Meal Plan ideas

[helpneedshoes]

Inspired by another thread, I really want to crack meal planning in 2020. I spend far too much time & money not being organised in this regard.

Can I ask for some tips pls, how many meals do you do? Where do you get meal inspiration from? Do you batch cook or cook every night?

Oh & do I need a slow cooker?

You don't need a slow cooker. Meal planning can mean different things. Do you want to make and freeze for the month or make and keep in the fridge for the week?

Ideally for the week I think with maybe a few dishes frozen for the month?

At the moment we never know what to cook, one goes to the shops on the way home & we just don't spend our money effectively.

I have a week to view diary for meal planning.

Then I can write in days with appointments etc so need quick dinner, plan my shopping list around the planned meals so don't waste food.

Batch cooking is great if you have a freezer. I freeze in individual portions in stacked boxes, labelled as stuff starts to look very similar! I do use slow cooker but also have a huge pot I can fit 7 litres in... That's a lot of chili!

But batch cooking saves so much time. I have a food processor too, to help chop things quickly. It doesn't take much longer to chop more veg but it saves the whole cooking time.

You can also batch cook rice. I cook 2kg and cool it down with ice packs once in individual bags. You must cool it fast, freeze, and reheat thoroughly. Way cheaper than the pouches.

Yep big freezer & have a food processor.

Can I ask what recipes you do?

I wrote a long post which was quite similar to WeirdPookah‘s. The week to view plan is the key! I look at the cupboards then dh and I plan what we fancy taking into account anything that needs using up. Easy meals are essential for busy days. There’s nothing wrong with a freezer pizza now and again. I try and double up on meals, like doing a lentil bolognaise one day and using the “mince” for a shepherds pie a few days later. After deciding the meals, I do an online shop for any ingredients we need.

I'm going to try and imlplement a three week meal plan this year. We have a very odd week to sort as DH works late three nights but at home two nights so it varies as to whether we can do a family meal after school or all eat separately - I refuse to cook things like fajitas twice on the same night to cater for him coming in late. So we are going to plan three weeks of meals and have them on rotation. I'm a bit of a 'just in time' shopper too - I'm awful at having ingredients in the cupboards for things so I'll probably create online shopping lists for each week and then that should make the shop easier too.

Bolognese
Shep pie
Soups
Stirfrys
Casseroles
Chilli
Stew
Curry
Lasagne

Things I freeze are
Mango korma (sauce only, add a protein)
Lentil bolognese
Pineapple beet'n'sour sauce (again, add a protein)
Various curry or dal
Paprikash
Plain vegetable sauce to turn into anything!
Chili
Beans with thick chunky vegetables
Lasagna (ready to cook, in disposable foil trays with lids)
Vegetarian mince (add bisto to thicken on re-heating)
Unstuffed cabbage casserole

On Saturdays, DH tells me all his out of hours teleconferences etc, I find out what the girls' commitments are, and I plan the meals for the next week.

I tend to try and make sure 2-3 meals are meat and six veges, and the rest can be stirfries, pasta based etc. Some I do a double batch and put the other half in the freezer for later.

Recipes:

Spag Bol
Chicken Lasagne
Beef Lasagne
Savory chops and veges
Chicken casserole and veges
Coq au vin and veges
Devilled sausages and - you guessed it - veges
Ditto bangers and mash
Golden sausages
Roast chicken and veges
Fish sambal
Oven baked salmon and veges
Teriyaki salmon with udon noodles
Pan-fried fish and veges
Fish pie
Macaroni cheese
Beef Curry
Balinese chicken curry
Chicken laksa
Last minute butter chicken
Shepherd's Pie and veges
Chili con carne
Chicken in a creamy onion sauce on a bed of fettucine
Spaghetti and meatballs

You don't need a slow cooker.

My basic meal plan for the week goes:

Something big on Sunday (not necessarily a roast) that we can eat leftover on Monday)

Something vegetarian

Something fish

Something quick and easy to do

One night give up and do pizza

Inspiration comes from loads of places - whatever the recipes are that weekend in the Guardian website, favourite cookery book, using up stuff I have leftover in the fridge or having a scout about in the back of the freezer so putting ingredients into google. I buy half a pig/cow etc at once and then slowly work our way through it so I just go and pick a big item for the weekend and work from that for the week.

I tend to use one book loads and then move on once I've exhausted it - very rarely do the same thing again as it's boring.

However the Roasting Tin books are a godsend for when you just can't be bothered.

My housemates and I meal plan by picking a protein and basing meals around that. So one week we'll buy a big tub of mince and make taco filling, chili and bolognese, lasagna and cottage pie or chicken curry or soups and freeze them. We might make a large pot of noodles or rice with veg or roasted veg for the week and then add our own meat or fish on the day.

The best thing to do is keep it simple at first. None of us like eating the same thing every day so freeze a lot and make different variants of things and don't mix them until we reheat them so we can eat a different meal every day if we fancy it.

This is a thread I'm following with soup recipes.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3780607-I-need-your-best-soup-recipes-ideally-that-freeze-well?watched=1&msgid=92680617#92680617

I like threads on here with what everyone has eaten that day and I write it down in my little notebook for another day.

Thanks ladies, some great suggestions & I do like variety which is why I can run out of steam after I've done my favourite recipes, I need to be more adventurous with cooking. Will check out the Roasting tin book!

Do people tend to eat with the kids or have leftovers later?

Eat with the kids, but they're older, 14, and 16, and have adjusted to a far too late a dinner time. . .

I have been for the last 4 years, challenging myself to at least one new recipe a week. I managed 70 new recipes this year! I have loads of books, so planning them in on a quiet day is great.

@WeirdPookah

We've been doing the same - it's great, isn't it?! Most Saturday, along with the diary and the calendar, we're in bed with a pile of cookbooks. . .a lot of new recipes have become old friends along the way.

My kids are primary age so we tend to make meals that we can do for them at 5pm then for us later when DH is home at 8pm.
Example - meatball’s and spaghetti, made fresh at 5pm then just reheat the meatballs in sauce and cook some spaghetti at 8pm.
Burgers - cooked ‘to order’

Some nights we will do things like chicken escalopes and the kids will have theirs with wedges and peas and we will have ours later with wedges and other vegetables.

@mbosnz I love looking though my books. I have made so many from some of the ones I like best, I have started keeping notes in the books about what I did/changed and how it was. Found some real favourites to repeat.

I do a week at a time. I have a list of carbs, a list of proteins (different cuts and types of meat, fish, mushrooms, chickpeas/lentils - if you eat more before food then me maybe add some more veggie sources) and 4 seasonal lists of veg. Then I use a randomizer to pick 7x carbs, 4x protein and 3x veg. Then I use those ideas to try and think of 7 dinners for the week. It keeps the variety going but I don't have to think from scratch.

Following!

Some great ideas - this is also my new year resolution but trying to plan SlimmingWorld friendly meals too

Can anyone recommend glass containers with lids for meal planning & batch cooking? Is one size, or are different sizes better? I can't decide from what I looked at online