Today, most young married women are interested in mastering time management at home. Keeping up with everything, trying to run a household economically and at the same time remaining attractive is not an easy task. Every housewife knows how much time it takes to cook and run around supermarkets after work. By learning how to create a weekly menu for your family, you will immediately solve several problems: save time, money and get rid of unnecessary workload.
Organizing and planning your family diet helps you save time and money.
Planning a menu for several days will save you from having to decide every day what to cook for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This approach to cooking has a number of advantages - saving time and money. At the same time, you will be able to fulfill a long-standing dream - to switch your household to a healthy diet.
Save time
Switching to purchasing products according to a list saves a lot of time. How does it usually happen? An inexperienced housewife makes spontaneous purchases, and then decides at home what can be prepared from it. In addition, he spends time searching for an interesting recipe on the Internet. As a result, we spend most of our free time near the stove.
You need to do everything the other way around. First, we create a weekly menu for the family with recipes, and then we buy the necessary products for it. This way you can prepare some meals ahead. You won't have to run to the supermarket again if you forgot to buy something in a hurry. Cooking will turn into a deliberate process. Thanks to this planning, you can arrange a more gentle work schedule in the kitchen.
Financial benefit
Spontaneous grocery shopping has another unpleasant side. Have you noticed that when you enter the store just to buy bread and dairy products, you take out a whole cart? And then it turns out that only part of the contents will be eaten. And the rest will deteriorate. After all, each product has its own expiration date.
Sometimes women, tired after a day of work, in the desire to cook something quickly, buy semi-finished products or all sorts of “goodies”. They are not cheap. And their health benefits are questionable. Such unplanned expenses always hit the family budget.
If you create a weekly menu for your family in advance and make purchases based on it, the savings will be significant. For example, a year of such a deliberate approach to expenses will allow you to save for a long-awaited vacation, which was previously not available due to lack of finances.
Balanced and healthy diet
Another important advantage in diet planning is the opportunity to create a more healthy menu for all family members and join in a healthy lifestyle. For those who want to lose excess weight, this is a must.
When creating a sample menu for the week, it is important to consider several factors
If there are only healthy foods in the refrigerator, then you will not have any opportunity to eat something that is not permissible.
A balanced menu for the week for the whole family is a chance to switch to a healthier diet. It will be easier for you to control the amount of food you eat. You will be able to plan your menu for the whole day so that your diet will become more varied. After a few months, you will notice that giving up chaotic eating will have a beneficial effect on your health and appearance.
Planning a weekly menu includes 3 key points:
- Selecting recipes suitable for a specific family. Based on the selected recipes, create a list of dishes. Here you can enter dishes that are especially popular among family members. Ideally, for everyone. If you're unlucky, you can cook your favorite dishes one at a time. You can choose the recipes you want to master. In order to save time, it is worth alternating complex dishes with simple ones that will take a minimum of time.
- Make a list of ingredients using ingredients.
- Decide on their quantity and the required amount. Take this list to the supermarket. It is worth timing this event to coincide with the time when there are promotions in stores. Under no circumstances change the list on the fly. Consistency is an important point in planning.
You can do it differently. Carry out preparatory work. For a month, write down every day all the products you purchased, their quantity, and cost. At the end of the month, analyze the information received. You will immediately notice which products were extra, where you spent more than you needed (spontaneous purchases). It will become clear to you how often you buy, for example, dairy products and cereals. Inspect the refrigerator, all kitchen cabinets, and take into account all remaining supplies that have not expired.
Once you get used to shopping from a list, you can adjust your entries over time.
Making a grocery list
After drawing up a menu plan, you need to make a list of products necessary for its preparation.
When creating a simple weekly menu for your family, focus on the tastes of your household. Family income also needs to be taken into account. The time of year plays an important factor in compiling the list: it is better to buy fruits and vegetables that are in season. If you want not only to save money, but also to accustom your household to a healthy lifestyle, then give preference to healthy products.
Your cart should contain:
- low fat fermented milk products;
- eggs;
- meat (preferably chicken or turkey);
- fatty sea fish, seafood;
- various cereals;
- vegetables, herbs, fruits, berries;
- spices, herbs;
- vegetable oil;
- whole wheat bread;
- nuts, dried apricots, raisins;
- low-calorie sweets, honey.
