How to make a weekly menu for a family of 4

Step 1: Choose your recipes

Pick 5 to 7 evening meals for the week. Vary by cuisine (pasta, stir-fry, soup, stew) and by prep time — simple recipes for busy weekday evenings, something more ambitious for the weekend. Also think about recipes that combine well: if you use chicken on Monday, the leftover can go into a stir-fry on Tuesday.

Step 2: Plan by day

Assign each recipe to a day. Check the week's calendar: Wednesday is busy with sport — choose a 20-minute dish. Friday you have more time — a richer meal fits. Also deliberately plan a leftovers day — many families do this on Friday — to use up whatever is still in the fridge.

Step 3: Generate your shopping list

In Stoof set the number of servings to 4. The app automatically calculates the right quantities for all recipes in the weekly menu — adds duplicate ingredients together and groups everything by store aisle. No manual adding up, no forgotten ingredients.

Example weekly menu for a family of 4

How Stoof automates it

With Stoof you build the weekly menu in under 10 minutes. Servings adjustable per recipe, shopping list auto-generated, shared with your partner. Read also how to plan the weekly menu together and see our tips for a healthy weekly menu.