Four Week Menu Rotation

At some point, most of us have the “what I am going to make for dinner” thought/dilemma. I used to plan my meals one month at a time. I’d sit down at the end of each month and pore through my favorite cookbooks and create a menu for the following month. I loved it. On one such occasion, when I was trying to find a new recipe to add to that month’s menu, I was talking to my mother who told me her menu-creating secret: A Four-week Recipe Rotation. I actually remember seeing my Mom’s four-week menu. She still has it in a page protector. She said that she used it for years when we were little, and we never caught on. Only now do I realize that that is why we had Chicken Scampi and Linguine on many Fast Sundays. It wasn’t just that my mom wanted to torture us with the tantalizing aroma, it was because that just happened to be the dish on that particular Sunday on her schedule.


I was getting to the point in my life where sitting down for an hour or two to review all potential recipes for a menu was not high on my priority list. A recipe rotation seemed like an obvious solution, though I was not convinced I would be satisfied with only a month between repeats of dishes, so I started with an eight-week rotation: it worked well for about six months. Then our circumstances changed a bit (Kyle’s car accident and job change) and I realized I was skipping the meals that required a few special ingredients rather than just the ones I had in my house. I tried to stick to the eight week rotation for a few more weeks, thinking we’d catch up and get back on track. I finally abandoned the idea and did just what my mom had originally suggested: the Four Week Menu Rotation. The recipes I included are all easy to make with ingredients that either have a long shelf life (flour, pasta, canned goods), can be frozen (meat, veggies, shredded cheese, tater-tots), or are part of the staples I keep in the house (dairy products, potatoes). I’m almost finished with my first full rotation, and I must admit that even though we are going to have spaghetti next week, enough time has passed that I don’t feel like I just had it.

My favorite thing about any type of menu is that you can stock up on the items used the most when they are on sale. For example, I love boneless country-style ribs. In the spring and summer, we season them and Kyle grills them, and in the fall/winter, I stick them in the oven for a delicious meal that warms up the house. I’ve learned what sale prices to look/wait for, and I know how many packs I need when I stock up to last me for however many months. By the way, Maceys (Utah grocery store chain) has country-style ribs for $1.68/lb often, and the cheapest I’ve ever seen $1.19/lb. The same stocking principle goes for ground beef, boneless, skinless chicken breasts, and pork sausage. I love it when I know I have the main ingredients for dinners for the next three months.