If holidays are planned or guests are planned, then you need to draw up an additional list of products.
Selecting a convenient menu form
Now on the Internet you can download various programs with a calorie calculator or recipes indicating the quantities of ingredients. Use them to save time. A ready-made menu for a week for a family can become decor for the kitchen if you decorate it like in a restaurant. More practical housewives will opt for an electronic menu or one written down in a diary. For ease of planning, it is worth combining the list of dishes with the recipe.
Each family has its own taste preferences. Therefore, we offer one of many options.
| Monday | oatmeal with any seasonal fruits or berries |
pickle, mashed potatoes with boiled chicken, fresh vegetable salad |
potato zrazy with champignons (use leftover mashed potatoes from lunch) |
| Tuesday |
cheesecakes with sour cream and berries |
beetroot soup, stewed chicken liver, chopped vegetables |
fish baked in foil with vegetables |
| Wednesday |
buckwheat porridge with milk |
chicken noodle soup, carrot and cheese salad |
vegetable salad, boiled beef |
| Thursday |
oatmeal pancakes with sour cream or honey |
champignon cream soup, boiled beef salad with vegetables |
fish stewed in tomato sauce with bell pepper |
| Friday |
cottage cheese with berries |
fish cutlets, cabbage and cucumber salad |
vegetable ratatouille |
| Saturday |
pancakes with apples |
bell pepper stuffed with rice, minced meat |
vegetable salad, stewed chicken liver |
| Sunday |
cottage cheese casserole with pumpkin |
vegetable soup, pilaf with champignons, |
chicken stewed in sour cream with pasta, vegetables |
From the presented weekly home menu for the family, we will select several dishes that can be prepared in a matter of minutes.
Oat pancakes
Ingredients (for 1 serving) - 1 egg, 3 tbsp. spoons of oatmeal, 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar.
Preparation – Grind the flakes, add egg, sugar, beat with a mixer. Leave for 5-10 minutes to swell. Then fry as usual pancakes.
Champignon puree soup
Ingredients – 300 g champignons, 3 potatoes, 2 onions, 300 ml 20% cream, vegetable oil, salt, black pepper, ground nutmeg (optional).
Preparation – Boil the potatoes. Peel the onions, mushrooms, chop everything coarsely. Fry the onion until transparent, then add champignons and spices. Fry, stirring, until the mushrooms are ready. Combine boiled potatoes, a glass of potato broth, fried mushrooms with onions, and cream. Beat with a mixer. If the puree soup is too thick, add a little more potato broth.
The proposed Lenten menu for the week does not fully comply with the strict church charter. Although the ministers of the Church themselves say that strict adherence to the instructions during fasting is the lot of priests and monks, for the laity it is enough to simply refuse products of animal origin. How to spend Lent is up to you. And our website offers an approximate Lenten menu for the week for those who have decided to carry out the upcoming fast with minimal restrictions. ›
When you know in advance what and in what order you will cook not only tonight and all week, this significantly saves time, effort and the family budget. We offer you a menu for five days. ›
The Lenten menu for the week offered to your attention is quite bland - it contains dishes with fish and seafood. Abandoning animal products seems incredible to unprepared citizens, so it makes sense to include seafood in your Lenten menu once or twice a week. ›
The frantic pace of our lives increasingly forces us to prepare meals for ourselves and our family from store-bought semi-finished products, to use so-called quick “just add water” dishes, or even to eat fast food. All kinds of “homemade” dumplings, “grandmother’s” cutlets from who knows what, instant noodles and mashed potatoes, sausages, sausages and sausages have taken up permanent residence in our refrigerators. And everything would be fine, but for some reason such food does not add health to us and, most importantly, to our children... ›
Summer is just around the corner. July gives us such an abundance of vegetables that it’s simply a shame not to take advantage of this luxury. The Culinary Eden website offers you a summer menu for the week. ›
As you know, fish and seafood are very good for health and help prevent heart disease. Fish contains some beneficial substances that are not found in products of animal and plant origin. ›
How to create a menu for a week for a family so that it is both tasty and cheap? And also very, very useful. After all, a person must receive from food all the substances he needs in a certain ratio, and not chaotically. You can find out how others cope with this difficult task by reading literature on this topic, or you can try to create a menu for the week for your family yourself.
