{"id":6976,"date":"2009-08-27T11:11:54","date_gmt":"2009-08-27T15:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/?p=6976"},"modified":"2020-03-22T12:41:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T16:41:58","slug":"menu-planning-101-putting-it-all-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/cooking\/menu-planning-101-putting-it-all-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Menu Planning 101 ~ Putting it all Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to Part 3 of my Menu Planning 101 series. This series is designed to get you in the kitchen, start planning, and help feed your family delicious home cooked meals they will enjoy. Part 1 <\/a>discussed why we should menu plan and part 2 included\u00a0<\/a>how to get started.<\/p>\n

By now you should have made a list of family favorite meals and side dishes. Believe it or not, by making these two lists you have already begun to menu plan.<\/p>\n

You should have 20 meals and a variety of side dishes to help create your menu plan. I would suggest printing out your meals and sides and putting them on your fridge or pantry. This will help you make your grocery list.<\/p>\n

The next step is to pick 5 or 6 meals to make for your week. The reason I suggest 5 or 6 meals instead of 7 is because you will probably have leftovers one night, or a night you don’t feel like cooking.<\/p>\n

If you plan for 7 meals and only make 5 some people tend to view that as a failure. It is not, and I will let you in on a little secret. When I create my meal plan each week, I guarantee that one of those meals will not make it to the table.<\/p>\n

We always have a carry over meal, either due to scheduling, sick kids, work schedules, or an abundance of leftovers. One night I might have planned on making sloppy joes, but we end up having macaroni and cheese with smoothies.<\/p>\n

No problem! We will eat the sloppy joes the next night. Plan for 5 meals and you won’t get discouraged.<\/p>\n

Your week does not need to run from Sunday to Saturday, make your plan based on what works for your family. I tend to grocery shop on Tuesday or Wednesday, so my weeks usually run from Tuesday to Monday.<\/p>\n

You can assign meals to specific days or just assign meals to a specific week. Personally, I come up with several meals for the week, but don’t plan out the days.<\/p>\n

I did in the past, but I found that our schedule changed so frequently that we would end up eating out because I wasn’t able to get the roast in the crock pot on time. In my fridge there are usually ingredients for 2 or 3 meals. I decide the night before or that morning what we are having for dinner. I also post it on a board in my kitchen<\/a> so the family is aware of the meal plan as well.<\/p>\n

Once you have created your plan, it is time to shop. Next week I will cover shopping, food storage, and sales, and stockpiling.<\/p>\n

Here is a sample of what my menu may look like for a week. Five meals and lots of sides. This helps me create my grocery list!<\/p>\n

Meals <\/strong><\/p>\n