anyone meal plan and happy share a weekly menu?

[FortyFacedFuckers]

Decided to start meal planning to cut down on waste and to try and have a variety of meals instead of the same things all the time. I am looking for things that are quick (I don't have a lot of time after work & before DS's activity) or that I can batch cook & freeze.

Was thinking of something like
Monday Some kind of Fish
Tuesday Red meat
Wednesday Vegetarian
Thursday chicken/turkey
Friday ??
Saturday takeaway/eat out
Sunday Roast

Was then going to think of at least 5 ideas with each category and rotating them?

Does anyone do something like the above?

[DancingDuck]

yes we do similar.

How about a 2 week plan
Mon: salmon with soy, honey and ginger glaze, rice and stir fry veg: sugar snaps, peppers, spring onions, baby corns
Tues: cottage pie made with beef mince, onions, mushrooms with a potato and parsnip or potato and sweet potato mash with peas and carrots
Wed: macaroni cheese with cauliflower, broccoli and sweetcorn
Thurs: sticky chicken thighs roasted in garlic, wine and herb sauce with baked potato wedges, green beans and petit pois.
Fri: home made pizzas with salad and veg sticks
Sat - out
Sun: Roast beef or roast chicken

Mon: left over beef stir fry with noodles and veg or left over chicken risotto with peas and mushrooms
Tues: fish pie or spicy kedgeree with peas and carrots
Wed: home made Spanish omelette with onions, peppers, courgettes, potatoes, cheese with salad
Thur: Chilli with rice or spag bol
Fri: home made chicken goujons with oven chips and salad
Sat - out
Sun roast lamb

next day left over lamb tagine

[DancingDuck]

As you can see, I'm not a massively imaginative cook, but most of these take less than 30 mins to prepare from start to serving up and suit all the family.

[WipsGlitter]

Monday - pasta with bacon
Tuesday - chicken/broccoli pasta bake
Wednesday - fajitas
Thursday - soup/toasties
Friday - take away
Saturday - steak/chips sausage/chips for the kids
Sunday - roast chicken

[FortyFacedFuckers]

Thank you, do you rotate the weeks ie week 1, 2, 3, 4 then start again or just randomly pick things for each day at the start of the week?

Do you fancy sharing a typical weeks menu for inspiration?

[FortyFacedFuckers]

Oops so slow at typing I missed the posts!

Thank you I now have an idea of where to start! I usually just pick things up in the supermarket and then spend the week trying to make it into meals.

[MrsRonBurgundy]

Monday: bolognaise with baked sweet potato
Tuesday: salmon, brown rice, spinach and courgettes
Wednesday: roast chicken breast, sweet potato mash, green beans and carrots
Thursday: homemade cauliflower and potato curry with brown rice
Friday: chilli con carne

We don't plan weekend meals due to plans changing. I batch cook every second weekend so tend to have the same dinners for 2 weeks and then change it again. And it's the mince dishes and veg curry that I cook in advance and freeze and then the chicken and salmon nights are the nights where I'm not at the gym so have a bit more time in the evenings.

[WhatWouldTheDoctorDo]

We go through phases of meal planning (and need to get back into it) but when we do it we try and do one big batch of something in the slow cooker each week to freeze extra portions for a quick midweek tea another time.

We also often have a roast chicken on a Sunday and use the left overs to whip up a 'cheats curry' (aka jar or sauce) to put in the freezer or make a chicken broth to have on the Monday night or add the leftover chicken to a risotto on the Monday.

[WipsGlitter]

DP does the shopping on Friday so I make a list on Thursday. On the page I write mon, tue, wed etc so I have something planned for each day (I don't actually stick to its Monday it must be fajitas I make what I want from the list each evening.

What I really want is an app when I can list all the things I can actually cook and it selects the Meals for me as we eat the same thing a lot!!

[EMS23]

We've been meal planning for a few months and it's massively cut down on waste and costs. I work full time so do a fair bit of batch cooking.
When we started we all wrote down meals we like so I have a list of about 20 that I rotate through and I plan one week in advance and try to match meals so that I can use leftovers.
I also forward plan what DH will feed the 2 youngest DC's on the 3 nights a week when they eat earlier than us.
Our meal list is;
Mince meals:
Chilli con carne
Shepherds pie
Spag Bol

Chicken meals:
Chicken Tonight with rice and veg
Stir fry sweet and sour with noodles
Breaded chicken and chips

Roast on Sunday's

Salmon with Teriyaki sauce, rice and veg
Fish cakes with chips
Sausage and mash

The odd casserole or pie if I've got leftover meat to use from a roast.

