UW Extension

Busy families are always on the lookout for ways to simplify their lives and spend more quality time together. For many of us, cooking dinner every night is a frustrating, time-consuming process, even if you know your way around a kitchen.

Menu planning is a great way to make sure you’re eating a balanced diet and meeting your nutritional needs. In addition, as every frugal cook knows, menu planning can save you time and money. Planning meals ahead requires a small investment of time, but can reap great rewards:

1. A menu plan saves money. Reducing trips to the supermarket, a menu plan reduces impulse spending. Using leftovers efficiently cuts food waste.

2. A menu plan saves time. No dashing to the neighbor for a missing ingredient and no waiting for food to thaw for dinner.

3. A menu plan improves nutrition. Without the daily dash to the supermarket, there’s time to prepare side dishes and salads to complement the main dish, increasing the family’s consumption of fruits and vegetables.

It has been said that for every hour you spend in planning, you save four hours in your actual day. That’s a pretty impressive return!

Many people don’t quite know how to get started…or they think it will be restrictive. I’m going to share my method for realistic meal planning. This is how I turned cooking from a time-consuming task into a quick, easy, and delicious process. Follow these tips to put the power of meal planning to work for you:

Plan a week of meals at a time. Be sure to include side dishes as well as entrees and some healthy desserts, too. Some things to consider as you contemplate menu options:

• Look for sales. Scan the food ads for specials and sales. Look for meat, poultry, or fish on sale and any produce bargains to give inspiration to your meal planning.

• Shop your pantry, refrigerator, and freezer. Look for items that could be the starting point for any number of healthy meals.

• Think seasonal. You’ll be rewarded with high quality produce, packed with nutrition, at a lower cost.

• Picture the plate. As you plan each meal, fill your plate with a little more than ¼ vegetables, a little less than ¼ fruit, ¼ grains (make at least half of them “whole”), and ¼ lean protein. Include a serving of low-fat or non-fat dairy.

• Follow daily themes. For example, designate Monday-pasta, Tuesday- casserole, Wednesday-soup or salad and sandwich, Thursday-leftovers, Friday-ethnic, Saturday-family favorite, Sunday-something new. Alternate new recipes and old favorites. Don’t try to pack in too many new recipes into the week’s plan, especially if you are a novice in the kitchen or are strapped for time.

• Think about how much time you actually have to cook. When planning meals, take into consideration how much time you will have to cook. You may want to use the slow cooker and plan speedy meals for midweek dinners and leave roasts and long-cooking recipes for the weekend when you have more time to spend in the kitchen.

• Turn leftovers into plan-overs. Find recipes that will yield leftovers that can be used in other meals. Sunday’s leftover roast chicken can become Wednesday’s soup.

• Cook once, eat twice. Cooking enough for two meals can cut your work in half. Place half the meal in the freezer for next month.

• Designate a leftover or going out night. Choose one night per week that involves having a buffet of all the leftovers. Occasionally, designate a day to go out for dinner.

• Recycle your menus. Keep your menu plan and grocery list to reuse later.

Using a menu planning worksheet or calendar, decide which meal you’re going to cook on which day. After it is filled in, post the menu plan on the refrigerator door. Refer to it during the coming week as you prepare meals.

Create a shopping list of ingredients. Look through your pantry, fridge, and freezer to cross off items already on hand. A shopping list categorized by section (produce, dairy, etc.) will help cut down on time spent at the grocery store, and will ensure you don’t forget things.

I’m trying to get more in the habit of prepping most of the food as soon as I am back from shopping (i.e. shredding blocks of cheese, slicing or chopping veggies, browning hamburger, etc.), which makes cooking a lot quicker.

Last-minute schedule changes happen. With meals planned and ingredients on hand, it’s easy to juggle the menu plan when circumstances require. Staying flexible, while being prepared, brings calmness to the kitchen!

After you’ve made menu plans for a few weeks, the beauty of the activity shines through: recycle them! Over time, the menu-planning process will become second nature and by saving your menu plans and shopping list, you can easily rotate them and save even more time.

With a little planning and teamwork, dinner can go from being a headache to being a time to bond with the family over a nutritious meal. A menu plan won’t help you if you don’t make one. Take the vow. "I, [state your name], hereby promise not to visit the supermarket again until I’ve made a menu plan!"

(Sources: http://www.choosemyplate.gov; www. nutrition.gov; http://snap.nal.usda.gov)

The University of Wyoming and the United States Department of Agriculture cooperate.

The University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.

Submitted by Vicki Hayman