A creative way to vary your menu plan is to use one ingredient for several meals. This method saves cooking time and helps cut food waste. Use this action plan to successfully prepare a menu in the next two weeks that includes this method.

Inventory your foods on hand

Make special note of the foods that are at risk of going bad in the near future. Also, note the foods you have a lot of. 

Choose an ingredient

Looking at the foods you have on hand, which food item do you have enough of to use in several meals? 

Ingredient I will use:

Use your other foods on hand, too!

As you look at your inventory, are there other foods you could easily combine with the ingredient you just chose?

Other foods on hand that naturally go with this ingredient:

Identify recipes you can use

Consider using Health eKitchen’s Recipe Finder. Just enter the ingredients you wish to use, and the Finder will do the rest!

Recipes I found:

Ask your family for help

Once you’ve found several recipes you feel confident to use, ask your family to make the final decisions. Present the options and let them vote for which recipes they prefer. This is also a good time to invite them to help prep!

Our final choices:

Schedule the recipes

Use your family calendar to help guide your plan. Decide which day you will prepare each of these recipes. Remember, just because you are using the same ingredient does not mean you have to prepare all three recipes in a single day or three days in a row. Spread the yum across the week!

When we will prepare each recipe:   

SAVE And Print

Click here to download a printable version of this action plan.