What is the best way to menu plan?

I totally know what you are talking about! It can get very frustrating especially when everyone is so busy! I always try to plan 4 meals a week. That way I have stuff on hand for meals and dont have to think about what to put together! I dont set them for any certain day because you never know what is going to happen! I only plan for 4 days because we go out once per week (it just me and my husband). The other 2 nights we either eat some leftovers - or parts of leftovers. Like if there is chicken left but no side dish, all I have to do is make a salad and some rice or something simple like that! I also always keep things like chicken nuggets and pierogies around. That way there is always something simple and quick that we like but doesnt require any defrost time! Trial and error is really the best way to go about what works for menu planning for you. At first, I tried to plan every night of the week. But then I ended up with food I didnt use and had to throw away because of something coming up one night or another. We also ended up with too many leftovers! I try to make our big meals on Saturdays and Sundays. I also tend to make a bigger meal on Tuesdays because neither of us do anything else that night. The rest of the nights I try to just go with the flow and have 1 meal ready for backup! Good luck!

I like to cook from scratch so. for me, there are no cans of this and cans of that. But I do use my freezer a lot to put away prepared or half prepared meals. I make tomato sauce (minced fried onions, crushed garlic, bay leaf, tomato cans diced, ground meat (or meat balls, or mushrooms)and some stock or small unexpensive can of italian tomato sauce for more spices. I put them in ziplock bags (portions for 4 uin your case). I make a BIG batch of lentils and freeze. And how about boiling a couple of chicken, saving broth, mincing meat to use for all kinds of things (shepherds pie, a chicken white sauce for noodles). The slads can be washed for the week, dried and put away in the refrigerator in those plastic bags with little holes specially made for veggies. Beets can be cooked (use them in 2 or 3 days). I have frozen corn, green beans diced carrots and peas. With a broth I just throw in the different veggies and heat. If I want a cream, I put it in the blender and add cream ofr milk. The most important thing is to sit down, paper and pen in hand and write down your menus before going for groceries. Just remember that there are loads of good, easy recipes online now. Take care

What I do with my family is every two weeks we go shopping. Before we go though we make a list of what we need and a menu for two weeks. We come up with different dinners. Sometimes we don't keep it in the sequence that we put it in due to schedules. It all depends on what is easier to cook that night. We write out Monday thru Sunday and a meal for each day. Sometimes we put down leftovers of whatever we had for a few days or something from just yesterday. When my kids were in school I would cook a couple of meal on Sunday and freeze them so I didn't have to rush home to start cooking. Have the kids take it out when they got home from school and I would just have to nuke it and dinner would be served. The hardest things to me is coming up with different menus each night. Thats why I'm always looking for new recipes that are fast, easy and healthy. Good luck to you and I hope this helps you. Remember you don't have to go in this order but you have a planned menu for each day. Sunday - spaghetti with salad and garlic bread Monday - leftovers from Sunday - prepare chicken cutlets (breading them) Tuesday - fry chicken cutlets have with baked potatoes and veggie or rice and veggie Wednesday - hamburgers with macaroni salad or potatoes salad Thursday - Sandwiches with leftover salad from night before or a regular salad Friday- Pizza night Saturday - Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and corn or Chili with rice