how do you figure menues?

ClaRivka

Mon, Dec 07 2009, 7:15 pm

how do you figure out what to make for dinner each night? make monthly menues? weekly menues? make whatever u have in the house? got a specific thing to each day- sunday leftovers, monday dairy, tuesday fleish, etc?

nicole81

Mon, Dec 07 2009, 7:33 pm

I used to do monthly but that didn't work well because we oftentimes weren't in the mood for the planned dish.

I make weekly menus with a few things in mind:
-I always have dairy or pareve on thursday
- in the fall/winter we have soup on sunday and either monday or tuesday nights (it cooks in the crockpot all day sunday while we're out.)
- I try to use up what I already have in the house
- I try to be mindful of our current budget

SnowPea

Mon, Dec 07 2009, 7:38 pm

I try to make a whole weeks menu specific, make sure have all ingredients from store for that week,
This week I'm actually doing two crockpot suppers (from this site) I'm trying to be more orgainzed.
The times that I don't do a menu, make my whole week stressful, because I can't come home from work and start thinking about supper. If I have written down what I'm making I can not have to think what I'm going to make for supper. Also If something needs to be taken out of the freezer, I can take it out in the morning or night before, when I need.
I usually have one leftover meal from shabbos, I have mine on Monday, b/c I work. I have been doing 3 fleishig meals and other dairy or pareve. Thursday is never fleshig, usually fish and soup.

AlwaysGrateful

Mon, Dec 07 2009, 7:51 pm

Here's what I think about:
1. How many days worth of leftovers do I have? If we were out for Shabbos both meals, no leftovers. If I made a LOT of food, it might last up to three days. So first I fill out the days I'll use leftovers.
2. Is there anything I have that I need to use up? Any vegetables that will go bad if I don't use them soon? Do I need to make room in my freezer, and if so, what can I use up from there? Fill in those meals.
3. At this point, I might only have a meal or two left. If all the rest of the meals that week are already fleishig, I'll fill in those days with milchik things I haven't made recently.
4. Any new recipes I've been meaning to try?

I figure out my menus on Sat night or Sunday morning, then I go shopping on Sunday for the whole week. Ocassionally I'll run out later int he week for something I forgot or for something that needs to be fresh, but I try to avoid that.

nicole81

Mon, Dec 07 2009, 7:52 pm

SnowPea wrote:

I try to make a whole weeks menu specific, make sure have all ingredients from store for that week

I do this to, and plan for lunches as well.

I found by doing this, I actually cut my food bill from $400 a week to $100 a week. when I didn't plan, I just bought a bunch of things that were either expensive or that went to waste.

canadamom

Mon, Dec 07 2009, 7:58 pm

usually my menus are basically the same every week:
sunday is leftovers
monday is chicken (I also make a big pot of soup for mon and tue)
tuesday is chopped meat or cutlets
wednesday is milchigs
thursday is either easy parve or milchig supper (like eggs, tuna, cheese latkes etc)

every night I also make a starch and vegetable or salad

chocolate moose

Mon, Dec 07 2009, 8:36 pm

I tear out recipes that I like from magazines or print them online. I keep a formula like Sunday meat, Monday dairy, etc., and base my groc shopping on t hat.

RachelEve14

Tue, Dec 08 2009, 1:25 am

I have been basically forcing myself to sit down once a week and do this. I plan using what's in the house (since I buy meat only on sale). I also plan around my Ulpan (lunch is the main meal but 3x a week it has to be in the crockpot, from the freezer, or heat up because I get home with the gang). I write in all the suppers even if it's "oatmeal" (was last night), because it takes the "what am I going to serve" panic away. I also have been keeping the papers for ideas of what we havn't had in a while, and notes of what went over well and what flopped.