How the hell do you meal plan successfully?!

[Burnt0utMum]

I've tried repeatedly to do meal planning but it just never seems to work out. I do a mix of regular/easy meals with the odd new recipe here and there. First problem is anything that requires fresh ingredients go off before the end of the week so I have to go shopping more than once a week or not have fresh veg in meals near the end of the week. Second problem is people not just eating the specified meals. Kids are fussy and end up refusing most meals (can't even get them to eat basic freezer food so it's not just a case of not liking veg, they barely like anything). DH is also fussy and ends up making his own food with whatever he finds which could include ingredients for planned meals. Third problem is I don't always know where we're going to be and we end up eating out unexpectedly which throws the meal plan upside down too. Anyone actually have a way of doing it that works? Or do I give up?

Get your family together see what dinners they like do a mixture for everybody and use your fresh food first freeze things and keep till the menu end.

You need to get your husband involved.

Surely most people muddle along with a mix of cook from scratch, cook from freezer, snacks, salad, ready meal and takeaway?

I have one friend who cooks on a very strict 4 week rota, but I don't think that works for most people

A well stocked freezer means that you'll never go hungry

I tend to bulk cool about 3 meals and rotate them for my kids and add fresh veg daily.

The other meals I do things like scrambled eggs.

One frozen meal a week

Shop little and often.

In the height of the pandemic I would write down 5 meals go shopping for them and check all the dates and cook it on that day!

I cook one meal, if you don't eat it there's nothing else.
I have a mixture of meals with fresh stuff and more store cupboard ingredients. So you plan to eat the stuff that goes off first early on. Frozen veg and tinned veg are still nutritious.

I think you should tackle the fussy eating before you tackle meal planning

I have fussy kids and a tight budget. I meal plan, but only meals I know they will eat make the list. There are about 6 that they eat properly, often in wierd combinations (pizza and cabbage anyone?). Once a month or so, we have something different (new, or just something I like for a change) and they sulk and poke it about not eating much. The rest of the time, I eat boring food on repeat. I always check fruit and veg freshness and plan their use carefully - berries, salad things etc at the start of the week, cabbage, green beans, carrots and hardier veg for the end of the week.

I hate it. It has now got to the point that I detest cooking (and I used to love it and am good at it!) to the extent that when the DC are at their dad's, I eat sandwiches, cerial or toast, just so I don't have to bloody cook. Depressing.

If you are only shopping weekly then the fresh stuff does go off by the end of the week but you sort of need to plan that into it.
A bit like this:
Delivery on Sat AM- Pizza and salad
Sun- Salmon, new potatoes, salad
Mon- Egg fried rice with stir fry type veg.
Tues- Spag bol
Weds- Chilli and wraps
Thurs- Egg and beans on toast
Fri- Frozen fish fingers and potatoes smiles with peas.

The frozen stuff is a) palatable to fussy kids and b) easy to bump if you do end up going out to eat.

Also, it's ok to just eat boring samey stuff if it saves you having to cook 3 meals at once.

that depends on how you define meal planning.

I could never meal plan ahead for a week because it doesn't suit our lifestyle.
so I only plan ahead for special days, otherwise I have plans for maybe 2 or 3 days ahead but even so I often swap foods round.

take the last few days.
I was gonna do chicken tortillas on Wednesday but realised we had pre-made soup to eat up so heated that up instead and do the tortillas the next day.

But if course DH & DS5 weren't here last night, DS1 had eaten earlier because of gym, DS2 wanted to cook steak, DS3 was at a friends, DS4 fancied making a bacon sandwich and I wasn't hungry at all.
so no, I wasn't gonna bother for just 2 youngest. they finished off some other food instead.

tonight everyone is everywhere again due to last minute plans or wants something else (oldest 4 are teens so can cook for themselves) so we'll eat those damn tortillas tomorrow when everyone is back.
maybe..🤣

Meal planning requires people to eat the meals you have planned, otherwise its just meal lottery.

Plan things people will eat or don't bother tbh, you'll just end up with loads of waste

I meal plan by thinking what we have on that week and go by that. The meals with ingredients that will be short dated come up earlier in the week. I usually do 1 or 2 days of something I can just chuck in the oven. My dc aren’t fussy so can’t help with that one but I do ask mine what meal they fancy that week.

@Herja

I have fussy kids and a tight budget. I meal plan, but only meals I know they will eat make the list. There are about 6 that they eat properly, often in wierd combinations (pizza and cabbage anyone?). Once a month or so, we have something different (new, or just something I like for a change) and they sulk and poke it about not eating much. The rest of the time, I eat boring food on repeat. I always check fruit and veg freshness and plan their use carefully - berries, salad things etc at the start of the week, cabbage, green beans, carrots and hardier veg for the end of the week.

I hate it. It has now got to the point that I detest cooking (and I used to love it and am good at it!) to the extent that when the DC are at their dad's, I eat sandwiches, cerial or toast, just so I don't have to bloody cook. Depressing.

