Menu for the week app. How to make a family menu for the week. Choosing a convenient form for the menu

How relevant is the issue of saving in the modern world? How much does a typical family spend on daily food? The issue of an economical menu for a week in many families is becoming a global issue, which not everyone can solve. After all, it's not just about buying inexpensive groceries.

At the same time, it is important to provide the family with all the necessary nutrients. We must not forget about the variety of food, because if you eat the same thing for many days in a row, then sooner or later the savings will become unbearable. That is why it is quite difficult to compose an economical menu for a week.

But it is important to tune in correctly and understand that an economical menu is not a rejection of all the goodies, but an opportunity to save money for other family purposes. Just think: often a trip to the store can be tantamount to a trip!

An abundance of food, a large number of catering places are a big threat to the family budget. But you can cope with this if you create an economical menu for every day.

Savings rules

It is relevant to talk about what an economical menu for a week for a family of 3 can be. The average family spends a lot on food, which often becomes a larger part of the family budget. At the same time, you need to plan the menu, while it is important to take into account all the taste preferences of each family member. If the hostess does not know how to make a menu, while saving money, then you should adhere to some rules:

Allow enough time to compose the menu, this will allow you to clearly balance the diet, determine the dishes, and make a list of the necessary products.
When going shopping in a store, you need to buy only those products that are written in the list. In addition, there is a little advice for those who do not want to succumb to temptation in the store: go shopping full. In this case, the temptation to buy something superfluous and past the list will disappear by itself, and you will buy only the necessary goods.
You need to buy it for the whole week. In this way, the subconscious mind will say that the refrigerator has all the necessary products for the family, and there will be no temptation to run into the store for something else.
When composing a menu, you need to take into account the fact that it should not contain harmful products or semi-finished products. But if you decide to create a menu for a month, then be sure to freeze food, you cannot do without it.
The menu can be composed in any form. It can be printed, written with your own hand. It is important to do this so that you can swap the dishes as needed.
The menu should be with recipes in order to correctly identify the list of products that need to be purchased in the store. If there is no recipe, then you can forget to buy something.
When composing a menu, remember that hot dishes are cooked for several days. Soup or borscht can stand in the refrigerator for two to three days. The same applies to fish and meat dishes, they can also be consumed for two to three days, while they will not change their taste.
The same cannot be said for salads and side dishes. They need to be cooked just before serving. It doesn't take much time.
You cannot completely abandon baking. Pampering your loved ones with delicious pastries once a week is a sacred thing. It tastes much better than store-bought confectionery.
Remember not only about taste preferences, you need to take into account the age of all family members, chronic diseases (if any), physical activity.
A children's menu may differ significantly from an adult.

In short, each family has an individual economical menu, taking into account the tastes of family members and other factors.

Features of the compilation of the menu

Of course, when making a menu every day, you need to remember about saving, but nevertheless, do not forget about high-quality, varied and tasty food. You need to eat only high-quality products with a normal shelf life, they should be free of GMOs and various kinds of additives. It shouldn't even be discussed, because you can't buy health.

Particular attention should be paid to the temperature outside the window. For example, in winter, few people want to eat cold salads; it is better to give preference to cereals, mashed potatoes and hot soups in winter. But still, the deficiency of vitamins, even in winter time, cannot be replenished. Therefore, it is ideal for the whole family to purchase vitamins.

Ask all family members what they would like to eat, because it is unlikely that an economical menu will be a joy to someone, being unwanted.

Various recipes can be found on the Internet. And there are, in fact, a large number of them. The Internet, magazines are excellent helpers in this matter.

Products must be used wisely. After all, we are talking about savings. For example, when buying meat, think not only about how to cook a meat dish, but also about how you can cook a delicious soup from the bones.

Considering all these nuances, it is possible to rationally and correctly compose a menu for three, four family members and more.

Shopping

Particular attention should be paid to going to the store for groceries, because it is from here that all the troubles associated with the irrational waste of money come from. To the tips that have already been listed before, you can add:

The need for a slow selection of goods, comparing prices and the assortment presented.
There is no need to "be led" on different shares and "enticements", in particular, "buy two for the price of three." We strictly follow the compiled list.
Make purchases once a week; this does not apply to bread, baked goods and dairy products.
Buy semi-finished products only in extreme cases.

Prepare in advance, if possible freeze the workpieces yourself and divide them into portions. Thus, the saving process will be easier.

How much to spend on food?

There are actual requests on the Internet: a menu for 200 rubles, a menu for 150 rubles, etc. Each individual family can determine the exact amount of money that will be spent on food.

The amount depends, of course, on the number of family members, on the well-being of the family and on how much you need to save.

All this is discussed separately and it is decided how much money a family can afford per week for food, so that the food is healthy, rational and varied.

Menu for the week

The preparation of the menu "from and to" falls on the shoulders of the hostess. Indeed, every family has its own favorite dishes and recipes. Therefore, it is impossible to take any menu as a basis. The weekly menu for a family of 4 is prepared in advance and carefully thought out.

But still, there are tips to help you take the right direction. There are dishes, recipes that do not require a lot of money, but nevertheless they are very nutritious and tasty, and, most importantly, inexpensive.

Breakfast. According to the rules, it should be the most nutritious meal, and you cannot skip it. It is optimal and inexpensive to eat porridge for breakfast, cooked in milk or water (it depends entirely on the choice of the hostess and the financial capabilities of the family).

Dinner. There are first and second courses here. Saving savings, but liquid dishes normalize the digestive tract, and the latter saturate and provide the body with useful substances.

Afternoon snack. Skipping it or putting it on the menu is everyone's choice. For an afternoon snack, fruits or salads are usually eaten. For children and their growing body, it is undesirable to skip this meal.

Dinner. Here you can pamper yourself with meat dishes and salads.

Below is an example of a balanced yet inexpensive menu for a week.

Monday

Breakfast. Oatmeal with milk or water. You can complement breakfast with boiled eggs.

Dinner. Chicken soup with noodles. Mashed potatoes, baked fish.

Afternoon snack. Carrot and dried apricot salad. Vegetable oil can be used as a dressing.

Dinner. Chicken stew in sour cream, a side dish such as noodles and any vegetable salad.

Tuesday

Breakfast. Omelet with salami or sausages.

Dinner. Puree soup made from zucchini. Wheat porridge, vegetable salad.

Afternoon snack. Fruit salad dressed with yogurt.

Dinner. Vegetable salad, chicken liver.

Wednesday

Breakfast. Buckwheat porridge with milk or water.

Dinner. Chicken soup, meat and egg roll.

Afternoon snack. Rice with vegetables, cooked in the oven.

Dinner. Pork cutlets and mashed potatoes or zrazy stuffed with potatoes, for example.

