Any of you plan your weekly menus, pls share advice tips. How has it helped your lives (timewise, financially) and what abt your family’s reactions.
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
pleasee someone put up good ideas. I am in a desperate need of it too. if hubby ever tries to object ya zara si bhi chooo ki tau unki aisi ki taisi :ASA:
automne, i love you for putting it up.
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
yeah proto.... I dont have househelp and with a new baby it is tough to go out and eat. I know the goras do this all the time... I am thinking of sitting my hubby down and tell him to make a list of all the foods he would like to eat and put them on some sort of rotation....
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
My hubby is not that picky, as long as food is good and there is variety.
I used to do weekly planing when I was working and it helps a lot, even now I do it for breakfast, usualy I pick 5-6 brekfast options of what I want to make, have all the ingredients on hand, and pick one and make it otherwise jaldi mein kooch samajh mein nahi aata.
It is very good you save so much time and dont have to break your head over aaj kiya paakaoon. I used to make a menu, go over my pantry and fridge, make a shopping list and viola yo have a hassel-less week (not hassel free :)) Over the weekend, I used to marinade meats, make stocks, and freeze it. Since I had my son I find I liked making a lot of things from scratch, no store bought pizza/pasta sauce, very lil canned/prepared food.
It also helped my kitchen budget, because I used to buy stuff and leave it in the pantry, going over the stuuff yo have on hand and using it to helps.
One more suggestion, if your husbands are picky don’t sit and make the meal plan with them, make your meals sound as spontanous as you can because I know someone at work who tried it and her husband told her he feels stuck with the menu and feels that he doesn’t have a chjoice, she changed her strategy and used to make menu and not tell him(these men argghhh).
This used to be one of my fav. shows(like anyother cooking or hgtv show :))
http://www.foodnetwork.ca/ontv/shows/Fixing-Dinner/show.html?titleid=83516
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
Google 'weekly menu planner' . You can find various charts/simple softwares that you can download. I remember seeing something that also generates a shopping list. Just make a list of all the dishes you eat and fit it in each day. It surely helps you with your budget, time and most importantly balanced food through the week.
I don't do the chart thingie but I do have a list of dishes that we eat in each category..(veggie/meat/pulses etc) so I pick and choose randomly from each category based on my mood and ingredients available.
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
Ami ji has a list of all the veggie, meat, soups and daals listed in her cookbook. Different types of keema, fish etc. She ticks-off the things she wants our cook to make that week.. and on Fridays we get the groceries that we don't already have at home. ( we do grocery shopping once a month ).
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
Dosa chick can u pls share ur breakfast ideas
Gina,does ur mom have a folder? When do u guys try out new recipes
Mm I liked one on google gonna try that out and see
Proto will send u the planner
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
please do 
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
Here you go , it is excel format , weekly and monthly with drop downs, you can add your menu items from your list of desi dishes.
Since I could not attach files . I am pasting the link:
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
She keeps adding the new recipes to the list, also she has a VERY organized cookbook! We have a list of the following:
Keema
Koftay
Fish recipes
Rice recipes
Veg recipes
Daal recipes
Desserts
Appetizers
Snacks
She has a comprehensive monthly grocery list that she keeps copies of.. and scratches-off anything we don't need or adds a (x2) next to the stuff we need more for that month.
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
Gina mind sharing ur ammis grocery list pls
Re: Menu Planning on a weekly basis
:( I just typed like a whole page worth of stuff here about breakfast ideas and somehow it didn't get posted, too tiered to type, I will write it all again tomorrow morning urrgggghh