[Ughnotagain]

I really like meal planning but DH doesn't seem very good at sticking to it, so we try and do it quite loosely. I find its good to plan in a couple of meals to use up leftovers (so like this week we have risotto on our list).

Tonight we had gnocchi with peas, asparagus, spinach, garlic.

Also for this week:

Risotto
Veggie sausage, mash & veg
Cauliflower and chickpea curry with samosas (and rice, maybe)
Pizza
Chickpea burgers
Something with spaghetti squash...

[WipsGlitter]

See to me gnocchi with peas, asparagus etc sounds lovely but DP would be "no meat?!????"

[DancingDuck]

Mee too Wips. That sounds gorgeous on its own. But you could always add a chicken breast for DP.

[FortyFacedFuckers]

All great ideas thank you will need to get all of these wrote down & stick to it.

[Salene]

I do a 4 week one so a different dish every night

It's saved us a fortune meal planning

[IHaveBrilloHair]

There's a thread on here, a few of us share our plans each week.

Search down and join us.
I also like to do a variation of meat/fish/veggie, also try out new dishes and not repeat too much.

[OvO]

I'm making my meal plan right now!

Need to read this thread in detail and steal ideas.

Can I be lazy and just screenshot mine? It's not finished as you can see but hoping to get the rest of January filled in ASAP. With a few blank days for takeaways.

[Givemefever]

I meal plan in that I make a list of seven meals, taking into account what we have in the freezer and the fridge to use up. I then make these through the week, sometimes swapping days around if I don't fancy something on it's allotted day. Nothing is set in stone.

I confess to having a list of about 40 meals on a spreadsheet. These are the tried and tested ones that the family will definitely eat. It is added to from time to time.

I like to grab reduced food to freeze and I do need to be more organised about remembering what is in the freezer. A friend has a list on the outside and crosses things off and adds them as they are used up. But I am yet to attain those dizzy heights of organisation...

This week's meals (in no particular order) are

sausages, new potatoes, carrots and red cabbage
Fritatta(sp?) using left over sausage, potato plus mushrooms, onions and peppers and a salad.
Fish fingers, peas and chips
chicken and sweetcorn pie and veggies
chicken koftas and pitta bread and salad
pork stir fry and noodles
spinach and feta tart and a salad

Hope this helps!

[dementedma]

For this week mine is
Yesterday - meatballs and tagliatelle
Today - enchiladas
Tomorrow - salmon, noodles and peas
Wednesday - jacket potatoes with various toppings and salad
Thursday - pork and bean casserole (slow cooker)
Friday - free for all

[ClementineWardrobe]

I do meat dinner, fish dinner, then vegetarian dinner, then start again. Monday night is always pasta, Wednesday night is always something with eggs (recently, a 9 egg bonanza, massive omelette/frittata type thing, uses up lots of odds and ends in the fridge, and big enough for cold lunch leftovers next day. Friday we might have a takeout off menu but trying not to do that.

Saturday breakfast is croissants, Sunday breakfast is always boiled eggs: this never changes.

If Monday is a veggie day, the pasta will be veggie, if Monday is a fish day like today, it was Spaghetti with flaked trout, lemon and cream. I have a range of each type of meal, and a variation on most meals. I also try to make something toward another meal another night when cooking, eg I have already boiled spuds to mash later this week with sausages. I'm also trying to eat less meat, so a meat night can just be that I put a bit of bacon in the 9 egg bonanza. Hope that makes sense

[Kim82]

Ours this week is:

• Spanish chicken and rice
  
• pork with roasted new potatoes and garlic
  
• pasta bolognese
  
• steak, jacket potato and veg
  
• roast chicken dinner
  
• omelettes
  
• fish, new potatoes and veg

[OvO]

My weeks usually have 3 chicken meals, 1 pork, 1 fish, 1 beef and 1 vegetarian recipe.

Really should have more fish and veg meals but these are my least favourite.

[BirdyBedtime]

Like Givemefever I have a list of meals we cycle through - with at least one mince/fish/chicken/pork/veg dish every week. Actual plan for the week is based on what is in freezer (quite often bought reduced!), what clubs dcs have and who is home to cook.
This week is:
Mon - macaroni cheese with cauliflower
Tues - meatballs, veg sauce and tagliatelle
Wed - veg curry and brown rice
Thurs - paella (chicken and prawn)
Fri - salmon, wedges and veg
Sat - beef dhansak and rice
Sun - chicken and leek pie (mash on top not pastry) and veg
Our life would be much more difficult if we didn't plan

[FortyFacedFuckers]

Thank you there are some fantastic ideas, ovo what did you use to make your meal plan?

[Ughnotagain]

Wips my DH is veggie so no meat for us! Well, sometimes for me...