Thursday

Breakfast. Casserole made from cottage cheese. Another delicious and healthy recipe is muffins with liquid filling.

Dinner. Vegetable soup, cabbage pie with garnish.

Afternoon snack. Fruit salad. You can eat the same muffins (they will definitely appeal to all family members).

Dinner. Oven baked mackerel. For garnish - potatoes, vegetables will be a great addition to dinner.

Friday

Breakfast. Dumplings, which, of course, need to be prepared in advance and frozen. They can be with different fillings, be it potatoes, cottage cheese or fruits.

Dinner. Borsch with sour cream, porridge and vegetable salad.

Afternoon snack. Any salad to choose from, depending on the preferences of the family.

Dinner. Pork or beef chops. You can choose a side dish, such as beans.

Saturday

Breakfast. Fried eggs with boiled sausage.

Dinner. Soup with peas. Caesar salad with chicken and croutons. Add tomatoes for flavor.

Afternoon snack. Pancakes with a wide variety of fillings. They can also be prepared in advance and frozen. If you have time, you can bake fresh pancakes, they are much healthier.

Dinner. Stew with minced meat and cabbage.

Sunday

Breakfast. Egg croutons, oatmeal.

Dinner. Solyanka, borscht or soup. Porridge and salad of meat and vegetables.

Afternoon snack. Pie with any filling, it can be meat, potato, vegetable or fruit.

Dinner. Potato casserole with minced meat.

Of course, the list of products and meals can change. At the same time, it is convenient to compose a menu for the week in order to better navigate prices and savings.

There are a lot of advantages of such a menu. First, it is cost savings that will improve the well-being of the entire family. Secondly, it is an improvement in well-being. The fact that a person stops eating harmful foods, a large amount of sweets, as well as eating in public places, has a positive effect on the work of the digestive tract, cleansing it.

The third advantage concerns the figure and changes in its proportions. Such nutrition will help you lose a couple of kilograms if they are extra.

In any case, such an economical menu will certainly not harm, but, on the contrary, will bring a lot of new and useful things to the family's lifestyle. It is worth forgetting about all the purchased dishes, in particular, about pizzas, burgers, etc. This is bad for the economy.

Every family should think about saving money and how much money is spent on food. The reason for this is not only high prices, but also the desire to live better. But remember that a thrifty menu is not for life. Let the goal be a long-desired trip or buying a car, apartment.

Such goals will provide more motivation and allow a more optimistic approach to the issue of savings. Moreover, this is not monotonous and tasteless food, but healthy food, rational and diverse.

Post summary:
1. Why make a menu for the week?
2. Making a list of dishes that we know how to cook
3. Choosing a convenient form for the menu
4. Design a menu based on resources and capabilities
5. How to make a grocery list for the week?

1. Why do we need a menu for the week?

One of the most important and necessary habits that has greatly simplified and made my life easier is making a menu for the week.
Before I started making the menu for the week, the process of preparing food was like racing on a lathered horse, and in this metaphor I was the horse myself. Every day I asked myself the same question: "What should I cook for dinner?"

After opening the refrigerator, the question turned into "What to cook from what is?" And since there was always something lacking in the refrigerator and stocks, I had to get dressed, go to the store or the market to buy the missing food, stand in lines. After returning home, I just wanted something simpler and faster, since all my strength went to the race to the store and back. As a result, sausages or dumplings were most often taken out of the freezer ... For all the reproaches of my conscience that I was a bad housewife, an iron argument was made: I have too little time and energy to cook often.

I remember my husband, who is already tired of my endless moaning "Oh, what to cook?" offered to draw up a menu in advance, purchase the necessary products and cook according to plan. This proposal I rejected as nonsense: how can I schedule on Monday what I want on Thursday? For example, I will put meat on the menu, but I want fish. Or I’ll buy products for the Olivier salad, but I don’t want to cook it: so why throw everything away? My husband shrugged and left me alone.

And now a lyrical digression: wives, listen to your husbands! If you argue who is right and who is wrong, then in the overwhelming majority of cases, a man is right. Because we women are beautiful, emotional and charming. And they, men, are reasonable and logical. And where we are guided by the emotions “I don’t want to and I will not”, then they proceed from common sense: “there is a problem - here is the solution”. And if I immediately listened to the reasonable advice of my husband, it would help to save a lot of time and energy, both for me and for him.

Then a period came in my life when I could no longer afford to be an unorganized bad hostess: our family was replenished with a charming daughter. My forgetfulness and lack of focus immediately ceased to be an excuse. Is it possible to explain to the little man that his mother did not feed him because she forgot? Or she didn't change diapers because she was tired. The appearance of a little joy in my house made me become more organized and start looking for ways to keep up with everything: to be a good wife, a caring mother, and not to forget about myself.

I remembered my husband's advice and once sat down at the table and made my first menu for a week. Over the next months, as I consolidated this habit, unexpected and startling discoveries were made.

At first, making a menu for a week saves a lot of time spent on cooking. As it turns out, shopping and queuing take much longer than the actual cooking. And this discovery came as a surprise to me. I buy all products once a week - on Saturday, and after that I don't waste my precious time on shopping.

Secondly, making a menu for a week saves energy and nerves. I no longer worry about what to cook for dinner. I set aside an hour on Friday evening to find answers to these questions. Over the next week, it is enough to look at the menu and start cooking, since all the products are at hand.

Thirdly making a menu for the week saves money. Primarily due to the fact that you can plan for the rational use of products. For example, if for a dish you need a quarter of a head of cauliflower, then for other days of the week you can also pick up recipes that contain this vegetable. As a result, nothing spoils or disappears, which means that money is not wasted. In addition, the purchase of a large number of products at one time (for the whole week) in large stores and hypermarkets is beneficial due to discount systems and low prices.

Fourth, my family began to eat correct and healthy food. Store semi-finished products have disappeared from my refrigerator, but you can always find fresh herbs, vegetables, fruits in it. I plan the menu based on the fact that vegetable soups and salads should be on the table every day, and fish, poultry and meat - every week. My child does not know what the taste of store-bought cookies or muffins is. I can always treat him to homemade cakes or fresh fruit dessert and not be afraid that along with the “delicious” he will eat a dose of carcinogens, food additives and dyes.

And finally, making the menu for the week has helped greatly improve my culinary skills. I freed up time, had the strength and desire to try new recipes, to cook interesting and tasty dishes for my family and friends. Earlier, when I saw an interesting recipe, I wrote it down in my culinary notebook, and alas, in 90 percent of cases I forgot about it or could not find the time and opportunity to prepare it. Now, if I am interested in a recipe, 90 percent of the time it will be cooked next week.

