many years ago, i was a relatively brand new teacher (second year, maybe?) when my boyfriend-now-husband and I moved in together. and dinners were a royal struggle.
saturday mornings were our time to go to the grocery store together. every saturday. and a few minutes before we went, I’d try to make a list. and to make a list, I’d try to quickly throw together a random list of things to eat for the upcoming week.
which never worked.
for one, I was exhausted. so I’d try to come up with a list of food - while Brett is waiting in the hallway to go to the store, mind you - and just couldn’t think of a darn thing. so me being a picky eater (and me being so, so short on time), I would throw down ingredients for five random, assumedly-childlike recipes and we’d hit the store.
cool. so far, so good (kinda).
i’d make said recipes saturday, sunday, and monday. but by Tuesday, things got rocky. at that point in the work week, I was too tired to cook whatever ambitious, multi-step recipe I had planned, so we’d eat sandwiches instead. okay, fine. and on wednesday, what I had planned didn’t sound appealing enough for me to get up off the couch and oh-my-gosh-queso-sounds-so-good. so we’d eat out instead. and thursday, I needed to swim so bad to work out some frustrations/anxiety/whatever, but I’d eat a quesadilla or a bag of chips instead of cook dinner (or, I’d come home ravenous from swimming, and tackle the aforementioned chips since cooking something seemed like too long to wait). and then Friday would come and hey-we-work-hard-so-let’s-go-out-and-we’ll-just-charge-it (which eating out would be fine…except we had both planned and shopped for a Friday recipe. and that, you know, we couldn’t afford to go eat out. especially at the frequency in which we were doing it.)
so we’d get back to saturday morning (aka grocery store day) and have a fridge full of untouched (and, maybe at this point, expired) food. so we’d throw it allllll away and make a new grocery list.
but again, I couldn’t think of anything. so we’d have similar - IF NOT THE EXACT SAME - recipes (I’m talking ridiculously random things like broccoli cheese soup and salmon salad — stuff that should be one hit wonders for a good longgggg while) for the umpteenth week in a row. AND REPEAT THIS SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS UNTIL THE END OF TIME.
so much food waste. so much overspending on food - both at the store and eating out. and so much weight gain because sister here can only eat so many bags of chips and broccoli cheese soup before it becomes oh-so-apparent.
and I snapped. my growing credit card bill, my growing waistline, my growing pile of wasted ingredients - something had to change.
I had an epiphany - what if I kept a running log of some sort of what we eat each week? that way, I could use past weeks as inspiration for menu planning, I could have a place with recipes linked so that brett could help cook if need be, and I could easily menu plan in little pockets of spare time (but still save the menu planning progress each time!) instead of trying to do it all moments before the trip to the store.
so I started menu planning in 2015. and, now, even all these years later, I still do the same process week after week.
side note: if you’d prefer a video version of the following topics - aka a more casual chat between me and you - see my “how i menu plan” highlight on my instagram.
how will i menu plan? how many days will I menu plan? (similarly, how often do I like to grocery shop?)
I like to menu plan one week at a time. some people do for a week, for a few days, for a month - whatever works best for you! just plan it out. on paper, an online tool, chalkboard, note on your phone, Google Keep, Google Doc, notebook, - again, whatever works best for you!
I personally like to keep my past menu plans so that I can look at them when I need ideas. But more on that in a second.
as part of my monthly routines, I make a four weeks of a menu plan template. a roughhhhh draft, if you will. i copy and paste in my recurring themes (more on that in a second), and I make note of any event or holiday I know off the top of my head (again, more on that in a second). if I think of anything else (like a certain recipe I’d like), I might add it in, but it’s not for sure - this is a template.
and then each friday, I menu plan officially for the upcoming week. (here’s a quick instagram post on my friday routines and why it’s arguably the most important day at our household.)
