How do you actually meal plan?

[30dayss]

If you successfully meal plan most of the time, how do you do it?

Do you sit down at the beginning of the week and decide what to cook that week? Is it the same plan each week? Or do you have set number of meals you rotate through? Or maybe you batch cook and plan around that? Or do you do something else?

I dont mind cooking (with some provisos). It's the deciding what to cook that makes me mad and stops me from cooking. It falls to me for practical reasons and I'm wasting my breath asking anyone else for ideas.

We need to start budgeting food and we waste so much because we buy random stuff with vague intentions.

We've tried meal planning before but have never stuck to it.

I'm thinking of having maybe 10 meals on rotation. Then it's not too complicated but doesn't seem too repetitive?

We don't have a rotation, but do have a record of meals we've made and enjoyed. Currently just husband and I so don't have children to consider!

We do a weekly delivery and meal plan when shopping. Things we generally would consider:

Plans- including work commitments/days in office. Make sure we have quick meals or leftovers those days.

Meals that use similar ingredients in different ways. Stops us chucking half packs of things.

Variety. If we're having lots of the same protein, how do we serve it so it isn't boring? Different sides/seasoning etc.

Offers/discounts. Especially on proteins to bring down cost of shop.

At least one batch cook for lunch leftovers to reduce amount spent on lunches at work.

Our meals this week:

Chicken saag (6 portions so had two lunches each)
Pasta bake
Beef and bean enchiladas
Masala fishcakes, mashed potato and veg
Bacon and asparagus pesto pasta
Chicken satay noodles
Mac and cheese with chicken tenders (a rare legless treat!!!)
Bbq (if weather holds out!!)

On a Saturday morning we decide what we're eating for the week. We tend to have a pasta dish on a Tuesday and a curry dish on a Thursday and the rest of the time we cycle through other meals e.g. we might have risotto, stir fry noodles or ramen noodles, chilli/enchiladas, a roast, pulled pork or bbq ribs, fajitas, etc

Dh then does a shopping list with everything required and buys it that day. He is good at batch cooking chilli, curry, bolognese sauces so that they can just be taken out to defrost on the day we need them

New meal plan every Saturday ready for the Sunday food shop.

I try to do one big pot meal which will serve dinner for a night or two and then have some left to freeze. This is usually something like a chilli or curry or bolognese. Then I would serve say chilli one night with rice, another night in wraps with cheese and then freeze a batch for another week.

When planning what meals to have I try and combine meals where the ingredients can be fully used up. So if I bought a pack of spinach to use for say a pasta bake I would also plan a curry so I could chuck it in there too.

Easy meals to have in rotation are:

chilli con carne bulked out with tins of mixed beans.

bolognese bulked out with lentils.

Curries with any veg that need eating up.

Pasta bakes made with any veg that needs eating up and use tinned tomatoes blitzed up with herbs instead of jarred pasta sauces

To bring your budget down:

Dont buy the one portion pre cooked rice packets. I know it takes longer to make but just stick with a big bag of brown rice and cook what you need and when.

Things like salmon and fish are a lot cheaper frozen.

If you eat meat try cutting it out of a few evening meals a week. It’s good for your health and your budget.

I just roughly have a mental list of meals I like and are firm regulars, cheap meals to bulk the days out eg something on toast, egg and chips, jacket spuds. Freezer meal days
And then sometimes will buy stuff for a meal I want to try
I batch cook and freeze portions of the firm favourites but not always as my freezer is small.
I go to lidl and aldi for my main shop ans usually buy roughly the same bits and ensure always cupboard stuff in and then just buy meat that's on offer and think about what meals to have in rotation to use that up then buy veg to suit. Usually do top up shops for veg and fruits and fresh baguette

How many are you planning for? Any allergies or special diets?

I plan on Friday or Saturday and order online so the groceries arrive Sunday.

I plan for mon-fri, sometimes Sunday. I look at who will be eating dinner each night. We are an ND household so there are very few things we all eat, but if we're having salmon DD will have something else that's fishy. I'm trying to get DD and DS to be able to cook something on my longer work day. I might introduce something new if I have seen something on Instagram, or if I'm feeling particularly energetic. It also depends if DD is having school dinner that day, if we have guides, judo or dh is at work. I try to go vegetarian one night, pork, beef, chicken and fish. Sometimes if we are busy I will make a bigger portion so we can have leftovers. Sometimes I batch of prep and freeze.

Why not borrow some books from the library to see which ones suit you? I like nosh for busy mums and dads, and the batch lady has LOADS of meal plans.

Oh and anything that makes your life easier - do it. Chopped onions for the freezer, garlic in a tube - use all the shortcuts you need.

