The menu plays an important role in every family. The menu must be composed so that it provides the necessary vitamins and microelements for all family members. At the same time, the menu should be rational. This is to save family budget money. About how to make a useful and rational menu, I will tell in the article.
Pick your recipe
Instruction manual
1
Take a piece of paper, a pencil, and write down all the dishes that you cook well and quickly, dividing them into categories for breakfast, for lunch, and for dinner. Try to prevent menu items from repeating more than twice a week. If this is not possible, add some new dishes that are not familiar to you.
2
Breakfast meals plan light (both in cooking and in digestibility): omelets, oatmeal, sandwiches. If you and your family dine at the workplace, try to prepare dishes for them that are not only healthy and hearty, but also convenient to bring with you in the food container: cereal cereal, mashed potatoes with sausage, or mashed soup with cutlet. For dinner, cook rice with chicken or pilaf, pasta with vegetables
3
In summer, more often include in the menu vegetable and fruit salads, cold soups, fruit drinks. In winter, it is necessary to include meat products, hot soups and broths, herbal teas and dried fruit compotes in the diet. Bake yourself at least once a week. So you will pamper your loved ones with delicious homemade cakes and save money on your family budget.
4
To prepare new dishes that have not yet been mastered by you, select 1-2 times a week. At that moment, when compiling the menu will become a habit, you will be able to indulge your household with new items more often.
5
Choose your preferred menu form. For example, the compilation of the menu is convenient to do in the editor MS Excel. You can download an example of a useful and economical family menu from the link below. You can also create a menu in the MS WORD editor. You can give free rein to your imagination and make cheat sheets. On each card, place a photo and recipe. Sort by categories (breakfast, lunch, dinner). Put the cards in a box. The menu is ready! Put the necessary cards for the day on the refrigerator (for breakfast, lunch and dinner)
6
Make an approximate list of products you need to prepare your planned meals.
7
The menu for the week is ready. Now you need to calculate the cost of products and time for cooking. Make an analysis. If something does not suit you (the cost of the products is too high, or you do not fit into the time frame for cooking), perform a menu correction.
8
Make a list of products in two parts: products that you need to buy for a week (meat products, tea, cereals, sweets, horns, eggs, etc.) and those that you will buy daily or every other day (dairy products, bread, fruits and vegetables). Visit the stores with a list. Do not deviate from it. This will help you save money on your family budget.
Useful advice
If possible, buy household appliances for the kitchen, which will help you diversify the menu. A double boiler, a slow cooker, a blender and a mixer will be your great helpers and will help to preserve the useful properties of products and save your time.
- Example menu for the week No. 1
- Example menu for the week No. 2
- Resources for quick and easy menu planning
- Menu templates