Meal Planning - how do you do it?

tigerfeet2006

I started off planning weekly. I just have a list of 7 meals and depending on what we are doing I cook which ever suits. I try to have a few SC meals in the list as we are often late home and I don't feel like cooking.

I looked at what was in my freezer and started by choosing one meal ie: roast lemon chicken in the SC. Then I know I will have chicken from that so I put down someting like chicken and veg risotto or chicken pie (can bulk up with bacon or ham or just lots of veg. if not enough meat but there usually is if it has been done in the SC) Then I look at my next meat and see what I might have left from the other meals and go from there and it builds up. I try to have a veggie meal in each week as well.

Next I look at what I need for baking cakes and biscuits and bread.Then I look at what I will need for breakfasts. Then lunch. This gets added to the shopping list along with any toiltetries.

Having done this for a while I now have sorted myself out a fve week plan. If for any reason we have to have take away then the menu plan gets pushed on a day to the next week. I freeze left overs as well for meals when I don't feel like cooking or it is the end of the month and the money has run out or for DH's lunch. In the week we all had Mac cheese from the freezer and I moved the menu plan on a day.

RhiBi

Thanks both! I think I need to organise myself more. I do buy reduced price meat, and the weekend specials at Lidl (I usually base our Sunday meal around that). I think I need to really list what I do have here though rather than looking through cupboards hoping a meal will jump out at me!

lostinrates

we like to eat somewhat seasonally, but not exclusively...for example,we're grateful for year round tomatoes! My meal planning is a bit different now because I'm here alone 4/5 days a week, but when H and I were together every evening, I used to meal plan for ten days. This meant that un foreseen social occasions, and changed plans generally meant we had overspill for two weeks meal plans (but we picked up the appropriate fresh stuff every few days but kept to list). If shopping I see reduced things not needed for the eal plan I can shuffle them in, or throw them in the freezer putting them on the next meal plan. when I don't do that...like now...I tend to lose track of the freezer and it becomes a foreign land to me!

rosieben

I started off with a list of meals I liked and knew I could cook

now I keep an inventory of what's in my pantry and my freezer and list ideas for what I want to use up. I'm working on a monthly plan now, I don't have a monday - sunday list, just a list of meals and I choose what I want to eat each day

check out Ten Tips to Simplify Meal Planning at Creative Organising

my list is here - as you see I list the base of the meal rather than the meal itself so can take advantage of good offers; there are other ideas on that thread, worth a read through

JulieGeorgiana

I make a plan which balances chicken/beef/pork/fish and vegetarian meals!

I had a list of all the meals I make and I slot them into an 8 week plan and try and make pork every 2 weeks, beef every 2 weeks, fish on tuesdays (sometimes twice a week, but careful with oily fish, but I make sure that's in there too) vegetarian once or twice a week and Chicken most weeks!

I rely heavily on meals which do 2 meals at least... and try and make Thursday night hassle free due to shopping and cubs!!!

After the 8 week plan is done (trying to avoid repeating meals) and cycle this every 8 weeks!

At the start of 8 weeks I look at my diary and change things if needs be (ie. I don't have my son, or we have guests). I also change some meals according to seasonal foods too.

I put this on a spreadsheet.

Then at the start of 8 weeks I buy all the meat I need for the planned meals from the butchers.

At the start of each 4 weeks I buy everything I need for 4 weeks dinners/lunch/breakfast apart from fruit and fresh veg... and then the 3 weeks after the 'big shop' I just buy fresh fruit and veg.

I do buy milk every 2 weeks as they take up a lot of room in the freezer.

I admit though with my health issues I find this the best way... as I have to adapt all the recipies for my specifications... so this way I know I am eating a balanced diet that I require x

Good Luck x

Ps... happy to share my template if you want x

mrsb83_2

I plan every Sunday and shop every Tuesday.

I take a look/remember what fresh food is in the fridge (maybe I didn't make one of my planned meals from the week before, or maybe there are letovers etc), then check what meat I have in the freezer, and sit down to think what I'd like to cook/eat.

I type my list into Tesco online to get the price, check the special offers and make any amendments. I then print off the list and shop in the store.

I plan for 6 evening meals and two lunches for the weekend. We'll buy our evening meal once a week, perhaps a takeaway, chips, or just pick up something we fancy from the supermarket on the way back from work.