My plan is vaguely Saturday to Saturday, with some leeway for weekend fun.
I tend to do :
1 pasta (puttanesca, gnocchi, bake etc)
1 fish ( pie, stir fry, chips etc)
1 freezer food
1 easy (something on toast, omelette, soup etc)
1 out/takeaway
Then another 3.
I go through the fridge/freezer/cupboard and see what needs using up.
If I can, I make enough for leftovers for lunch the following day.
I try to do at least one new or unfamiliar recipe a week to mix it up.

We discuss at the start of the week what emails we will have that week. It's different every week but there are some things we have most weeks such as a chilli con carne or a bolognese. We then go shopping for the full week's items if possible or more likely for half the week so that the food is fresh and then ship midweek.

The kids have a two week school lunch menu that changes every half term, so I always get that as soon as it’s available and then plan based on that, so if they’re having eg spag bol
for lunch then I don’t want their dinner to be pasta/beef/tomato based, I’d want their dinner to be something quite different.

I tend to plan rough ideas/meals and then improvise around that based on what ingredients I’ve got in - so the plan might just say “veggie burritos and rice”, I won’t decide till the day what kind of beans and veggies are in the burritos, but at least I have a plan so I’m not just staring blankly at the fridge.

The days we’re back late I will prep and freeze meals in advance for though.

I wrote down everything we ate for a few weeks and then read it back for sense, and figured out which days leftovers made sense, and which days we needed a fast meal, and which ones I needed a transportable dinner to eat between hobbies.

Now that life is a bit less hectic I just have a chicken night, a fish night, a mince night, etc, pull that out of the freezer and turn it into something that takes my fancy. Last Monday we had chicken Alfredo, the Monday before it was a stir fry, next Monday might be a curry. It keeps it interesting enough that I don’t die of boredom, but structured enough to plan the shopping.

I work in a school and try and do half a term at a time.

I plan what i want to cook and put it into my google calender (in grey colour)
I have so many recipie books, i normally use 1 or 2 per half term and will make a note of which book and page.
There are plenty of things i just do without a recipie.
On a Wednesday its always something from the slow cooker.
Monday I normally do fish
Tuesday, something quick
I always do a full roast and a traditional pudding on a sunday. (which also serves us on Monday)
always bake a loaf cake on a Thursday (my day off), which always contains some fruit or vegetable, except for the last week of half term when it might not!
and often a more simple pudding eg rice pudding or something.

Over the half term we dont repeat any dinner
I also like to do at least 2 recipies which we have never had before

Then, at the weekend i do my online shop, and know which pages to look at to check for ingrediants.
(I always have things like chicken, mince, fish in my freezer, and have comprehensivly stocked pantry and fridge etc, so i always have all normal ingrediants in my cupboards anyway)

I literally use google calender to plan it and can look back and see every main meal we have had, every day for years, and all my Sunday puddings, and Thursday bakes!

also while i plan it all in advance i have no issues changing it about if i feel like it.

We have certain things on particular nights. Pasta on Friday, chips and something on Wednesdays, soup on Thursday. What they are changes frequently.
If something I cook uses spinach I then make sure something is else uses it up.
Make sure anything in the fridge that needs using is included. Use stuff that’s been batched cook here and there.

the more you do it the better you get - we still struggle as I like variety

We sit down the night before the weekly shop and write ‘The List’
There are sections on The List for fruit and veg, meat and fridge, tins, household etc (started this in Covid when you could only go one way round the supermarket and it stuck)
General items get put on first then we write down a week’s meal plan (which changes each week depending on what we fancy) and ingredients are added to The List.
it’s like a bloody military operation but it works.

My 7+7 day meal plan is themed - usually as food from countries or areas or ‘styles’ of food etc, sounds fancier than it is.

My current 14 day plan is as follows (we’re currently on week 2 day 6).

Monday
Week 1 - Goan Prawn Curry
Week 2 - Chicken and Veg/Spinach Balti

Tuesday
Week 1 - Spaghetti and Meatballs
Week 2 - Lasagne and Salad

Wednesday (Meat free day)

Week 1 - Halloumi and veg skewers, Falafel, pitta and salads
Week 2 - Omelettes and chips

Thursday
Week 1 - Slow cooker gammon, new potatoes and veg
Week 2 - slow cooker pulled pork, jacket potatoes and veg (had this tonight)

Friday
Week 1 - Salmon, stir fry veg and noodles
Week 2 - Fish pie and veg

Saturday
Week 1 - Homemade Pizza
Week 2 - Fajitas

Sunday
Week 1 - Sunday Roast (Chicken)
Week 2 - Sunday Roast (Pork)

Other ‘themes’ include Greek, Sausage night, Mexican etc.
Once I have my meal plan, I do my shopping list.

