How do you plan and prepare the week's menu

Growing ↓

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 8:00 am

Is it just me?
It takes me minimum of two hours to
decide menu
look up recipes
jot down what I need to buy
I procrastinate on it cuz I don't enjoy it

What do you do?
Any shortcuts?

The Happy Wife

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 8:06 am

Growing wrote:

Is it just me?
It takes me minimum of two hours to
decide menu
look up recipes
jot down what I need to buy
I procrastinate on it cuz I don't enjoy it

What do you do?
Any shortcuts?

There's another thread here with what everyone else is making, and I use that for inspiration. Usually I don't make things that need recipes for weekday meals. I try to plan for a month at a time, and make adjustments as I go along as needed.

SuperWify

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 8:34 am

2 different ideas:

-Create a master monthly menu

-create a basic menu-
Ex Sunday leftovers and frozen food, Monday chicken, Tuesday dairy, Wednesday meat, Thursday dough based from the challah (ie- pizza, calzones, meat pizza ect)
Then write down all your ideas for each category/day. In the beginning of the week plug in one idea for each day

DVOM

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 8:55 am

Give the job to your kids!

My boys sit down with cook books Saturday night, mark the recipes they want, check which ingredients we need, make me a list, then we go over it together.

Great for developing executive functioning skills and negotiation/compromise/theory of mind skills as they know that everyone needs to like the menu.

mommish613

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 10:46 am

DVOM wrote:

I love this!

↑ Growing

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 11:05 am

DVOM wrote:

this is gr8

happy chick

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 11:23 am

I don't make fancy dinners at all, think home-made pizza, fish sticks, tuna/macaroni salad, drumsticks, baked ziti.

I work my dinner menu around my kids' school lunch menus. I don't want them having the same category protein/carbs for lunch and dinner and I need to know when they serve fleishig.

thepickled

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 11:41 am

I have two days designated as fleishig (Monday and Wednesday) two as vegetarian (Sunday and Tuesday) and one as an “on the fly” (Thursday night - things like omelets, chicken soup that’s being made for Shabbos, or pasta).

I plug in past suppers or alternatively, new ideas, to each of these days. I keep a record of my menus so I can refer back to them. If I don’t want to think about it at all I refer back to previous weeks. If I’m more in the mood of new ideas I do some research in my cookbooks/online. Throughout the week I bookmark recipes if I see anything I like.

ETA: there is an app called Paprika that you can save recipes to (both ones you write yourself or can download from online), menu plan, schedule suppers for particular days on a calendar, and compose shopping lists directly via the recipe ingredient lists. It costs money to buy but well worth it.

Ema of 5

Sun, Feb 27 2022, 12:08 pm

Growing wrote:

Is it just me?
It takes me minimum of two hours to
decide menu
look up recipes
jot down what I need to buy
I procrastinate on it cuz I don't enjoy it

What do you do?
Any shortcuts?

I let my kids pick what they have for dinner each night. We have a calendar on the fridge, and we right in the new menu each month. When I do my weekly shopping, I make sure to get what we will need for dinner for the following week. Most, if not all, of what I make for them during the week doesn’t need recipes.
For myself, I don’t always eat dinner, sometimes I’m just too tired. My husband generally makes his own dinner, so I’m off the hook for that.