Menu Planning Building Blocks

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Different Ways Menu Planning can improve your Dinner, Lunch or Breakfast selections.

Does menu planning save you money?

The short answer is yes and here are some of the ways menu planning can save you money, they are not all the ways I am sure I am missing a couple or few.

1. Lists make sure you only buy what you need.
2. Less food wastes.
3. Knowing your budget gives a sense of security.
4. You get a more varied diet.
5. More likely to make healthy choices.
6. Planning out portion control.
7. You know exactly what you are eating.
8. More likely to use ingredients on time.

When starting it can be daunting, especially when you have never taken inventory or spent time to plan out a menu or in-depth budget planning. Let me tell you a secret, you don’t need to learn all those skills at once. You can start small, planning out snack time or just starting with what ever meal set you feel most comfortable with.

It is much easier than you imagined, with things like menu apps or pintables. You too can wonder down the path of meal planning with a few easy steps:

• Find your companion. This can be a journal, three ring binder, notebook, or a technological answer like a meal planning app.
• List your household favorited meals, then what other recipes you know.
• Look up new recipes you wish to try out and save them or write them in your journal.

To begin with, once you figure out how you want to set up your companion you should think about what kind of meal planning ideas you want to implement and to work on the recipes you wish to save. This is super important because this will become your very own repertoire. With that, working off this will make the menu planning so much easier, with less to remember you don’t have to wrack your brain as much trying to remember that one recipe from sometime ago.  

Is recipe writers block making it hard for you to plan your menus?

You can get ideas from your repertoire or using Pinterest. Using your repertoire, you can use up item in your FIFO rotations. You can do what I often call leftover surprise, using these leftovers to make a new dish. Sometimes it works out other times…we will not talk about it, it’s best forgotten.

Next make sure you have holidays, birthdays or any special events marked down. Will you be home? Is there a special meal you can cook? Planning is a good habit and skill to have.

• Try to keep your menu balanced.
• Explore meatless days or other diets.
• Never forget the comfort foods or simple meals.
• Be Flexible.
• Don’t be afraid to use leftovers.

To begin with you cannot let menu planning intimidate you, beginning with building a framework and with that framework you have the building block to work from. It is enjoyable to know what you must prepare and being able to plan for it. Nevertheless, you will find the planning habits you develop over time will be a help in other aspects of your life. Tasks seemingly become more streamlined and easier to accomplish.

Finally, knowing what you need to buy at the store and this also cuts down on the time of shopping. Currently cutting down on public exposure is probably a good thing. It is ok to use a food pyramid for a rough guess at what you need for a balanced diet.

If you ever have any questions, please feel free to contact me.