Meal plan which is the same each week

[2ofeverything]

When I was growing up, my mum always cooked the same thing each Monday, Tuesday etc and I always thought it was a bit boring (and some things were a bit grim - Thursday liver and bacon, I'm looking at you!). Now though, I'm thinking that it would make my life easier as it's one less thing to have to think about, and it might save me some money. There are so many half used jars of ingredients in the cupboards from where I've tried something new and we haven't liked it, and I waste so much food.
Does anyone do this? I'm thinking roast one day, risotto, stir fry, a slow cooker meal, frittata, pizza, etc.
Grateful for any ideas or opinions!

ChatGPT is very good at suggesting meal plans. Give it some guidance on what you want and it's pretty decent!

i had a fortnightly plan that worked really well.

Plus a printed shopping list for each week. Simplified my life no end.

Every now and again I would replace one of the meals to stop it from getting boring.

I end up doing the same things most weeks because I don't have the head space - or the ktichen space for that matter, so quick easy and familiar tends to be the criteria! It does get boring though.

You could do a version of this where the protein stays the same but you do different things with it. Ditto themes.

Eg. Monday, chicken, Tuesday mince, Weds vegetarian, Thursday pie, Friday Mexican or something. Then it’s not the same meal every week but you have a framework.

This is my current rotation, I alternate between a few options to stop it becoming boring, but I'll often batch cook so pasta sauce or chilli and have that for a couple of weeks. It takes most of the planning out of it, I can adapt slightly depending on what's on offer (I might swap meals around if say we're busy one night we'll have a quick meal but I can plan this in advance).

Mon Rice - chilli or curry,
Tue Jacket potatoes vary topping,
Wed Pasta with either bolognaise, chorizo and pepper, chicken or sausage sauce
thurs Rice with chicken either a Savoury, homemade nandos or Jambalaya,
Fri Egg/Beans on toast
Sat Wraps and salad either burrito, fajitas or tuna mayo,
Sun Pork, chicken or sausage with potatoes (mash, new or riast) and veg,

We tend to have some sort of curry one day, something stir fry related another, pasta another, potato based (pie, sausages or chops) another, Caesar salad but different protein, eat out, and the magical mystery meal when dh “cooks” on Friday lately antipasti and focaccia seems to feature. But the actual dishes vary and if we have leftovers that will change the plan eg do wraps with leftovers meat plus peppers

I don't do this as DH does all the food planning and most of the cooking in this household. He has a 5 week plan that he rotates through each list has a list of the food needed for the meals.

Each week usually on a Weds - He prints out the meal list for the next week, to put on the fridge (he only does it for evening meals and can choose the one we want to make each day depedning on use by dates and what we fancy). He checks the list of food needed for that week and adds anything to the weekly shop that we don't have in

Then he adds the main things we buy each week to the online shop (bread milk etc),

On Friday or Saturday he adds anything on the 'to buy' list on the fridege to the online shop - (The whole household has been trained to write on this pad if w see that we have only one of something left - eg ketchup or cereal or toothpaste or something)

Then food is delivered from supermarket every Sunday morning.

I usually do a small top up shop most Fridays on my day off to cover lunches over the weekend and anything that we need urgently that didn't make it to the online shop list. Workday lunches are a mixture of leftovers and wuick/easy stuff that we buy regularly (eg cooked chicken, salads, sandwich stuff etc)

DH has done the food plan and shopping this way for about 18 years, it is a well oiled machine 😂. He occasionally changes the meanu plans a bit and updates them, but we always have a 5 week plan in rotation. Some meals are in more than one of the 5 weeks but not many

The same thing each week is boring.

I have a list of set meals I mostly stick to and I pick different ones each week to mix it up.

I like to get things done on Sunday so I’m not cooking every night of the week.

I’ll usually do a big batch of curry/chilli/bolognese etc and have that Sunday night and then again on Tuesday and then freeze a batch for another week.

I always make sure to have an easy meal planned for an evening. Something quick like a stir fry or tortellini pasta with veg and garlic bread and then a cupboard/freezer meal planned.

I roughly cooked the same things but shift around. When hot usually salads with different marinaded chicken legs with rice or roasted veg, pasta. Korma curry made with paste, spaghetti meatballs, chilli, Mexican wraps, Thai curry made with paste, cottage pie, sausage and mash, chicken stroganoff, southern fried chicken burgers, pizza, pie,

I’ve done this now. I got sick of having to think what I needed from the shops and the children complaining about not wanting pasta cos they had pasta at lunchtime and so on.