In a word, making a menu for a week became one of the most important and necessary habits for me, which made my life much easier, turned the boring process of cooking into an interesting and exciting activity. My husband never gets tired of bragging to his friends and acquaintances that he is very lucky with his wife, who is an excellent cook. And I am no longer tormented by the conscience that I am a bad housewife. On the contrary, every day and week I improve, I study and learn new things in order to delight my loved ones with tasty and healthy dishes every day.

Making a menu in itself is not a panacea for all the problems that can arise during the process of organizing home meals.
Making a menu for a week will not help solve problems such as:

Inability and unwillingness to learn to cook. If the hostess knows how to cook only three dishes (for example, scrambled eggs, pasta and sandwiches), then no matter how hard she tries to make a balanced and varied menu, she will not succeed. First the alphabet - then reading. First, we learn to cook at least a dozen dishes - then we make a menu out of them.

Lack of self-discipline and desire to change yourself for the better. Making a menu is not all. The most important thing is to follow this menu. If you create the perfect menu, but it just hangs on the refrigerator door without practical use, then you simply wasted time on drawing it up. Excuses like “yesterday I was planning to cook fish, but today I wanted meat and I decided to change the rules” will only lead to disappointment in the menu-making system. Only in this case the problem will not be in the system, but in the lack of discipline on your part. If you have already decided to draw up a menu and follow it, then keep your word for at least one week, and only then evaluate the results.

The spoiledness of other family members. If it is customary in your family that the hostess cooks for each separately and depending on momentary desires, then you can envy your family members and pay tribute to the degree of your love for them. If that suits you, then let it stay that way. But if you feel that indulging home gourmets comes at the expense of your free time and energy, and you want to change the situation, then the matter will not be limited only by drawing up the menu. Before drafting it, it is necessary to agree that each family member gives voluntary consent to its observance. And after drawing up - show willpower and firmness of character in order to remind the fastidious about their own decision. And this is much more difficult than just making a menu ...

Expectation of instant and perfect results. As with any system, menu design takes practice. And the more you practice, the better the results. The first menu you put together will almost certainly not be perfect. More precisely, it will look like this on paper. But as soon as you start to follow it, it turns out that today you have cooked too much and now you are tormented by the question of where to put the leftovers. And tomorrow, on the contrary, is too little. And the day after tomorrow they did not calculate their strength at all and instead of the four planned dishes they managed to cook only one. Thus, the real menu will differ significantly from the planned one. But I can definitely promise that if you continue to follow this system, then every day your skills as a good housewife will improve, the menu will become more and more practical, and the cooking will bring more satisfaction. As a rule, any habit is formed within a month. Just give yourself time and the right to make mistakes.

2. Making a list of dishes that we know how to cook

So, we came to the conclusion that making a menu for a week is a useful and necessary thing. But where do you start? You can try to immediately take the bull by the horns and make an approximate menu. It would seem that it could be simpler: divide a piece of paper into 7 parts by days of the week and write the dishes that we will cook on each day.

But this is only at first glance simple. First of all, it is very difficult to immediately remember all the dishes that you know how to cook. In this case, the process of drawing up the menu can drag on for a long and painful period, busy trying to remember some other recipe. Well, if there is nothing special to remember or you are simply too lazy to spend time on this, then the menu for a week will unpleasantly amaze with its monotony and scarcity not only you, but also your family.

Therefore, before jumping on a horse with a checker at the ready forward, I advise you to slow down a little and do some preliminary work: compiling a list of dishes that we know how to cook... Believe me, if you compose a menu for a week, having such a list in front of your eyes, you will greatly facilitate this process, and the menu will turn out to be more interesting and varied.

To compile such a list, we need: a piece of paper, a pen or access to a computer, about an hour of free time. If you write down recipes that you often cook, then arm yourself with these notes.

Now divide the piece of paper (file) so that you get 6 columns:

An example of a table to be filled in

If desired, the number of columns can be increased, but these six will be basic. They can be reduced only if no one in your family ever eats breakfast, does not eat soups, salads, desserts, etc.

Now remember all the dishes that you know how to cook, and enter them in the appropriate columns. If you use convenience foods (for example, Muesli for breakfast or sausages as a second course), then write them down too. Now our goal is not a guideline for healthy eating, but a simple listing of all the available options for dishes for the menu.

For example:

Breakfast	Soups	Second courses	Side dishes	Salads and snacks	desserts
Fried eggs	Cabbage soup	Cabbage rolls	Mashed potatoes	The vinaigrette	Shortbread cookies
Buckwheat porridge	Solyanka	Meatballs	Boiled pasta	Fresh cabbage salad	Apple pie
Semolina porridge	Borsch	Fried chicken legs	Boiled cauliflower	Tomato salad with cheese	Syrniki
Oatmeal porridge Hercules	Rassolnik	Karasiv sour cream	boiled rice	Carrot and garlic salad	Dumplings with cherries
Sandwiches with butter (cheese, sausage)	Chicken noodle soup	Ratatouille	Braised cabbage	Cucumber and sour cream salad	Cinnamon rolls

I advise you to fill out this plate until you sort through all the dishes that you know how to cook. If you need a break, then take it, and then again, with renewed vigor, start storming the bins of memory. Don't stop until you have at least 20 dishes. This is the very minimum, without which it will be very difficult to compose a good menu for the week. If the number of recorded dishes approaches or exceeds 50, then you can already be congratulated and called a skilled hostess.

Lyrical digression: When I first made a list like this, I was in for a very unpleasant surprise. It turned out that my ideas about myself as a hostess who can cook many different dishes, to put it mildly, were exaggerated. I barely scraped together two dozen items.
This discovery once became a very powerful incentive for me to learn how to cook new dishes and expand the range of the menu. Since then, my list has grown exponentially, including by category and subcategory.

I hope that after you have compiled your list of dishes, there will be only positive surprises. If not, then it's never too late to learn and improve.

3. Choosing a convenient form for the menu.

I will talk about the three main options for such a form, show examples and provide ready-made templates for download. And you yourself will decide which form is more convenient for you.

For example, this is how my weekly menu looks like (the cards are on the refrigerator door):

I did not make it in this form right away: for a long time I was choosing an option that was convenient for me and experimented with different forms. But now the process has been brought almost to the point of automatism and does not cause any difficulties.

