Master Menu

Master Menu

Back in June I attended an enrichment meeting and learned about this really cool way to plan meals. It's called a "Master Menu," and the concept is that you create 28 day (or 4 weeks) of meals and every month you repeat the menu. It sounds repetitive, but you only eat each meal 12 times every year- not that often!

Themed Meals

The Master Menu idea gets even better because you organize the meals so that they are intuitive, by assigning each day a theme. For example, Monday is "Beef", Tuesday is "Breakfast", Wednesday is "Mexican", etc. So each Monday you might not remember what you are making, but you know it's beef, so you can anticipate how long it will take to make, and after a few months you do have it memorized because the first Monday of every month is always the same meal.

Side Dishes

The final way to simplify meal preparation is to assign side dishes. If you are general then you have more flexibility and can still have variety without much additional thought or planning. For example, every night we have Mexican food we have corn and rice. Some nights we will have creamed corn, some nights corn on the cob, some nights canned corn, etc.; similar story with rice, some nights Spanish rice, some nights we will have rice in burritos, some nights we will have rice and beans, but I know that I need enough rice and enough corn on the shelf that I can serve it once a week. That makes food storage easier too!

My Master Menu

I like variety, so I've created an 8 week master menu. Here's what mine looks like:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Theme	Beef	Breakfast	Mexican	Italian	Chicken	Other
Side	Potatoes Fruit Salad	Juice	Corn Green Bean	Garlic Bread Pink Stuff Salad	Rolls Apple Carrot	Peas Peaches
1	Hamburger	French Toast	Taco Ring	Lasagna	Yogurt Chicken	Lettuce Wrap
2	Steak	Omelets, Cinnamon Rolls	Tacos	Calzones	Chicken Parmesan	Chicken Croquette
3	BBQ Beef	Waffles	Beef Enchiladas	Chicken Alfredo	Orange Chicken	German Pancakes
4	Kabobs	Breakfast Burritos	Chicken Enchiladas	Stromboli	Moroccan Chicken	Pork Chops
5	Meatloaf	Breakfast Casserole	Fajitas	Spaghetti	Cordon Bleu	Ravioli
6	Café Rio	Pancakes	Nachos/ Taco Salad	Spaghetti Pie	Sweet & Sour, Rice	BBQ Ribs
7	Meatball Sandwich	Crepes	Mexican Pizza	Pizza	Chicken Monterey	Brazilian Dinner
8	Sloppy Joe	Quiche	Chimmichanga	Stuffed Shells	Teriyaki	Big Salad

Life happens and  we don’t always stick to the menu, but when it’s time to shop for the week or time to cook dinner, I know what’s on the menu, and I know that we have the ingredients to make what’s on the menu. I also know that when there is a great sale on spaghetti sauce, I should buy enough for at least 8 meals every menu cycle. The master menu has really simplified my meal prep. Another technique that has simplified meal preparation is using homemade mixes.

Mixes

I have recently started using the Make-A-Mix Cookery book to make my own mix, to further simplify meal preparation. The book lists some “master mixes” which are usually dry ingredients that you mix n a large volume and then store. You make the mix whenever you have time, store them, and when you are ready to make a dish, you add a few additional ingredients to the master mix. It’s all the convenience of a store-bought mix without the extra cost.

I love to have a variety of foods, but it’s not worth all the mess of measuring cups and spoons just to have biscuits for breakfast, or to have rolls for dinner. With mixes, I make a mess when I make the master mix, but when I am ready to make biscuits, I just measure the mix and add water, or to make rolls, measure the mix, add a few other ingredients, and I’m ready to bake.