Are you me? Sounds very familiar. I used to love cooking but when I’m tired after working the last thing I feel like doing is cooking a meal from scratch for them to just want toast once they’ve declared themselves still hungry after prodding their dinner!

You need to plan meals that will be eaten rather than those you'd like to be eaten.

I have a list of guaranteed eats (bolognese, fish finger wraps, dh and i have chicken, a particular curry, fried rice) and work those into a week, usually for 3 nights. I have a vague idea if the other nights - pasta base, fish base, never find anything goes off within a week though tbf, and if it looks like it might then I swap the days around to use it up.

I have a four weekly rota of meals.
Different meal Evey night for a month. Things like bolognase, meat balls, lasagne, stir frys, chicken curry, chicken casseroles, beef casseroles, mexican lots of variation through the week.
Shop weekly. Batch cook tomato and veg base sauce monthly.
Schedule meals like stir-fry where ingredients might go off at beginning of the week.
Feed a family of 5 (4 adults, 1teen) for £150 a week.

Most vegetables will keep for well over a week in a drawer in the fridge.
Maybe not lettuce, but definitely carrots, peppers, aubergines, courgettes, squash, cauliflower, brocolli.

I try and plan for a week of meals with overlapping ingredients.
Then you don't have so many open half empty packets to go off. So for example if I'm planning to make a meal that includes a red and yellow pepper, I need to also plan one that includes a green pepper later in the week, because they come in a pack of 3.

One meal from the freezer - if we're out for some reason that one gets dropped.

We meal plan a week ahead. The last couple of days lean on frozen/tinned/dried stuff. Salad or similar has to be eaten in the first couple of days. At times we've planned in one takeaway a week, and we just have that whichever night it feels necessary. It helps that DS is not fussy. I'm not averse to listing the same two or three meals several weeks in a row, if they're healthy, cheap, popular and the ingredients keep well. Lentil Bolognese and bean chili are often added when I run out of ideas.

We tend to only eat meat a couple of times a week. That probably helps as well. Less to go off.

Hmm yes I know I need to tackle the fussy eating but no idea how. I've tried asking the kids to help choose what to eat throughout the week but they never come up with a suitable meal and anything I suggest is "disgusting".

I think it can work for some- big families/regular schedules.

Never worked for us.
Hectic unpredictable shedules, family ( 5 people) never together at the same time.
Never know from day to day what is happening. Prefer to have easy to cook stuff in the fridge and batch cooked meals so I can work in a flexible way.
No point in planning an Italian beef stew on Tuesday next week for five people if I am the only one at home. Even then I may have buggered off to a yoga class.

Only cook what people will eat. If you want to expand the children's tastes, introduce something new on the side, so there is always something on the table that they will eat.

I have my food delivered on a Saturday morning so the fresh food gets cooked and frozen or used up over the weekend when we have more time to cook.

Look at what you are doing during the week and plan accordingly. For example, for us on Tuesday there's after school sports so dinner has to to be a very quick affair.

Try to be flexible - if we decide to eat out out of the blue and won't use the steak we planned I will freeze it, for example.

My basic structure is 14 meals, broken down into
1 red meat
3 white meat
6 legumes / veg
4 fish

Hth

I have four incredibly fussy children and I meal plan every week because they need the predictability - we have a blackboard on which I write every days menu for the week. Weirdly - they used to refuse more before it was written up for all to see in advance.

I plan the meals based on what I know they will eat, and some weeks I try something new which will become part of the rotation if successful or not if not. I shop based on the plan, but don't write up the menu til after I've shopped and so in order the meals according to date stamps/how long fresh stuff will last.

As other have said frozen or easy cupboard staples like potato waffles and eggs or pasta with tomato sauce at the end of the week. But I do find that some veg does last the week - some even longer.

For instance my kids will eat broccoli and green beans quite reliably. Broccoli lasts well, but fresh green beans less so - so I'll plan the beans to accompany earlier meals and the broccoli for later ones, and I have frozen green beans as a back up.

I couldn't actually shop without my meal plan nowadays - I'd end up buying far too much and missing essentials. Hate food shopping with a passion.

At the end of the week, plan meals which can be done using store cupboard ingredients or fresh ingredients which last a while (carrots, onions, parsnips, potatoes will last a week, meat can be frozen)

DH is also fussy and ends up making his own food with whatever he finds which could include ingredients for planned meals. Ask him to stop doing this, as it is a huge waste, make dinners he will like or have a separate part of the fridge containing stuff which isn't required for other meals.

I used to have the children pick one meal per week each, which got them invested in the whole process and therefore more likely to eat it. I dont so much anymore but I do ask for suggestions. It's a real pain having fusspots.

Urgh I hate meal planning - and my children and husband eat almost anything !

How it sometimes works is I just make sure we've got everything for 3/4 meals but don't decide which day we eat what and then play it by ear.

Also have a set day for certain foods i.e Wednesday kids have an after school activity so we eat an omelette because it's quick. Thursday beans but not the same bean meal every week.

I wish I could just decide what I want to eat each day, go and get fresh stuff from the market and the cook or get a take away if I fancy that. Sadly I have other commitments too !