How to make a menu for the week?
Option number 1. The menu for the week can be compiled electronic in free form in any program convenient for you. Universal programs for these purposes will be Word and OneNote (included in the basic set of Microsoft Office). For example, my menu in the summer looked like this:

Monday
Breakfast - Scrambled eggs with tomatoes (new)
Lunch - Burrito (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack - Grapes
Dinner - Gazpacho (new) + Blueberry Berry Pie (new)

Tuesday
Breakfast - Rice porridge (new)
Lunch - Gazpacho (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack - Blueberry Berry Pie (refrigerated)
Dinner - Zucchini and Potato Fritters (New) + Fresh Cabbage Salad with Garlic Dressing (New)

Wednesday
Breakfast - Semolina (new)
Lunch - Zucchini and potato pancakes (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon Tea - Jam Pie (new)
Dinner - Baked Tomato Puree Eggplant Soup (new)

Thursday
Breakfast - Oatmeal (new)
Lunch - Eggplant puree soup with baked tomatoes (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack - Jam Pie (in the refrigerator)
Dinner - Crab sticks (new) + Pepper rings stuffed with cottage cheese and herbs (new)

Friday
Breakfast - Corn porridge on the water (new)
Lunch - Crab sticks (in the refrigerator) + Pepper rings stuffed with cottage cheese and herbs (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack - Apple strudel (new)
Dinner - Cauliflower Soup (New)

Saturday
Breakfast - Buckwheat porridge (new)
Lunch - Cauliflower soup (refrigerated)
Afternoon snack - Apple strudel (refrigerated)
Dinner - Pork in orange glaze (new) + Chinese salad with Chinese cabbage and chicken (new)
Harvesting for future use - Frozen eggplants

Sunday
Breakfast - Egg in bread (new)
Lunch - Champignon Soup (new)
Afternoon Tea - Lemon Cupcake (New)
Dinner - Pork in orange glaze (refrigerated) + Chinese salad with Chinese cabbage and chicken (refrigerated)

Note: I cook breakfast every day without fail, and on the other days I alternate: on even days I cook soup and dessert for two days, and on odd days - the second (also for two days) and salad. This simple alternation saves a lot of time and effort. And in the refrigerator there is always (!) Ready-made food, which is very helpful in situations when "guests are on the doorstep" or "I am too lazy to cook something today." "New" is what is being prepared on this very day. "In the refrigerator" - these are ready-made dishes that have been prepared in advance for several portions.

Over time, I realized that the electronic form is not very convenient, since the menu should be in the kitchen, and not in the computer. It is optimal that it is always in the area of the nearest access, for example, on the refrigerator door. And then I changed the form for the menu.

Option number 2. It turned out to be much more convenient to use printed in paper form menu. I made a universal template for the menu for a week, printed it out on a printer, filled it in by hand and hung it on the refrigerator door. There was no need to waste time creating the menu in electronic form, and the menu itself was always in front of your eyes. And visually the menu in this form was perceived much easier. I printed such forms at once for six months (26 forms), and then only took them out as needed from a special folder.

My template looks like this. On the right is an example of my winter menu for the week, made in this form.

You can download this "weekly menu" blank template in doc format at the end of this post.

However, there were several disadvantages to this scheme. For example, separately from the menu, it was necessary to compile a list of products for the week - to look for each recipe from those that were planned for the week, and write out the necessary ingredients. In addition, I am a visual, so it is not very easy for me to remember dishes just by their names. Therefore, after a few months I moved on to the next stage.

Option number 3 - Magnetic cards.
All the recipes that I know how to cook, I wrote down in electronic form and provided them with a photograph (in finished form). Then, in Word, I drew an A4 sheet into 5x9 rectangles (corresponding to the size of a regular business card). In each rectangle, I entered the name of the dish, the ingredients it consists of, and added a photo. In total, I got 12 cards on one sheet. Separately, I made small rectangles with the names of the days of the week.

A4 sheet with cards

Then I checked the telephone directory and found out where in our city there is a service for printing on magnetic sheets. It turned out that in the nearest computer center. There they printed all these cards for me on an inkjet printer. For each sheet, I gave an amount equal to about $ 2. I cut the sheet into cards with ordinary scissors.

Since the cards fit the size of a business card, I keep them in a regular business card holder, sorted into categories: soups, main courses, salads and desserts.

And then everything is simple. While composing the menu for the week, I take out a business card holder and, under the names of the days of the week, I hang the dishes that I want to cook on the refrigerator door (see photo above).

The advantages of such a system:
... drawing up a menu for a week takes a minimum of time, you don't need to write or draw anything.
... each card has a list of ingredients. Therefore, I do not make a separate list of products for the week. Going to the store, I just take the cards with me, put them in my wallet and, referring to them, buy everything I need.
... cards hang on the refrigerator during cooking. I can see exactly what ingredients and in what quantity I need at any time.

Finally, it's fast and convenient. I am very satisfied.
I hope that my experience in drawing up a menu for the week will be useful to you and will help you create a form that is convenient for you.

4. Drawing up a menu for a week, taking into account resources and capabilities

We need a list of dishes that we can cook and the form we have chosen to organize the menu (forms, templates, other forms). If we already have these tools, then making the menu does not take much time and effort.

But if you start this process immediately, you will surely come across questions, without an answer to which it will be impossible to continue drawing up the menu for a week:

- How much time do you personally want to spend on cooking on weekdays and weekends?
- How many dishes will you cook every day?
- Will you cook on your own or with the assistance of assistants?
- How much can you allocate for catering for a week? It is good if money in the family is an inexhaustible resource, but if the family budget has limitations?
- How to please the tastes and wishes of all household members? What dishes do they prefer?

Let's take a look at these questions.
1. How much time do you personally want to spend on cooking on weekdays and weekends? Before adding any dish to your list, estimate the time it will take to prepare it. For example, if you work and come home in the evening, then you should not plan meals for dinner that will take more than 30 minutes to cook. Give preference to either already cooked food that you just need to reheat, or homemade semi-finished products (for example, pre-stuck dumplings) or quick dishes.

To save time, cook at once and a lot, 2-3 times (for example, soups). Yesterday's dinner easily turns into today's lunch (or a party to work), and the leftovers can be frozen and used after a while. Examples of dishes that can be frozen or prepared for future use can be found in the previous parts of the article (see links at the beginning of the post).

On weekends, if desired, you can devote more time to cooking and include complex dishes in the menu (for example, from yeast dough or meat dishes that require long marinating).

2. How many dishes will we cook each day? I am convinced that a good housewife is not only a cook who must provide her family with delicious and varied food. A good housewife is, first of all, a woman who is happy, well-groomed and contented with life, who finds time both for her family and for herself. And the stove and the kitchen are already secondary.

If you have an idea that every lunch or dinner should consist of "first, second, salad + compote", and all dishes must be fresh, then soberly assess your time and energy. If opportunities allow, then make a menu taking into account these desires. If you can and want to cook only once a day and one dish, then make a simpler menu. If it is not possible to cook every day, then just make such a menu where there will be semi-finished products and dishes prepared with a 2-day supply.

For example, I am a housewife, so I can afford to cook breakfast every day, and on the other days I alternate: on even days, soup and dessert for two days, and on odd days - the second (also for two days) and salad. Thus, in addition to freshly prepared food, there is always a supply of yesterday's in the fridge.

