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Meal planning, groceries and kitchen

Dinner rotation

A set list of dinners a household cycles through again and again, so the week's meals are picked from it rather than decided from scratch each night.

What It Means

A dinner rotation is a fixed list of dinners a household knows how to make and likes, which it works through in turn, week after week. Instead of deciding what's for dinner each evening, you pick the week's meals from the list. The term is everyday kitchen language with no official definition; it's one way to carry out the USDA MyPlate advice to plan meals before the week starts.

Try It: How Often Will Each Dinner Come Back?

Slide to the number of dinners on your list and the nights you cook each week. Example numbers.

Dinners on the list14
Nights cooked a week5
Each dinner comes back about every2.8weeks

Each dinner has a breather between turns. Keep a slot open for trying something new.

How It Sounds at Home

  • "It's Tuesday, so it's tacos."
  • "Let's add that soup to the rotation."
  • "We've had this three weeks running, take it off the list."

The Breakdown

Buhata's suggestion: build a rotation in six steps

  1. Write down every dinner your household already makes and eats without complaint. Ten to twenty is a workable start.
  2. Mark the quick ones. USDA's MyPlate advice is to put quick dishes or leftovers on the nights that are extra busy.
  3. Mark the ones that make extras. MyPlate suggests cooking ahead and saving the extras for an easy second meal, such as a big batch of lean ground beef or turkey used in several dishes.
  4. Before the week starts, pick that week's dinners from the list and set them on their nights.
  5. Write one grocery list for the week's picks, plus the pantry staples they share.
  6. After a few weeks, drop anything nobody looks forward to and add one new dish to try.

A sample two-week rotation (an example, not a USDA menu)

NightWeek 1Week 2
MondayBean chiliEgg fried rice
TuesdayTacos with ground turkeyTurkey pasta bake
WednesdayLeftover chiliVegetable soup
ThursdaySheet-pan chicken and frozen vegetablesOmelets and toast
FridayHomemade pizzaLeftover soup

Short version to try today. List seven dinners your household likes and plan next week from them.

Good to Know

The list is also a good home for USDA's budgetBudgetA plan for a set period, usually a month, that lists the money you expect to receive and how you'll spend or save it. See more advice. MyPlate's budget guidance names beans and eggs as low-cost protein foods and frozen vegetables such as spinach and green beans as low-cost options, and suggests cooking soups, stews or casseroles when you have more time. Building a few of those into the list keeps the cheaper meals coming around regularly. USDA has also published sample two-week menus as part of MyPlate's budget resources.

FAQ

How many meals should be in a dinner rotation?

There's no official number. Buhata's suggestion is ten to twenty to begin with, enough that each dinner comes back every two or three weeks if you cook most nights.

How do I keep a dinner rotation from getting boring?

Swap out the dish nobody wants anymore every few weeks and keep one night open for something new. A longer list also stretches the gap between repeats.

Is a dinner rotation the same as a meal plan?

A meal plan is the schedule for one week. A rotation is the list you pick that schedule from, so it makes the weekly plan quicker to write.

Do It in Buhata

Meals and Shopping

Put next week's picks from your rotation into Meals in Buhata one night at a time, then add their ingredients to the Shopping list so the whole household can see them.

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Related Category

Meal planning, groceries and kitchen

Sources

USDA, "MyPlate Has a Game Plan for Healthy Eating on a Budget"; USDA, "USDA Launches New Resources at ChooseMyPlate.gov to Help Cost-Conscious Consumers Make Healthier Food Choices" (2014)

Last updated .