Meal Planning - how do you do it?

LittleMissAspie

doelani wrote: »

What do others have instead of potatoes?

Vegetables! We used to get a veg box delivered every week and any left over at the end was made into veg soup, so that was one day of the week sorted at least.

How about eggs too? Omelette, scrambled, poached. Pretty quick to cook and cheaper than meat.

funkymonkey849

doelani wrote: »

I guess we do eat meat or chicken most days, guess back to the meat and 2 veg for dinner every night in my mind. I do like veg like carrots, cauli, cabbage and would fill plate with it and only have a little potato. I use loads of onions and peppers when making casseroles etc.

There isn't much variation with meat and two veg, I'd be bored if I had that every night! Try experimenting with different tastes by using new ingredients and spices

Mexican spices are a great way to jazz up a meal without adding calories. Just get one of the mexican seasoning packets, I can make one of these last for loads of meals. Stir fry some veg and make some refried beans - I cheat and use kidney beans for this. Roll into fajitas. Any leftovers can be made into enchilladas the next day.

There's soooo many different flavours available to make meals more interesting - chinese, moroccan, indian, thai, italian...

I probably have potatoes once every 2 weeks because I agree that they are quite boring!

Jessica1984

I'm such a rubbish cook and i bored myself with my cooking! Strangely, ive been more into it since starting diet with celebrity slim programme. Ive had to put more thought into my evening meal and its made me look at recipes and really think about some interesting things to cook. I do a meal plan now, go shopping for food every few days and actually look forward to cooking.

JulieGeorgiana

This seems to be a common demoninator recently... as I said on another thread...

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

We got into this rut ourselves... the same old dishes constantly being recycled!!!

First of all start making a menu plan for a week at a time. I set myself challenges to make food more interesting...

So each week you should have no more then 1 pork, 1 beef , 1 lamb and 1 chicken meal (unless you are making meat stretch then you can use them in alternative meals). This way you are not getting bored because eating the same meat can be boring!

Then add in the fish dishes, you should eat it twice a week (1 should be oily fish)... but we have it at least once and make Tuesday night fish night!!

Add in some vegetarian meals for cheaper/healthier alternatives!

Then make sure you don't cook the same meal for the next 4 weeks (Leftovers and bulk cooked items are okay)!

Batch cook when you can (When I make meatballs I use 1kg of mince, 500g for the meatballs and then the rest I make into shepards pies (x2) and freeze... saves time later)

At least once a month try a new recipe (I recently tried a Nutty chicken curry, took 7 minutes prep, 10 minutes cooking time - mainly unattended) this will add exciting new things into your life.

Write a list as you go of all the dishes you have prepared, so you can look down it and select your future meals from the list...

When I started in January I had 5 meals.... my list now has up to 75 different meals and I rarely cook the same thing within 6 weeks!

Just start slowly!

Oh and you can get a subscription to the 'good food' magazine for £1 for 3 issues... try it... I found so many real gems and insperation in mine!!

I admit I also limit potatoes to twice a week... i make us have rice, couscous, pasta or vegetarian over the week!

Soups, stews and casseroles are perfect at this time of the year!

kkayleigh

Im on a budget for me and the kids and i do plan what im going to cook but i will change it if i see a bargain in the shops! I only have a small freezer which is a pain but i go past a big tesco every day so i can top up with things when i need them. its actually been easier since im on a diet as my celeb slim comes out of my budget but ive found i still have plenty for the regular food shop as im buying less breakfast and lunch stuff for me. The kids have weetabix (tesco one) for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and then i try and cook something different for tea every day.

