How to Plan a Monthly Menu

We plan a monthly menu for dinner only.

Breakfast is cereal, yogurt, eggs, pancakes, waffles, muffins, and even sandwiches.  There is always breakfast items on hand, so that is rarely planned.

Lunch isn't planned either.  It is leftovers or sandwiches usually.

Dinner is the one that takes planning.  So how do you plan for a month worth of  dinner meals?  You can use this same way to plan breakfast, lunch and dinner too.

The first thing I did was sit down with the family and write down every main dish we liked to eat.  I have a folder that I keep that list in and add to it as we find new recipes we like.  I don't remove the things we no longer like, because sometimes we want to try that again or it reminds us of a new version of that item we want to try or tried and want to add to the menu.

This is what my monthly menu calendars look like.  I created this in Word.  I inserted a table then added text.
Each month I look at old menus and our list of main dishes we like and just start writing them on the menu.  I add salads, fruits, vegetables, breads, and anything else that is needed to make the meal complete.
If I am trying something new I write the book name and page number at the bottom of the box. If it is a recipe on paper then I clip it to the back of the menu. Recipes from my file I will sometimes (when I feel really organized) pull out of the file and put in order in the recipe holder.

I go grocery shopping every two weeks at the most.  I plan to use the items with the shortest storage length first i.e. peaches, avocados, and those fresh foods that don't last long.
I write everything in pencil, so it is easy to move meals around if say, I planned to us an avocado in 2 days after buying it, but all the store has is hard ones that won't be ready for 5 days then I just switch the meals around.
Sometimes what is planned just doesn't sound good or there isn't enough time to fix it, and last minute events cause the menu to be switched around again. Almost every event is equal to last minute when you plan meals a month in advance.

Friday nights are usually "I don't feel like cooking nights", so they are easy meals.
Plan for meals that create more than you can eat in one night and use as lunch leftovers the next day.

Sundays are a day of rest form cooking for me.  We clean out the refrigerator by eating the leftovers from the past week and usually tossing what little is left after that.

Freeze things like soup and chili that are easy to reheat next week or next month.  Just don't forget about what you froze.

See my pretty Menu Calendar here.