Why do we need this?
Every woman can be calm only when her family is healthy, happy and... well-fed. After all, the way to a man’s heart lies, as we know, through the stomach, and for a child’s growing body, high-quality “fuel” is vital. But not everyone knows how to properly create a budget menu for a family. After all, I want it to be tasty, affordable for the wallet, and healthy. Therefore, the easiest option to save time, budget and nerve cells is to create a menu for the week. Why is this convenient? Firstly, you don’t need to worry about what products to buy every day when you get home from work. Creating a menu also involves purchasing food for the week. Secondly, you already know what you will cook, and this will save a lot of time, saving you from unnecessary torment throughout the week. And most importantly, by creating a weekly menu for your family, you get the opportunity to use your imagination, learn new recipes and thereby improve your culinary skills.
Menu design principles
When creating a menu, you need to consider some factors.
1. Combination of products and dishes. You should not saturate your day with one type of food, serving them, for example, for breakfast in several dishes.
2. The menu should be varied and satisfying, but not too heavy on the stomach.
3. The planning option should be determined.
Strict planning involves specifically scheduled dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
With free planning, a list of breakfast, lunch, and dinner dishes is compiled that you want and can prepare. Then a menu is selected for each day from the proposed list. Or the proposed dishes are listed by category: side dishes, main course, entrée, dessert. Then you create a daily menu for the family.
4. No one knows the features and nuances of family nutrition like a mother. Therefore, existing problems and recommendations, if any, should be taken into account.
5. When creating a menu, do not forget the old truth: “eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend, give dinner to your enemy.”
6. Be sure to include porridge and legumes in your diet. Do not overuse sweets and baked goods.
Snacks
The purpose of these dishes is to prepare the digestive system for the main meal. It is more appropriate to serve them for lunch and dinner. Sandwiches are more suitable for breakfast snacks. The complete list might look something like this:
This includes meat and fish dishes (beef, veal, pork, offal, poultry, fish). Every housewife should understand that, despite the size of your budget, you need to try to diversify the menu with meat dishes as much as possible. Stew comes in very handy here. This dish has been with us since the era of Peter I. In French, this word means both a special dish and a spicy seasoning. It comes from the verb “to excite”, which means it includes the meaning of “delicious”, “appetizing”. For a family menu, you can skip the spiciness; the stew won’t get any worse. The dish can be prepared for several servings. Its taste will not be lost, and you will save time. And we can't forget about fish. Fish days should definitely be included in the weekly menu for the family.
Side dishes can be diversified by the unusual preparation by constructing:
Vegetable cutlets;
Casseroles;
Baked vegetables;
Pasta;
Porridge.
Vegetable dishes (potatoes, cabbage, cabbage rolls, casseroles) can be prepared for several servings.
Dessert
What kind of weekly menu for a family can we talk about if they forget to include sweets in it? Cookies, jellies, mousses, souffles - all this can be prepared quickly and in a few steps. True, there is a risk that your children will unauthorizedly consume a week's supplies. After all, they are so delicious. Also, do not forget about carefully prepared jars of jam, jam, which are not only tasty, but also healthy, especially if they are natural ground fruits. You don't need to stock up on expensive ingredients to make a pie or cookies. Flour, kefir or sour cream, a few eggs - and a fragrant dessert is ready. And if you spend a little more time on the weekend and bake rich pies, then the issue with dessert will be closed for several days. Cakes and pastries will also be appropriate on weekends. They take a little longer to prepare. If your budget is modest, you can limit their preparation to holidays. The stores have a wonderful selection of instant jellies. The finished jelly can be sprinkled with chocolate, coconut flakes, and grated cookies. This delicacy is prepared quickly and does not require large material costs, but it takes up a lot of space in the refrigerator. It is advisable to pour it into flat containers and cover with lids. Then more will fit, and other dishes can be placed on top.
