One way to set the menu is to set the basic ingredients and then decide that week what you are going to do with it. So for instance you might say Tuesday is hamburg day and then one week you make a meatloaf, the next week hamburgs in buns, sweet and sour meatballs, shepherd's pie, etc. so when shopping you then would be buying what would go with the hamburg. That at least helps you to have a planned but flexible and varied menu. Really there are only so many kinds of meats out there that it is what you do with it that gives the variety.

That is how I used to price out my food for taxes in the sense that I put the meat in for each day and then the extras such as jar of sauce, package of noodles, box of hamburg helper, etc.