I really like this method for me, because I can easily transfer recipes that don’t happen (but I have all the ingredients for) to another week. or, like, this past week I only used half the tomatoes I bought in a recipe, so I quickly added to next week’s meal plan with a recipe I knew we loved that would use the rest of the tomatoes. in the past, when I didn’t menu plan, I would have forgotten about the leftover tomatoes, and they would’ve gone to waste since it was so much easier to throw them away. which leads me to…
what do we already have on hand that we can or need to use?
before I even start filling in my menu plan, I first take an inventory of my fridge, freezer, AND pantry. I use this as the first and foremost inspiration for the upcoming menu plan. what have I previously frozen that we can use? what ingredients can we use in the pantry to clear up some space? do I have anything leftover in the fridge from last week’s recipes that we can use?
so while checking these spots first helps our grocery budget, it also gives me the best ideas.
i see that can of green beans in the pantry - can that be a dinner side on Wednesday? we have some lurking barbecue sauce in the fridge - should we do, say, barbecue chicken on Sunday?
you get the picture.
also. i like to go to costco and trader joe’s once a month. so usually i have a few gems on hand that i picked up from there (looking at you, Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken and Kirkland Cheese Tortellini!). checking to see what I have on hand to inspire my menu plan also ensures these things get used.
what do we have on the schedule coming up?
before, I was planning elaborate recipes on Thursdays, when I should have known that by Thursday, I’m either swimming or absolutely dead. so I was setting myself up for absolute failure.
I try to think about our schedule - and energy level - overall - and based on that, think of realistic meals.
Say, if I have XYZ on Wednesday afternoon, my energy level will be depleted from fighting traffic and I’ll be getting home later, so I don’t want to plan a labor-intensive meal because it’s just not going to happen. I’ll instead want to do a quick, familiar dinner. Or maybe set a crockpot that morning? Or maybe that frozen Trader Joe’s Orange Chicken I always have in my freezer? and so on.
I generally dislike cooking on Fridays and Saturdays - by that point in the week, I’m done - so let’s have those two days be my rest days. Let’s make Fridays Leftover or Takeout, and Saturdays can be Snack Dinner Saturday. Easy peasy! (Did you catch that? Know yourself and schedule your rest however you need.)
Similarly, if, say, Brett’s out of town, I shouldn’t plan for an onion-heavy dish that he loves, since I hate onions.
And oh, we’re doing XYZ Thursday Night, so no need to plan dinner for that night.
And so on. Lean into your schedule when planning. We don’t want to burn out here.
make themes! or, better yet, make a whole meal rotation!
here’s my full blogpost on how we created our dinner themes and our meal rotation! this was completely revolutionary for me - it eliminated so much stress and decision fatigue I didn’t realize I had. and it made me enjoy cooking again.
know yourself
i kind of mentioned this before, but what patterns do you notice week after week? don’t fight them - lean into them. are you always dragging by Friday? does your husband only feign interest in soup when there’s a sandwich on the side? do you crave nachos week after week? do you always have tennis practice thursday nights, and therefore could benefit from a consistently-easy meal? do you like making a bigggg Sunday dinner? do you love when you have a big pot of soup in your fridge to eat all week?
that meal rotation + dinner theme blogpost i just mentioned explains more on how to use this soul searching to create realistic menu plans that work for you.
what are we craving?
anything in particular sound good? i’ve been really craving nachos - let’s put those down for Tuesday. or, this weather we’re having lately makes Frito Pie sound really good…
consider implementing your own version of a Grill and Chill.
this post explains why Grill and Chill changed everything for us. it makes menu planning SO much easier.
tldr: i start by asking: “what should I have brett grill this week? and how can I use those leftovers for quick weekday dinners?” and brett - who previously was NO HELP thinking of dinner ideas - all of a sudden has opinions on what he’d like to grill or smoke. WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN.
and, and! he now will grill extra proteins for weekday dinners. which not only makes weekday cooking easier, it also makes menu planning for weekdays easier, since my mind is looking for meals that can be made with grilled proteins. WINNNNNN!
