Lest you think I exaggerate, let me assure you that I speak from experience, as a (new) homeschooling mom of four kids, married to a man who both works from home and loves good food. We have a busy family life, extracurricular activities, wonderful friends, pet rabbits and backyard chickens, and our days are blessedly full.

When I plan menus, life is good.

When I don’t plan menus, life is stressful.

Okay, okay, weekly menu planning is not the only factor, or even the most important one, but all other things being equal, an organized meal plan for the week makes my life much easier and the dinner prep hour totally stress-free.

Maybe you know exactly what I mean. If you’re reading this blog, it’s safe to assume you are at least interested in the concept of menu planning. It just takes discipline each week — or once a month, or every other week, to sit down and make a list of meals you plan to cook over the coming days.

To get started, you should have a printed meal chart in your hands. There’s this free weekly menu planner, or you might prefer the two-week printable meal planner. Or just use an ordinary piece of paper. Write the days of the week along the left-hand side with enough space left to fill in your meal ideas next to the days.

Look over your family calender and regular activities and jot down anything that will affect meals, on your menu plan. If you’re going to a potluck supper, having dinner guests, packing lunches, or anything else meal-related, note this in the appropriate squares.

Next, fill in the remaining days with meal ideas, combining family favorites with new recipes you’d like to try. Consider ingredients on hand in your pantry and freezer, as well as seasonal foods and grocery store sales, when compiling recipes for the weeks ahead.

At a loss for good meal ideas? Browse your cookbooks, flip through magazines, watch a couple cooking shows for ideas, check out online recipe sites, and peek at restaurant menus online.

If you still get stuck, check out Secret Recipes for Your Favorite Dishes — a two-volume restaurant recipe collection you can print instantly upon purchase.

Another idea is to do some bulk cooking and both plan your menu and cook for it ahead of time. Intrigued? Check out Once a Month Cooking to find out more about saving time in the kitchen.

Do you do weekly menu planning? What’s your strategy for staying organized, and where do you get your recipes?

Still overwhelmed by the need to come up with 21 different meals? Here’s an idea: print several blank weekly menu planner sheets to have on hand and jot down meal ideas as you think of them. Collect menu lists from magazines, TV shows and Facebook status updates (friends who post what they’re making or eating for dinner) throughout the week. Menu planning made easy!

I’ve definitely found that using a weekly menu planner makes my life easier. I am better prepared each day and stay organized throughout the week much more easily when I have a good menu plan, for which I’ve gone shopping and located recipes in advance. A recipe plan makes cooking ahead easier as well. If we’re using ground meat in two recipes, I brown it all at once and save half in a glass container in the fridge for use later in the week.

In the days of the week boxes, I pencil in family activities or dinner guests so I know at a glance what’s going on around meal times that week that might change how much food I plan to make or what type of meal is served. On days we’ll spend afternoon at the pool, I start a crockpot recipe in the morning or pre-stage my ingredients (such as chop all the vegetables, soak the rice, make sprouted grain dinner rolls the day before).

Do you use a weekly menu planner? What’s on the menu this week?

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.