5 Ways to Make Your Weekly Menu More Exciting

November 10, 2017

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It happens to the best of us. We sit down to dinner and think, “Oh man. The same thing again?” It’s at that first bite that we realize our weekly menu has gotten stale and repetitive. Boring! It’s time to switch it up! So today I’m sharing a few easy ways we keep our weekly menu exciting and delicious!

If you have picky eaters at home, you might have to play around a bit to make a new menu that everyone can enjoy. But if you let the family get in on the meal planning, you’ll be able to please everyone’s palates and make grocery shopping a whole lot easier!

Eat seasonally

One of my favorite ways to add new flavors to our weekly menu is to eat seasonally. Hit up the farmer’s market and discover a new fruit or vegetable. Add apples to savory dishes or try a new squash like delicata squash.

I have seriously stopped people at the farmer’s market and asked them what they were buying and how they were cooking it. They might have thought I was crazy, but I added a delicious, new food to our menu!

Eating seasonally not only allows you to try new things, but it’s often a lot cheaper. So research seasonal produce for your region and get shopping!

Finally make those recipes you pinned

How many of the recipes that you’ve pinned have you actually made? I know. I’m guilty of recipe hoarding, too. Lately, I’ve been trying to make it a point to try at least one Pinterest recipe a week. All of those recipes aren’t going to do any good just sitting in my Pinterest account!

Most of the recent recipes I’ve tried have come from my Slow Cooker board. It’s a great time of year to break out the slow cooker. Search Pinterest for new slow cooker recipes to switch up your weekly menu! Make it a goal of yours to try one new Pinterest recipe a week from one of your recipe boards!

Have a theme night

I love a good theme night! Just recently, I decided to clean out the fridge and make a bunch of appetizers. So we had an appetizer night consisting of a variety of finger foods.

We also love Taco Tuesday in this house. Instead of making beef tacos in a hard shell each week, we switch it up! Some weeks we’ll have nachos and others we’ll have enchiladas. If I want to make traditional tacos, maybe I’ll make them in soft shells instead of hard shells. It’s an easy theme to switch around each week!

Theme nights are a great way to keep consistency in your menu while changing up flavors and ingredients!

Write out your meal plan on something pretty

Meal planning became a lot easier once I had something nice to write it out on every week. A few years back, I took an old window and made a chalkboard out of it. I immediately knew I wanted to hang it in the kitchen and use it as our weekly meal planner. I’ve been using it every week since!

Writing out my menu also makes it easier to see if our meals have gotten repetitive. I’ll try to make each new week different from the last. It’s a visual thing!

Keep track of ingredients you have on hand

I can’t tell you how many weeks I’ve gone food shopping only to realize I already have the ingredients I’ve purchased in the freezer already. That’s why I like to keep track of them with a Freezer Inventory Printable. Knowing what you have on hand will allow you to easily mix and match ingredients to make new meals.

Every week, I like to see what’s in the fridge and what I can make with it with ingredients I have in the pantry. It not only gives our meals a little variety, but keeps our grocery budget in check, too!