@Burnt0utMum
Reasons for wanting to meal plan is partly to save money and have less waste but also for us all to eat better food and to get the kids eating more variety. Lunchtime kind of proved my point. I let them help put the food in the oven and onto the plates and let them decide how much to have of each thing. DS put loads of carrots on his plate but then refused to eat any of them but did do well with the chips and nuggets. DD (who chose the meal) ate the nuggets and picked at the chips and refused the carrots. I told her there'd be nothing else after and she did reluctantly eat half the chips but not the carrots. It's even a battle to get her to eat plain chips that she chose!
Then you really need your DH on board. If he isn't going to eat what you've cooked he needs to plan what he's going to cook so you can shop for it and he needs to refrain from using the stuff you've bought for planned meals.
There are ways to make this more flexible - he doesn't necessarily need to have every meal mapped out if he has plenty of go-tos that don't need fresh ingredients. You could have enough in for him to decide which one he wants when he wants it, providing you have storage space. And the other possibility is freezing portions so he can just defrost a portion when he gets in. He does need to agree that you need to do this, though. If he isn't on board and won't refrain from using things you have planned to cook with, it's going to be hard.
The variety issue is most likely just going to take time and perseverance. Meal planning will help you be more deliberate about variety, but it isn't inherently varied itself. My kids have always been pretty varied eaters (though they each have their no-go foods!). I do find it's easy to slowly move towards a few staples that aren't necessarily that healthy. When I realise we've done that I put a limit on it (e.g. only have chips once a week) and tell them what those limits are each time they ask for the food so they're aware they aren't going to get it now but they will be able to have it next week, or whenever. Also, from what I've read, exposure is supposed to be a big part of expanding palates, so just make sure you put some on their plate and don't worry too much at first if they don't eat it. All those carrots they took and didn't eat is one step towards them actually consuming them (hopefully!).
If you want to involve them in meal planning, you can't let them choose at each meal what they want to have, but you could let them help choose for the week. Maybe alternate between meals they are more familiar with and meals you're trying to introduce and if they complain about the food, remind them that they get "their" meal on Thursday (or whenever). But I agree with a previous poster about not getting too stressed about it. Stressing about it just doesn't help so long as they are eating something.
For fresh food - given you're busy and don't have much time to shop mid-week - I think relying on your freezer is probably the way to go. Frozen veg isn't less healthy than fresh. You can also batch cook and freeze whole meals. For a long time I used to blitz onion/carrot/celery in the food processor, freeze it (lie it out in one layer on a tray to freeze before putting it in a bag else you get one big block frozen together) and then use it when I needed it for spag bog, stews, etc. over the next fortnight. Very convenient and stopped be having 3 sad half onions in the fridge that invariably got pushed to the back and forgotten about.