I have to admit that menu planning is not one of my favorite weekly tasks. But I also have to admit that it really isn’t that hard, and it makes my life tons easier. So…I plan a menu. Every week. Cheerfully. Sort of.

I’m hoping to come up with a meal and grocery planning system that will help me be more efficient in the planning, shopping, and cooking phases. I’ve played around with various ideas, but since I’m also trying to implement some of the grocery shopping strategies I learned in Grocery University, for now I’m going to stick with the same, simple planning method I’ve used for years.

Here’s the steps:

1. Start off by taking a look at last week’s menu. I jot down any meals I didn’t end up using but still have the ingredients for.

2. Take a quick peek into the fridge, freezer, and pantry to see if there are any meals that can be made from what’s on hand. I especially notice things that may need used up, like the jug of buttermilk or head of broccoli. The lunches or dinners I come up with that use these ingredients get added to my list, along with choices from my easy meal ideas. By now, I usually have a list of six or seven things that we can eat with just a few odds-and-ends picked up at the grocery store to complete the meals.

3. Grab a calendar or make a basic chart for plotting out the plan. I simply use a piece of notebook paper with a line down the middle to divide it into lunch and dinner columns. I sketch vertical lines to separate the days, and label with the names of the days of the week and any schedules or activities I need to consider. An excel file or iPod app would also do the trick.

4. Use the list of meals on hand and easy menu ideas to fill in as many blanks on the chart as possible. As I do this, I think about whether or not my husband will be home for the meal, if we’ll have a particularly busy day, or if we have ball games to work around.

5. Finally, take a look at the grocery ads. I try to make the main parts of my menu plan with what I already own, so I leave this step for last. This forces me to think more carefully about using up what I already have, and it saves the day if I’m not able to make it to the store for some reason. When things go according to plan, I’m always shopping one week ahead of time. I make an exception if my cupboards don’t contain enough enjoyable meals to fill the menu, if I find some meat on sale that I wouldn’t want to freeze for a later week, or if there’s a family favorite in the ad that I want us to munch right away.

This entire process takes me less than ten minutes each week. It may take a little longer if I need to look up a recipe or two in one of my favorite cookbooks. I find that shopping my own kitchen enables me to have several meal ideas already floating around in my head when I finally sit down with pencil and paper, greatly reducing the time needed for coming up with menu items. For example, when I purchased ground beef at the store on Friday, I knew I wanted to use some of it for making chili next week. As I get ready to make my menu this week, I’ll add “chili” (and the resulting leftover meals) to my list. No thinking required.

Do you menu plan every week? Do you have any tricks of the trade you’d like to share? Leave a comment!

This post is linked to Raising Homemakers.