Menu planning help

[Anonymous]

I have a toddler and 4 month old and I've finally gotten back in the habit of cooking a few times a week. The biggest challenge I'm having is planning what I'm making for the week. I have hundreds of cookbooks but it takes me a long time to browse through the books and figure out the menu plan. Would love to hear from others about how they have streamlined this process.

[Anonymous]

http://styleberryblog.com/planning-prep-shopping-styleberrykitchen-pt-1

[Anonymous]

All Recipes (website) allows you to create a "recipe box" which makes things a little easier. You can choose from recipes or create your own.

I tend to plan before grocery shopping. That helps me plan what to buy and I already have an idea of what to do days before I'm going to cook. I don't always cook new things from a cookbook - most of the time they are things we've had before. I try a new thing once in a while.

I've also started keeping a list of go-to meals (some quick and easy, some not) on the side of the fridge so we don't have an excuse not to cook.

[Anonymous]

It takes a little time, but you can get all the work done and then it's easy to keep up with. I have gone through my cook books and made a note of what recipes I want to try and put it into a list. You could also just dog ear the pages, but I find it easier to have a list to glance at and pick from.

I also make my menus in excel and put the name of the recipe, cookbook and page number plus what ever non-staple items I need for the meal. At the end of the week I list all the non-staple/perishable items I need from the store to make that week's food. I make it for a full month, sometimes two. Then I save it. I can repeat the menu two months later and now that I've done it for the previous year, I can just pull up the old menus and easily write out what I need without having to back to the cook books and make up my menus. I can add in new recipes as I come across them, but most of the work is done. I also try to develop a meal patter for each week. In colder months I try to make a big soup or stew on Sundays that will give me leftovers for the week. On Tuesdays I try to make a big slow cooker meal because that also gives me leftovers. Then Mondays and Thursdays I can do leftover meals. I switch it up here and there and it doesn't feel routine, it just helps with my meal planning to say I need a soup and a slow cooker dish each week.

So it's more effort up front, but if you are able to do it, it will make things much easier in the long run.

[Anonymous]

I have a general 'schedule' for the week that guides my planning. It currently is:
Monday - breakfast for dinner
Tuesday - pasta night
Wednesday - out
Thursday - fish
Friday - pizza
Saturday - crockpot
Sunday - open
I find this very helpful in planning. It also fits with my 5-year olds tastes (mostly). I would recommend coming up with something like this, modified to fit your needs. In the past I've had days assigned to chicken, or Mexican, anything to narrow down my choices and focus my planning.