Menu in a Box, a membership site where all the work of menu planning is taken care of for you, is a great resource for menu planning — it does the work for you. If it saves you from eating out just once in a month, it pays for itself.

Monday: Lunch- Turkey, ranch, and dill wraps

Spread a thin layer of low-fat or fat free ranch dressing on your favorite kind of tortilla (Whole wheat and spinach ones work great.). Sprinkle some dill weed on the dressing, and then layer a few pieces of turkey slices on top. Add a slice of cheese and a piece of romaine lettuce for some extra flavor and crunch. Serve with chips and fresh vegetables or fruit.

Dinner- Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti and Caesar salad

Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti is a classic that is easy to make at home. It tastes great when you make it yourself using this recipe from Food Network. You could vary it up by making your own side dishes, and you can use whole wheat spaghetti to make the meal even better.

Tuesday: Lunch- Tostadas

Tostadas are quick and easy to make. By mixing ground beef with refried beans, the beef will go further, so it’s budget-friendly. The beans add a nice flavor to the tostadas, too. Top the tostadas with tomatoes, salsa, lettuce, and cheese to make a warm, crunchy lunch.

Dinner- Grilled salmon with red beans and rice and zucchini

Add your favorite herbs and spices to a marinade, and let your salmon soak up the flavors. Grill the salmon, and the juices and flavors will permeate through it. With some red beans and rice (homemade or out of the box), and fried zucchini squash, this spicy salmon dish will be sure to please everyone. Fry the zucchini in olive oil and add some herbs to achieve a savory flavor.

Wednesday: Lunch- Best Bean Salad

Several different kinds of beans combine in this chilled dish to make a great bean salad. Vinegar, salt, pepper, oil, and sugar add some extra flavor, and the onions and celery give the bean salad extra crunch. This meatless and refrigerated salad can be kept for lunch over the span of the week, making packing your lunch for work extra easy.

Dinner- Southwest chicken with long grain rice and fresh green beans

A sweet and spicy dinner of southwest chicken is a great mid-week addition to your weekly menu. Serving it with some tasty long grain rice and buttery green beans will complete the meal.

Thursday: Lunch- Vegetarian chili

This is a slow cooker recipe that can be spiced up by adding some jalapenos or cayenne pepper. This meal goes well with a thick slice of warm bread.

Dinner- Lasagna soup with salad and French bread

Lasagna soup is hearty and full of fantastic Italian flavor. Bay leaves, cheeses, garlic, oregano and other additions to this soup make it a favorite. This recipe calls for Italian-style pasta, but use any pasta type you wish to cater to your family’s particular tastes. A crisp and fresh Caesar pairs perfectly, and the bread will sop up all the good broth in the bowl when it’s almost empty.

Friday: Lunch-PB&G Salad

This is a quick and easy salad that you can make for lunch. Mix together some greens and a peanut butter/water mixture, add some raisins, and you have a protein-packed and sweet salad. It’s inexpensive to make, and it can be created in a short time, which is sure to make it a weekly favorite for lunch when you’re running short of time.

Dinner- Penne pasta and lentils

For a hearty but meatless pasta dish, try this meal. Penne pasta, carrots, lentils, garlic, thyme, onion, and celery are the main ingredients. This recipe is very flavorful, and it can be adjusted to fit anyone’s taste. This recipe is inexpensive to make, and it can feed a family of four for a couple of nights. It reheats well, too, and it makes a great lunch when there are leftovers. Serve with a salad and a slice of garlic bread to round out the meal.

Saturday: Lunch- Fiesta bowl salad

A zesty and quick salad will make your Saturday lunch this week great. Avocados and lime juice squeezed on top of the salad give this salad the taste you want. This is not an ordinary, run-of-the-mill salad. It’s geared up to give you the extra nutrition and energy you’ll need to get after your spring cleaning and springtime landscaping projects you’ve been planning all winter.

Dinner-Honey lemon chicken with herb roasted potatoes and cooked carrots

To make this sweet and tangy chicken dish, you’ll need a minimum of preparation time and 45 minutes to relax while the oven does the hard work. Honey and lemon mix together to make a delicious main course for this meal. Roast some potato cubes with herbs and olive oil on them and steam some carrots to complete this meal. Add some butter and brown sugar to the carrots to give them just a kick of sweet to complement the chicken’s honey.

Sunday: Lunch- Fusilli with herbed ricotta and grape tomatoes

Sunday’s lunch centers on corkscrew-shaped fusilli pasta and is highlighted by fresh oregano and basil. Ricotta and Romano cheese give this pasta salad a bit of kick, and the grape tomatoes add just the right amount of juicy flavor.

Dinner- Bagel pizzas
Bagel pizzas are an easy and relaxing way to end the week. Toast your bagels in the toaster, add your favorite pizza sauce, cheese, and toppings, and microwave for a minute or so. For extra crispiness, broil in your oven for a few minutes. This is a warm and quick dinner that can be customized to suit everyone’s individual tastes.
Recommended Reading & Resources:

• Weekly Menu Planning Made Easy: Blog post on how to navigate the challenges of menu planning to make it work for your family.
• Menu in a Box: Online meal planning that is done for you. What could be easier?
• Family Menu Planning: Tips on meal planning, with sample dinner entrees menu.

How do you plan your weekly food menus? Where do you look for ideas? Have you outsourced your menu planning to a membership site or newsletter? Tell us about it:

In an effort to get serious about my weekly dinner menus, I sat down with a blank menu and my cookbook, my laptop in front of me for researching ideas online.

The twenty-one blank squares for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for the next three weeks stared back at me and my creativity and culinary knowledge seemed to disappear. This was more challenging — and a bit more intimidating — than I’d expected.

Now that I’ve done it for some time, I can’t imagine going back to the stress of NOT having my weekly dinner menus prepared ahead of time. My husband (who was a big advocate of this idea) and kids love it. It’s easier for me, since  plan my menus and grocery shop all at once and then don’t have to worry about what’s for dinner each day — it’s already planned.

Frugal homemakers and families will appreciate the simplicity of menu planning because it really saves money as there is no last-minute rushing to the grocery store and succumbing to impulse purchases, or eating out because there’s nothing in the house to prepare for the next meal.