Would you share your meal plan please?

[NoHopeInTheKitchenHELP]

I'm absolutely rubbish in the kitchen, end up with beige oven dinners or takeaway and my main problem is I have no ideas.

Would you mind sharing what your eating this week please?

Toad in the hole, roast potatoes and veg
Meatloaf
Lasagne and garlic bread
Chicken with salad and croquette potatoes
Salmon fillets
Steak and chips
Mac n cheese

This week it’s…

Sunday/Monday: mutton shoulder roasted with spices/harissa in wraps with salad, hummus, yogurt, olives (we got a whole mutton last week, yes a whole sheep, which dh butchered so lots of mutton soon, I’m afraid)

Tuesday - Arnold Bennett omelette (smoked haddock and white sauce omelette) with green veg and salad - we have a lot of eggs to use up and this is one ‘egg’ meal that dc seem to universally eat

Wednesday: cheese and bean quesadillas with salad and creme fraiche

Thursday/Friday: Tofu and veg green Thai curry with rice and whatever green veg I can find in the garden

Tonight - chicken casserole
Monday - bolognese
Tuesday - salmon and pea risotto
Wednesday - Nandos style chicken with grilled halloumi and sweet potato
Thursday - cheese, spring onion and bacon loaded potato skins
Friday - tomato pasta bake

This is a combination of last week and next week's plan since Wednesday is shopping day so we plan Wednesday to Wednesday.

Today - toad in the hole, mash and veg
Mon - chickpea and spinach curry
Tuesday- salmon stir fry
Wednesday - pulled pork and bean chilli nachos
Thursday - spag bol
Friday - homemade pizza, salad and chips
Saturday - jerk chicken, salad, rice and peas.

Ours for the week ahead is:

Butter bean pasta
Burgers and airfryer chips X2
Chicken curry
Chicken kabobs and naans
Bolognese X2 (with pasta one night and then spiced up with hit sauce and eaten either in wraps or with rice on the second night)

I always double up on Bolognese and am also doubling up on burgers this week as I got a good deal 👍

Sun - Prawn Jambalaya
Mon - Anchovy and Onion Pasta
Tues - Keema Curry with rice
Weds - Pancetta and Mushroom Risotto
Thurs - Bean Chilli with jacket potatoes
Fri - Pizza
Sat - Chicken traybake

lunches - Homemade Lentil and Cardamom soup, Tuna and Feta salad or I’ll sometimes skip breakfast and have overnight oats for lunch - kids will take pasta salad to school

Roast pork dinner
roast port baps
BBQ pork and coleslaw baps
Soup
Sausge, mash and beans
Soup

There are some wonderful sounding dishes being planned!

Do you all plan/cook from books, or do you just know how to make the meals?

I've not planned for this week yet, but I will go through my two newest cook books and pick out a couple of new recipes to try.

Definitely on the plan this week will be Mongolian Beef with rice, Lemon Chilli Chicken with mash, and Corned Beef Stew.

Today: leek and taleggio tart
Monday: Italian wedding soup
Tuesday: jacket potatoes
Wednesday:home made pizza and salad
Thursday: bang bang chicken
Friday:vegan burnt aubergine chilli
Saturday: pomegranate salmon with stir-fried greens
Sunday: toad in the hole.

Risoni with spinach, chicken and corn
aubergine and onion tart
teriyaki noodles with edamame and prawns
Sausage 'lasagne' from the Fast 800 book

Something I do that might help is jot down the kind of things we cook, eg lasagne, burgers, stew, risotto, then use the list to refer to when I'm deciding what's on this week's menu, because without prompts that's the time my mind is certain to go blank. And you can bet your boots nobody else has any ideas if you put them on the spot. Don't do it all in one sitting, unless you're literally lifting ideas from this thread, or your mind will go blank too. It's the empty page that does it to you.

Without being too specific about ingredients, such as which type of curry, I was surprised to find between 30 and 40 regulars. So plenty of potential for variety.

I am a terrible cook and I hate it and I have very fussy eaters (including myself) and I am time poor.

