{I first published this as a Google document, mainly because I wasn’t going to have any pictures to go with it, and you know I like posts to have pictures. My thought was that this should be something easy for you to print out and put in your menu binder. But now Google has messed with things, so I’m just posting it.}
Go here for Worksheet I.
Go here for Worksheet II.
Worksheet III ~ Actually writing your menus!
With your menu lists in hand, all printed out, make your plan for the week! Yes, you are ready to do it! And it won’t be that hard, because you already have a “stockpile” of ideas that you know they all like!
What do you need to do this? You could use an Excel spreadsheet, a Powerpoint presentation, a PDF file that you download off an organizational website, or any other technologically advanced method you choose.
I usually grab a scrap of paper and jot down:
M-
T-
W-
Th-
F-
S-
S-
M-
Then I look at my calendar to see which days I’ll be in the car at four in the afternoon rather than able to be cooking at home; which days I know I’ll be tired because I have a meeting the night before; and which days I know I will have time to bake or roll up tortillas or something like that.
Then I choose my menus accordingly.
Here’s my thought process:
M- [This is a day I spend a lot of time in the morning cleaning up from the weekend and making sure I am up to date on my bills and checking account. Mondays are a day of anxiety for most people, so it’s good to have something easy and hearty for dinner. I usually have an Italian-American type of dish on this day. Knowing that I will probably be making spaghetti with meatballs (that I have already frozen) or pasta with meat sauce or easy lasagna makes this day a cinch.]
Spaghetti with meat sauce (I’ve already frozen browned and seasoned meat)
Salad
Garlic bread
T- [On this day I teach a CCD class in the late afternoon. I can do my grocery shopping in the morning, but I can’t do any cooking in the afternoon. I like to use something leftover from Sunday on this day.]
Leftover stew (I make enough for two meals at least)
Noodles
Green beans tossed with olive oil and salt
Bread (I make all our bread other than bagels and pita and usually have a bunch in the freezer.)
W- [I like to serve soup on Wednesdays. It’s a good way to be simple in our eating habits and it leaves me time to bake, visit, and do other things on this day when I don’t have to go out until 3:30.]
Split pea soup (using hambone from the freezer)
Cornbread
Th- [Since our meals have been simple for the first days of the week, I tend to be more elaborate on Thursdays. Kids are ready for a hearty meal, and the leftovers are helpful on the weekend when more people are around. However, we have a lot going on Thursdays. I have a busy afternoon that never ends. It’s also a good day for a chicken dish.]
Roast chicken
Squash or roasted yams (leftover from Sunday, keeps fine)
Salad (assembled early in the day)
Biscuits (made from my homemade mix)
F- [We go meatless on Fridays. Almost always we have homemade pizza and salad. Occasionally we have a fish dish or a pasta dish.]
Salmon cakes with yogurt cumin sauce
Waldorf salad
Rice
Pita bread
S- [Usually we have leftover pizza for lunch, which is pretty hearty (I make a meat one for Saturdays). So by Saturday night we don’t need anything too filling or complicated. In addition, I’ve usually worked hard on chores and don’t want to cook! My husband grew up having hot dogs and baked beans on Saturdays – I’m not a huge fan but it is easy! If we have lots of leftovers we’ll have a “bits and pieces” night with good bread, saving those hot dogs for a busy day when I really can’t cook.]
Hot dogs
Baked beans
Cole slaw (homemade)
Oven fries
S- [It’s worth it to do a traditional big Sunday dinner. You will get at least one more meal out of it in the coming busy week; maybe more if you play your cards right. More importantly (and sometimes we do have something very simple) it’s good to have a family day, emphasizing being together and resting. A roast is actually restful to make – more so than a casserole! Try to make something with bones you can use for soup another day.]
Pork roast (make extra for bbq pork sandwiches later in the week)
Mashed potatoes (make extra for shepherd’s pie later in the week; use cooking water for bread making)
Broccoli (Make double for broccoli soup for lunches)
Rolls (keep a lot of homemade rolls in the freezer!)