We change the exact dish but Monday is curry night (the type of curry changes) Tuesday is chips, veg and meat/nonmeat, Wednesday is pasta and garlic bread- either spag Bol or lasagne and so on.

we don’t plan the weekends as we do different things and sometimes go out/have a take away/ a bbq but weekdays are planned and I love it!

I think I'd get a bit depressed knowing I was gong to eat the same meal, every Tuesday for the next however many years.

Plus, I tend to do more stew / chilli / casserole type things in the Wintery months that aren't as a appealing in the Summer.

I think it is normal and natural that a lot of busy working parents fall into a certain amount of routine - and there are reasons why you have to have a 'quick to prepare' meal on a Thursday night or whatever, but we tended (for example) to have mince in the shop every week, but whoever wanted to cook it chose what they used it for, and it might be on any day that week, depending on use by dates, etc.

No I like more variety but used to have stewsday when younger

I’ve never done this, nor did my DM, but I do have a repertoire of dishes that crop up in a vague sort of rotation. More of a fortnightly cycle at least, though. I usually plan 2-3 days ahead, so I can make sure I’ve got everything.

Wow ! I can't even get mine to decide what he wants to eat.

I have about 25 suppers that I rotate, with more seasonal variations.

More curries, pies and casseroles in the winter, grills and veg or salads in the summer. I'm lucky to live rurally so in the winter we eat venison, pheasant, partridge and pigeon breast as well

I'd get bored of a 7 supper rotation very quickly. I like food and would struggle to be so confined

I do this too, I did have a list somewhere with chicken dishes, fish, veggie etc. Its really helpful - pie day Friday can be anything from Quiche and salad, to cottage pie, same with mince, homemade burgers, bolognese, keema curry and so on.

I did for a while, Monday was always red meat, Tuesday was fish, Wednesday was chicken, Thursday was veggie and Friday was fish. Sunday roast. That was enough that I had less decisions to make. But also had flexibility of what they were.

I think we kind of do this, but with variations.

We always have some kind of ‘family’ meal on a Sunday - roast, casserole etc.

Mondays we both go out so it’s a second portion/leftovers of Sunday.

Tuesday we food shop so it’s something quick when we get home - pizza, stir fry or something that had a yellow sticker on it in the supermarket.

Wednesday I go and see my mum after work so we tend to have something that can be left in the slow cooker very low all day. Half of this goes in the freezer.

Thurs I usually work late so it’s a mystery box from the freezer.

Friday I finish early so it’s usually something a bit more involved that requires a bit more prep - lately it’s tended to be fish of some kind.

Saturday pasta-y, a bit more indulgent, perhaps we go out / have a takeaway.

I love cooking and planning and luckily my OH likes washing up and cleaning!

Typing that out I’ve realised we are actually quite set in a routine!

I once knew a couple who used a 4 week plan, 28 different meals on rotation.

Might be an idea, then you can meal plan and shop weekly but still not get bored with the same thing over and over again.

I have really started to get into the meal planning. Finally cracked doing the whole week. Then now moving to organising these meals to weeks to get efficiency on ingredients. So hoping to have about 4 rotating week plans which work.

Oh yes, like this.

Thanks everyone! I've got a plan using a combination of some of the ideas here which I think will work for us and will use up leftovers fairly well
Sunday - roast/casserole
Monday - risotto

Tuesday- stir fry
Wednesday - pasta dish with veg and/or meat
Thursday - homemade pizzas/frittata
Friday - Chilli/bolognese
Saturday - fajitas or fish
I'd forgotten that we have an ancient slow cooker in a cupboard so I'll start using that again, and I'll batch cook where I can.
Thanks again!

It was the same in our house in the 1980’s. I don’t recall all of the meals but Tuesday was pork chops, roast potatoes and tinned veg (was always tinned veg apart from cabbage). Wednesday was pick night, so could choose), Thursday was chip shop, and Friday was something like spag bol, home made curry. It did make life easier for my mum. I hated Tuesday’s dinner the most! We always had a Sunday roast too.

We don't have the same each week but we write a list of what each nights dinner is. I buy what we need weekly

Can i have your husband please 🙏