Menu planning has been on my mind a lot lately. I know that many of you have certain "methods" that you use for menu planning. Could you post some of your ideas here (for those of us who are less creative ). Thanks!

Melissa, I'm an organization freak so don't be put off by my method. You could always use a different approach. I have a Core Recipe binder divided by categories e.g. breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, dessert, salads, soups, etc. I have all the recipes that I've printed from the various websites filed in there.

On Sunday I ask Jim what he has a taste for and I think about what I'm craving. I make a list of those. Then if I'm kind of tired of our tried and true I go through the binder to figure out what new recipes I'd like to try or what tried and true we'll be eating. I sit with my calendar and fill out every day of the week for dinner at least. Then I do the same thing for lunch. Then I pull all the recipes together and go through them making a list of the ingredients I'll need compared to what is in the pantry or refrigerator. You also can't just pick the entree, you'll need to decide if you're having a salad and/or a veggie with it so you can add those to your list. I usually buy my salad fixins at least twice a week so they're fresh. Once you have your shopping list....you send Jim to the store!

It sounds confining but it's actually freeing. I even schedule dinners out in between there so I don't have to cook myself to death. Also, we'll eat out depending on our schedule or what we are doing.....like swimming!

I messed up yesterday though, big time! I planned to cook after cleaning 3 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms. What was I thinking?
Hope this helps!

Im new to this but what I did so far was make up a form with the days of the week. Each day is broken down into Breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, supper, snack. Then on saturdays I sit down and fill out what Im going to have each day. I plan on keeping each one so I can go back and refer to *old menus* and get ideas. As for the recipes I have found on here, I save them in a folder on my pc. What I like about this , is I can substitute days with other days. If I dont feel like fish on wednesday I will use another menu from a different day and have fish later in the week. I use my menu for grocery shopping as well. So much easier going to the store and picking up what I need for a whole week,,,

Wish I could be better organized, but with working full and managing 3 kids and a household I am happy if anything gets on the table!

I usually have stuff in the freezer (such as chicken breasts, ground beef, roasts, frozen veggies etc), so I should never be at a loss. Pantry staples include canned tomatoes, tomato paste, canned beans, ww pasta, kasha, couscous, broth.

The way I manage is to shop the sales. Our sat am paper usually includes all the grocery store flyers - I study them carefully to see who is having sales on the stuff I want and shop accordingly. This week's stores has some great steaks on for $4/lb and grapes at .99 cents/lb and diet pepsi (3 12-packs for $10) and bottled water (3.99 for twelve pack). They also have fresh halibut available - while not cheap - I will splurge cuz dh and I both really love halibut!

Generally I wll come home w/some beef, chicken, fish that I intend to use during the week. This week I bought a whole chicken, which I roasted on Monday and lasted a couple of days, and then made marinated salmon - also 2 days worth. I wll usually buy the veggies that are fresh, in season and hopefully on sale too!

With all that said I am about to go off to do my grocery shopping and I am salivating at the thought of grilled steaks w/sauteed mushrooms/onions on the side!

Good luck!

Frouf

I do the same as Vickie and Patti. The day I go grocery shopping (and I go once a week, the same day each week), I make up a dinner menu for each day of the week, main dish and side dish. Then I build my grocery list around that. I try to use up what I have in the freezer and also incorporate leftovers into another meal. For example, if we have tacos one day, with LO taco meat, then in a few more days, we'll have taco salad. I keep mine on my computer, and I have them all the way back to the first week I started Core, so I can look there if I'm having trouble thinking of what to make. I also grab recipes throughout the week that look interesting, and put them in a file called "Recipes I'd Like to Try." That way I can find them when I'm menu planning. If they're good, I'll type them into my MasterCook program. I'm really lost without my plan, that's for sure.

Angela

I'm trying to get myself organized. I have tons of recipes saved in folders on my computer, categorized according to entree, etc. But I have to admit that I am a paper-person. I think I will be more likely to try things and remember things if I can see it on paper.
So while I am sitting here at work I'm going through and printing off recipes from our board. At least I'm getting something done now!