Aibu to think all meal planning is for "budgets" what do you eat if you're not on a really tight budget?

[hardhatonforthis]

I think we are stuck in a rut. I don't want to eat beans or parsnips every night?
Don't like hello fresh.
Shop at ocado because it suits us for a variety of reasons.

What are you eating this week?

I meal plan to make sure I’m getting a variety, getting some oily fish in there, to make shopping less stressful, and to avoid food waste.

This week’s plan has included:

Cauliflower steak with Brie topping, honey mustard parsnips
Harissa orzo with courgette and feta ( joe wicks)
Mushroom rice stuffed peppers with salad
Vietnamese pho with tofu
Tofu stir fry
Miso salmon with sautéed greens
Baked salmon in chilli and lime with quinoa
Sardines on toast ( get some. Bony fish for my own bone density)
Veggie sausages with champ peas and gravy.

I meal plan so I have the right stuff in to make healthy meals.
Meal planning is more expensive for me than just using what's kicking about though.
End up buying fancy pastes, spices cheeses etc... that only a tiny amount gets used

We do a meal plan on a Sunday - I have a little chalkboard with days of the week on it. This week’s a bit unusual because of holidays, but it’s been:

Monday - chorizo and red pepper risotto
Tuesday - were out for lunch, so the evening meal was a cheeseboard and charcuterie bits
Wednesday - roast dinner
Thursday - leftovers from the roast in some format, maybe risotto again
Friday - spaghetti carbonara
Saturday - chicken satay curry with rice and naan breads (shop bought naan)
Sunday - chilli, rice, salsa, guacamole, soured cream

The Sunday chilli means Monday is taken care of (jacket potatoes, chilli, salad) and will also “bank” a portion for the freezer.

I've just downloaded an app called "Plan to Eat" and you can import any Online recipe (or manually enter one) and attach them to a calendar. If you upgrade to the paid version it will pull together your weekly shopping list from your meal plan.

We are not on a budget as such but we really need to be more mindful about what we eat; we don't eat a lot of junk but there's lots of driving home from work wondering what on earth we can do with the contents of our fridge.

We're not on a tight budget but we do allocate a set amount to food. This is just how we sort out finances with everything having it's own budget which allows us to spend and save appropriately.
We have been doing a meal plan for many years, not because we have to watch what we spend but because it helps to come up with a shopping list for the week when we know what exactly it is we will be eating in the near future.
Tbh if I was told to go do a food shop without a meal plan I'd find myself wandering around the supermarket spending far more time than was necessary trying to come up with what meals to have so I'd rather plan ahead and know that beforehand but that's just me.
We like having meal plans because it suits us. DH has even suggested I do meal plans for lunch time too but I only plan evening meals because lunches are easy to grab quickly and you never know when you might be out for lunch etc.

I meal plan so I don't waste food. I've done the hole bit what I fancied and winged it but the amount of food I chucked due to gone off was ridiculous.

I meal plan so I don’t stare into the fridge blankly every evening, not for a budget.

I don’t so much meal plan, I batch cook, this house has two adults and two teenagers who are all home from school/work at different times, have interests, activities, separate social lives and like different things, I batch cook and portion it so we all just take out what we fancy.

I meal plan for organisational reasons.

This week has been unusual as we’ve be entertaining/being entertained, but favourites include:

Prawn green curry
Lasagne
Fajitas with homemade guacamole
Pesto topped salmon with creamed spinach

Steak chips & salad
Spaghetti meatballs
Crab linguine
Roast dinner of some variety

Try living with someone who is quite unwell. We don't have a budget as such, but I could make a whole plan for the week and we would not eat any of it

I look in the fridge every day, give options and sometimes its no, don't fancy that or that or that

So I have to find something else as its very important that my husband eats

Sorry - this is no-one else's problem but I would love to be able to meal plan

Gaaah

Ham and Stilton gratin. Originally from a good food magazine (now lost) so I wing the proportions slightly.