M - spag bol for 2, rice and chicken/chorizo for 1 and I'll pick at stuff or have cereal
T - chicken in piri-piri sauce with a potato side from M&S or chips
W - chicken fajitas using a kit from M&S
Th - lamb curry using a jar sauce
F - take away
S - steaks
S - roast chicken

I'm loving reading through these!
We are trying to eat through freezer/pantry and keep costs down so this week looks like this:
Today- roast chicken, leftover stuffing from freezer, roast potatoes and carrots, broccoli.
Monday - charred aubergine, tomato and chilli sauce with pasta.
Tuesday - stir fry / egg fried rice with leftover chicken, prawns from freezer, onions and broccoli
Wednesday- Ham (frozen from Christmas) with cauliflower cheese and sweet potato wedges
Thursday- sausage casserole with remaining cauliflower and carrots and dumplings on the top
Friday - Asian style salmon (Jamie Oliver quick recipe) with rice and green beans.

What I am rubbish at is lunches. We both wfh 2 or 3 days a week so in principle can be much more exotic than sandwiches but somehow we never achieve this..
So I am trying this week to have 2 proper planned lunches..
Corned beef hash and sweetcorn
Veg soup and homemade bread

@HurdyGurdy19 I use some recipes and others are things I throw together as I know roughly what to use. I love cooking though and have hundreds of cookbookd and food magazines so I've accumulated a lot of information over the years!

@HurdyGurdy19

I use the SuperCook app. It's free, and you save into your 'pantry' all of the ingredients that you have in the house. The app will then show you every possible dish that you could cook, with those ingredients. You can search by cuisine, or by the main ingredient you'd like to use. It will also highlight recipes where you only need one more ingredient.

Makes it much easier to meal plan, and shop.

The app looks like a green spoon with a pinky purple superhero cape!

Mon - Xmas turkey soup (has leftover veg and a random pig in blanket in it) from the freezer with cheese and ham toasties. Using up more xmas cheese.

Tue - spinach and bacon and philly gnocchi bake

Weds - shepherd's pie, pre made, from freezer

Thurs- homemade pork, haggis and black pudding burgers, from freezer, there still seems to be loads in there . Probably curly fries.

Fri - probably wagamama takeaway

I am really appreciative of all the ideas on this thread thank you.

I am a good cook but did noIt start cooking until in my 30s. But I am a very keen cookbook reader and love YouTube videos. I like ones posted by regular mums who just do meals of the week videos. This year I have been following a woman called Sonya who is an Orthodox Jewish woman in the us but she is Bakharin. She has inspired me a lot to really pump up the volume of meals through herbs and spices. I now put paprika and cinnamon in pretty much everything and it has transformed my meals. Her channel is called sonya’s prep.

Tonight- soup with toasted sandwich's
Tuesday- beef casserole and dumplings, veg, potatoes, will make enough to freeze a portion too.
Wednesday- ham egg chips
Thursday - pizza
Friday - pie, mash, veg
Saturday- chicken curry, will again do a double batch so one in freezer.
Sunday- roast of some sort

I'm trying to lose weight and don't really meal plan but here are mine:

Chicken with mushroom Marsala sauce and broccolli
Tuna steaks with chargrilled veg in sesame sauce and parnentier potatoes
Peppers, beans and feta in tomato sauce
Squash, sweet potato and leek soup with bread and side salad
Chicken Caesar salad

Lunches are a mixture of soup, pasta, pulses, homemade gnocchi, risotto, sandwiches.

Dinners this week.
Mon: Vegetable soup, double quantities.
Tues: Pork roast, potatoes and Xmas pudding(!) Extra meat kept for Thursday.
Wed: Breaded turkey breast (one portion for packed lunch wrap next day)
Thurs: Pork Stroganoff. Some mushrooms kept for Friday.
Fri: Mushroom Omelette
Sat: Pizza (restaurant)
Sun: Salmon.

All with salad or cooked vegetables, fresh fruit for lunch and dinner. Good bought bread, homemade wraps and 1 simple cake.
Serving 3, and 4 on Tuesday. No more than 30 minutes “hands on” cooking per day,
Budget: €120 plus pizza out.