Time spent on meal planning?

WantToBeSE

Normally it's quite quick, but i've not done it for a month or so now, so it'll be a bit longer.

I normally do:

Monday- lentil dish (spag bol or chilli)
Tuesday- Pasta dish
Wednesday- Jacket potatoes & fillings
Thursday-Veggie burgers, salad and veg
Friday- Pizza, salad and veg
Saturday- Leftovers
Sunday-Roast.

I keep to this as often as possible so it doesnt take much thought, or prep. All i have to think about is what pasta and lentil dishes I'll have.

Normally pasta is just a tomato sauce with heaps of veggies and salad. Lentil dish is normally a dhal, or chilli.

Handbag59

My meal planning is loosely based on what I have in, what is on offer when I go shopping. Rather than designate a particular meal to a particular day I will just make a list of meals available in the week. We are quite happy to have the same thing 2 days running which helps, I do have to remind OH not to take the "left overs" for lunch otherwise he wont get anything for tea!

Handbag59

Forgot to say regarding new recipes why not pick one a week to try, if they are a hit then you can slot them into your weekly plan. Beware of buying loads of new ingredients that may only get used in this one recipe it is easy to end up with lots of jars of things!

Pooky

I did a 4 week plan recently, each week revolves around the Sunday meat (or whatever day we end up having it). So week ones roast chicken becomes a curry or pie midweek and the stock used for risotto or soup on another evening. We have an egg, chips and beans night (home made chips baked in the oven rather than fried), this can morph into omelette or quiche if it needs to feed more people. A pasta night, either a veggi sauce or meat based but I make 2, freeze one. Jacket spuds with leftover sauces from previous weeks (I always take a small portion of bolognaise or chilli out before anyone gets to it, freeze down in portions just big enough for a topper).

2nd week is gammon (slow cooked) with a roast dinner, then it makes a cheese and broccoli pasta bake and the left over bits go in with a white sauce in a pie. Again, egg and chips, jacket spuds and a rice night

3rd week is chicken again - we like it! I'll add bacon to the mix on this week for a quiche and for adding to a pasta bake....

4th week is nice sausages done as toad in the hole or just served with roasties and veg. The rest of the pack will be used to make a casserole or meatballs. I'll use frozen chicken bits (drumsticks or thighs) during the week too.

We're not a "chops" or "steak" family, I don't have the budget for it. We try to eat seasonally when we can and I keep a lot of tinned beans/pulses/tomatoes in stock for sauces and the majority of the freezer is frozen veg, things like broccoli and cauliflower - fresh is lovely but expensive and this ensures I'm only using what I need. Same with onions, I buy them frozen and sliced - slightly more expensive but far easier for me.

I've never been one to follow a recipe so don't own any books, if I see something different to what we'd normally eat then we might give it a go on a special occasion but bog standard, everyday food that is based on the same sort of ingredients is the easiest way to go for us. I can't be doing with buying some special sort of dooflangled veg or spice just for one meal.

We do keep it fluid though. We were supposed to have bolognaise on Friday but I didn't feel great so those that wanted, just had a toasted sandwich. Saturday night was supposed to be pastry based but DD2 offered to treat us to take away, Sunday should have been roast chicken but both DDs were out and DH felt poorly so we had cheese and biscuits. I did cook the bolognaise up ready for tonight and used the pastry up making brunch treats for today. The chicken will get roasted tomorrow and we'll see where that takes us.