Leftover Christmas ham, shredded or diced small
Leftover Christmas Stilton, ditto
Good handful of fresh rosemary - well chopped
Potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
Turkey stock (made from leftover turkey carcass)
Pepper
Butter

Well grease an oven proof dish
Lay a layer of potatoes flat on the bottom, covering the base but not overlapping if possible
Add a handful of ham and smaller handful of Stilton, scattered reasonably evenly over the potatoes.
Sprinkle with a decent pinch of rosemary and a good grinding of pepper.
Place another layer of potatoes on top

Continue layering as above until the dish is full or you have run out of ingredients. There should be at least 3 layers of ham/cheese. Top layer is potatoes.
Dot some butter on the very top. I grind some more pepper as well.
Heat the stock and pour over - there should be enough to come about halfway up the height of the dish. (I added some cream this year, which was nice).

Bake in a 180 degree oven for about an hour - until potatoes are cooked through, soft underneath the crispy top layer.

It is a family favourite and all the more special because it is only made once a year.

The sprouts were Jamie Oliver's recipe, but with a capful of Chinese rice wine replacing most of the Worcester sauce.

I don't have time to do it much anymore, and dd is not a fan of Sunday roasts so I am not in the kitchen as much on sundays, but I used to always prep Monday's dinner while doing the roast - make a lasagna, shepherds pie, curry sauce, chilli, smoked fish and broccoli pie (mash top), spaghetti Bol sauce etc - so I either have these set up in the oven ready to eat when we get in, or I just need to reheat main part and quickly boil rice or pasta. Most weeks was a double batch as all those freeze well, and I'd use a previous week,S option later in the week also.

Also prep veg, peel potatoes or marinade meat etc are useful things to do after dinner one night to start the prep for the following night. (Or taking things out of the freezer to defrost!).

Chicken ideas:
Fajitas, tacos, enchiladas or quesadillas

Chinese stir fries - use a packet of sauce or Chuck in some Chinese rice wine, soy sauce and garlic into the mix; and whatever mix of veg you have - great to use up handfuls of small amounts of things, and plenty of tinned/frozen veg is good to add in too - sweetcorn, peas, bamboo shoots etc

Curries - there are loads of different types to mix it up, start with frying onion, garlic and ginger, add some spices (loose or a pre-mixed pack, Green Saffron ones are good, or a jar of wet spices like Pataks masala or korma pastes), it can be a tomato or coconut milk based sauce, perhaps with some stock to thin it out, and some veg as well. Squeeze of lemon or lime juice can make a big difference at the end, and also a spoonful of natural yoghurt. Indian, thai, Chinese, Vietnamese...lots of different types and tastes.

Pasta dishes, involving tomatoes based sauce, or maybe some white wine and cream and stock for a different sauce, with mixed Mediterranean veggies (tomatoes, peppers, courgette, onion, garlic, French beans....) or just plain mushrooms.

One we like to do with joints (another good food recipe for part boned breasts but I regularly do it with thighs as well) is feta chicken- under the skin of a joint, put a pinch of thyme leaves and a hunk (50g - but as much or as little as you like really) of feta cheese. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle olive oil,over the top and roast. I usually serve with roasted baby potatoes (I toss these in olive oil with garlic granules, lots of pepper and sometimes some lemon juice in a ziplock bag before roasting) and some French beans simply steamed or diced mixed Mediterranean veg roasted.

I meal plan because Ioathe thinking about what I am going to eat so I do it all in one go, instead of every day, then forget about it for a week.
I also do online shopping because it is much quicker than doing it in person and also I don't get tempted to buy lots of snack food that I don't need.

I meal plan because DS2 still has school meals a couple of times a week and there have been occasions where he's had spaghetti Bolognese for both lunch and dinner. Meal planning prevents that and also stops me stating blindly into the cupboards/fridge/freezer at 4.30 wondering what the hell I'm going to cook.
DH does the shopping on a Saturday, so before he goes, I go through DS's lunch choices for the week and then plan evening meals accordingly.

Monday and Friday are swimming lesson days so generally they are fast meals. Pizza and salad or hot dogs and salad (we buy the Aldi jarred hotdogs as they have a decent meat content).

