If you meal plan please tell me how to make it easier!

[Poppysball]

I badly want to be more organised and spend much less of my life in the supermarket buying that day’s food! I’ve just never got the hang of it and so am after tips please so I can try again with the return to school.

Advice please on the following:

• Planning meals that everyone likes (find this so hard in my house!)
• healthyish but easyish meal ideas (cooking not my strong point!)
• How many days to plan for at once?
• When do you shop; day, time? Same time every week?
• Online or supermarket?
• Meals that work around after school clubs & later activities
• Eat as a family or children earlier, with DH later?

Any suggestions to help me with this very boring but necessary task would be gratefully received! Thanks

We have one very fussy DS so we cook for him and then eat ourselves separately later. We eat as a family once or twice a week. DH and I are not picky so planning for us is easy. DS is so fussy planning for him is also easy!
We plan a week at a time. I shop at Aldi on Friday morning after school drop off in term time.
Our meal plan this week:
Sat- HM pizza and tomato salad -all
Sun- chicken and chorizo traybake-all
Mon- Prawn stir fry
DS - omelette
Tues and Weds- pasta bake
DS pasta and meatballs one night, cheesy beans in jacket the other
Thurs - fish, veg, jacket potato
DS fish fingers or chicken sausages, carrots and hash browns.

I do the meal plan on Sunday and the online shop at the same time. That way if something is out of stock I can change the plan.

I would suggest getting some cookery books. I like the "Pinch of Nom" one for healthy and quite easy recipes. the "Ella's Kitchen" recipe books are designed for babies/toddlers but actually have lots of really easy and healthy recipes in. Then you can flick through the book and pick something which takes your fancy - plus you'll have the cooking times etc so can pick something that fits in with your schedule.

I plan a week at a time and get the groceries ordered for a time when I'm at home (shift worker) - otherwise DH rams stuff in cupboards willy-nilly.

I write a list of the days I'm planning for, add the shifts I'm working and any other engagements we have. That way I can see if I can cook a proper meal, if we will have to eat separately (very rare) or if we will need something quick like a stir fry.

I've bought an Echo Dot for the kitchen, simply so people can add items they've either used or require - this has been life changing and has almost entirely prevented the running out of tea bags or sugar

I also don't stress too much about variety. If I'm on a late, DH and DS will invariably eat sausage and mash on at least one night. Wouldn't be my choice that regularly but I'm not the one eating it

Thank you all. Treacherous how does the Echo Dot work (technophobe here!)?

I only plan 6 meals a week not 7 as there are invariably leftovers or a spontaneous meal out which means you don't need ingredients for that seventh meal.

I do the same as treacherous, write out which days everyone is in, which days need a quick meal etc.
Quick meals might be something like filled pasta with sauce, toasties with soup, omelettes. We'll usually have something like that 3 evenings a week, and eat together as a family 4 evenings.
We'll do one evening a week something we can just shove in the oven without any prep - maybe jacket potatoes, or frozen fish with oven chips or something.
I write the week's plan on the fridge.
I try to plan meals that use the same veg, so I don't end up with too many left at the bottom of the fridge. So for example, courgette in a pasta dish one day, and as stir fry a couple of days later. Cooked carrots with sausages one day, raw carrot sticks with cheese toasties another.

I always leave one meal slot blank, either for leftovers, or something from the freezer. I find if I plan every day, I still sometimes end up with too much food, so the flexibility works well for us.
I try not to serve things people dislike. But it's a balance, you can't have your favourite every day.

I always shop in person, don't like doing it online.

The problem I find with meal planning is that come Thursday I just don't fancy chicken lasagne or whatever it is. How do you get round this?

I have a planner. I write the shift pattern on it so I can see who is in when and work out who is cooking what. I tend to plan only evening meals and if things change or I don't fancy a certain thing, I swap it for another day.

Also when making things like chilli, spag, sweet and sour, curry I make twice as much and then there is always something in the freezer if no one feels like cooking

We plan on a Friday and I shop after work at Aldi. We use a slow cooker 1/2 times a week if we know we're going to be late in - that is a major time saver. We always have a 'wing it' night where we eat what we want e.g egg on toast, baked potato and beans etc.

DP or I will also prep before we go to work e.g if we're having potatoes/veg I will peel them and leave in water in the fridge.

Any left overs go into labelled tubs and are then frozen then if we don't feel like cooking we just get them out and it's a ready meal.

It saves so much money and time meal planning. You do have to be organised but for us it's a no brainier.

Meal plan
Today - chicken roast
Mon - chicken risotto (using leftover chicken)
Tues - wing it
Weds - spag bolognese
Thurs - pizza and salad

I plan and shop for one week at a time. I shop in Lidl, so go instore and usually the same day and roughly the same time.

Ask everyone in your family for their favourite meals and see where you can slot them in to your week. If your children are old enough, 10/11+ then they can plan and cook one night or lunch at the weekend. Show the kids some cookbooks (library will have lots of ones to borrow) and they could pick out what looks good or they fancy making.

