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Menu Planning

Weather your a gourmet chef planning a dinner for 200 or a mom planning out her dinners for the family for the week.  If you follow some of these basic guidelines and use some of the helpful documents on this page.  You will not only have an easy and organized meal plan but a cost effective on too.


Menu planning saves hours of time, energy, money, and headaches, but it’s easy to overcomplicate the process. And when that happens, it becomes a burden instead of a blessing. So why do it at all?

My daily life can get crazy, as I’m sure it can for you. Cooking is one area that I can keep relatively under control, if I take a few basic steps to do it simply and thoughtfully. To make the job of nourishing my family enjoyable and cost-effective, I rely on menu planning.

What is menu planning?

All it really means is that you plan ahead of time what meals you’ll cook.

What are the benefits?

  • You can extract a grocery list from your menu choices.
  • Because you buy only what you need, less food is wasted.
  • You know with plenty of notice what’s for dinner – no more frantic 5 p.m. crazyness.
  • Cooking is more enjoyable, because odds are you’ll be more prepared.
  • You’ll have more variety, because you’ve planned it.
  • It’s healthier, because it cuts down on drive-thru runs.
  • It’s cheaper, too, because you’re eating out less, you can menu plan around your coupons, and you can intentionally cook with seasonal ingredients.

How far in advance should I plan my menu?

It’s really up to you and your family. Different seasons call for different types of home management, so if your current season is more hectic than usual, perhaps a simple menu planned for an entire month is ideal. If you like variety or experimenting, then maybe planning just a week at a time works well.
I recommend menu planning at least a week at a time, and not going farther in advance than a month. This way, you’ve got enough menus planned to make it worth your while, yet not so scheduled that it becomes too big a chore.

What’s the perfect, ideal way to menu plan?

Well, I don’t know the perfect way – but I know how I’m doing it right now for my family of 3.5 (one of us is six months old). I plan two weeks at a time, and repeat those weeks at least once. This way, I’ve got around a month planned at minimum. We’re pretty easy-going eaters, and don’t mind repeating a meal every other week – after all, that’s only having it twice a month, more or less.


Recycle and reuse your left overs.  Make new meals out of your left overs.  Turn your roast chicken into a chicken salad sandwich with mayo and vegetables.  Add some bread and lettuce, tomato and onion if you like.