Meal planning

strawberrypud

Does anyone stick to a weekly/monthly meal plan?

I've tried to do this but get bored with the same old things week in week out but it is easier when I do, so I'm looking for some inspiration and some of your menus if anyone would like to share them please :j

74jax

I plan all our meals for the week at the weekend with input from everyone. I then shop on a Sunday and only buy stuff for that week - only way I can afford to do it.

I then place on the fridge a list of what we are having that week so that my daughter knows what get at school.

Works for us.

Stowmum_2

We plan all our meals but do it so we can choose out of those meals rather than have set days. Then every week we come up with new ideas and so on. x

strawberrypud

What are your meal plans?

curlytop12

you'll find a lot of info/advice on the OLD STYLE forum.
good luck!

msb5262

Hello OP,

In desperation I made a list of about 30 meals we are all willing to eat, then made a table using a Word document with the days/dates for a whole month down the left hand side. The middle column lists the main dish, the right hand column lists the side dish to be served. That way I can look at the week or month and see if we're eating too much meat or not enough fish or too many pulses or whatever, and can make sure that we don't for example have meals based on minced beef three times in a week, or pasta for five days running...I also have a code which is Italic means frozen and * means bought ready made. This way I can plan my shopping easily too.
HTH
MsB

Pollycat

I agree with gem68, lots of great ideas on the Old-Style board.
Take a look at the 'what's in my slow cooker' thread.

I do a 3 weekly menu by sitting down with a cup of coffee, my old menus and my list of what's in the freezer.

I always try to include a brand new recipe each time.

And by menu-planning you can cut down on waste.
e.g. I'll buy a value pack of peppers, use some in a Tuna Risotto, some in a pasta dish, etc etc.

Much cheaper than buying a single pepper on the day you want it.

red_devil

We tend to have fish on a Monday. We have salad on a Thursday with ham or tuna and either onion bhajis or a jacket potato with butter. Our Saturday night tea is the same we have pork pepper steak marinated in pepper steak, salad and garlic bread. Sometimes we have dips and breadsticks. We have a glass of wine on a Saturday too. Its very tasty and very quick.

its not boring it would be more boring if you had no food to eat.

esio_trot

I shop for 2 adults 3-4 weeks at a time (depends what's in the freezer come pay day) and do a day or two of mad batch cooking to make "ready meals" for the freezer. Things I batch cook are mince (spag bol sauce, lasagne, cottage pie, chilli); chicken (chicken in white wine, stir fry/fajita portions); daube of beef (economy gastronomy recipe - makes stew, pasta sauce, pasties, steak pie); sausages (various sausage casseroles). I also do soups and such depending on the weather. I keep stocks of eggs, garlic bread, veggies, pasta, rice, noodles etc as side dishes or to bulk things up a bit. I also make fritattas (good way of using up eggs and any other leftovers in the fridge), pasta dishes (easy midweek fillers) and we also have a bought quiche/pizza each week as a lazy meal when I haven't had time to cook.

That's about the extent of my meal plannning (though I do try to do one or two different things each meal plan period). I generally find that cooking for the freezer means that I can choose what we eat each morning depending on what we fancy and what we're up to that evening. I just add a side dish, take the foil container out of the freezer in the morning and we're sorted.

alison6692

Hello

I have just started meal planning and I quite enjoy it (self confessed geek). I am trying to stick to some family favourites to keep an eye on the money side.
I made my own planner and then sit down and think about whats on and then make some kind of plan for the next 10 days or so. I do online shopping so its really easy. I usually have a free day in there so we can be flexible with our plans.
Its quite fun when you get into it.

Sambucus_Nigra

We have a white board and I have a list of the days; and we have a 5 min chat about where we both are each day and what we are doing in the evenings; and base our meals round that. Also, around what veg we have harvested and want to use up, and what we have left in the freezer that needs using up. If we spot an offer when shopping, we'll just amend our listing to slip it in.