Like a PP above, I only plan for six days as we may eat out, just grab a sandwich or have left overs. Once a week we have toast and beans, simple and quick, ideal for the night we have quite a few activities on.

So once you’ve written your meal plan, write down everything you need to make those meals. Then go into your cupboards, freezer etc and anything you have already just cross off your list. You can meal plan for lunches, breakfast, snacks, not just dinner.

For recipes, just googling healthy recipes, slow cooker recipes, cheap dinner etc and you would get lots of ideas.

I plan and shop twice a week, Mon-Thur and Fri-Sun.
I have a range of quick to make & cook, slower to cook, fast and flexible, & takes time and effort.
So e.g.

• pre-brought pizza, or microwave meals
• pasta based or rice based, with mix of fresh/tinned ingredients but maybe a pre-bought sauce (eg sweet and sour)
• pre-bought chicken kiev with fresh/frozen veg
• full roast dinner, homemade lasagne

I look at the diary for the week and see what type of meal we need for each day and go from there.

Re suiting everyone. We have limited range as DD1 is very fussy (but she is out a lot these days so easier), some meals I do a variation of to allow for taste, but I never do 2 entirely different meals for different people.

Sounds obvious, but I always check what I have at home before I meal plan and go shopping. I inevitably have lots of chickpeas or lentils in that are great for stews. Check what's in the freezer etc. Always make sure i have a good stock of herbs and spices in too.
This week plan is:

• fish cakes (that I've already made and frozen) with veg
• spag bol
• Joe Wicks chicken and spinach recipe
• dhaal and rice
• Joe Wicks fish, cabbage and peas recipe
• chickpeas & lentil stew for me, fish fingers etc for DD

DD is at friends house one night and will be eating there. I also pick up some easy cook noodles for days like that when I'm home alone and can make something quick just for me.

I do it on Sundays with a cup of tea! I try to think about which meals would suit which day depending what's on that week / my fiancé's shifts (so nothing too complicated on a busy day).

Don't do online food shopping (but did when my baby was very little and probably will do again once terrible 2s strike!). I have 2 set days that I visit the supermarket so that I don't find myself in there too often. I stick to the list most of the time. I use the green grocers for fruit and veg.

Sometimes I batch cook and put some portions in the freezer.

Good luck!

I have a 3 week rolling meal plan. It’s not exact meal but one we’ll have something with rice, one day jacket potatoes, one day meat & 2 veg etc. So that’s my basic plan and then each week I see what we have in and what I should get to make meals I fancy. Online shop whenever, no specific slot.

Around me being a vegetarian, DH away a fair bit, DS1 very fussy and DS2 eating only things DS1 won’t 😄 .... we tend to stick to quite basic stuff during this phase of life!

Also I like batch cooking so usually can find something in the freezer if necessary.

Stuffed pasta and sauce (3 mins) or beans on toast/jacket spuds for busy days. Fish fingers and waffles etc all work for this.

When you have time to cook, make double and have the leftovers a couple of days later. To be honest, I do this with things like pasta bake as well. Make loads, microwave the leftovers on another day.

If you're making packed lunches, do them while dinner's cooking or pop leftovers into the lunch boxes.

Sneak veg in where you can. Make pasta sauce with veg blended in and freeze. Keep a list of what's in the freezer.

Online shop! It's easier to manage budget when you can see it racking up.

I plan Monday-Friday. Weekends are whatever as I enjoy cooking and love to spend time making something extravagant if I'm in the mood!

Bit sad but I really enjoy meal planning. I try to work in our portions of veg for each day, which is relatively easy as we don't eat meat.

Hen I started I wrote a list of all of the meals that everyone liked. As we have tried new ones I’ve added them to the list.

I do a big shop once a month early in the day. I then split packs of meat and freeze. I also make freezer dump meals (check Pinterest, they can go from bag to slow cooker). I then shop in Lidl or Aldi weekly for fresh produce. I also stock up on their offers - this weekend was chorizo so I bought 6 which will last us for a few months.

I double cook as much as I can too. It’s takes hardly any more time to make 2 shepherds pies than it is to make 1.

I meal plan for 6 nights as no doubt we will have a takeaway or left overs one night. I shop for 6 meals after I have ‘shopped’ my cupboards and freezer. I don’t stick to days as I might not fancy quiche on Tuesday but I will have the ingredients to make those meals throughout the week.

I do two weeks ahead

Mon = pasta

Tues = cauliflower

Wed = fish

Thurs = soup

Friday = rice

Sat = chicken

Sun = lamb/pork/beef

Pasta carbonara/bolognaise/spinach and ricotta/anchovy and chilli/aubergine

Cauliflower cheese/curry/pakora/roast with chorizo and olives/roast with tahini

Salmon and noodles/fish cakes/with caper butter/steamed/curry/Spanish stew

Paella/risotto/Thai green curry/kedgeree/stir fry pork

Noodle/tomato/chicken and rice/butternut squash/carrot/leek and tattie

Spicy chicken and slaw/roast/cacciatore/poached/curry/garlic and lemon pan fried

Meatballs/roast/sausages/steak/chops

Meatballs