To struggle with meal planning this much?

[Freecuthbert]

I'm a good cook and enjoy it, but I find meal planning hard work, can't really get my head around it. I have to research recipes and work out the right amount of ingredients for our household, write a list of what we need. But once I go through all that, pick what we want that week etc, it all ends up as odd bits of this and that ingredient and just not feasible at all. The food shop would cost me a bloody fortune! So then I have to try and whittle it down and plan the meals strategically so they share ingredients etc so things don't go to waste and I'm not overspending. It takes me hours tbh... I feel like I'm doing it all wrong.

I can't even look in my cupboard at bits and think up of meals out of that. I'm rubbish at remembering recipes as well! I have to look everything up, it's a nightmare. We're not the kind of family who could eat the same meals week in week out. If we ate the same thing every week I'd go right off it. We have some tried and tested favourites but they're more monthly than weekly if anything... wouldn't be favourites anymore if had more often than that tbh. And we love trying new things often.

I'm using gousto at the moment for 4 days a week because of this, so I only have 3 days a week to struggle with meal planning. But those 3 days now end up being a cop out. Mixture of fending for ourselves out of the freezer, takeaway, dinner at family's, quick stir fry, steak and chips, picky bits. We just have one child who is 12 months old, so it's easy to sort something out for her dinner when I'm not cooking properly... don't worry she doesn't have to cook a frozen pizza for herself or tuck into a medium rare steak!

Is it really meant to be this difficult? Or am I meant to just suck it up and have a set rota of meals that simplifies things (but loses a lot of joy for us), or spend hours on meticulous meal planning? Is there a secret app that basically plans all our meals and creates a shopping list? Honestly I don't mind cooking from fresh every night as long as the food is tasty and not monotonous.

Would love to shave some money off our food bill tbh, we are low income but not struggling and I'm frugal with lots of other things.

Gousto is hardly cheap so you must have a reasonable budget?

I use the BBC good food website and save all the recipes I really like so they are stored together. When I’m organised I also keep a weekly diary of meals so I can refer back to things we’ve enjoyed. Mostly we eat stuff that’s very quick and easy like baked fish with rice and veg or tray bakes. I’m quite lazy.

For can’t be bothered days we usually have some Cook meals in the freezer.

Gousto is £35 a week and feeds the three of us, although me and my partner each have an account and we have often gotten deals/discounts. But we spent more on the food shop when I was meal planning for the whole week. It just seems to get so pricy unless I stick to lazy and boring.

Share the chore.

You meal plan for half the week and let your DP meal plan the rest.

You need a suite of basic meals you can easily cook in rotation over a week. You will get familiar with them so you don’t need to be looking up recipes and buying bits of this and that which you only use once in a blue moon. Most ingredients apart from meat, fish and veg will keep for at least a week so you can use them up the next time the meal c9mes around.

I will plan for my week a bit like this, so I know I have the basics of a meal each day:

Sunday - roast a chicken or joint
Monday - leftover meat from Sunday in a curry with veg
Tuesday - homemade soup (using up the veg left in the fridge because I get my shopping delivered on a Wednesday)
Wednesday - fish (so we can eat it while fresh on the day of delivery)
Thursday - pasta
Friday - rice bowl with protein and veg or some sort
Saturday - maybe a stew or something which I have longer to cook than I do on a weekday.

Leftover stew and soups are good for WFH lunches.

You say you can't look in the cupboard and think up meals? Does this mean that you find it hard to use leftovers / half packets of things in the next meal? I'm cooking for one, so this is a good crucial for me, both on terms of not wasting things and in terms of not being bored.

So I made an aubergine wrap and the other half of the aubergine is sitting in the fridge waiting to be turned into a noodle dish.

I made a carrot and celeriac mash, ate half of it with sausages and then the next day I beat in an egg and some cheese, topped with breadcrumbs and ate it baked.

I do sympathise though. I was just thinking how bored I am of having to think what to have for dinner. Doesn't help that I'm mostly at home at the moment because Covid.

I have about 12 things that we all like and I cook them on repeat with new recipes most weeks to liven it up. I’ve try to balance out rice/ pasta potatoes/ bread/ pastry as the main carb and a good selection of different veg all the time.
It sounds like you just need to get used to cooking different recipes to it feels more effortless. So use the 3 nights you do cook and don’t do cop outs.
What sort of ingredients are you left with?

If you get a veg/meat box ordered from somewhere like Abel & Cole or Riverford, then you can plan around what is arriving that week.

Have you tried having say 6 or 8 simple cook from scratch meals which you always have the ingredients for at home.
Eg you could keep salmon, wedges and peas in the freezer; risotto and pasta ingredients in the cupboard etc.
If you always kept those stocked up you could stick with gusto but use those on non gusto days to reduce planning.

