Meal Planning - how do you do it?

jasperconran

morning everyone,

my problem basically is this. My OH is always complaining saying we eat the same meals every week, ie, spag bol, shepherds pie, sausages n mash etc. The problem is that he is allergic to cheese so that rules out lasagne, pizza etc and he doesnt like the same things as me, ie, chilli con carne. I have got a freezer full of beef, chicken and sausages.

So my question is, can anyone help with me with different meal ideas? my first answer is usually, well if you dont like it, then do the flaming cooking yourself :rotfl: but thats not going to help in the long run really.

Can anyone help me? I am getting desperate as to what I can do thats, well, different!!

thanks

mrsJef

Morning to you!

I'm quite a newbie to OS but have found some great info & tips on here, I'm sure someone much more experienced will be along soon to offer better advice but heres mine!!

Write a list of all the meals you intend to cook then plan them out over a month/week so it gives you a better idea of if you are having similar meals on consecutive days etc

Vary sausage & mash for toad in the hole, sausage casserole/cowpie pie, all same ingredients but if you serve it in a different way it seems different!!

Intersperse similar meals with things such as omellette, fish pie, fish cakes

Make a 2nd use of everything you can-beef casseole leftovers can be turned into pies or pasties then frozen for the following week.

Serve at least 1 rice based/accompanied meal a week to make a change from pasta/potatoes

Check out the huge amount of recipes which i'm only just finding. I suggest you look on the April Grocery challenge sticky go to about page 4/5 where there is a link to the Complete Recipe thread (or something like that!) And begin looking through, If you can add 1 different recipe a week/fortnight then you'll soon have a brand new repertoire!!! LOL

Hope some of this helps & makes sense! X

rosieben

hello jc, you might find something useful in these links

Meal Planning - how do you do it

Meal planning - where do I start?

there's a weekly meal plan thread which is good for inspiration - here is the MealPlans WE 3rd May thread

and the brilliant The Complete Menu Plan collection thread

I posted my own meal plan on the Monthly Meal Planner thread and still work to a similar plan though I've changed it and added meal oprions for each day.

Hope you find something helpful

jasperconran

wow guys thanks :T

thats really going to help me alot. I have got lots of reading to do, but hopefully now I am going to get loads and loads of ideas.

thanks again :j

zippychick

Hi Jasperconran

You have had some brilliant advice, and Rosieben has linked to all the threads I would have - so thanks Rosie:A

I'll add this thread to the first one she links to later on, once you have more input

thanks
Zip

iwanttoberich

In an effort to save some money by cutting my grocery bills, I was wondering what other people's evening meal menu was like? What sorts of food do you feed your family on normal evenings?

LilacPixie

We have about 10 meals that we seem to have in rotation. Chilli with rice, Chicken Curry, rice and naan bread, bolognese, lasagne, Macaroni Cheese, fish & wedges, HM pizza, sunday roast (chicken pork or beef), tomato and chorizo pasta sauce, sausages either with mash and onion gravey or in a casserole. We have one off meals in amongst those but those are the staple meals that we have 5-6 days out of 7.

I don't use ready meals and I bulk cook and freeze mostly.

Butterfly_Brain

This thread will give you lots of ideas https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2449817

zippychick

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

This thread will give you lots of ideas https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2449817

Thanks Butterfly brain

There is also - meal planning how do you do it -which I will merge your thread with later ?

Also meal planning where to start?

Thanks
Zip

GreenNinja

Hi iwanttoberich,

In my household its just my OH and me. We normally have the same sort of things every week same as lilacpixie. Chicken Fajitas, Chilli, Spag Bol, casserole, Fresh pasta with sausages and tomato sauce, Fish cakes with either veg or salad, home pizzas with salad, and occasionally a roast. I always add lots of mushrooms, peppers, etc when doing my mince dishes to make the mince go further and with the casseroles, usually enough meat for 2 with loads of veg will then make it do 2 meals instead of one.

I tend to look in my local budgens on a sunday early afternoon as very often there are a few things at real knock down prices and freeze them, so get my mince and red meat very cheap normally. Chicken I will only buy free range and occasionally this is on offer, so we don't have chicken as often as the cheaper meat.