OrkneyStar

I meal plan, mostly !
Over a week we will have something like:
Roast with trimmings (eg beef, chicken)
Chicken dish (eg stir fry with noodles or rice, stew with veggies and/or beans and/or lentils, curry with rice or naan, spanish chicken and cous cous)
Red Meat/Pork dish (eg stew and dumplings and tatties/veg, stroganoff and rice, spag bol, chilli and wraps/rice)
Fish dish (eg mornay and chips/peas, fish pie and veg, fish goujons or cakes & veg and cous cous
Pasta dish (eg mac cheese, chicken and chorizo pasta, pea and ham pasta, tagliatelle with mushrooms)
HM Pizza or quiche (any topping filling with whatever we have, served with chips/wedges, salad/veg).
Leftovers from roast dish (pretty much anything!)
Veggie dish (eg spanish omelette, green pea risotto- can add meat if want!)
Lazy dish (eg eggs and chips and beans, pasta and a jar of sauce, HM or canned soup and HM bread, breaded chicken and chips). Try to avoid but sometimes it is ok to chill a bit lol!

I make up a lot of my own recipes and sometimes we also have pudding if lighter main course.
I also try to vary the carbs- eg chips/wedges once, tatties once or twice, rice once, pasta once or twice (but different kinds!), cous cous if the meal has a nice sauce, and also try to have more than one veg per dish eg carrots and peas, or cabbage and butter beans.....often we have several but at least two is a start (and costs no more as less of each per portion!).

Boodle

My parents end up a bit like this (well my mother, as my father is quite happy with the meat, veg + potatoes every night!)

How about nights when you have stew, have bread instead of
potatoes - perhaps garlic bread or flatbreads for another change.

Dumplings.

Make something with pastry i.e. pie or a suet roll, so you only really need veg and not another carb.

A hotch-potch mash i.e. root veg with the potato

Sweet potato or squash if you like it

Jessica1984

Wow juliegeorgiana, don't think i'll ever get up to that many recipes but ive taken your advice and i'm deffo getting better!!! Such a good way to build up from nothing as its quite daunting!! I've tried loads of new stuff as i have to rethink meals with celeb slim diet i'm doing. I've got a folder on the go now and its getting thicker...!!!!

kathie1101

I am hoping that people can give me some help with meal planning. For years my OH did all the cooking (bless him) but we never had any plan and often would take 2 hours to decide what to have for tea (usually my indecision!). In the summer I did a 4 week meal plan and started to do some of the cooking myself, this has worked pretty well, but over the last few months, as the weather has turned colder, I have found more gaps appearing in our menu - i.e summer season dishes we don't want to eat. I have filled most of the gaps now, but struggling with a few. I am a pectarian, so ideally would like meals that are either suitable for us all to eat or quorn etc can be added to mine instead of meat.

Most things are made from scratch - only the Sweet & Sour is from a jar (can't make it any cheaper), and usually the "whatever" from whatever & chips is something like sausuage, pasty or gammon etc

Here's what I have got so far:

Week 1
Spicy Chicken Jambalaya
Shepherd's Pie
HM Mushroom Soup & hm bread
Pizza
HM Curry (thanks to Curry Queen) with hm onion bhaji's and naan
Roast Dinner

Week 2
Stir Fry & Noodles
Whatever & Chips
Sweet & Sour with rice
Spag Bol
Thai Fish Cakes with wedges
Toad in the hole & veg
Breakfast

Week 3
Salmon with honey & 5 spice & rice/noodles
HM Leek & Potato Soup & HM bread
Chilli & Rice
Beans on Toast
Tuna Pasta Bake & garlic bread
Whaterver & Chips
Roast Dinner

Week 4
Chicken in red pepper & chili sauce with rice
Pie & Veg
Omelette & Baked Spud
Takeaway
Beef or Sausage Casserole
Lasagne

I need 1 more meal for week 1 and 1 for week 4. I also need a couple of extra dishes, as want to make my list for a month, rather than 4 weeks & so can swap a few meals in/out if we don't fancy a particular one. If at all possible if you can give me recipes as well that would really help - as I am useless and really do need to follow a recipe most of the time.

Also, if anyone can suggest a better order for the meals, or has any other suggestions I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

Ches

All sounds good to me.