How do you decide your menu for the week

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

The thread pretty much says it all we end up spending more because we look at what we have and it’s opps

 

[mmouse37]

I am the worst...I never plan ahead as I never know what is happening with how many for dinner from night to night. I play it by ear. My husband and I go out fairly often or we are invited to our son or daughter's for dinner. Since all the kids moved out it really is liberating knowing I don't have to make dinner every night.

MJ

 

[gillep]

I make whatever I had previously selected, and is delivered, in my meal delivery kit. Prior to using the kits, I would look at what I had in my freezer and pantry and try to find interesting recipes that used at least a couple of the things I had on hand.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

We used to be good about it but I don’t know what happened anyway I have never learned to cook so it has unfortunately fallen on dh but saw some very easy recipes to fallow

 

[kimblebee]

We sit down and plan out our menu for the whole week. Usually it’s based around what we have on hand but if someone wants something specific, we’ll buy what we need. We do tend to fall into a rut quite easily though, because we always seem to rotate through the same meals every week, just on different days. When that happens, I request we each bring a new recipe or two and we’ll try those and see if they’re hits or misses.

 

[wgeo]

We have a dry erase board and we sit down one day each week and look at our schedules and plan out meals, and plan out which nights we will have leftovers. We almost never go out to eat. We also try very hard to not waste food so if one meal needs bacon for example, and I know we won't use it all, then we make sure to plan another meal to use the rest of it. I also list on the side of the dry erase board a few meal ideas that we have the supplies for that would be very fast/easy to make in case the day ends up being crazier then we thought.

It takes work, and we've been doing it for 15 years so we've had lots of practice, but I think that overall our food budget is very low for a family of four simply because we've gotten good at planning and not wasting food.

 

[AquamarineSteph]

I plan about three days in advance. We're going to make recipe #1, 2 & 3 and buy those ingredients. That way the fresh ingredients are still good and tasty, and we haven't wasted any money buying something that might spoil if we don't cook it until Friday.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

I think I know what this years Christmas gift is going to be to my self a cook book any favorites among this group

 

[wgeo]

I think I know what this years Christmas gift is going to be to my self a cook book any favorites among this group

I think you might really enjoy learning to cook, it can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it.

Are there foods that you like or really don't like? That might help in picking out a good first cookbook.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

I think you might really enjoy learning to cook, it can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it.

Are there foods that you like or really don't like? That might help in picking out a good first cookbook.

I love nachos and other Mexican foods we almost always go out for Mexican for my birthday but I am sure that is hard to make

 

[Teresa Pitman]

We get our grocery store flyers Thursday night, so I usually look through those for any good sales and try to plan some meals to take advantage of those sales. When non-perishable or freezer items go on a good sale, I will stock up, so I have ingredients on hand as well. Then on a grocery list I write down the planned meals on one side of the list, and the groceries I need (esp. sale items) on the other side, and which stores have them on sale. I like having the list of meals I am planning on the same paper because sometimes when I get to the store, they are out of the sale item, or it doesn't look good (for example, broccoli might be on sale but the broccoli they have is all yellow and yucky looking) so if I know what I had planned I may be able to substitute something or plan a new meal which might mean changing what's on my grocery list. This sounds more complicated than it is!

 

[dotfurio]

I menu plan a week at a time. I'll check what proteins we have in the freezer, but mostly I just pick what sounds good or recipes we've been craving. The main thing I plan around is on busy nights for all of us I plan something that's quick or microwavable. Most of our recipes come from Skinnytaste.

 

[wgeo]

Tink I'm not quite sure how easy/hard you want - but these are the 2 books that I tend to give most often as gifts to people that don't have much experience.

The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook: Easy, Healthy Recipes for the Next Four Years & Beyond
https://www.amazon.com/5-Ingredient...=1507503978&sr=1-6&keywords=beginner+cookbook

How to Boil Water
https://www.amazon.com/Boil-Water-F...=1507503978&sr=1-1&keywords=beginner+cookbook

 

[gillep]

I menu plan a week at a time. I'll check what proteins we have in the freezer, but mostly I just pick what sounds good or recipes we've been craving. The main thing I plan around is on busy nights for all of us I plan something that's quick or microwavable. Most of our recipes come from Skinnytaste.

Before I started using the meal kits I used the recipes from Skinnytaste a lot, I still make the jerk pork quite often to have on hand in the freezer for lazy days/weeks!

 

[dosekies]

I need to get better at deciding a menu before hand. I really wanted to be better at cooking when my SO and I moved in together, but we ended up just stocking up on food we find on sale. We are currently switching between pizzas, chicken strips, italian sausage, and meals with ground beef. We also have a bunch of pasta and different sides on hand to make with them.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

Tink I'm not quite sure how easy/hard you want - but these are the 2 books that I tend to give most often as gifts to people that don't have much experience.

The 5-Ingredient College Cookbook: Easy, Healthy Recipes for the Next Four Years & Beyond
https://www.amazon.com/5-Ingredient...=1507503978&sr=1-6&keywords=beginner+cookbook

How to Boil Water
https://www.amazon.com/Boil-Water-F...=1507503978&sr=1-1&keywords=beginner+cookbook

Thank you I will look into those

 

[powellrj]

I cook what is on sale. I use Kroger ClickList which keeps me from impulse buying which is a good thing for us.

Tink, I learned to cook from watching TV chefs. This was before the food network, I learned from PBS.
Also, Mexican food really isn’t hard to learn. Have you ever watched The Chew? It’s a good show to watch and learn from too.

 

[phorsenuf]

You need this cookbook. I think everyone should own a copy of it. Don't get the Kindle version, or the paperback, or the spiral bound. Get the Ring bound one.
https://smile.amazon.com/Better-Hom...swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1507513572&sr=8-1

I rarely ever make a menu. I keep my freezer, fridge and pantry stocked with the basics and then in the mornings decide what meat to defrost and go from there. I have an Instant Pot that I use a lot and also find great recipes on Pinterest.

 

[CdnCarrie]

We plan for couple weeks at a time. I go through the big freezer and the fridge/pantry and see what meals are in there and put them on the meal calendar on the fridge. After that we make a list of what we want to make in the open days and shop for those items.
We buy meat when it's on sale.

 

[Sweetpancake]

I think I know what this years Christmas gift is going to be to my self a cook book any favorites among this group

I love Jean Pare's Company's Coming cook books. She always uses simple ingredients that you either have on hand or are easy to find. They're also easy recipes to follow. I'm sure you can find them online.

I'm not very formal with my planning but we do decide on 2-3 meals for the week and then buy accordingly. I try my best to use what we already have. I find since doing this, we have so much less waste.