Getting There
The menu planner below is the simplest part. Getting there is more than half the fun.
Keep in mind there is only one right way to plan menus: and that's the method that works for you. Here's how we do it, for what it's worth.
First, understand there are just the two of us. But we make full meals anyway, and put the balance up in the form of frozen dinners that we jokingly call MREs. Our general goal is to make three or four new meals each week, and the balance will be MREs, unless we go out to eat, which is rare.
For starers, we sit down with a yellow legal pad and set up numbered places, leaving enough room to list everything for that meal. Let's say there will be four meals planned for that week. They'll be numbered 1-4.
Initially, all we list is the main protein to go with that meal. So it might look something like this:
1. Lamb
(three lines of space)
2. Chicken
(three lines of space)
3. Pork
(three lines of space)
4. Seafood
(three lines of space)
Seafood might be listed like that. Or we may already have decided on the type of seafood. So it might be 4. Finned Fish or 4. Shrimp etc.
Next is to decide the specifics of the protein. We had chops the previous week, so maybe we want something stew-like next week. At that point we decide on an actual recipe. And the list is modified to show the recipe and it's location (using the same system as the planner). It now looks like this:
1. Lamb and Roasted Pepper Ragout Spain & The World Table 164
2. Lemon Chicken w/Cilantro & Olives North African Kitchen 87
3. Stuffed Pork Tenderloin w/Peach Glaze Card
4. Goan Fish Cakes Where Flavor Was Born 93
Then we go back and fill in with the side dishes, following the same proceedure. And, lastly, we decide on starters. This approach lets us maintain a balance of food types, flavors, and cooking styles. And it's a simple matter to change the location of a dish, or substitute one for another.
Once all this is complete, Friend Wife (who has a neater hand than me) transfers the whole thing to the menu planner.
We then make a shopping list from the plan.
All of which is actually faster, and less confusing, to do than it is to describe.