Little tricks
To save time, effort and products, you can cheat a little. For example, such delicacies as dumplings, dumplings, and spring rolls can be molded, rolled and frozen. Then your household will be able to cook these home-made semi-finished products completely independently. This option is good when you need to stay somewhere on business or have a cup of coffee with a friend. If you are planning a dish of stewed cabbage, do not be lazy to stew more. The remaining part can be placed into a pie, zrazy at any time and simply served as a separate dish. This advice works for all products. Just use your imagination. Create a menu for your family and review it carefully. Check off the dishes that are repeated. These repetitions should not be more than three. Don't buy food unless you know what you'll be using it for. A spontaneous purchase will lead to you simply throwing them away. And don't forget that your menu is not a dogma. You can always make changes in accordance with new desires.
A little about breakfast
This meal is the most important. Many people forget about this and undeservedly miss it by simply drinking a cup of coffee. Your health, mood and appearance depend on how correctly and balanced you prepare breakfast. Since there is a working day ahead, you can afford more high-calorie and tasty food. This is very important for girls and women who always watch their weight and deny themselves sweets. When creating a menu for a family, they must understand that breakfast is their salvation. Everything that is eaten will never form fat deposits on the curves of a woman’s figure. Porridge was and remains the most useful. The only thing better than buckwheat. It doesn’t matter whether you cook porridge with water or milk. You can add raisins, nuts, dried apricots, bananas to it. Semolina porridge has discredited itself. Doctors say that due to the presence of phytin and gliadin, semolina is unsafe for the children's gastrointestinal tract. Buckwheat with milk contains all the essential amino acids. For breakfast you can make sandwiches, toast, tea, cocoa with porridge.
Approximate menu for two days
Monday
And nuts, cooked in milk. Tea. Toast buttered with sausage and cheese.
Yogurt, banana.
Cabbage salad with carrots. Rice soup with chicken broth and herbs. Pasta. Veal meatballs with sauce. Compote.
Juice or kefir.
Veal meatballs baked with cheese. Buckwheat porridge. Fresh vegetable salad (summer) or vinaigrette (winter).
Tuesday
Buckwheat porridge with milk. Cocoa. Sandwiches with cheese and egg mass (processed cheese, egg, mayonnaise).
Apple or pear.
With onions and vegetable oil. Pea soup. Chicken cutlets and potatoes baked in the oven. Juice. Pancakes with curd.
Banana. Jelly or soufflé.
Meat in French. Vegetable salad (cucumbers, tomatoes, hard cheese). Tea with cookies.
Quick breakfasts in the morning, lunches at work and homemade dinners in 20 minutes can be tasty, healthy, easy to prepare and, at the same time, not at all expensive. To do this, you only need to purchase all the necessary ingredients once a week and properly distribute them over 7 days.
For breakfast I recommend porridge and toast. This food leaves you feeling full for a long time and cooks very quickly. Making toast will take no more than 5 minutes, and porridge can literally be prepared on its own while you get ready for work. Just add the cereal to the pan, add water or milk in a ratio of 1:3 and go about your business. After 15 minutes, all you have to do is put the resulting contents on a plate and add your favorite ingredients for brighter taste, for example, nuts, dried fruits, any fruits and nut butters. I prefer frozen berries and honey with porridge. These are exactly the ingredients that I always have on hand and the combination of which truly gives me pleasure, because breakfast is the most important meal of the day, the main task of which is to provide energy for several hours of productive work.
Breakfast must be delicious, because a good day begins with pleasant emotions.
As for lunch, in my office I often don’t have time to go somewhere and have a quality lunch, or such lunches are difficult to find within a suitable budget. In such cases, I prepare a nutritious salad at home the night before.
In addition to vegetables, I add a filling element to a nutritious lunch salad.
Such a component could be, for example, chickpeas, beans, crackers, fried mushrooms, any cereal or Greek cheese. You can also add meat, chicken or fish left over from the last dinner to the salad. Both olive oil and plain yogurt without additives are perfect as a dressing. Or you can quickly mix honey, mustard and lemon juice to create a wonderful honey-mustard sauce that will give any salad a unique, bright taste. Following this simple rule, the result will be a nutritious salad with the maximum amount of vitamins and nutrients necessary for the body.
The main rule for dinner is speed of preparation.