M- [I like to make a “weekly” menu of a little more than a week, in case I get thrown off somewhere. Having an extra meal up your sleeve without any extra preparation really helps.]
Chili (easy to make a large amount and freeze)
Rice
Orange slices
Guacamole
Tortilla chips
{This post has all the menu-making worksheets linked! There are a lot!}
I know this is an old post, but you said I could comment on old posts.
What do you do if one family member writes out a menu that other family members hate? Do you add it to the rotation and make the other family members learn the discipline of eating “yucky” food? Do you put a special notation and make it only rarely, compared to menus everyone enjoys?
Or, to make it even more complicated, what if another member simply cannot eat the food? For example, I get sick if I eat spicy food, but my husband likes it. Do I make two meals? Or does he save spicy food for restaurants?
What if you like to eat different types of side dishes with the same main dish? Do you make multiple entries for it? Can I use some kind of generic wildcard entry, like “vegetable,” or do I need to make an entry with green beans, another with broccoli, or do I just pick one and eat it with that meal each time?
I have a lot of difficulty with meal planning. I’ve been working on making a personal family recipe box for a long time, but I haven’t gotten very far because I want to have the recipe for each one in the box and can’t ever decide which version will be THE recipe. I mean, once I put a meat loaf recipe in that box, there’s a chance that we’ll never try any of the other great meat loafs out there!
Actually quite a few questions here, maybe answered in subsequent posts I wrote on this topic… but I’ll give it a crack.
Getting input from family is to help you make your menus. Some people do like some things that others don’t care for, but there are ways around that, and the purpose of the exercise is to get ideas!
I also can’t take spicy things, but many in our family really enjoy spice. We don’t usually go there (because I’m the cook!), but I can offer a bottle of hot sauce and spicy chutney and spicy salsa for when I make things more mild, and have leftovers myself when I do add some heat to the dish.
Spicy food does become the attraction of a meal out for those people! Similarly, if many didn’t care for fish, the one who does could certainly order it at a restaurant.
But there are some fish dishes that aren’t abhorrent to the fish dislikers, and they can also have extra helpings of potatoes or other side dishes on that night.
Try to make those menus with several side dishes, and as I point out, it’s really helpful to write down “broccoli slaw” and “oven fried potatoes” on your menus, rather than just “veg.” That’s because you need to train yourself to think in menus. Once you have that down, you can rely on yourself to come up with a vegetable or a salad — but it’s still worthwhile, because it helps with your shopping.
So, for instance, if I am going to serve meatloaf, I know I will also serve peas, mashed potatoes, and apple sauce. It’s just what we like to eat with meatloaf. That’s *my* family’s “meatloaf menu.”
It means that when I shop for that week, I will be sure to have everything I need for that particular entree. Also, it prevents us from getting in a rut — like always having salad or always having corn. And it makes side dishes more interesting, I think — taking the focus off the meat.
But if your family likes it with Italian vegetables (like onions, peppers, and zucchini) and a salad, then put that in and shop for those things. The day may come when you realize you don’t have enough lettuce for that salad, and then you can break out the peas from the freezer and the applesauce! Likewise, you may have had peas with your roast the day before, so you might serve it with carrot sticks and guacamole. But your mind is thinking in menus.
The recipes will naturally evolve. Just make the best meatloaf you know how. When the day comes that you have meatloaf you like better, use that recipe instead. You can’t just not eat meatloaf! Just do your best! Once I realized that you know what, we just like our brownies like this, it was easier to commit. You can always change later :)
You also need to cook by “best method available” — not necessarily recipes. We don’t really need recipes for green beans and beets and sauteed spinach. We need a method that brings out the best in each thing we are cooking. To find the method, do try the cookbooks I posted about here:
http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2013/12/cookbooks-in-life-syllabus-library/
And read the comments as well.
So, I’ve got a great list of meals my family will eat. You were right, that wasn’t so bad!