8 Tips on How to Menu Plan

1. Start out slowly. Try planning one meal a day for one week.
2. Center your meal around the most important course for your type of diet.  For example if you are on a high protein diet, make that the cneter of each meal and use a different meat each day.
3. Use a format that fits your lifestyle.  Examples are written menu plans for the front of your refrigerator, menu plans on your desktop computer or menu plans on your hand held device like a smart phone.
4. Use your weekly store ads and coupons to help cut costs while doing your plans.
5. Set aside the same time each week to do your plans and extract your grocery list from your plan.
6. Try to use your protein, vegetable and fruit choice twice during a weekly plan.  For example, if you have broccoli one night as a hot side dish, prepare them remainder another night as a salad.
7. Pick several new recipes per week as this keeps cooking and meals interesting and fresh.  Use recipe websites for endless ideas.
8. Use the many resources now available to make menu planning simple.  See the list of resources in our blog titled Resources for Menu Planning.