Menu planning is one of the most time consuming tasks I face as I homemaker, or at least it was!  I hated trying to figure out what was for dinner (and lunch!) night after night.  I have finally overcome this obstacle by making a comprehensive menu plan for my family.  Here's how it works....

First, I sat down and divided each night of the week into categories.  This makes menu planning much easier without having the same things week after week.  Here's how our weeks break down:

Sunday:  Crockpot Dinner
Monday:  Chicken (hubby's favorite)
Tuesday: Mexican
Wednesday: SSS ("soup"er simple supper)
Thursday: On the Grill (oven dinners in cold weather)
Friday:  Take Out at Home
Saturday:  Italian

You can pick your own theme nights, or feel free to use ours.  A bit of an explanation about Fridays; we don't get take out on those nights, we make our favorite take out foods at home.  The kids love it!  Now, it's time to pick your recipes.  Let your family help if they want too, everyone will be eating the same thing!  The kids and I sat down at the table and came up with four dinners for each category, side dishes included.  This still leaves two meals a day for added variety, but your big meal is taken care of.
Next step is to group your meals by week.  This isn't as easy as it seems at first.  There are a three main things to consider when planning your menus.  First, make sure you don't have every expensive or time consuming meal in one week.  This will quickly break your budget and you!  Second, make sure you have variety, for example, you wouldn't want crockpot BBQ chicken, roast chicken, chicken burritos, chicken soup, grilled chicken, chicken fingers, and parmesan chicken to be your menu.  Third, think about leftovers.  The week we have Coney dogs (hot dogs with chili and cheese) I make a big batch of chili and freeze half that we later use for taco salads.

To make my menu planning and grocery shopping really easy I used a grocery list/menu planner printable.  I printed out four, made a menu for each week and then used the menu to make a grocery list for everything I would need to complete that week.  This step is by far the most time consuming, but it makes grocery shopping so much faster and easier!  Then, (here's the best part) you put each menu into a clear plastic page protector and keep them in a notebook.  (I use my Control Journal that Fly Lady taught me how to make.)  Each week you take your menu/grocery list to your pantry and fridge.  You *keep the list in the sheet protector* and use a dry erase maker to check the box for the items you need.  Now you can make your weekly grocery list from your menu sheet and when you're all done you just wipe it clean and put it back into your notebook.  If you would like to use the same printable I use, click here.  You can print these for your own use, but please don't give them away or sell them.  Thanks.  (c:

To help my family know what we are having as well, I use a magnetic dry erase weekly calendar to write the meals for the week and leave it on the fridge.

Now, just think, with a little bit of time and planning you won't ever have to answer the question, "Mom, what's for dinner?"  again!  Believe me, it's worth it!