3. Will you cook alone or with the help of assistants? If someone from your family is ready to help you with cooking, then do not refuse this help. For example, your family can be entrusted with the light work of a “chef's assistant”: peeling potatoes, chopping cabbage, washing dishes, etc. Or have someone else prepare a specialty meal once a week.

Our family has already developed a tradition: on Sunday morning, my husband fries his "branded" potatoes. So I am one of the first to write this dish on the menu.

4. How much can be allocated for catering for the week? The question is as sensitive as it is relevant. Few families can boast of an inexhaustible financial resource and the fact that they can afford not to count money. Most people count and roughly imagine how much they can spend on food, and what no longer. Estimate how much you can allocate for food for a week and, based on these financial capabilities, choose dishes. For example, you can give preference to cheap dishes costing up to $ 1, from $ 1 to $ 3, etc. (By the way, I'm going to tell you about dishes in low price ranges soon).

I am personally convinced that food should be simple and affordable. The rest of the money is better spent on something more important than food: health, recreation, education, etc. Therefore, in drawing up the family budget, I am guided by the principle: "It is better for my children to eat hake more often today than salmon, but tomorrow they will have the opportunity to study at Oxford." One can agree and argue with this, but I prefer this approach.

5. How to please the tastes and wishes of all household members? This answer will be the simplest: it is possible and necessary to involve family members in drawing up the menu for the week, taking into account their tastes and preferences. Give them the opportunity to choose their favorite dishes, and of course, don't forget about your own.

So, by answering these questions and considering the resources and capabilities we have at our disposal, create a menu from Monday to Sunday. Keep in front of your eyes a list of dishes that you know how to cook and write out the selected dishes from it in the corresponding lines of the weekly menu.

As a result, you should get such a menu for a week, the implementation of which will not only not tire the hostess, but will bring pleasure.
If, looking at the compiled menu, you feel joyful anticipation of the planned week, then I can congratulate you - you have made a wonderful menu!

5. How to make a grocery list for the week?

What does making a grocery list for the week give us?

At first, going to the store with a pre-compiled list is much more pleasant and faster. You know exactly what you need and do not waste time thinking and doubting.
Secondly if you follow the list, you will not spend extra money on unnecessary products.
Thirdly, this will save you energy: you do not have to go to the store (or send your husband) several times to buy something forgotten, stand in lines and spend time on this, in general, a burdensome task. Better to spend 15 minutes building a list than 2 hours another visit to the store.

How to make a grocery list for the week?
1. Open the recipes of your choice and rewrite all the products that are included in their composition.

2. Add to the list foods that are not part of the recipes but are consumed during the week (bread, seasonings, salt, sugar, tea, coffee, etc.).

3. Combine duplicate foods. For example, if for one recipe we need two eggs, and for the second one, then combine them in one line: - eggs - 3 pcs.

4. Cross off the foods you already have at home from this list. For example, if there are 5 potatoes in the list of products, and you still have half a bag at home, then this item can be safely crossed out.

5. Break down the list of products depending on the location of the shelves in your store. For example, I shop in a large hypermarket, therefore, in order not to rush through its departments, I immediately form a list of products depending on their location:
- grocery;
- dairy products;
- meat, poultry, eggs
- Fish and seafood;
- vegetables, fruits, herbs;
- frozen products;
- bakery and confectionery products;
- tea, coffee, spices;
- Other.

6. Print (or rewrite) the list. If you prefer to compose a menu for a week in electronic form and have the opportunity to transfer it to a PDA (pocket personal computer, smartphone, communicator, etc.) or directly display it on a phone monitor, then this form is very convenient: you do not need to print or rewrite anything ... It is enough to get the phone in the store itself and, referring to the monitor, buy everything you need according to the list.

7. Determine the day for the purchase. Warn your family that you are planning purchases on this day, and, if necessary, use their help.

That's all. Having compiled a menu for the week and a shopping list, we greatly simplified our life, freeing up time for more important and interesting things; created conditions for significant savings in the family budget and the expansion of culinary skills and abilities.

If you try to compose a menu and follow this system for at least a month, you can form a very useful and necessary habit.

Being a good housewife is easy!

Used materials from the site http://menunedeli.ru

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Special children's menus for the week





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How to make a menu for a week yourself

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From personal experience in making the menu:

One of the most important and necessary habits that has greatly simplified and made my life easier is making a menu for the week. I wrote in more detail about why you need to make a menu and what it gives. And today I want to tell and show exactly how I do it.

I'll show you a few examples of what my weekly menu looks like (the cards are on the refrigerator door):

Example No. 2

I did not make it in this form right away. The development of a convenient menu scheme for me took almost a year. But now the process has been brought almost to the point of automatism and does not cause any difficulties.

Stage one, preparatory.

To begin with, I took a piece of paper and a pen, and wrote down all the dishes that I can cook by category: soups, mains, salads and desserts. To my surprise, in reality, this list turned out to be much shorter than I imagined (which later became a great incentive to learn new recipes).

Stage two - the scheme of the week. Using a simple table of seven columns corresponding to the days of the week, I began to compose the menu for the week in paper and then electronic versions. Without fail, I cook breakfast every day, and on the other days I alternate: on even days I cook soup and dessert for two days, and on odd days - the second (also for two days) and salad. This simple alternation saves a lot of time and effort. And in the refrigerator there is always (!) Ready-made food, which is very helpful in situations when "guests are on the doorstep" or "I am too lazy to cook something today."

Approximately my menu for a week looked like this:

Note: "New" is what is being prepared on that particular day. "In the refrigerator" - these are ready-made dishes that have been prepared in advance for several portions.

Monday

Breakfast - Scrambled eggs with tomatoes (new)

Lunch - Burrito (in the refrigerator)

Afternoon snack - Grapes

Dinner - Gazpacho (new) + Blueberry Berry Pie (new)

Tuesday

Breakfast - Rice porridge (new)

Lunch - Gazpacho (in the refrigerator)

Afternoon snack - Blueberry Berry Pie (refrigerated)

Dinner - Zucchini and Potato Fritters (New) + Fresh Cabbage Salad with Garlic Dressing (New)

Wednesday

Breakfast - Semolina (new)

Lunch - Zucchini and potato pancakes (in the refrigerator)

Afternoon Tea - Jam Pie (new)

Dinner - Baked Tomato Puree Eggplant Soup (new)

Thursday

Breakfast - Oatmeal (new)

Lunch - Eggplant puree soup with baked tomatoes (in the refrigerator)

Afternoon snack - Jam pie (in the refrigerator)

Dinner - Crab sticks (new) + Pepper rings stuffed with cottage cheese and herbs (new)

Friday

Breakfast - Corn porridge on the water (new)

Lunch - Crab sticks (in the refrigerator) + Pepper rings stuffed with cottage cheese and herbs (in the refrigerator)