The other thing which works well is having a weekly leftovers meal where you use up odds and ends. Eg if you have roast chicken one day you might have chicken pie (using up all bits of veg) the next.

And I don’t do this but a lot of people have a roast one day, pasta another day etc which gives some structure without repeating exact meals.

I don't think it should be that difficult but I think you are setting a very high bar for yourself, if you are trying to make a lot of new dishes every week. I think most people are cooking the same things at least some of the time. That doesn't mean that you have to cook exactly the same thing every Monday, but that you have a stock list of favourite recipes that you know the ingredients for and keep and use the basics for regularly. So for example, each week, I plan maybe to do one dish with rice, one dish with pasta, one meat and two veg type, one ready meal such as a frozen lasagne, one fish each week and then maybe try out something different on the other two days (or eat out / takeaway sometimes). Then, for example, my rice dish might be a curry or a chilli or a risotto - my meat and veg might be a stew or a shepherd's pie or roast chicken. So it might end up that we only have stew once a month and one time it will be a lamb stew with dumplings and another it will be a pork casserole or whatever so we are not really eating exactly the same thing very often. I will buy a selection of veg and have some in the freezer so even if it's salmon two weeks in a row, then the veg that we eat with it will vary - e.g. a stir fry one day and new potatoes and carrots another.

When you say we are not the sort of family who can eat the same meals week in week out - I wonder what you mean. Is that your personal preference - or does your partner feel the same? I think if they do, then they need to contribute to meal planning and cooking. I doubt your 12 month old cares.

You’re overthinking it. My meal planning would be something like spaghetti bolognaise, fajitas, baguettes, chicken and rice, pizza. From that I’d know I’d already have the basics like flour, butter, rice and spaghetti as I have a standard shopping list with the basics each month. So all I’d need to buy would be the extra stuff which is also usually the perishable bits too. No way do I weigh anything!

It sounds really complicated...I cook for 5, sometimes 6, and these things have helped..
Keep a record of meals that we like. This is updated fairly often, if I try something new and it goes down well, then I add it. It's categorised into veggie, chicken, fish, other meat. Having an actual list to look at makes it easier to think of what to cook.
Use Pinterest - I save recipes when I see them, and again, it's easy to look through for inspiration.
Use Google -eg "recipe using mushroom and spinach" if that's what I have in the fridge.
I have a good stock of herbs and spices, and a store of things that I use fairly frequently, so I don't have to buy specially for a specific recipe - for me, that include things like coconut milk, flaked almonds, chick peas as well as the more obvious tinned tomatoes, tomato puree, flour etc.
Before meal planning, I check who will be around when - DH works irregular shifts, DC have more fixed arrangements. I factor in that I won't want to cook every day, and that I will need packed lunch 5 days a week, so that often involves soup or a frozen portion of leftover dinner. It's OK to have soup or sandwiches or cheese on toast sometimes. Also you might go out impromptu. So you don't need to plan 7 dinners a week.
You could plan on a fortnightly or monthly rotation, although I find we eat differently in the summer and winter.

I start with a plan for 3 days then consider leftover ingredients from those recipes eg if Monday is curry and I know I will have half a packet of coriander and half a packet of spinach leftover and on Tuesday im doing pasta but will have a leftover pepper, I will do Mexican rice one pot that uses all up later in the week. If I have a large packet of chicken thighs I will do 3 nights of chicken dishes with different sauces

Trying different things a lot is always going to end up with needing to buy new ingredients and taking much more time, I can cook meals we eat regularly without any looking up and do it quickly and efficiently, I take ages with new dishes. Pre kids I spent a lot of time happily cooking and did a huge variety of dishes. I have 2 kids, now both late teenage, and wouldn’t have had enough time the last 20 years to do what you’re doing, while neither kid is really fussy we ended up eating a much narrower range of easy to cook dishes most days. Homework, clubs, need to feed quickly on getting home, experimenting with new dishes is restricted to weekends only most of the time. I do find the range of things we eat boring sometimes but it’s a price I’ve been willing to pay for convenience and to keep the family happy. I do sympathise though OP, I don’t think there is a easy solution to this that keeps everyone happy and isn’t too expensive.

I have a A4 lever arch file with my most used recipes in, (in clear plastic wallets so I can pop one out and keep everything clean from splashes of sauce etc)

Also I make double and I will reuse the same base meal a different way later in the week or freeze it. So if I make a Spanish chicken tray bake, later in the week I'll add more stock and rice make it into a kind of paella. Mince from irish stew will later form the base of Shepard's pie. Or you can stick a premade jus-roll of pastry (puff/filo/short crust) on just about anything and make it into a pie of sorts.

I don't keep random pots of ingredients I know we won't use- like you we throw in a hello fresh every now and again if I'm getting stuck in a rut

I'm not a big fan/can't get the hang of meal planning either.