Other staples are:
Beef and Rice (beef is cooked in stock along with halved cherry tomatoes and chorizo chunks)
Chicken curry
Spaghetti Bolognese
Fry up
Lasagne
Sausage and mash
Ham, egg and chips (that's a good throw it together when there's nothing in one)
Pasta with mascarpone style sauce (I heat up passata in a pan and then stir grated cheese into it to give it an orange colour, also a fast, easy one)
Pasta with cheese and broccoli sauce
Meatballs
Sunday's we usually do a roast. DH has discovered a love for the slow cooker so we have slow roasted beef or pork with roasties, stuffing, Yorkshire puds and veg.

We always have plenty of passata

We always have plenty of passata and pasta in the cupboard as they offer lots of options.

Not on a budget. I like simple meat and two veg dinners that take minutes to cook.
Tuna steaks fried in butter with lime, steamed asparagus and baby potatoes
Steak with wild mushrooms and garlic, new potatoes or sweet potato fries and salad of baby leaves and baby plum tomatoes with wild thyme.
Cod baked in the oven with a tapenade on top, with red carmargue rice and wilted spinach or rainbow chard.
Lamb chops will fresh rosemary and mint, mash or rice, sugar snaps and baby carrots.

Is that the sort of thing you mean? All easy to cook but rely on good ingredients.

Nigella lamb Tagine with pomegranate juice and dates, with cous cous

Lasagne and salad

Delia Cottage pie with roast parsnips

Chicken tikka masala with rice, naans and Asian chilli jam

Smoked salmon, eggs and bagels with cream cheese

Mackerel pate (blitz mackerel, Creme fraiche, lemon juice and seasoning) and toast with salad

Huge prawn, Crab, creme fraiche, chilli and lemon linguine

Tuna marinated in soy, garlic and honey with noodles and samphire

I meal plan when I'm fortunate enough to be able to buy a good weeks's shop, other times we get by with what we have and what's on reduced counters. In good financial times, meal planning helps to reduce water and make sure we have the things we need in. We don't live near a shop so it saves unnecessary extra trips out.

Struggling to cook at all at the moment so we've had a lot less home cooked food than usual. We normally do meal planning but at the moment it's what I can face cooking.
Home made lasagne and garlic bread today.
Sausages and mash tomorrow
Pulled pork on Friday
Take away Saturday but no idea after that
Must get organised before school and work start again.

Been to Planet Organic and bought kale wraps into which I put avocado hummus, mung beans, tofu, avocado, pickled cauliflower, tahini, carrot and lime. No cooking and so healthy and yummy!

Sometimes do a big mixed salad with nuts and seeds topped with wild smoked salmon. I’m lucky dh loves the same food!

Kids at uni so I don’t meal plan but always have options for the next couple of days in the fridge.

I plan and have since the children were tiny. It was to save time /money but is now to reduce wastage and ensure we have the right ingredients. I’m slightly more relaxed about it now but can’t imagine not thinking ahead.
We’re away this week so eating out more than usual and lazier cooking.

Tonight was a rice one pot.
Tomorrow we’ve promised our friends crab, lobster and chips.
Then we’re alone so a mushroom risotto followed by chicken and vegetable stir fry. Sunday we’ll eat out.

I just read my reply back and clearly meant it reduces waste, not water!

Tonight we had slow roasted duck legs, with home made port and duck sauce, Hasselback potatoes, asparagus and tenderstem broccoli. Tomorrow salmon new potatoes, veg and I'll probably make a quick watercress and creme fraiche sauce. Friday massaman and Jasmine rice, Saturday we're out during the day so a quick stir fry for dinner. Lasagne for Sunday lunch we've got some friends visiting with their children and it's the DCs favourite. Monday seabass, Tuesday kedgeree, Wednesday something from the freezer (chilli or something) because I'm working a couple of hours away from home and will be shattered by the time I get back and DH will be doing bath/bed time for DS on his own and won't have time to get back from work, pick him up, do night time routine and cook from scratch. Some of these may get swapped around depending what happens on the day.

Having friends round tomorrow and we are having pheasant. Sounds extravagant, but isn't, as each bird was £3 and will feed two. I have all the ingredients in for the sauce, so using up what I have, and for a pud, and will do a potato gratin (for which I also have everything in), as I bought too many spuds for Christmas.