04/20/2026
Menu Planning, have you ever tried it?
Why menu plan?
I’ve learned that an hour or so of work now saves me an hour or more a week trying to figure out what we want to eat, especially on days when I don’t want to plan, or I only want to buy junk. My preplanned menu removes the guess work, by planning now (or whenever I get a burst of clarity) I am creating premade decisions for myself. This lessens my mental load tremendously!
And, what I do now can be used next year! I have learned that by the next year we have often changed our eating, for the better, in at least a few ways since the previous year. We’ve been on that journey for almost 15 years now, so while some of the details may change, I can still use the base menu the following year.
In The Abiding Home workshop we begin by simply planning for 1 week, then saving that menu as we plan for the next week. After a few weeks you’ve got a full menu planned!
Simple enough, right? It doesn’t have to be a fancy system for it to work.
That’s one way to begin for sure! If you’ve never tried your hand at it, start today and just plan for this week.
If you are a grocery app user you can scroll back and see what your ordered 4-5 weeks age, or even a year ago, and repeat those meals, then you can thank last month-you for doing all of the mental work!
I prefer to have a 4-6 week menu rotation for each season. In a 6 week menu you can repeat 2-4 family favorites twice within the 6 weeks, and when they are coupled with meals only eaten once every 6 week, it feels less repetitive. If I do a 4 week menu I do my best not to repeat any dishes.
We also try to eat seasonally, not only for the health benefits of eating the foods that are naturally grown during that season, but also because the cooking style of that season matches our lifestyle during that time.
During Fall and Winter we want soups simmering on the stove, warm bread, a crockpot cooking all day, and easy, roasted veggie sheet pan dinners.
In Spring and Fall I try to use heat as little as possible. Some people love to grill and keep the heat outside. We enjoy prepping make-ahead dishes that chill in the fridge until we are ready to eat! We also eat a lot of fresh, raw veggies and fruit, and loaded salads. While some cooking is required for make ahead dishes, cooking is not required in the afternoon/evening when we want to be outside playing. I can pre-make pasta the night before while we are doing after-dinner chores, I can toss together the sauce and veggies during lunch clean up and let everything chill until we are ready to eat.
As you’ll see on my menu, I take my planning a step further. I give each day a theme or purpose, and it is based on our general schedule for that day. I want our meal to make sense for our day, I also want it to flow WITH our day. I’ve spent too many years stressed out by cooking sessions at the time of day when I was tired and my babies were cranky, years ago I figured out how I could schedule our meals to avoid such chaos or dread.
If I’ve reasonably only got 30 minutes on Tuesdays to prep a dinner why am I scheduling meals that take much longer? I honestly was just too overwhelmed as a young mom to even consider other ways, I knew what I knew and I made it work, in moments of rested clarity and began realizing there were other ways, and that I had cooking tools that could help me.
I CAN cook, but I don’t love it, so honestly, I don’t want to give more than an hour of my day to it. And if I can lessen that hands-on time, without sacrificing our health and nutrition, I will.
I often multitask while I cook, since it’s not my favorite thing. I will listen to an audiobook in one ear, and take breaks to put away laundry or work on other nearby tasks while water is boiling or soups are simmering -anything to make the time more fun and most useful.
I also ask for specific help, I don’t love touching raw meat. If chicken needs to be trimmed I ask my husband to do it, a day or two before I need it. If we get a rotisserie chicken he automatically knows it’s his job to clean off remaining meat and set it aside for me to use in a second meal. During the cooler months he also makes a bone broth.
My oldest daughter enjoys baking, I ask her to make the cookies needed for an event, to make a banana nut bread I want us to enjoy for a special breakfast, and she cooks several batches of muffins when it’s our turn to bring the youth breakfast on a Sunday morning.
My son is an excellent cornbread maker, my 2 littles love to lay out soup and salad toppings, and to chop anything I’ll trust them with!
Here is my general scheduling plan:
Sunday
The goals: Simple, not hands on. For lunch to be ready when we get home from church and for dinner to be made ahead or slow cooked on its own.
Spring/Summer: Simple Salads and Sandwiches that can be laid out in a “make your own” buffet line, or something I can make the night before.
Fall/Winter: Lunch is usually a crockpot meal prepped before church. For dinner, I put it on the stove or in the oven, and let it cook itself while we rest in the afternoon.
Monday
The goals: Our Sabbath meal. We eat it after we break our Sabbath, but prep happens during our Sabbath time. I handle it much the same as I do our Sunday meals.
Spring/Summer: Make ahead dishes or throw together salads.
Fall/Winter: Slow-cooked dishes.
Tuesday
The goals: Tuesdays are another home day for us, but we’ve been busy with school and chores. I make it part of my kids school day to make dinner. This is great for them, but also gives me an hour to look over our last 2 days of school and prepare for the next 2.
I let them choose their favorite meals to cook, so often they don’t have as much variety from season to season. The one pictured is very similar to their Fall menu, but warm weather sides differ from the cornbread, green beans, black eyed peas, etc that they enjoy in the cooler months.
Wednesday
The goals: We generally eat at church, but I schedule in meals that are easy to pack up and take with us in case we don’t want to eat the meal at church, that happens 1-2 times per month.
Our church puts out the menu early so each week I can see if I need to order groceries for that day or not. What a blessing this meal is!
Thursday
The goals: Thursdays are our most full days, and they follow some fuller Wednesdays, and a late night at church. I often nap on Thursdays and there is always blessed relief when I wake up and remember that dinner is super low prep.
Spring/Summer: A quick salad meal that can be made ahead, if I have time on Wednesday, but if we have a full Wednesday these salads are just as good made an hour before we eat.
Fall/Winter: These are usually a rice and beans day, easily prepped, and often I cook ahead the rice needed. Thursdays are also a great day for an easy crockpot soup before we leave for the day.
Friday
The goals: Fun! This is where I shine 😉 Where I lack in my culinary skills, I make up for in presentation. Anything is fun if you have a theme night, or lay it out like a charcuterie, we can them “trays”. Seasonal choices are made, except pizza, there is always pizza.
Saturday
The goals: Saturdays vary for us, like every family. I love having at least 2 at home every month, on those days we will eat leftovers or pick up something, but I generally plan these days based on if we are traveling or at an event.
Sometimes I follow my menu perfectly, sometimes I use it like a massive restaurant menu and pick and choose from our 5-6 meals for the week, but I always line up our meals with our schedule for the week. I make sure we won’t be out of the house at dinner time, or have less prep time than usual. If it’s a slow week I might try a new recipe, a fuller week might mean adding in a pick up meal.
In all of my years teaching The Abiding Home workshop, one of the biggest hang ups women seem to have is feeling tied to a meal just because it’s written down on her calendar.
Now, we don’t want to plan a menu, buy the food, then not “feel it” and let it all go to waste while we do a pick up each night. Absolutely not.
However, YOU control your menu, it is there to serve you and your family. You have full freedom to eat Thursday’s meal on Sunday and Tuesday’s meal on Friday.
You may still find yourself struggling with wanting to eat out and not wanting to eat what you purchased, but that simply comes down to self control, and being faithful to what the Lord has given you, not letting it go to waste while we go buy french fries, that don’t serve our wallets or health.
What’s your biggest struggle when planning?
You may not like a planned menu like mine, but how may you benefit from planning even 3 meals for the next week?
Will your wallet be happier?
Will your family be excited?
Will your body be healthier?
Will your brain be calmer?
Give it a try and let me know!