Afternoon snack - Apple strudel (new)

Dinner - Cauliflower Soup (New)

Saturday

Breakfast - Buckwheat porridge (new)

Lunch - Cauliflower soup (refrigerated)

Afternoon snack - Apple strudel (refrigerated)

Dinner - Pork in orange glaze (new) + Chinese salad with Chinese cabbage and chicken (new)

Harvesting for future use - Frozen eggplants

Sunday

Breakfast - Egg in bread (new)

Lunch - Champignon Soup (new)

Afternoon Tea - Lemon Cupcake (New)

Dinner - Pork in orange glaze (refrigerated) + Chinese salad with Chinese cabbage and chicken (refrigerated)

All the recipes that I know how to cook, I wrote down in electronic form and provided them with a photograph (in finished form). Then, in Word, I drew an A4 sheet into 5x9 rectangles (corresponding to the size of a regular business card). In each rectangle, I entered the name of the dish, the ingredients it consists of, and added a photo. In total, I got 12 cards on one sheet. Separately, I made small rectangles with the names of the days of the week.

A4 sheet with cards

Since the cards fit the size of a business card, I keep them in a regular business card holder, sorted into categories: soups, main courses, salads and desserts.

Example No. 4

The advantages of such a system:

Firstly, it takes a minimum of time to draw up a menu for a week, you don't need to write or draw anything.

Secondly, each card has a list of ingredients. Therefore, I do not make a separate list of products for the week. Going to the store, I just take the cards with me, put them in my wallet and, referring to them, buy everything I need.

Thirdly, the cards hang on the refrigerator during cooking. I can see exactly what ingredients and in what quantity I need at any time.

Finally, it's fast and convenient. I am very satisfied.

To get free templates for magnetic cards, a training book on menu design, an electronic magazine "Menu of the Week", forms for making menus, a freezer table for ready-made meals, as well as recipes, tips for rational organization of home meals, menu options, etc. just subscribe to our newsletter.

"? Lonely lettuce leaves, tasteless low-fat cottage cheese, persistent tomatoes and cucumbers - continuous hunger and daily despondency. At first glance, bleak prospects and one single thought "it is better to die young and happy than old and healthy."

How will you react when you learn that following the principles and advice of the PP can be extremely enjoyable? This is not only delicious, varied dishes, but also an excellent result in the form of quickly gone extra pounds, healthy nails, strong and shiny hair. It's very easy to get started - we create a competent menu for the week. In this article, you will learn all the secrets to building a good healthy diet, fill your bins with interesting recipes, and learn how to follow the basics and rules of PP.

Before you start drawing up an approximate diet for seven days, it is important to take into account many nuances. Speaking of modern diets, despite hundreds of options, it is impossible to find a universal option that will suit not only you, but also your neighbor, best friend or work colleague. Each organism reacts differently.

What can not be said about a healthy, balanced diet, which does not create a rigid framework, helps to heal and lose weight without harming his physical and emotional state. The weekly menu can be very diverse, the main thing is to take into account the basics of PP:

Drink plenty of water. In the diet, clean drinking water must be present. You need to drink at least 1.5-2 liters to start and maintain all metabolic processes.
We eat often, but little by little. Meals 5-6 times and obligatory light snacks are the basis of a healthy diet. As practice shows, such crushing of meals provides a constant feeling of satiety and the lack of desire to intercept one or two plates of delicious food at night.
Small portions. Having decided to go on a "healthy diet", the first thing we do is throw out huge deep dishes, get small plates, up to 300 grams. This is the only way to get rid of obsessive desires to eat a full pot of rich soup, eating a greasy meat pan.
Say no to preservatives and flavor enhancers. We leave everything that contains harmful carcinogens, preservatives and other artificial components outside the house. No chips, sausages, soda, crackers. Such food slows down metabolism several times, and an incredible amount of calories will quickly lead the body to an inappropriate state.
We refuse to eat at night. Nutritionists from all over the world advise to take the last meal 3-4 hours before bedtime. Forget about the border "don't eat after 6" - this is not entirely correct.
Reducing the amount of salt. It cannot be completely excluded from the diet. The body needs a small percentage of salt, but the daily intake should be significantly reduced to about 5 grams.
Light food. We refuse fatty and fried. In addition to heaviness in the stomach and unpleasant consequences for the work of many organs, such food will not bring anything. We replace sweet pastries, sweets with dried fruits, candied fruits, dark chocolate (dosed).
The inclusion of plant foods. The variety of your daily balanced nutritional menu is precisely the fruit and vegetable component. Ideal if the plate is divided into four parts: two for vegetables / fruits and one each for side dishes and proteins.

Choose the right foods for a fully balanced menu. The allowed list includes:

Milk and sour milk.
Rye, multi-grain crispbread.
Paste.
Vegetables.
Diet, white meat.
All kinds of cereals.
Olive oil.
Eggs.
Seaweed.
Seafood.
Unroasted nuts.
Mushrooms.

Alcoholic products.
Sugar.
Flour / baking.
Corn.
Pickles / pickles.
Burgers.

Eating the right diet for weight loss has many benefits:

PP involves frequent meals to ensure that you are not hungry at all times. This contributes to an accelerated metabolism and always good physical condition. The body works without interruption, does not feel a lack of useful micro- and macroelements.
There are no restrictions on taste preferences. If during the PP you want a delicious grilled kebab with a juicy crust, a sandwich with sausage and cheese, once a week you can arrange a so-called cheat meal and please yourself with your favorite "snacks". Moreover, such a meal will not affect your figure in any way.
Are you accustomed to constantly visiting cafes and restaurants with the whole family, and are you afraid of boredom while following the principles and rules of proper nutrition? Cast aside your fears, because the list of permitted products is so large and varied that it opens up tremendous opportunities for the constant preparation of interesting, original and every time new dishes that will surprise and delight you.

You can endlessly talk about all the advantages. Try it, make up your original diets, surprise your family and friends with healthy and incredibly tasty food.

Going to a healthy lifestyle alone is not the best option Get well with the whole family. There are dozens of sites on the Internet with scheduled rations for a week, which you can take in full or get interesting ideas for yourself in order to compose your own, unique version, approved by all household members. Check out a sample menu with balanced content.

Monday:

Breakfast - rice porridge, apple, coffee or tea drink.
Second breakfast - a light omelette, vegetables.
Lunch - boiled or baked in the oven cod or salmon, vegetable salad.
Afternoon snack - fruit with low-fat curd.
Dinner is a steamed vegetable mixture with boiled white meat.

Breakfast - low-fat cottage cheese (9%) with the addition of jam or honey, coffee or tea.
Second breakfast - chicken fillet broth, fresh vegetables flavored with juice
lemon.
Lunch - mint tea and fruits.
Afternoon snack - pasta with parmesan or other cheese.
Dinner - boiled chicken breast and sliced cucumber.

