How To Menu Plan

In my last post on Menu Planning, I shared how menu planning has been a great tool in helping me be more efficient. Here I will share how I plan my menu for the week.

Usually I plan for just one week. But you can plan for a fortnight or even for a month if your month is pretty predictable. Also, if your family is not as fussy as mine, you can actually rotate the same menu over and over. 

For example : Fried rice is served every Monday night while spaghetti is eaten every Tuesday night. Now if I can get my family to accept this, I’d be over the moon!

I usually plan on a week-to-week basis since dh’s schedule is rather unpredictable. There are certain dishes he prefers not to eat and I would cook those on days he’s not home to eat it Also the portions to be bought would be different if he’s not eating with us.

Some moms I know plan by their meals according to the meats they eat. For example, beef is always served on Fridays. So the menu plan may have beef stew the 1st week of the month, beef noodles the 2nd week, beef burgers the 3rd week, etc…Or chicken is always served on Tuesdays, so one week has chicken chops on the menu while the next week has roast chicken. Get creative as to how you want your menu plan to look like.

WhenI first started planning, I was rather stressed thinking I would have to actually come up with 21 meals in a week! But it really wasn’t that bad. First I started out with what I know how to cook – that’s helpful when one is pressed for time :) Then I listed all the dishes we have been eating all this while. I also asked the children what they would like to eat. Also, I would scour websites for easy to cook dishes that are easy to whip up. I do a mixture of Asian and Western cuisine just to jazz things up a bit.

Need more ideas to get started? You can check out Menu Planning Central. There’s also the weekly Menu Plan Monday meme organised by I’m An Organized Junkie every Monday.

The only issue I have with these menu plans is that they are usually ang mo* food. If you need Chinese/Asian food, I suggest you visited tingkat catering** websites. These will usually list a weekly sample of food they offer if you order from them. Check out their list and get inspired!

* ang mo food refers to Western food  ** tingkat catering services is a service we have in Singapore where one pays for a catering company to deliver lunch and/or dinner right up to your doorstep Mondays to Fridays, excluding Public Holidays.