Meal Planning - how do you do it?

zippychick

Glad your shop went ok. I've merged this with our meal planning thread so it can help others in future

Zip

claire21

I need to start meal planning as I am so unorganised. I find I dont take things out the freezer so have to buy fresh on the day from the butcher for spur of the moment tea cooking, hence my freezer is jam packed.

If anyone has an excel spreadsheet they could share that would be a great start for me. so I can see how you do it.
Theres 5 of us (3 kids)

I feel if I planned I could be on top of my defrosting etc.

I tend to be cooking all different things for us every tea time.
DH not keen on chicken, doesnt like much veg pasta or salad, so hes basically meat, pots and 2 veg
DS 2 not overly keen on meat (hes 10 but cant seem to swallow it so it all palps up in his mouth) so hes pasta etc

zippychick

Meal planning where do i start may help or meal planning spreadsheet

Zip

bramble1

I'm trying to plan for the rest of the month, we're planning on taking on more of the property we live in but this will require real budgeting. I'm really struggling for meal ideas - where do you get your inspiration from?

Do you plan then shop
or shop for offers then plan?

Pink.

Hi bramble,

I menu plan before I go shopping but only plan for five days out of seven so that I can use any bargains I find on the other two days.

This thread should give you some inspiration:

The Complete Cooking Collection

And this thread has lots of advice on meal planning:

Meal Planning - how do you do it?

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the suggestions together.

Pink

bramble1

ta muchly Pink - i knew there would be some threads, but forgot the search buttom existed

esmf73

Bramble - to be honest I meal plan from what I already have and what I know everyone will eat. I plan for 5 meals, have one meal as leftovers or something on toast and have another one for oops'd items. Not that we always eat what I've planned, but as its mostly in the freezer anyway, its OK. I make most of my meals from scratch, bolognese, pizza etc roast dinner etc, the oops'd items are normally a ready meal - my day off!!!

JillS_2

Hi Bramble, I meal plan then shop if necessary. I meal plan using my freezer, fridge, store cupboard, and 'what's growing in the garden' inventories.

I enjoy meal planning so I usually have several weeks ahead planned. I don't regard this as set in stone so I'm always ready to alter it to use up more leftovers than I'd expected or a good bargain buy.

I'm only cooking for one so I often make up a normal recipe then eat one portion and freeze three.

When I plan I write item as:
....beef casserole or
....(f)beef casserole or
....F.beef casserole
- the first means that I need to buy the beef, the second that I have stewing or braising steak in the fridge or freezer, and the third that I have a beef casserole in the freezer.

I prefer not to eat the same thing in close succession so I work to an 8-day rota for the main ingredient which goes
white fish
beef or lamb
eggs and/or cheese
pork/bacon/ham/gammon
oily fish
vegetarian (nuts or pulses usually)
chicken or other poultry
sausages/offal/game/tinned meat(mainly corned beef)

As well as giving variety this makes it easier to think of meals - instead of thinking what shall i have monday, what shall i have tuesday,etc. I'm thinking what chicken dish do I fancy making next, what pulse dish haven't I cooked for a bit, etc.

Also, when I freeze a meal (beef casserole as opposed to a piece of braising steak) I enter it on the menu plan for the next unplanned day for that ingredient. For instance, I had beef casserole last night and 2 to go in the freezer and I've just added beef casserole to the beef/lamb days in 5 weeks time and 9 weeks.

hth.

Pauper1

Wow. JillS that is SUPER organised!! Am impressed.

I plan then shop. To be honest, I used to go through recipe books, clippings & mags and then plan what I wanted the next week, but that turned out to be expensive. Last year, I spent a good few hours going through all the meal planning threads on the OS board, and wrote a list of recipes that I like/can cook/are cheap.

Now I have that list, and a list of 'basics' food items that I restock every month & I know that I can always make something if I have those.

I do plan, but just so I don't have to think about what I'm having. I mainly do a massive stock at the beginning of the month (YAY for payday!) and then just get milk, bread & fruit weekly.

Good luck x

CH27

I plan then shop.
Recently i've been getting lots of inspiration from the Weekly Meals thread on here. I've got some yummy recipes.