Weekly Dinner Menus

"What's for dinner?" This is a question we have all heard and used practically everyday in our life. And the reaction to the reply will almost always be "Not again!" or "I'm not really hungry." My mom always tells me that deciding what to cook everyday, is much harder than the actual cooking. In today's fast-paced life, where hamburgers, sodas and high carbohydrate foods have replaced fruits, vegetables and milk, it is very important to have a balanced diet. Eating a balanced diet does not mean it has to be repetitive and boring. It is possible to have a variety of meals that are easy to make. The easiest way to achieve this is to plan weekly dinner menus.

Weekly dinner menu is a simple concept. Basically, you have to plan your dinner ideas ahead of time. For healthy dinner ideas, you also need to plan your grocery shopping ahead. This makes it easier to shop for your groceries at one time, without running to the store everyday. Besides that, you can just spend a certain amount of time every week to think of the whole week's menu and then not worry about it. It also gives you a chance to make a balanced weekly meal menu. If you have a high carbohydrate meal on Monday, the next day you can balance it out by having a light soup and salad. The key is to have a variety that provides you with all the right nutrients.

Preparing weekly food menus also helps to cut down on your grocery bill by a significant amount. The reason being that if you go to the grocery store everyday or every couple of days, you are bound to pick up unnecessary items. In addition, planning ahead helps to make use of the grocery sales. Another way to save money is by using the price book system. A price book system is a concept developed by companies to keep track of their product price. You can either find a price book online or make your own. Now you can decide which item is really, on sale. You could also save money by using grocery coupons.

For a variety in the weekly meal menus, it's not necessary to make dishes that are complex. It is possible to make simpler weekly dinner recipes even by using leftover meals in the fridge. For example, use the leftover grilled chicken for chicken enchiladas next day. You just need a little creativity. While deciding on recipes, select the ones which have the ingredients that your family likes. There is no sense in making something you know they will not like. Trying new recipes is easy when you have the ingredients and have planned it earlier.

You don't need to follow the weekly food menu to a t. If you planned a pasta dish and you simply are not in a mood to cook pasta, you can always be flexible and switch the meals around to suit your mood or time. That's the beauty of this meal plan. You can include all your family members while planning, so that they come up with suggestions which will definitely be a hit at the dinning table.

Weekly Dinner Ideas

Here is a look at some ideas for your weekly dinner menus.

Monday

• Chicken Enchiladas, refried beans and mexican salad
• Tuna casserole
• Mexican chicken with white rice and tortilla chips

Tuesday

• Mushroom pizza, salad, pineapple with yogurt
• Bacon and cheese quiche with home fried potatoes
• Baked pesto chicken with pasta and garlic bread

Wednesday

• Grilled fish, zucchini tomatoes, chinese cabbage salad
• Vegetarian lasagna with italian bread
• Roast chicken with mashed potatoes

Thursday

• Red Thai chicken curry and rice with salad
• Baked ziti with tossed salad
• Spicy shrimp with broccoli and rice

Friday

• Egg noodles and vegetable soup
• Cheese burgers and potato salad
• Baked ravioli

Saturday

• Lemon couscous with garlic lima beans
• Chicken cheese quesadillas
• Fish sticks and noodles

Sunday

• Chilly tacos
• Chicken noodle casserole
• Tequila shrimp with steamed green beans

This is one example of a weekly dinner menu. You can also have theme nights to make it interesting and to let your family members know what to expect.

• Mexican Monday
• Tofu Tuesday
• Soup and Salad Wednesday
• Thai Thursday
• Fish Friday
• Stir-fry Saturday
• Chinese Sunday

Now that you have an idea about weekly dinner menus, it will be easy to come up with one that suits your taste. There are also various services available where they specialize in making menus and recipes for you. This will help you save time, money and you will have happy faces all around the table.