Meal Planning - how do you do it?

Crisp_£_note

Does anyone have a months worth of Slow Cooker recipies already planned out please?

Its not that I am lazy to do my own I just cant trust myself not to deviate and spend more money than needs be on food!

Thanks

elf06

Crisp_£_note wrote: »

Does anyone have a months worth of Slow Cooker recipies already planned out please?

Its not that I am lazy to do my own I just cant trust myself not to deviate and spend more money than needs be on food!

Thanks

I use mine A LOT but usually just use up what needs using (or whatever woopsies I have picked up!)
Normally for soups but need to 'roast' a chicken pretty soon and got some sausages that need using (maybe just in onion gravy) but also use it frequently for curry and chilli

GoodFortune_3

This is an excellent idea. It will mean you only go out and buy exactly what you need to add to your main shop. I have batch cooked for almost four decades and love every minute of my time in the kitchen. I make basic cooked mince, roast beef joints, soups, batch amounts of cooked and whizzed up vegetables to name but a few. I don't have set meals as such, but when I see meat bargains in the supermarket tend to buy it in bulk and then cook and freeze. Happy cooking. I am sure you will enjoy everything you cook. Just make sure you have room to freeze it all .......

Odette

Does anyone have a spreadsheet for meal planning? I just sat down trying to do one but Ive had a brainfart and cant work anything good out...hrumph.

Im gonna start by listing down the food I can cook.

toffee65

I've done my food shop on a monthly basis for years now. I suffer social anxiety/agoraphobia a few years ago and although I'm better now and back to work, I still find I struggle for some odd reason to go to Tesco on my own each week. So, on payday weekend I'm up with OH at 7am and hit Farmshop/Tesco/Lidls/ and lastly for obvious reasons Iceland...by 9.30am usually home with Kettle and oven warming for a cooked brekkie while shopping gets put away. In the afternoon and evening of that Saturday I start batch cooking. Even saved a couple of celebrations boxes from xmas as they freeze and microwave now.

I then have 3 weekends of the month saved for doing what 'I' want to do then

I also find shopping this way I can be more organised in how much I'm spending.

I would recommend it, although I would say you do need reasonable storage and freezer space. I'm lucky as tins and farm veg go in the garage with a small deep freeze and I have a larder fridge and freezer in the kitchen.

toffee65

Odette wrote: »

Does anyone have a spreadsheet for meal planning? I just sat down trying to do one but Ive had a brainfart and cant work anything good out...hrumph.

Im gonna start by listing down the food I can cook.

I tend to think of the meats we eat and then work out what I'd cook with them,

Mince: bolognese/shepherds pie/meatloaf/chilli/HM burgers/spiced meatballs. I then would buy 2x1kg of mince and divide into 6. I then make each dish and for eg the chilli I remove one portion into a small container and leave 4 portions into a larger container. I do this for each meal. I end up with a family portion and a onepot ready meal.

Nancy888

Odette wrote: »

Does anyone have a spreadsheet for meal planning? I just sat down trying to do one but Ive had a brainfart and cant work anything good out...hrumph.

Im gonna start by listing down the food I can cook.

Hi...I have a plan that I use but its on my pc at home (I'm at work at the mo ) but I will post it up later if you like. I also start with the things we enjoy eating (me, DS 14 and DS 12) and I look through the freezer to see what meals I can make from what I already have and then involve them in filling in the 'other' meals.

It really helps to know that its X tonight and I get it out of the freezer in the morning and can cook straight from the fridge when I get home.

I used to shop monthly but then found I didn't have enough space in the fridge for all of the yoghurts etc (and the dates would never stretch far enough) so now I shop fortnightly with top ups for fresh F&V and milk

Odette

Thanks Nancy888 that would be immense!

MrsFraggle

I do something very simliar to Nancy.

I have a spreadsheet. At the top are column headings of 'Who's home' (cos it our house it varies!), Day/Date (eg Monday 1st), then another column titled 'Meals'. Then in the final column I just write things to remind me. So the row below this one will be Tuesday 2nd and so on

When doing the following months spreadsheet, I work out what I've got left in the freezer, which can be the basis of a few meals. Then I write the shopping list based either on what we need or meals we want to eat, usually month on month we can repeat the previous months, with perhaps a bit of swapping around and there is also some flexibility if we decide we want to try a new recipe etc.

I get my shopping delievered around the 20th of the month, usually near to a weekend if I can, because then I spend at least one day batch cooking for the freezer, chillis, lasagne, curries, etc. I tend to freeze these in portions big enough for two people (so if all the kids are home as well as us, I take out two blocks). So if I know we are to be having chilli three times in the next month, I'll buy enough mince to ensure I can batch cook enough portions. I often overcompensate but that just gets carried over to the next month.

I love baking however and do bake a traybake each weekend for the following weeks lunchboxes as well as other things like quiches and make soup.

It really works for me, esepcially the batch cooking, I can't believe how easy its made my life in the week, I don't get home until 6pm, so for a chilli and rice, all I need to do is put the rice in the rice cooker and warm up the chilli.

Having the meal plan printed out and stuck to the fridge means the kids know whats for tea and I can look at it in the morning and know what to remove from freezer, etc. It also helps in that I can work out what DH can take for lunch. I tend to have homemade soups (not at mo as on lipotrim).
The kids usually take sandwiches or pasta, which is also factored into the meal plan and monthly shop.

sorry for the essay!

digitalia

I would love to batch cook, but i have not got a clue where freezing is concerned. Eg.

If you cooked chicken from frozen for a stew for instance, can you freeze the stew for another time. (Its this freeze then refreeze once cooked that confuses me!)

Can anyone help with batch cooking freezing rules.

We spend in excess of £200 a month on food (which drives me mad) thats no treats, no posh food, no expensive prawns etc) Half done at supermarket and frozen food at iceland. - Still cant get shop bill down.

I desperately need help.