Monthly Meal Planner

leeegglestone

great post, lots of inspiration. printed some of the Recipes

kit

Thank you so much!
I have tried over and over again to meal plan but always fail. Yours is so easy .... I think I may be able to stick to it. Am going to try it...... thanks again.

LearningToSave.

thankyou once again!
very helpful......i do try to menu plan but always seem to stumble but am doing quite well adopting some of this.

jdm01

Very good planning.

I try and start off with specific food days each week which then cascades into a nice meal plan.

Monday - Vege day (baked potato/veg burgers & salsa etc)
Tuesday - Chicken (anything chicken - exclude pasta)
Wednesday - Pasta (tomato based sauce with m-balls / spicy sausage etc)
Thursday - Soup or Egg (Alternate Soup & Pudding or Eggs [Omlette/Fritata]
Friday - Traditional Fish (sometimes with chips of course)
Saturday - Pitta Pizza or Homemade Pies (with Veg)
Sunday - Roast

Then you only need to think of 4 different recipes per month for each day and produce the shopping list from that.
This gives nice balanced mealtimes and gives you the flexibility to introduce new dishes, yet keep yummy favourites - cheap too as you can shop around and utilise frozen foods a few times a week to give a quick meal.

With a family of Six + Cat + Goldfish ;o), we need to plan this way and with young kids and one full time working parent it's the only way to get by!

I am still looking for tools to manage this kind of thing and produce shopping lists automatically from a weekly meal plan - Any tips will be appreciated!

J

natc

Well, I have discussed this in "Grocery Shopping Budget" thread. We are going to try and buy our food shopping, all the "dry" stuff anyway - cereals, pasta, rice, tinned stuff, toiletries etc etc from the supermarket (or b&M or homebargains if we see a bargain) monthly. And just see how it goes. Never done the monthly shop, so might be a bit weird to start with, but hoping that it will be more organised and we can meal plan and everything - hopefully! doing weekley shops doesnt seem to be working, we have been doing them for 3 years though.....but always end up having same meals, rushing, and not being organised for the evening meal, and end up wasting food this way too.

So, just wondered if anyone else goes shopping monthly? I know in the Grocery Budget thread, kate said she does a monthly shop and it works for her. Would anyone be willing to show me an example of their meal plans for a month? (if anyone even does monthly plans that is!) Just to give me an idea....

This may have been posted elsewhere, if it has, please forgive and give me a nudge to that thread!

Thanks alot

Penelope_Penguin

natc wrote: »

This may have been posted elsewhere, if it has, please forgive and give me a nudge to that thread!

Here you go I'll add this thread to that one later.

Penny. x

natc

Thats great Penny, i knew you would save me!

Allegra

I meal plan on a monthly basis. The way I do it - and I'm sure there is room for improvement on my method - is to shop for the storecupboard every 4 to 6 weeks, then top up on fresh stuff, whoopsied meat and whatever DD's latest must-have is two or three times a week. Ideally, I'd like to bring down the top-up shop to once a week, but DD has other ideas - although these frequent visits to the local shops do mean that I tend to get my pick of the whoopsies. I don't remember when I last bought meat that wasn't reduced in price !

The big storecupboard shop for us is alternated between Sainsbury's (which is the only place that sells handcream, tissues, moist tissues and dried milk in their basic range that is of a high quality enough not to need a more expensive brand) and Morrison's (which do basic cornflour, pasta twists rather than penne in the basic range, plus they have a large ethnic range which means I can get pulses, cornmeal, popping corn and spices in large quantities for far cheaper than anywhere else). The top-up shops are mostly Asda, which is walking distance for me and easy to pop into on the way from work.

The most important consideration for me when drafting the mealplan is working out how much time I will have that day to cook - working patterns, school activities and the like sometimes mean that there is hardly any time at all; on those days I will stick something that I have previously batch cooked and frozen on the plan. The days when there is a bit more time will feature something a bit more involved, whereas days when it looks like I might have an hour or two to spare I can batch cook some more.

