Apr 4, 2011

My Weekly Menu Plan

What's for Breakfast?    What's for Lunch?    What's for Dinner?

These are the questions I face when I enter the kitchen everyday. Even though I have a pantry and fridge fully stocked, I find it difficult to quickly plan meals. This results in some grocery ingredients forgotten to be used up, going bad and finally they get tossed. Without any menu planned out for the week, I found that we were eating the same meals over and over. This results in a cooking and eventually a blogging block since I have no interesting stuff made in my kitchen.

I realized that I need to follow a proper planned out menu, in order to make interesting, healthy and balanced meals and also use up all ingredients in my pantry. Monthly menus did not work well, since I ran out of certain ingredients or forgot to restock some of them. I hope weekly menus would be more effective and would also serve as a guideline for my weekly grocery shopping. It helps save time and make my meals more balanced.

So, you will be seeing weekly menus here, probably for all three meals of the day, probably at the beginning of each week. I will also try to link to the recipes if I have them already in my blog.

So here is the menu for the week!
Monday
BF - Soaked Almonds - 5 each, Steel Cut Oats cooked with flaxseed meal and topped with walnuts and blueberries, Coffee
Lunch - Bean burger on sandwich thins, side salad with lettuce, olives, tomato, cucumbers and goat cheese, homemade buttermilk
Dinner - Aloo Paratha with ketchup and yogurt

Tuesday
BF - Soaked Almonds - 5 each, Dosa with tomato chutney, Orange juice
Lunch -Whole wheat pasta salad and lemon juice
Dinner - Bisibelabath and homemade vazhakkai/banana chips

Wednesday
BF - Moong dal sprouts, steel cut oats with bananas and walnuts, OJ
Lunch - Trader Joes Masala Burger on Sandwich thins, Banana
Evening Snack - Ginger Tea and Kuzhi Paniyaram
Dinner - Chapati/Roti with channa masala

Thursday
BF - Moong Dal sprouts, Bread toast with homemade jam, OJ
Lunch - Left over channa masala, rotis
Dinner - Chapati with egg kurma

Friday
BF - Soaked Almonds - 5 each, cereals/steel cut oats with berries, OJ
Lunch - Rice, dhal and beetroot poriyal, curd rice
Evening snack - Kesari!!
Dinner - Eat out

Since I cook lunch only for myself, I tend to keep my lunches simple and make elaborate meals for dinner. Also, as of now I am planning menus only for weekdays. Will start posting weekend menus, once it I try sticking to the weekday menus.

If you have similar menus planned out, do leave a link in the comments section and I shall link them up in my posts.

Do you plan out your meals regularly? If so, how do you keep track of them?

21 comments:

  1. wow! good job :) mouthwatering ideas too!

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  2. great ideas!!...u have done a good job!!

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  3. I like the friday snack!!

    kuzhipaniyaram was my breakfast today :)

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  4. No menu planning works with me..my husband changes the menu randomly and so never works!

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  5. Good job Divya! I should also plan ahead to avoid confusions:) I make excess curries for dinner and pack for the next day lunch with rice / roti:)

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  6. I always plan my menue every week but off late I have started on regular basis.. if you have time check out the link

    http://simpleandorganizedliving.com/component/content/article/46-menu-plan-/139-menu-plan-4th-of-april.html

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  7. @ Smitha, You have a lovely space and a well organized menu. Thanks for dropping by.

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  8. Great job Divya, i know i wont keep up if i plan my weekly menu,u rock dear..

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  9. lol...I could not stopped laughing when I read left over chana...u have planned so much that you r sure tat u will have some left overs to eat on d next day...I dont think so that I can ever make a plan ahead for complete week as I get bored of food very easily n my mood changes very often..so will come up wid something new always..

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  10. @ Prathibha, I always make a little extra for having the next day or freeze the leftovers for a future meal :) Am not very organized and I dont follow menus exactly. Posting it here, so that I get some inspiration to follow :)

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  11. Lovely and healthy menu Divya... Liked the Friday Eat out dinner... Perfect after the hectic weekdays

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  12. Now tell me are u eating kesari for evening snack! Ok I need to visit u on friday :) Not bad the way u eat gal!

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  13. That's a well planned menu ,what a snack on friday :) hmm i love kesari .

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  14. That's a brilliant job! I never used to plan my meal but starting from next week, i am planning. It will surely help for grocery shopping too ! :)

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  15. Hi there, I tried to plan my weekly menu too but I find that spontaneity makes me adventurous. So I chucked the idea of a meal plan. I have a suggestion though. Why don't you include smoothies for breakfast? Its filling and a wonderful start to the day. My breakfast menu for the week includes the following.

    Day 1: Banana porridge - Soak a handful of raw peanuts overnight in water and blend it with a banana for breakfast. Nutritious and protein rich. No sugar added.

    Day 2: Avocado and banana smoothie - Blend 1 avocado and 1 banana with a tablespoon of honey.

    Day 3: Strawberry and banana smoothie - Blend 4-5 strawberries with 1 banana with a tablespoon of honey

    Day 4: Plain watermelon juice blended into juice.

    Day 5 : Avocado banana smoothie again.

    I find the above filling and a good substitute for coffee/tea. My husband are only weekend caffeine consumers.

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  16. @ Anonymous. Thanks for the suggestions. Will try to incorporate more smoothies in my menu!

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Hi..
Thanks for dropping by my blog and rendering your valuable comments..Hope you had a nice time reading my recipes..Thanks for your encouragement..