cook once, eat twice
once you get the hang of it, you can also ask yourself when planning, “can I plan a few things that could be repurposed for other meals?” like, for example, we loveeee to make a good salad - but when we do, we make sure to prep enough ingredients to make at least three good salads. same amount of work, but triple the amount of food. cook once, eat twice!
or, we’ll make sure we cook more than we need of something for dinner so that we can have extras for tomorrow’s lunch, or enough leftover for Friday’s leftover night. or, maybe I’ll make extra of that roll recipe so that we can have it both Monday and Wednesday night. cook once, eat twice!
or, similarly, “can any of these recipes be doubled and frozen?” or “can we freeze the leftovers of any recipe to turn into another dinner in a few weeks?” because hey, it’s not that much more work to do when you’re already dirtying a pan. I promise! and then! it keeps your freezer stocked easily! for nights you need something quick or nights you need a break (like, those aforementioend thursdays for me) for whatever reason! YAYYY!
cook once, eat twice. always!
plan!
Once I know our current food inventory, our upcoming schedule, our cravings, and our themes, I can start plugging in recipes. YAYY!
I usually look at past menu plans if I’m drawing a blank on what some of our favorite recipes are - so I can’t recommend enough figuring out a menu planning method that allows you to look back on past menu plans, whether that be an app, a notebook, a google doc, a blog, etc.
Each week I send out our weekly menu plan - full of recipe links! for free! - subscribe here.
If I’m feeling like trying a new recipe, I look at one of these things. BUT! Know that on busy weeks - I DO NOT TRY NEW RECIPES. If I’m already stretched thin with life stuff, I’m not doing anything risky in the kitchen - I’m relying on old favorites that week. And that’s where peeking through my past menu plans comes in handy.
a quick word on grocery shopping
Also, also. Know that I loveeeee the grocery store. LOVE. Early morning before anyone is there is absolute BLISS for me. But, in this season of mine, I do grocery pick-up, other than my monthly trip to Costco and Trader Joe’s. Because while I love the grocery store, the grocery store takes substantial time and energy. And in this season that’s time and energy I prefer to save for menu planning.
So right now, I menu plan on Fridays. (But I usually start thinking about it earlier in the week, jotting down ideas here and there as they organically come to me.) And on Fridays I also place an order for grocery pick-up, at a time and place I’ll be out and about anyway. (Usually on the way home from swimteam on Saturday mornings.)
I also love doing grocery pick-up because as I think of things throughout the week we need, I add the item to my virtual grocery cart then and there. Like Tuesday night this week, I used the last of our cornstarch. And I paused, pulled out my phone, opened the grocery store app, and added cornstarch to my “basket.” I LOVEEEEE this method - especially because these days my mind can only remember so much.
Similarly, if Brett needs something from the store, he writes it on our whiteboard. (He has yet to download the grocery store app, so whiteboard it is.)
but give yourself grace
life happens. you get tired, stuff comes up, tonight’s recipe doesn’t sound good. totally happens to me all the time! if this happens, I’ll peek at the menu plan and think, “does another night’s recipe work better tonight?” and I’ll go in and rearrange the menu plan. and, in the worst case scenario, i do love having a leftover night/Snack Dinner themed night on the schedule for this reason! it’s SO easy, SO yummy, and makes everything so flexible. (plus the added benefit of cleaning out the fridge so that it cuts down on waste YAY!)
or, in the instance that something comes up (let’s say my mom invites me to dinner while brett’s out of town), I look to see if one of this week’s recipes can be moved to next week (or, if not, we might skip this week’s leftover night/Snack Dinner). that way we aren’t wasting food, we have one less meal to plan next week, and we don’t feel chained to a rigid meal plan. win-win!
but know that while I plan a menu plan every single week, once I get within that week, I might have to rearrange. and that’s okay. menu plans are fluid and are made to help you. nothing is ever set in stone.
create routines that take care of you, your family, and your home - however that looks for you. for me, that means menu planning.
follow my stories on instagram for more meal planning adventures.
love, memaw haley
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