Savannah02K

Don't menu plan for a month, just make a quick note every night of what you had for evening meal (if you liked it of course) then after a month look back at your notes. Pal put her choices in table form, cut the individual lines up and moved them around on the kitchen table till she found a 28 day plan that she thought would work. Obviously if you see really good bargains in the shops, buy those and sub for that day's or the following day's meal. e.g. I picked up 4 quiches reduced to 70p the other day, froze 3 and we had the other one for our tea that night. Every other week we'll have one of the other 3 instead of one of that night's meals.

Bitsy_Beans

I CBA to plan weekly so I basically wrote a list of all the meals we like to eat, allocated one per day and have a 5 week menu planner to work from. Only a couple of things are repeated. I only stick to this loosely, I really ought to get stuck back into it If I buy any bargains (rare due to the free time I have to shop (child free ) then I would either freeze and incorporate into future weeks. My planner is flexible because we don't always fancy what's allocated but it works for us.

kazmeister

Hi - this is what I copied from a PM I sent to someone who asked the same question 4 years ago - have I been here that long!


For whatever reasons I had cupboardfuls and freezers full of food but still didnt know what to do for tea each night and invariably went and bought more. OH didnt help either as when he picked DD up from school they used to go to Mr T's and he would come home with carrier bags of yellow stickered stuff.

I however realised it was ridiculous and started by making a list of everything in the freezer which I now keep in a folder in the kitchen which I have been using for over a year now. I date it when I put it in so I can rotate the older stuff as I used to find stuff that had been in there 2 - 3 years! Recently I have made a list of cupboard contents and I have a lot as well.

I now meal plan as follows
1 x Roast day
1 x Pasta day
1 x Rice day
1 x Meat day
1 x Fish day
1 x Snack day
1 x Other day

This gives us a variety and you will soon build up loads of different things to do (I have just recently checked my old lists and found that the max amount we have had 1 dish is 6 times in 15 weeks)

I start with the roast (using what I have from the freezer) as usually I can get another meal for the 4 of us (2 kids 8 and 15). So roast pork on Sunday becomes sweet n sour pork eg on Tuesday (which would become Rice day) so thats 2 days done and to the shopping list I have added veg, a jar of sweet n sour sauce ( i use Sharwoods small jar with no bits in) and maybe a pineapple (as hate tinned). Then I find something from the freezer to fill in one of the other days and then only add things to the shopping list that we havent got. To me its a really easy plan to follow and it seems to work and I dont do anything too complicated. Snack day is usually planned around when we have to rush out to sports clubs etc and need something quick.

Heres some ideas
Roast - Chicken, Pork, Beef. Lamb, Turkey
Pasta - Spag bol, Macaroni cheese, Sausage pasta, Pasta Carbonara,
Meat - Cold roast, chips n beans, Pork chops, Lamb chops, Sausage and Mash. Sausage casserole, Shepherds or Cottage pie (made by mincing leftover roast), Toad in the hole, Beef casserole (with dumplings) Liver & Bacon, Spanish Stew, Steak Pie n veg.
Fish - Fish fingers, Tuna/Tomato stew, Grilled Rainbow Trout (both kids love it), Fish cakes, Pan fried cod with HM chips or mash, Fish casserole.
Rice - Chicken Curry, Sweet n Sour, Chilli con Carne (mild for kids) Kebabs with a rice salad, Kedgeree or anything served with rice
Snacks - Sausage Pasta, Hot Dogs, Pizza, Tortilla wraps, Fish n Chips, Omelette, Chicken and Ham rolls, Burgers, Quiche, Jacket Potatoes, Salad
Other - Can be a duplication of any other day, a takeaway, Meal out, or leftovers from the fridge/freezer.

By using this plan I have really reduced the contents of my freezer (but not emptied it yet) and if I see a special offer at least now I have the room to put it in. It also means that I can check what I need for the next day and get it out of the freezer in advance so that when I get in from work at 5 we can have tea on the table by 6 instead of 8!

Try if for a month and see if you can stick within your budge and remember Martins mantra - do I need it etc.

In addition to the above I love Easycook magazine which comes out every couple of months which I get loads of ideas from.

Cheers
Kaz

foxgloves

I base mine on what's ready to pick to eat in the garden, what I've got in the storebupboad & freezer, what bargains are about when I shop & what I fancy eating!