What am I going to cook tonight for dinner? What am I going to cook again this week? These are the infamous questions I ask myself constantly. I decided I needed a better plan than asking a question that nobody seemed to have an answer for. So, I embarked on a monthly menu planning goal.
I now take one Sunday each month, look through a couple of cookbooks or online and decide what I’d make for each week. It helped to make each day of the week a specific theme. This way, I have dinner ideas for a month and it allows me to plan my grocery list each week.
Themed Weeknights
Once I decided to tackle the menu planning “mountain,” I turned to Pinterest to see what ideas they had. And, themed dinner nights caught my eye. With that idea in mind, I decided I’d rotate cookbooks and just look at one or two cookbooks each month for dinner ideas that I knew my family would eat.
From there, I created a menu calendar on my computer so I could easily change menu ideas when needed. And, bonus – I have a menu resource, too. When we don’t eat a meal I’ve planned, I just move it to another week or month and the planning is done.
Menu Planning
After the initial hump of getting started, I opened up a google calendar and started planning my month. This gives me a little peace in knowing I have a dinner idea planned. And, if something comes up and I don’t actually cook the meal I have planned, it’s not a big deal.
Life happens and sometimes takeout sounds good! But with the meals planned on my calendar, rearranging my menu is easy. I can either plan to cook whatever meal I didn’t make for another night or save the idea for another time altogether – that just depends if I’ve already bought my ingredients.
Monthly Themed Meals
Now I have a full list of entrees and side dishes at my disposal. From Meatless Monday to Slow-Cooker Saturday, it’s exciting that I don’t have to search daily or even weekly for a meal idea. For ideas on monthly meal planning, be sure to check out the Menu Planning post that contain themed meal ideas and corresponding dinner suggestions.
Discover more from From Scratch Baking
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