We've used Guosto a few times and I wish we could could afford it long term. Half an hour choosing the meals for the week and that's it.

I like the idea of a starting point being something with pasta on Monday, a curry on Tuesday etc. I just find thinking of things, cross referencing ingredients, considering budget, looking at diaries, building in slack AND shopping just a bit overwhelming and soul destroying. And stressful because it always ends up with people moaning at me.

I think it will be a case of a weekly shop delivered and then a top up on things like lettuce leaves that you cant buy more than a couple of days in advance.

I'm vegetarian, my daughter is very picky (only started in the last couple of years and she is making food a battle which is another reason to meal plan) and my husband has his own issues.

We write the menus for the coming week at the weekend. I tend to start it off and write down 4 meals I’m willing to cook. I like to try new things and am always collecting ideas from the internet or newspapers or cookbooks but have old favourites to fall back on if lacking inspiration. Then my H will fill in the gaps with things he’s willing to cook and do the online order.

The menu isn’t completely rigid: we’ll swap things about or do something else entirely if we want to, but it’s a good guide for doing the shopping from.

In an average week we probably have a chicken-based meal 2 or 3 times, salmon once (because we all like it but it’s expensive), mince once or twice, then things like sausages, pizza, tuna, pork, once a week or less.

My H likes to batch cook and freeze half so when he’s doing his menus, he can have an easy re-heat night.

I have a notebook and write down the days Friday to Thursday (I shop on a Friday) a week ahead. Then when I think of a meal I write it down for a day.
I use cookbooks and Instagram for new ideas.
Every week we'll usually have a chicken, mince, pasta and fish recipe plus a quick tea and something I haven't made before.

I would recommend "cook once eat twice". Literally just eat the same meal 2 nights in a row. No adapting Bolognese into chilli or lasagne, literally serve up the same meal twice in a row. Maybe swap veg or carb if you are feeling keen. It is the quickest way to cut down the mental load, and I think it saves money and time by shortening the shopping list too.

Or a pattern like cook something like a roast or stew on Sunday, and also eat it Monday. Tues curry, wed pasta, Thur "international" (fajitas, Chinese), Fri something with chips/pots, Sat takeaway or HM pizza or leftovers of one of the above. We don't always stick to it at all but it gives a back up structure to revert to if I'm struggling.

After yet another dinner that my then 6yo refused to eat, I sat all three kids down with sheets of paper and told them to write all their favourite meals down. Now on a Friday night over dinner, they each get to pick one meal for the next week from their menu card and discuss / agreed modifications to the other 2 meals, plus agree between a 4th meal that they all like. That then forms the shopping list for delivery on Saturday.

If it’s a meal I know they all like, I’ll make double and they have it two nights in a row; otherwise I make one or two extra portions. Mon-Thurs is from the menu cards, Friday is homemade pizza, Saturday and Sunday is leftovers night where they can each pick what they want (or a combo!). I always have frozen chopped veg, tins of tomatoes and fresh peppers and carrots for snacks, so if I miscalculate, I can chuck together a pasta bake or rainbow stir fry.

since doing this, food waste has been minimal and dinner times a lot less painful. I also invested in a bunch of those one-portion glass dishes with flip lids, so any leftovers at the end of the week go straight into one and into the freezer. Every month, everyone gets to pick one for dinner - low stress and no extra work.

We tend to do the big shop on a Sat or a Sunday.
Before we go we sit down and decide what dinner will be each night.
This will involve looking at what is in the fridge, freezer and cupboards already.
Then we decide the meals. For some inexplicable reason this bit is Very Hard. We have picky eaters, we're tired, and we've sat there deciding what's for dinner for actual decades. It's so boring.
Anyway.
Once we know what dinner is each night, the shopping list is then what we need to make those things.
The list of dinners goes on the fridge. Every evening I look at the fridge and am so pleased that what's for dinner is already decided.
It's never anything particularly exciting but that's ok.

I don’t like having a fixed meal eg curry on a x day as if the weather changes or I don’t fancy it I really don’t want to cook it. So I plan 7 meals and just pick one on the day. I order online on a Friday so on Thursday night there’s only one choice left. I do something nicer on a Saturday and a pudding too. Everything last all week, I do put extra milk and bread in the freezer. I have a list on my phone of meals we’ve had and add to it if we have something new. So now I can go through a list of 40 odd meals that work and just tick 7 and buy the stuff for them.

Buy a few dinners we like such as salmon, stir fry combos, kievs. Then eat them according to expiry dates.