How do you meal plan?x

[user1494423075]

My little girl is starting school in August and I want to be completely prepared at home so that her big transition into school is as easy as possible in every way, I wanted to start with meal prep for the month. I tried to do it the other day and found it really awkward to do when it came to how much I need for each recipe etc.... does anyone have any tips on how to plan a months worth of recipes with ease? TIA XX

[MrsBadger]

A month seems quite ambitious to me - I do week by week.
What do you do at the moment?
I sit down with DH on Sunday night, make a plan for what to cook each night that week (including big batches that'll do two meals; using up leftovers etc), then do the online supermarket order accordingly.

[early30smum]

I agree, a month at a time seems ambitious, maybe you could do fortnightly? Will you all eat together or will your daughter eat first then you and your partner later?

[MusicToMyEars800]

It's a good idea to stock up on your store cupboard ingredients too, such as herbs, spices, soy sauce, tinned chopped tomatoes, passata etc, I try to plan around what I already have in the cupboards, fridge and freezer.

[Redpriestandmozart]

I do a month at a time, also do online grocery shopping as I can dip in and out of it during the week adding extras. I use a word doc, 7 days of dinner in a chart. I have a separate list of dinners categorised by the carb, potato, pasta, rice, etc as we're vegan but you could do this by meat.

When I am prepping each month I copy and paste over the dinners never having same carb two nights in a row. We do homemade pizza every other Saturday night and Fridays are always a stir fry as we get delivery that day so lots of fresh veg.

[Whathaveilost]

There's was a guy on a meal planning thread a few weeks ago that did weeks and weeks of meal planning and had it all on a spread sheet.
It was really impressive and kept things simple
Can anyone remember which thread it was on?

[Parmaviolets13]

I do a month at a time. Go through what we've got in the freezer and cupboards, come up with 6/7 meals and then do an online shop.
I've managed somehow to get the online shop to around £30-35 a week, including lunch box stuff but I don't have children.
Try and do simple meals and use what you have so you aren't buying loads of extras.
A month would be difficult

[SleepingBooty]

I do a stock take of the freezer and cupboards and write the meals on the calendar, easy meals on the days I work longer prep meals when I'm home. I usually do 2 weeks at a time, maybe more if the freezer is full.

[BusyBee2017]

I meal plan using my calendar on my phone. There is a real each day for the month and when the meal has been used for that day I will change date to the same date the following month. I do change every now and again and drag to another day if we don't fancy that meal the following fortnight.

Bulk cooking I will cook mince buff it up with loads of veg and lentils recently and make one meal from half of the mince and freeze the other half to use for another meal. Choice for mince meals are loads-lasagne, spaghetti Bolognese, shepherds pie, pies, stuffed peppers.

Other times I will make lasagne and we eat half and freeze the other half, same with shepherds pie, chicken casserole, chicken dumplings casserole, curries.

Hope that helps

[BusyBee2017]

Meal each day*

[SandyDenny]

I do two weeks max but usually just one as I shop weekly.

I have quick meals for the days I'm at work and ones that take a bit more time for the other days. I make sure we have a range across the week, a pasta dish or 2, a rice one, a meat and 2 veg type and usually something from the freezer with chips on a Friday.

Make a list of all the meals your family likes, assign them to days and then make your shopping list based on what you already have and what you need. For example I don't buy dry goods like pasta and rice every week but do buy the meat and veg

[delilahbucket]

I do a week at a time. I have Good Food and Delicious subscriptions so I grab a couple of magazines and pick out seven recipes. I try to pick recipes that will use up either ingredients we already have or will avoid wastage with what I'm buying. I do it on a Friday night and get the shopping delivered on the Saturday or Sunday with a visit to the butchers on the Saturday.
There are three of us but I often cook for four so there are leftovers which get frozen. They are handy for lunches or emergency teas.