When you get home in the evening after a crazy day of work, you want to eat something hot as quickly as possible. In this case, I prefer pastas and stewed vegetables. Maximum cooking time is 30 minutes. Well, that's not much when it comes to a delicious, flavorful dinner.
Monday: Breakfast
RICE PUDDING WITH APPLES
Turn on the oven to 200 degrees. Roughly chop one apple, add cinnamon and move around. Place on a baking sheet in the oven.
Boil 1 glass of milk, add ⅓ glass of rice (It is better to soak rice and other grains overnight so that the grains cook faster the next day).
After cooking (about 20 minutes), place the rice on a plate or in a jar, add a little honey and slices of baked apple. As for environmentally friendly and healthy food from jars, the catering service Bankatering is of particular interest. She delivers food in convenient jars directly to the office or to an event.
Monday. Dinner:
BAKED VEGETABLES SALAD WITH NUTS AND CILANTRO
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Cut and brush with olive oil 1 bell pepper, 0.5 zucchini, 1 tomato, 1 eggplant. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
Add walnuts and finely chopped cilantro and a few pieces of feta to the prepared vegetables.
Monday: Dinner
PASTA WITH SOFT CHEESE AND TOMATO SAUCE
Boil your favorite type of pasta until al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce. Cut 2 tomatoes. Chop 1 clove of garlic and fry in olive oil. If you have any meat in the refrigerator, it will also fit perfectly into the sauce, cut it up and fry it along with the garlic. Add tomatoes and simmer until some of the liquid has evaporated. Add salt, pepper, oregano and prepared pasta. Let the pasta simmer in the sauce for 5 minutes to infuse flavor and aroma. Stir and place on a plate, add a few pieces of Greek cheese such as feta.
Tuesday: Breakfast
OATMEAL WITH RASPBERRY AND HONEY
Boil 2 cups of water, add a little more than half a cup of oatmeal. Add a handful of frozen raspberries and 2 tablespoons of honey to the finished oatmeal. By the way, this breakfast is also great cold, so if you don’t have time to eat it at home, you can put it in a jar or container and take it with you.
Tuesday: Lunch:
GREEK SALAD WITH CHICKEN
Cut 1 cucumber, 1 tomato, 0.5 bell pepper. Add a few olives, pieces of Greek cheese, some boiled chicken, a little lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and oregano.
Tuesday: Dinner
SPANISH RAGU WITH RICE
Boil ⅓ cup rice in 1 cup water.
Porezhye 0.5 bell peppers and 0.5 onions. Fry in olive oil until the onion turns golden. Peel and chop 0.5 zucchini and 3 tomatoes. Add to the pan with the peppers and onions. Add also 1 pinch of sugar, salt and black pepper. The stew will be ready when the vegetables are soft.
Wednesday: Breakfast
PEANUT BUTTER TOAST
Toast the bread in a toaster or frying pan without oil. Add peanut butter and any additional ingredients such as green apple pieces, berries or bananas. For a delicious breakfast on Wednesday morning, one of these is perfect.
Wednesday: Lunch
TUSCANY PANZANELLA SALAD
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Cut 3 pieces of bread into cubes, pour olive oil, sprinkle with salt, pepper and oregano, bake in the oven for 10 minutes.
Chop 3 tomatoes, add croutons, a few olives and olive oil.
By the way, this salad will taste better if it sits in the refrigerator overnight, so it’s best to prepare it the night before.
Wednesday: Dinner
GLASS NOODLES WITH MUSHROOMS
Pour boiling water over glass noodles for 10 minutes. Fry 100g of mushrooms with 1 clove of garlic, several slices of fresh chili and grated ginger. The amount of ginger required for this dish looks like 2 cloves of garlic.
Cut ¼ carrots into strips and add to the pan with the mushrooms. Cook for 5 minutes. Add glass noodles and stir. Add spices to taste.
Finely chop the cilantro and add to the noodles.
Thursday: Breakfast
BUCKWHEAT PORRIDGE WITH CINNAMON
Boil ⅓ cup of buckwheat in 1 cup of milk. Add a pinch of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of honey.