If I have a fair bit of frozen meat and the like in already, I will plan quite specifically for the days I am cooking from scratch - for instance, sausage casserole, beef rendang, sweet and sour pork - but if the freezer is running low, I will keep the plan vague - so the plan will read casserole, curry and chinese; I will refine it as I get more whoopsies in. I will also try to keep the menu varied - for instance, not have two veggie meals in a row, or two pasta ones, or whatever - so if I have, say, four meals worth of bolognaise sauce in the freezer, or four meals worth of chickpea curry, or dhal or something like that, I will plan to have only one of each per week, and add variety in between so it doesn't seem too repetitive.

Keeping the plan vague is also useful when stocks are running low, or when, as now, the grow-your-own efforts are starting to pay off - so if I have, say "pasta" on the plan in four weeks time, by the time the night rolls around this could be chicken pasta, or pasta and meatballs, if I managed to get some meat in cheap; it could be tuna pasta or pasta and fried onions if there is sod all left in by that point; if the courgettes are big enough to pick, this will be pasta and courgettes, or it could be just pasta and wilted rocket - if anything grows regardless, it will be rocket. It's about making the most of whatever is available at the time, and being flexible despite being organised and all planned out a month in advance.

Now, after all this waffle, I really ought to give you an example of a monthly meal plan, so you can see what I actually mean, but as I am at work, I can't do it just now - I will try to do it from home at some point though...

natc

Oh wow, Allegra, that is just what i wanted to hear, a proper example of how you do it! Thanks so much posting. It really is amazing how mums (and dads) are so organised behind the scenes. you should be really proud of yourself!

I am just so rubbish at cooking, my OH usually cooks when he gets home from work, he gets home about an hour before me, and plus hes better than me! But id like to cook, its not fair that he does it all the time. So, id like to get some meal ideas together, get the recipes i need for the meals, organise a meal plan, and then it should be easier for us to do. It always seems rush rush rush, and wasting food, or not utilising it enough. Very grateful for your input Allegra, and looking forward to seeing your meal plan!

Another thing.....how do you do your plan? Im a bit of a spreadsheet freak, and can see that im getting a lot of plans/budgets going on in spreadsheets, is it worth doing one for meal plans?

rosieben

I've been working to this sort of meal plan for a few months and it works very well for me; I got the idea from a post on an OS thread (sorry can't remember who); my meals lists are quite simple: -

I don't fry anything - I cook sausages in combi oven/Remoska, bacon in micro, eggs are poached, boiled, scrambled or coddled in micro (haven't tried them in the Remoska yet); I have chips once a week but they are oven chips apart from a Friday chippy treat for lunch with my fairy godmother . When doing mashed potato I often do extra for a pie topping the next day. I use my list as a guide and I change days around as I feel like it but I have the supplies for a month of these meals in stock. In winter I often just opt for a jacket potato ....

Sunday = Meat
Roast Beef – lamb – chicken
Hunters chicken
Liver and onions / liver and bacon
Lamb shank or turkey leg done in SC
Chicken kiev
Honey and mustard chicken
Chicken breast + stuffing

Monday = Leftovers
Bubble and squeak and cold meat
Shepherds/cottage pie
Curry
Meatloaf
Hm Burgers

Tuesday = Sausages or Bacon
Sausage Toad
Sausage Casserole
Sausage egg and chips
Bangers and mash
Fidgetty pie
Bacon and eggs
Bacon potts and broad beans
Egg and bacon pie
Cabbage gallette (thanks Gingham Ribbon! )

Wednesday = Pastry/pizza
Butchers pie
Quiche
Pizza
Hm Pie

Thursday = Pasta /Rice
Spag bol
Lasagne
Pasta bake
Pasta in sauce
Savoury rice / Risotto
Chilli with Rice

Friday = Fish
Fish and chips from chippy
HM Fish pie
HM Fish cakes
Fish fingers
Smoked haddock + mash
Poached fish mash peas parsley sauce

Saturday = Veggie or other
Cheese and potato pie / School cheese pie
Veg stew
Winter Soup / Summer Salad
Veg shepherds pie (root veg)
Cheese and lentil slice
Butterbean casserole
Cauliflower / brocolli cheese
Jacket potato
Cheese/ eggs/ tomatoes/ beans on toast
Potato bake
Egg and chips
Courgette and Tomato Bake

That's my list at the moment, it easily covers 5 weeks with no repetition; I swap things in and out occasionally so its not written in stone. Sorry for the long post but I thought it might be useful to see the whole thing. HTH and gives someone a few ideas