Do you think maybe because you are a good cook you are making things too complicated for yourself for normal weekday meals?

Could you try buying a few different proteins/vegetables/carbs each week and then just mix and matching rather than it needing to be a specific dish?

eg, salmon + rice + brocolli one day then
chicken + potatoes + green beans the next? Or would that be more stressful?

We started using Gousto when I got stuck in a rut of meal planning and we'd have the same meals on a 2 week rotation.
Now we use Gousto for 3 meals a week (usually 1 lunch and 2 evening meals) and I go back to old Gousto recipes and old recipes we used to have on rotation, with the odd takeaway thrown in

You need a suite of basic meals you can easily cook in rotation over a week. You will get familiar with them so you don’t need to be looking up recipes and buying bits of this and that which you only use once in a blue moon

This.

In our house its

• sunday roast
• Monday involves the leftover meat and whatever greens aren't going to last the week. It might be a stir fry with noodles or a curry with rice

Tuesday - pasta & sauce, usually bolognese. Wednesday - varies but usually involves fish/seafood and a few roasted veg. Thursday - slowcooker meal: a casserole or tagine etc, veg Friday - freezer type food - fish fingers and chips type meal with veg. Saturday - anything really as we have more time to cook. We food shop on a Saturday.

In the back of the same file I keep the meal plans for a week that have worked really well (I have a magnetic meal plan pad from Amazon) so after a few months I recirculate the same week of meals. No one notices, I know it worked (in terms of health/ budget, time/prep and full tummies etc)

Yep, we buy kind of 'base' things that can be turned into various meals depending on what we fancy. So we have mince, so can do bolognaise or chilli, for example, or we get a whole chicken so can have a roast or just cook it up and use the meat for a pie, etc. Then you aren't tied to a rigid meal rota and still have some freedom. If you have a decent store cupboard with tinned tomatoes, stock, spices, etc. then there's a lot of freedom with what you can do.

We plan on a 2 weekly rotation instead of the same every week: you could easily make that 3 weekly. We also do two things that might help you: a leftovers/freezer stuff day each week to use up any scraps, and an invention day each weekend so that DP can make new things.

DP loves to cook, but we were wasting things and struggling to come up with meals each day before. This takes away some planning and actually gives more chance for invention because he isn't bogged down in trying to come up with every day. The thinking up of stuff became more of a struggle once we had kids and had less time plus incorporating their tastes.

Why pick new complicated recipes?

I have found writing a short list of an evening of what's to use up in the next day or two handy: it just sits on the kitchen counter so next day I see it.

You have very high standards OP. Steak and chips sounds like a top meal to me.

Honestly, I rarely plan meals. Just do a big fruit and veg order of what's in season, or whatever I fancy, keep a few portions of protein elements and all of the carbs plus potatoes. I have a decent assortment of spices, herbs, tins and buy cheese and milk as needed.

There are some meals that require an extra purchase, but I can usually put things together around the 'star' ingredient.

Are you trying to cook meals which are the exact amounts for your household, so if a recipe says four portions you are calculating ingredients for your family size? I would cut out the faff and either eat the leftovers at another meal or freeze it. Cooking in bulk and freezing in individual portions will save you time and money. Working out a menu which includes at least 3 meals which can be made from store cupboard ingredients and served with whatever vegetables or salad you have to hand may also be useful.

This sounds exhausting.

I
Go to the shop.
See what is on offer, or looks nice.
Check, between the things I pick up, there are enough with long enough dates
Go to the veg section and carbs afterwards and get things that match (eg....if I've picked up stewing steak, I'm going to need root veg..... if I've picked up salmon I might be looking for green beans, asparagus, and broccoli..... if I've gone for diced chicken I might want wraps....etc)
Go home

In the cupboard at home I have standard items always in - tinned toms...spices...pasta....rice....etc.

Am pretty amazed you need recipes for every meal. Are you in your first couple of months of having to cook for yourself ?

I use an app called Paprika for meal planning. When I see a recipe I like online, within a few clicks it's added to my recipes file in Paprika. The recipes are then searchable, stored in a consistent format and sorted into folders (lunches, dinner parties, etc).

There's a calendar in the app where you pin the recipes you're going to make each day. Or you can add notes like 'restaurant' or whatever.

You can then add the ingredients to a shopping list that's also saved in the app.

It's handy when it's time to cook too. The app can automatically calculate the quantities of ingredients you need for different servings, and any time there's a time in the recipe (like 'fry for 5 minutes') you can click it and it sets a timer.

I recommend this app constantly but it's honestly a game changer, makes meal planning so much easier.

I also use the Eat Your Books site. You tell it what recipe books you have and it creates a library of all recipes from your books that you can search by ingredient. It doesn't give you the whole recipe unless it's online, you still need to use your book, but much easier than flicking through loads of books.