Breakfast - your favorite porridge with honey or jam, coffee or tea drink.
Second breakfast - an apple, some nuts and honey-lemon tea.
Lunch - seasoned rice and steamed vegetable mixture.
Afternoon snack - a slice of low-calorie banana pie and tea.
Dinner - boiled shrimp and tomato salad.

Breakfast - semolina porridge with berries, a glass of milk or kefir.
Second breakfast - plain yogurt with a spoonful of honey, a favorite drink.
Lunch - fish baked in foil and some sauerkraut.
Afternoon snack - vegetable salad of radishes, cucumbers and green peas with low-fat sour cream.
Dinner - baked breast with cheese and your favorite fresh vegetables.

Breakfast - mashed potatoes and one boiled egg.
Second breakfast - a salad of your favorite fruits and green tea.
Lunch - soup of lean fish with two crisps.
Afternoon snack - boiled chicken and vegetable salad.
Dinner - pasta and seaweed.

Breakfast - an airy omelette of two eggs, a drink of your choice.
Second breakfast - pancake with jam or confiture.
Lunch - chicken breasts with mushrooms and potatoes baked in the oven.
Afternoon snack - a glass of fermented baked milk, kefir.
Dinner - apples baked with honey and cottage cheese.

Sunday:

Breakfast - wheat porridge and herbal tea.
Second breakfast - a salad of bananas, apples and oranges.
Lunch is a stew of chicken and vegetables.
Afternoon snack - boiled seafood and a glass of tomato juice.
Dinner - fish cakes with brown rice.

Here is such an interesting, varied menu you can use. Each household makes its own adjustments to it, the main thing is to maintain the proportions of KBZHU and adhere to the above-mentioned principles of PP.

Maintaining your weight at all times is very important and necessary. This is necessary not only for a beautiful, toned body, but also for maintaining the health of the body and its internal organs. If you have extra pounds, do not rush to go on a rigid diet.

PP allows you to quickly and effectively lose weight, the main thing is to form a menu that is suitable in terms of fullness and calorie content, which will correspond to the main goal of the transition to proper nutrition. In this table, you will see a rough plan for how to eat with a goal to lose weight.

Men and women engaged in physical activity, constantly attending gyms, pay special attention not only to the correct technique for performing various exercises, but also to their diet.

The transition from the period of weight gain to drying obliges you to draw up an appropriate menu that will help you quickly get rid of unnecessary pounds. In the following table, you will see one of the current options.

Tired of the monotony, but you want to eat right? Sit back more comfortably and write down recipes for delicious and healthy meals.

Let's start with tender, aromatic whole-wheat pancakes with herbs and cheese. Ideal for a hearty morning meal. For cooking you will need:

Kefir 1% - two glasses.
Flour - 6 tablespoons.
Eggs - 2 pieces.
Cheese - 100 grams.
Water - 100 milliliters.
Soda is on the tip of a knife.
Vegetable oil - 1 tablespoon.
Salt and herbs to taste.

Finely chop the herbs, grate the cheese on a coarse grater.
Add eggs, salt to kefir, stir in flour, grated cheese and herbs. Mix thoroughly until smooth.
We extinguish the soda in 1⁄2 cup of boiling water and send it to the dough.
If the mass is thick, then add a little more water.
We bake like classic pancakes until tender.

Can't imagine your life without sausage products, but is it prohibited on proper nutrition? Prepare the most delicate chicken milk sausages that will make a splash and become your favorite dish. You will need the following ingredients:

Chicken fillet - 600 grams.
Milk - 1⁄2 cup.
Egg - 1 piece.
Onions - 30 grams.
Salt, pepper, favorite spices - to taste.

We send all the ingredients to the blender bowl and grind well.
Preparing a baking sleeve - cut it into 15 cm wide leaves.
Put 2-3 tablespoons of the mass and twist it into a "candy". Tips are a must
we tie it up with a thread.
We boil plain water.
We send sausages there, cook for about 15 minutes.
We serve the finished dish beautifully and serve it with a garnish of vegetables.

Recipes for proper nutrition for a week for weight loss: sweets can be useful too!

Sitting on the PP, but madly craving for sweets? No problem! Modern desserts can also be tasty and low-calorie, without causing any harm to the figure and health.

Try to make a diet apple pie, the incredible taste and tenderness of which will fall in love with you once and for all. For it you will need the following simple ingredients:

Oatmeal - 80 grams.
Whole wheat flour - 80 grams.
Low-fat cottage cheese - 80 grams.
Egg white - 2 pieces.
Apples - 500 grams.
Sweetener to taste.
Agar agar - 3 teaspoons.
Baking powder - 1 teaspoon.

Knead the dough: grind the oatmeal, combine with flour, cottage cheese, stevia, baking powder and proteins. Knead the dough well. It should be smooth, stretch easily and not stick to the surface. Roll out the layer to the size of the mold. We spread and bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 20 minutes.
Filling: cut apples into small pieces, add sweetener, water and boil in a saucepan until softened. Next, fill in the agar-agar, mix thoroughly and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Pour the finished sweet mixture into the resulting dough cake, level it and send it into the cold until it solidifies.

These simple, but insanely delicious, healthy recipes will diversify your life and help your body tune in to the “right wave”.

classmates

Greetings to you, dear friends, blog readers! Today I will tell you how to create a menu for a week for a family based on my experience. Earlier in the articles, I already mentioned that once a week I set aside time for drawing up / planning a menu for every day for the whole family, but I did not go into details. Today I want to talk about this in more detail.

Making a menu for a week for a family has many advantages - my mother (that is, me) does not stand in front of an open refrigerator every day and does not rack her brains about what to cook? The family's food becomes varied and useful, time, money and nerves are saved. The family eats healthy, homemade food every day, not convenience foods.

Why do you need to make a family menu for the week?

First of all, let's figure out why plan a menu for a week, a month, a day at all? Isn't it easier to cook spontaneously without planning anything? Why waste your time making menus, lists, and so on?

I confess that before, before the birth of children, I did not bother with drawing up a menu, planning purchases, the decision about what to eat for breakfast / lunch / dinner came spontaneously and was decided together with my husband. They could eat sausage horns, purchased dumplings, pizza. And what? I want to eat. Have a snack, and then start preparing the "right" meal.

But after the birth of children, life changed and the views on nutrition changed, because I wanted my family, children, and my husband to eat tasty, healthy and varied food. In addition, it was a pity to spend time every day on shopping trips, defending long lines, extra money (without a list, without any idea of what we will eat in the coming week, there were many rash purchases), nerves (well ... with a small as a child or two, going to the store turns into a little adventure - after all, you need not only to stand in lines and select / buy food, but also drag them to the house + child + stroller and so on every day).

