Senior Chef Lesson 2: Menu Planning and One Night a Week Chef

Today’s Senior Chef lesson is simple but powerful. When you plan your weekly or monthly meals, choose one night when your Senior Chef will be in charge of dinner. This teaches responsibility, menu planning, and real-world cooking experience.

Menu planning lesson for Senior Chef teens

Kids Cooking Activities Teaching Materials

Make teaching easier with our activities and recipes compiled in theme sets and books with an easy to read format

Perfect for teaching!

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On this page:

One night a week chef
Menu planning printables
Sample weekly menu plan
Dinner recipes to try

Lesson Focus

Learn how to plan a meal before cooking
Practice choosing recipes and side dishes
Help create a shopping list
Take ownership of one family dinner each week

One Night a Week Chef

Allow your Senior Chef to choose the menu for one meal each week and help with the shopping list and grocery shopping too.

For that one night, your teen becomes the head chef for the family meal. Of course, they can still ask others for help, but the goal is for them to begin leading the planning and preparation.

This is a great stepping stone toward cooking for college, roommates, or life on their own later.

Skills Practiced in This Lesson

Menu planning
Meal balancing
Making grocery lists
Leading a family meal
Building cooking confidence

Menu Planning Printables

Here are some printable pages to help with menu planning:

Monthly Menu Calendar

Use this printable to map out meals for the month.

Weekly Menu Calendar

Plan one week at a time and build your grocery list.

Need help getting started? Use this sample weekly menu plan for ideas:

Sunday	Taco Beef Soup Serve with bread sticks
Monday	Chicken Casserole Green salad
Tuesday	Spaghetti with Roasted Broccoli
Wednesday	Sweet and Sour Pork
Thursday	Shredded Beef Tacos
Friday	Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole
Saturday	Breakfast for dinner night

Check out more help with menu planning here.

How to Meal Plan for Beginners Video

Dinner Recipes to Try

Instead of assigning one specific recipe, let your Senior Chef choose from one of these dinner recipe pages. This gives them practice with menu planning, picking a main dish, and deciding what sides go best with the meal.

For your Senior Chef night, choose one of these dinner recipe pages from the site and let your teen plan the full meal with sides.