Monthly Menu: Finding the Recipes and Forming the Menu

 

So a while back I wrote a completely scatter-brained post about how I thought I was SO smart to create a menu board.  It was going to save me SO MUCH MONEY on groceries.  I wish I could say it had- but the truth about saving money on groceries is you have to combine several strategies to do it.  Mine are:

• Coupons
• Ad browsing
• Sam's club
• Monthly  meal planning

Now, I can't say that monthly planning will be for everyone, it takes some serious thought.  I mean, who wants to get stuck eating some version of chicken and rice 4 days in a week??  It also takes some research- and by research, I mean scavenging for recipes- I do mine mostly with Pinterest and the bajillion cookbooks I have on hand already. It has really helped me feel less stressed about "What am I going to make for dinner tonight?!", all I have to do is look at the menu board, and I'm good to go.

Some people look for deals in the grocery stores and base their recipes off of those- I choose recipes I know my family will like or I think they will like, and then I scope out ads to fit what I need.  I have made it a rule that there is at least one crockpot recipe per week and I save fancy or extensive recipes for Sundays- the idea of Sunday supper is nostalgic to me and I have more time to spend on a meal that day.  I start searching for recipes a couple weeks before the next month begins- this gives me plenty of time to pick out meals and, ideally, keeps me from stressing about filling in days (though it usually happens anyway).  Also, I never pick out weekday recipes that I think will take me longer than 15-30 minutes to get into the oven or get cooking on on the stove, and I make sure to include leftover days.  We usually don't need many of these because we take our leftovers for lunch at school, but make sure to include this- you don't have to cook every night!  Sheesh!

My printable menu is just a template I downloaded on Microsoft Word.  As I'm adding recipes I think about things like:

• Do the ingredients have to be fresh or can they be frozen/canned?
• Do I have another recipe similar to this in the same week?
• How long will this take me to prep and cook?
• Do I need a side with this?

You get the picture.  Meals that need fresh ingredients that can't be frozen go toward the beginning of the month, then meals whose ingredients can be prepped and frozen go next, then those that can use canned or store bought frozen ingredients.  I write in the recipe and where I can find it again, otherwise I would never remember.  For me, this is as simple as: Pinterest, Recipe Binder, or Reno Cookbook, etc.  Meals that I know by heart or don't really have a recipe are just left blank underneath. 

The next menu post will include couponing, ad browsing, and writing my grocery list.