Saving time. Many people give up planning their menus because they believe it will take a lot of time to create a menu, which can be spent on something else. But I assure you, this is far from the case. It doesn't take much time to compose the menu, especially when you get used to it and you have already worked out the compilation scheme (you can even leave the old menus and just alternate them week by week).
In addition, this time will soon pay off, since I don’t have to stand in front of the refrigerator every day wondering what to cook for lunch or dinner, I don’t run headlong into the store, because at the most inopportune moment I discovered that I don’t have refrigerator for borscht beet. I just start cooking right away.
We save finances. I will say from my own experience that after we started planning the menu for the week, our unplanned expenses decreased significantly. Because we now go to the store with a pre-compiled list of products that are needed to prepare meals for the coming week (thanks to it, we are saved from unplanned purchases in the supermarket, from filling the basket to the top with unnecessary goods). Thanks to the compilation of the menu and the weekly revision of the refrigerator, I can include food on the menu that is unused until it becomes unusable. We always know that there is something to eat at home, so there is no need to buy dumplings for the third day in a row, since at home we roll a ball, but we want to eat.
We eat right. On the day of making the menu, you can make sure that the next week there is the most useful and varied menu, including vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, dairy products and other usefulness. The family will eat healthy, varied and balanced.

1. Select the day of the week on which you will do weekly menu scheduling for the week. I have this day - Thursday, because it is on this day that I work on the refrigerator according to FlyLady's weekly plan (I wrote more about this plan in the article), I revise it, throw out the excess, write down what needs to be purchased in the shopping list. So I can immediately add to the same list the products that need to be purchased for cooking next week.

For example:

Tips for making a daily menu for the whole family

1. Select a day of the week on which you will conduct weekly menu planning for the week. I have this day - Thursday, because it is on this day that I work (according to FlyLady's weekly affairs) with the refrigerator, conduct an audit in it, throw out the excess, write down what needs to be purchased in the shopping list. So I can immediately add to the same list the products that need to be purchased for cooking next week.

2. During the revision of the refrigerator, I write down everything that is in it on a piece of paper. For example, chicken fillet, frozen sliced eggplant, half a pack of frozen raspberries, a couple of pears, half a pack of kefir, etc. Next, opposite each product found in the refrigerator / freezer, I write a dish that I can cook from this product and include it in the menu.

For example:

chicken fillet - potatoes with chicken and vegetables
frozen eggplant - vegetable stew
raspberries - raspberry pie, etc.

3. When planning the menu, ask your family's opinion that they would like to eat in the next 7 days and include their wishes in the menu for the next week.

Making a list of dishes

First of all, make a list of dishes that you can and love to cook, dividing them into categories (breakfasts, first courses, main courses, side dishes, desserts, salads). In parentheses, it is advisable to write the ingredients that are necessary for the preparation of each dish (this will help you in the future, when you compose a menu for the week, navigate the ingredients included in a particular dish and when compiling lists of missing products).

Yes, it will take time. You may not immediately remember all the dishes that you know how to cook. No problem. Gradually, as you remember new dishes, add to the lists. Take this point seriously, because in the future, this list will make it easier for you to make a menu for your family for a week, saving you a lot of time. As a result, you should get something like this:

Breakfast
Cottage cheese casserole
Omelette
Rice milk porridge
Buckwheat milk porridge
Milk soup with noodles
Oat milk porridge
Semolina
Millet milk porridge
Wheat Milk Porridge
Barley milk porridge
Corn milk porridge
Scrambled eggs, etc.

First meal:
Chicken soup
Borsch
Beetroot
Rassolnik
Cabbage soup with sauerkraut
Pea soup
Mushroom soup
Fish soup
Buckwheat soup
Meatball soup
Vegetable soup
Kharcho soup, etc.

Second courses
Cabbage rolls are lazy
Meatballs
Fish in batter
Pilaf
Fish cutlets
Meat cutlets
Nuggets
French chicken
Stuffed peppers
Goulash
Bolognese
Solyanka
Chicken pancakes
Baked chicken
Chicken on a can, etc.

Side dishes
Rice
Buckwheat
Mashed potatoes
Pasta
Boiled potatoes
Pearl barley
Vegetable stew, etc.

desserts
Pancakes
Pancakes
Biscuits
Baked apples
Charlotte
Sponge cake
Pizza
Buns
Fruit pie
Pies with various fillings, etc.

Salads
The vinaigrette
Beet salad
Carrot salad
Fish salad with rice and eggs
Olivie
Sunflower salad
Mushroom glade salad, etc.

How to make a family menu for the week

So we got to the most important point - drawing up a menu for the week for the family. You can create a table consisting of 3 columns (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and 7 lines (respectively, list the days of the week) and write in each cell the dishes that you will cook on this or that day.

I am free to plan my menu. So in the menu, I do not prescribe specific days of the week tied to a particular dish: on Monday my family will eat buckwheat with meat, and on Tuesday French fries and nothing else.

I just list the meals my family will eat next week by category (breakfast, lunch, dinner), but I don't assign them a specific day of the week.

Then, every day, I choose for each of the categories (breakfast-lunch-dinner) what I want to cook from the prepared menu and start cooking (I cross out the dish that I have prepared from the menu and I don’t cook it this week). This approach has become more convenient for me than strict planning with reference to a specific day of the week.

I prepare breakfasts and dinners daily (dinners sometimes stay the next day, but this is very rare). We usually have enough soups for 2 days. From these features I make up the menu. There should be 7 breakfasts and dinners, and the first courses - 4. I also write salads and desserts that I plan to cook in the menu. In parentheses, next to each dish, I write down the ingredients that are needed to prepare the dish, but they are not available).

Breakfast:
rice porrige
buckwheat
oatmeal
curd casserole (cottage cheese, semolina, milk)
omelet (eggs)
milk soup with noodles
corn porridge

Dinner:
Borscht (beets, cabbage)
Pickle (pickles)
chicken soup (chicken)
pea soup

Dinner:
pilaf with chicken
fish in batter and mashed potatoes (fish)
cutlets with buckwheat
pasta with bolognese sauce
vegetable stew
French meat (cheese)
rice and lazy cabbage rolls (cabbage)

Next, I rewrite the products that are in brackets on a separate sheet and on my husband's next weekend (I can't plan the exact day, since he has a floating schedule), we go to the store to shop.

How to arrange a menu for a week for a family

Design the menu depending on your preference: in electronic form (in Word, Excel, programs), write by hand or print and hang on the refrigerator. It already depends on how it will be convenient for you and your family.

These are all the secrets of how I create a menu for every day for the whole family. Try it and you are sure that you will definitely succeed! If you have any questions - ask in the comments, I will answer. If you have your own ideas for making a menu for a week, please write in the comments.

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Best regards, Olga