Thursday: Lunch:
SALAD WITH CHICKPEAKES AND FRESH VEGETABLES
Cut 1 tomato, 1 cucumber, 3/4 carrots, 2 lettuce leaves, several cauliflower florets, 1 stalk of celery, add ½ cup boiled chickpeas. Top with a little lemon juice and yogurt or sour cream. Add salt, pepper and other spices to taste.
Thursday: Dinner
PASTA WITH BAKED TOMATOES AND GREEK CHEESE
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Cut 2 packages of cherry tomatoes in half, toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes.
Boil the pasta until al dente and mix thoroughly with a few pieces of Greek cheese, olives and ⅓ of the baked tomatoes (the rest of the tomatoes will be needed for dinner on Friday and breakfast on Sunday). Let sit for 5 minutes to allow the paste to absorb the flavor and aroma. Sprinkle black pepper on top.
Friday: Breakfast
NUT OATMEAL PUDDING
This breakfast is best prepared in the evening. To prepare it, you need to mix all the ingredients and put it in the refrigerator overnight. During this time, the oatmeal will swell and become saturated with flavor.
Pour half a glass of oatmeal with a glass of milk, add 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, 50 g of nuts, 2 tablespoons of honey and a handful of raspberries. Mix thoroughly and refrigerate overnight.
Friday: Lunch
SALAD WITH FRIED MUSHROOMS
Peel, cut and fry 150g mushrooms in olive oil.
Wash 50g of lettuce leaves, cut. Also cut 2 tomatoes. Mix all ingredients with 50g nuts, salt, pepper, oregano and olive oil.
Friday: Dinner
POLLACK WITH VEGETABLES
Boil 2 potatoes.
Fry pollock in olive oil with salt and pepper. Also lightly fry the boiled potatoes in the same pan.
Make a salad with lettuce, half the remaining roasted tomatoes, olives and olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Saturday: Breakfast
TOAST WITH EGGS AND FRUIT SALAD
Bake 2 slices of bread in a toaster or fry in a pan without oil.
Fry 2 eggs any way you like.
Place a few lettuce leaves and eggs on the bread. Sprinkle with black pepper.
Peel and cut 0.5 apples, 1 orange and 0.5 pears. Finely chop a small piece of ginger. Mix fruit, ginger and 2 tablespoons honey.
Saturday: Lunch
PUMPKIN SOUP WITH COCONUT MILK
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees. Cut the pumpkin into cubes and bake for about 1 hour until done (part of the pumpkin will be needed for Sunday breakfast and dinner).
Fry several slices of fresh chili, chopped garlic clove and 2 times more fresh grated ginger in olive oil. Add pumpkin (about 200g), black pepper, coconut milk (about 200g) and blend in a blender. Heat the soup, stirring frequently.
Saturday: Dinner
CAULIFLOWER WITH CHEESE, PEAR, APPLE AND CELERY SALAD
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
Divide the cabbage into florets. Grease a baking sheet with olive oil and place the desired amount of your portion into it. Season with salt and pepper, add a little oregano and grated cheese to the cabbage. Bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown.
By the way, cauliflower is also good raw, so you don’t have to wait until it’s completely baked.
Chop 0.5 apples, 0.5 pears and 1 stalk of celery. Mix the ingredients together with a handful of walnuts and 1 tablespoon of honey.
Sunday: Breakfast
TOASTS WITH SOFT CHEESE, BAKED TOMATOES AND PUMPKIN
Bake a few slices of bread in a toaster or fry in a frying pan without oil. Spread Greek cheese on bread and add roasted tomatoes and pumpkin.
Sunday: Lunch
SOUP DAL
Fry some grated ginger, a few slices of fresh chilli and dried mustard seeds. Add 0.5 coarsely chopped carrots and 1 chopped potato. Fry until half cooked. Add 0.5 cups of dry lentils, lightly fry and cover with water. Salt and pepper. Cook until done.
Sunday: Dinner
WARM SALAD WITH BAKED PUMPKIN AND CHICKEATS
Heat the remaining baked pumpkin in the oven. Mix with lettuce leaves and boiled chickpeas (it is also better to use freshly boiled chickpeas warm). Drizzle with Greek yogurt, salt and pepper and add some cilantro.
