How to make a menu for the week

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A simple guide to help you organize meals for the whole family without getting tired.

Prepare for planning

It will take 20-30 minutes to compose a menu for a week. Choose the right time for this.

The ideal option is the first half of Sunday. Then you can estimate without haste how much food is left in the refrigerator and kitchen cupboard, and have time to shop for a week.

You will need:

• several sheets of paper;
• pen or pencil;
• a cookbook or just internet access;
• several plastic files or folders in which you will store recipes. Folders on your computer will work, too, if that's more convenient for you.

Start with general planning

1. Prepare a menu template for the week

The simplest and most intuitive option is in the form of a table. Line up a piece of paper in four columns: days of the week, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Like this:

Visibility is important. First, with the help of such a plate, you will estimate how often you will have to cook. Secondly, it will be easier for you to create a varied menu, making sure that the dishes are not repeated day after day.

2. Cross out the columns you don't need

If you work or study full time, you will most likely be dining out. This means you don't need to plan meals during the work week.

On Saturday, let's say you dine in a restaurant. Or traditionally you meet with friends and order pizza for everyone. Means, food on this day is also not your concern. And on Sunday, for example, you have a meeting with your parents: you go to their place for lunch and stay until late at night. Thus, your menu plan for the week will look like this:

Agree, the task has become much easier.

It will be even easier if you eat your breakfast according to a template. For example, before you run to work, you only have time to grab coffee with sandwiches or oatmeal with tea. In this case, the second column can also be filled almost automatically. At least on weekdays.

3. Plan the menu in the most general terms

A person needs protein, fats, carbohydrates and a variety of vitamins and minerals. Providing such a diet is actually easier than it sounds.

Write in each of the remaining free columns the main product or category of the dish - the one on which you want to focus. It can be meat, poultry, fish, vegetables, cereals, legumes. Or, let's say, soup, porridge, pasta.

That's it, the basis of your menu is ready. It remains only to add details.

Narrow down the menu for the week

If oatmeal or cottage cheese does not need concretization, then dishes from meat and cereals, pasta and even cheese cakes can be prepared in dozens of different ways. You need to decide on what recipes will be made for breakfasts, lunches and dinners in the next seven days.

In order not to get confused and not to forget anything, print each recipe on a separate sheet or write it down by hand. Papers can be magnetically attached to the refrigerator or folded into the “Weekly Menu” folder.

Later, the recipes should be sorted into separate categories depending on the main product. When you need to figure out again what to cook from meat or vegetables, you simply open the folder with the desired name and quickly pull out the appropriate option.

Think back to your signature dishes

Surely you have favorite recipes. For example, fried potatoes with mushrooms, omelet with vegetables, or, for example, pasta with your signature sauce. If you don't have the strength to invent something new, just enter these dishes in the appropriate columns of the weekly menu.

Interview loved ones

If your own imagination fails, ask your family a simple question like: "I'm going to cook something from vegetables, what would you like?" Zucchini potato pancakes, stewed cabbage with meat, stews - the choice of vegetable dishes is almost endless.

Repeat the same question, substituting meat, buckwheat or rice, fish, pasta instead of vegetables. The menu, compiled taking into account the wishes of loved ones, will surely go with a bang.

Take a look at the cookbook

In such editions, recipes are conveniently divided into sections. Just open the page you want, be it “Poultry Dishes”, “Soups” or “Best Pasta Recipes”, and choose the option you like.

Take advantage of online recipes

There are many culinary resources on the web. In order not to be mistaken, choose popular, with a large number of visitors and detailed recipes, preferably illustrated. For example, try the Lifehacker service "": in it we have collected thousands of tasty, healthy and inexpensive dishes, sorted by categories.

Be sure to read the reviews for each option you choose. This will save you from possible unpleasant surprises.

Make a list of the necessary products and make a purchase for the week

This is the most time consuming part. Lay out all the recipes you have prepared for the week in front of you and make a summary list of the ingredients you need.

Then add in there whatever you might need for your template breakfasts. For example, coffee, tea, oatmeal, cereal, milk, toast, cheese. Do not forget about desserts and snacks: they are not included in the main menu, but they definitely make life tastier. Therefore, feel free to fix at the end of the list dried fruits, waffles, dryers, nuts or whatever else you like.

Before heading to the supermarket, check the refrigerator and kitchen cabinet. Perhaps you still have rice left, which means you don't need to buy this cereal, cross it off the list (if it is there). Or maybe the last time you took several packs of tea at once for the promotion, and now there is no need for this product either.

Think over life hacks in case you don't have time to cook

Cooking dinner, even if it is planned and with a set of ingredients already purchased, is still a time-consuming exercise. It is enough to stay late at work or just go through a tiring day - and you have no strength left. Remember this.

If you have a tough week ahead of you, try to make your life easier.

• Prepare the ingredients for the recipes in advance. For example, peel and chop vegetables, boil cereals, make pasta sauces. All this can be stored in the refrigerator and taken out as needed.
• In your free time, cook and freeze cutlets, meatballs, cheesecakes, spring rolls.
• Make two to three large meals all week. For example, you can boil a pot of borscht, then pour it into portioned containers or special storage bags, freeze and take out right before eating.
• Prepare large portions of dinner. The leftovers can become lunch or dinner again the next, very busy day.

This material was first published in April 2015. In August 2021, we updated the text.