How to Plan a Month of Dinner Menus
- 1). Print a blank calendar or use a large calendar that you have handy. There should be 30 blank days on the calendar. Alternatively, you could print four weekly calendars.
- 2). Look through the food flyers from local grocery stores to get a feel for weekly bargains. Give each week a special meat focus like chicken, beef or pork. This will make the menu handy to pull when your favorite store has a sale on a particular kind of meat. As this is the most expensive part of menu costs, it makes sense to plan meals around your meat entrée.
- 3). Draw a tiny star on days you'll be unusually busy. For example, if soccer practice is on Monday evenings, you should plan to serve a meal that is quick to prepare.
- 4). Fill in the calendar with meal ideas that are conducive to your schedule. Plan big cooking days when you are less likely to be tired.
- 5). Mark the days of the menu by serving the same meal or meat type on specific days of the week. For example, you could establish Fridays as homemade pizza night and Sunday as pot roast.
- 6). Fill in the menu with vegetable accompaniments that you can steam, bake or prepare according to the time you have available. You may choose to serve the same vegetable on the same days but prepare it differently for variety.
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