Weekly grocery list for 1 person (to prepare 21 dishes)
The approximate cost of food for a week is 4900 rubles. These are 21 complete meals + bulk products that will remain for preparing dishes for the next week (Rice, glass noodles, pasta, chickpeas, buckwheat, oatmeal). On average it turns out to be approximately 233 rubles. for 1 dish. If desired, this figure can be reduced by at least 1000 rubles if, for example, you do not use products such as pumpkin, cauliflower and frozen raspberries. They can be safely replaced with those products that you have in stock. Thus, the price tag of products for the week will drop to 3925 rubles, which will be 187 rubles. for 1 dish.
| Product | Quantity | Price, rub. | |
| 1 | Rice | 1 pack | 40 |
| 2 | Glass noodles/Funchoza | 1 package | 110 |
| 3 | Paste | 1 pack | 40 |
| 4 | Chickpeas | 1 pack | 105 |
| 5 | Buckwheat | 1 pack | 60 |
| 6 | Oatmeal 1 pack | 1 pack | 30 |
| 7 | Tomato | 12 pcs | 400 |
| 8 | Cucumber | 1 PC | 50 |
| 9 | bell pepper | 2 pcs | 25 |
| 10 | Zucchini | 1 PC | 40 |
| 11 | Eggplant | 1 PC | 60 |
| 12 | Carrot | 2 pcs | 15 |
| 13 | Potato | 3 pcs | 15 |
| 14 | Small pumpkin | 1 PC | 200 |
| 15 | Apples | 2 pcs | 15 |
| 16 | Pear | 1 PC | 15 |
| 17 | Orange | 1 PC | 15 |
| 18 | Small size cauliflower | 1 PC | 500 |
| 19 | Celery stalks | 1 package | 165 |
| 20 | Cherry tomatoes | 2 packs of 250g | 180 |
| 21 | Lemon | 1 PC | 15 |
| 22 | Lettuce (Iceberg) | 1 package | 90 |
| 23 | Garlic 1 clove | 1 head | 35 |
| 24 | Ginger | 1 root | 50 |
| 25 | Chili fresh | 1 PC | 25 |
| 26 | Cilantro | 1 bunch | 40 |
| 27 | Fresh champignon mushrooms | 250g | 85 |
| 28 | Chicken breast | 1 PC | 200 |
| 29 | Pollock | 200g | 88 |
| 30 | Frozen raspberries 1 pack | 1 pack | 275 |
| 31 | Bread | 1 PC | 90 |
| 32 | Olives | 1 jar | 80 |
| 33 | Peanut butter/Urbech | 1 jar | 200 |
| 34 | Nuts (any kind will do, I use walnuts) | 200g | 400 |
| 35 | Coconut milk | 1 jar | 166 |
| 36 | Greek cheese (Sirtaki/Feta) | 1 package 300g | 176 |
| 37 | Yogurt without additives (Greek) | 1 pack 200ml | 45 |
| 38 | Russian cheese | 1 package 250g | 155 |
| 39 | Milk | 1 pack | 60 |
| 40 | Cinnamon 1 pinch | 1 small package | 60 |
| 41 | Dried oregano | 1 package | 40 |
| 42 | Mustard seeds | 1 package | 113 |
| 43 | Salt | 1 pack | 17 |
| 44 | Pepper | 1 pack | 63 |
| 45 | Honey | 1 jar 200ml | 130 |
| 46 | Olive oil | 1 bottle 250ml | 120 |
| TOTAL | 4898 | ||
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How to create a menu for the week yourself
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From personal experience in creating menus:
One of the most important and necessary habits that has greatly simplified and made my life easier is creating a menu for the week. I wrote more about why you need to create a menu and what it gives. And today I want to tell and show exactly how I do it.
I’ll immediately show you a few examples of what my weekly menu looks like (the cards are on the refrigerator door):
Example No. 1
Example No. 2
I didn’t make it in this form right away. Developing a menu plan that was convenient for me took almost a year. But now the process has been brought to almost automaticity and does not cause any difficulties.
Stage one, preparatory.
To begin with, I took a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down all the dishes that I can cook in categories: soups, main dishes, salads and desserts. To my surprise, in reality this list turned out to be much shorter than I had imagined (which later became a great incentive for learning new recipes).
