include the daily dishes and the special-occasion ones. Be as specific or as general as you want. You can write “scrambled eggs” as one dish or specify “scrambled eggs with sausage”, “scrambled eggs with ham”, “scrambled eggs with mushrooms”, etc.

3. Decide how often you want to try a new recipe. Every Friday? Or every other Saturday? I realized that I’m not brave enough to try a new recipe once a week. But every other week suits me just fine.

4. Decide how many times you want, or are willing, to have each particular dish. Is it a must-have weekly dish? Is it complicated enough to be a once-a-month affair? The mom I got this tip from makes waffles and smoothies every Sunday. You can ask your family members for suggestions at this point.

5. Distribute the dinners throughout the 4 weeks you have laid out. If you have enough dishes listed, you won’t have to repeat them as often. But don’t worry if you know only a few, enough for a week’s worth of dinners. This is not about feeling guilty about them. You’re probably repeating them often enough anyway, so having a schedule for them will just simplify things.

6. If you know you’ll have leftovers for a dish, such as when you make a big batch of spaghetti sauce, schedule the day that you’ll have the second dinner too. Don’t forget your “new recipe days”.

7. Tweak your schedule as needed before finalizing. You can have 2 sets of menus for an entire year, one for spring and summer, when the grill is out, and another for fall and winter. You’ll be able to take advantage of seasonal produce.

8. Transfer your four-week menu to your family calendar or planner. You don’t have to plan by the month. Just follow the four weeks you’ve laid out, even if you overlap over the following month. I have a master copy of the menu on my kitchen counter organizer. I’ve written down the daily dishes on my planner too, all four weeks worth of them.

There are so many advantages to having a four-week menu. I don’t have to think of what’s for dinner every day or even every week. I know that whatever we’re having on a particular week is something that we haven’t had in a while. I know exactly what to buy at the grocery. When something’s on sale that will be on one of next week’s dishes, I can buy it ahead of time, confident that it will be used.

Even if we skip a dinner because we decide to eat out for example, I can still make the scheduled dish at another time. Since I don’t have anything planned for Sunday, I use it as my catch-all day.

How do you plan your meals? Do you use a menu?

Tags: cooking, planning a menu, homemaking, housekeeping