This probably isn't enough planning for you, but normally, I have two or three menus in mind for what I want to cook next. If not full menus, then I've at least got a meat or a recipe in mind. Some weeks, two or three things might be enough for the week. For instance, if I make a roast, there would normally be left overs for a day or two. Maybe just sandwiches, maybe completely different meals. When I make pasta dishes, there's usually enough for 2 days. Maybe the second day it's just a side dish.
Almost any time I make chicken or turkey, the bones and leftovers end up as a soup starter.
I try to rotate the "meat" portion, so we're getting a variety. In the normal rotation are beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fish, pasta dishes (which may or may not have meat) and then we have the now-and-then things like turkey, shrimp, liver...and other things that we only have once in a while like crab.
And I try to rotate the cuisines, so it might be Mexican one night, Italian another, American (whatever that is) another night, Asian another....Sometimes it's an old clbuttic, sometimes it's a new recipe. Sometimes it just depends on what I'm in the mood to make or what the weather is like. And sometimes I get hung up on one particular cuisine, and we end up with that more often than others.
If I was going to actually plan things out, I'd probably start with the meats and go from there. Leave some flexibility for sales and/or availability.
I don't know if that helps at all.
Donna