Stage two - the scheme of the week. Using a simple table of seven columns corresponding to the days of the week, I began to compile a menu for the week in paper and then electronic versions. Without fail, I prepare breakfast every day, and on the other days I alternate: on even days I prepare soup and dessert for two days, and on odd days I prepare a second course (also for two days) and a salad. This simple alternation saves a lot of time and effort. And in the refrigerator there is always (!) ready-made food, which is very helpful in situations when “guests are on the doorstep” or “I’m too lazy to cook something today.”
Roughly my menu for the week looked like this:
Note: “New” is what is being prepared on this particular day. “In the refrigerator” are ready-made dishes that were prepared in advance for several servings.
Monday
Breakfast – Scrambled eggs with tomatoes (new)
Lunch – Burrito (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack – Grapes
Dinner – Gazpacho (new) + Blueberry pie (new)
Tuesday
Breakfast – Rice porridge (new)
Lunch – Gazpacho (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack – Berry pie with blueberries (in the refrigerator)
Dinner – Zucchini and potato pancakes (new) + Fresh cabbage salad with garlic dressing (new)
Wednesday
Breakfast – Semolina porridge (new)
Lunch – Zucchini and potato pancakes (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack – Jam pie (new)
Dinner – Eggplant cream soup with baked tomatoes (new)
Thursday
Breakfast – Oatmeal (new)
Lunch – Eggplant cream soup with baked tomatoes (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack – Jam pie (in the refrigerator)
Dinner – Crab sticks (new) + Pepper rings stuffed with cottage cheese and herbs (new)
Friday
Breakfast – Corn porridge with water (new)
Lunch – Crab sticks (in the refrigerator) + Pepper rings stuffed with cottage cheese and herbs (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack – Apple strudel (new)
Dinner – Cauliflower soup (new)
Saturday
Breakfast – Buckwheat porridge (new)
Lunch – Cauliflower soup (in the refrigerator)
Afternoon snack – Apple strudel (in the refrigerator)
Dinner – Pork with orange glaze (new) + Chinese salad with Chinese cabbage and chicken (new)
Preparing for future use – Frozen eggplants
Sunday
Breakfast – Egg in bread (new)
Lunch – Champignon puree soup (new)
Afternoon snack – Lemon cake (new)
Dinner – Pork with orange glaze (in the refrigerator) + Chinese salad with Chinese cabbage and chicken (in the refrigerator)
However, there were several disadvantages to this scheme. For example, separately from the menu, it was necessary to make a list of products for the week - look for each recipe from those that were planned for the week, and write down the necessary ingredients. In addition, I am a visual person, so for me remembering dishes only by their names is not very easy. So after a few months I moved on to the next stage:
I wrote down all the recipes that I know how to cook in electronic form and provided them with a photograph (in finished form). Then, in the Word program, I drew the A4 sheet into 5x9 rectangles (corresponding to the size of a regular business card). In each rectangle I wrote the name of the dish, the ingredients it consists of, and added a photo. In total, I got 12 cards on one sheet. Separately, I made small rectangles with the names of the days of the week.
A4 sheet with cards
Next, I checked the telephone directory and found out where in our city there is a service for printing on magnetic sheets. It turned out that in the nearest computer center. There they printed all these cards for me on an inkjet printer. For each sheet I paid an amount equal to approximately $2. I cut the sheet into cards with regular scissors.
Since the cards correspond to the size of a business card, I store them in a regular business card holder, sorted into categories: soups, main courses, salads and desserts.
Example No. 3
Example No. 4
The advantages of such a system:
Firstly, compiling a menu for a week takes minimal time; you don’t need to write or draw anything.
Secondly, each card has a list of ingredients. Therefore, I don’t make a separate grocery list for the week. When going to the store, I simply take the cards with me, put them in my wallet and, checking them, buy everything I need.
Thirdly, the cards hang on the refrigerator while cooking. I can see at any time exactly what ingredients and in what quantities I need.
And finally, it's fast and convenient. I'm very pleased.
To receive free templates for magnetic cards, a training book on menu planning, an electronic magazine “Menu of the Week”, forms for creating menus, a table for freezing ready-made meals, as well as recipes, tips on rational organization of home nutrition, menu options, etc. Just subscribe to our newsletter.
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