In thinking that meal planning can’t be out of the ordinary?

[Fono]

I’ve always operated a system within my household where I will sit down every Sunday morning and plan all of our meals (lunch and dinner) for the following week and then formulate my shopping list based on everything we need specifically for those meals. This means we have minimal wastage at the end of any given week, prevents over-buying and everyone knows exactly what we are eating and when.

I have a board in our kitchen where I’ll write up the meals for the week and recently every time I’ve had a visitor to the house I’m met with the same shocked reaction about meal planning, like it’s a completely foreign concept.

I’d never previously thought that I did anything out of the ordinary and I’d assumed most households did this? If not, I’m genuinely interested to know what other families do? Imo given the cost of living crisis, meal planning is more important than ever!

@Hillarious , Maris Piper are white and are a good potato for mashing, but I avoid them as they are not good in stews, unless you want them to disintegrate, and I don't.

As far as I remember, types of potato was only really a thing in that you don’t mash new potatoes. It’s a bit sweeping to say you don’t mash white potatoes.
I regard mash as a last resort anyway, when you can’t just eat them boiled like pink for apple.

@BosaNova - of course you can!

Does that go back to freezing beans?

I thought potatoes😁

I regard mash as a last resort anyway, when you can’t just eat them boiled like pink for apple.

What do you mean by pink for apple?

Sorry, pink fir apple. I grow them sometimes. It can mean a whole winter without mashed potatoes! They’re quite firm and waxy and also difficult to peel before cooking because they’re knobbly

Or rather Pink Fir Apple.

The type of potato only matters if you’re buying (or growing) really waxy or really floury ones... I don’t grow them and I’m not buying specialist potatoes, so they’re pretty interchangeable really.

You can mash new potatoes, I mean it seems a poor use of them, but they mash fine.

Clearly you don't want oily herbs in a salad, at least not if you want it not dressed or dressed with a specific oil that's not the one you freeze the herbs in.
I suspect my herb issue is intractable though, as I'm really talking about using them as a (I hate this word) garnish. IMO they work best in this context when they're chopped quite roughly and not heated or oiled at all. I don't think I'd be very successful if I tried to use roughly chopped and defrosted herbs like this.

No never done that. Sounds like a big part of the mental load that people complain about but a lot of it is pointlessly created work.

I meal plan evening meals and have done for years. Lunches the kids have at school/college

There’s probably something in that, but sharing tasks is bound to create an extra level of complexity compared to one person doing it all.

Freezing herbs is not complicated. Chop them up, stick them in a bag, scrunch the bag up, hey presto free flowing chopped herbs that defrost in seconds, even if you sprinkle them over salad. I am big on herbs, and my freezer currently has chives, basil, parsley, coriander, chervil, oregano, marjoram, plus some bags of mixed persian herbs that I buy frozen. All the supermarkets sell them in little frozen bags like this - why would you think they need water/oil adding?

I didn't know the supermarkets sold them frozen. I've asked people IRL about freezing herbs and they tend to wrinkle their noses and say they're OK for cooking into things, but don't come out nice enough that you can use them like fresh. Maybe I should not heed them and just try it!

They are still good for flavour even into salads

I suspect more people will learn how to meal plan over the coming months. People are lagging behind reality.

It requires excess income not to need to meal plan. I can afford to not be too careful right now but as soon as things are a bit tight I do more planning.

I can't imagine meal planning and have never done this in the 45 years since I first left home. I do keep a list of the use by dates of items in my weekly online shop to avoid wasting things, but I decide what to cook each day based on what I fancy, and what ingredients I've got available. It seems really bizarre to me to decide a week in advance what you will be eating, and to go to the lengths of producing a chart of meals for the week. It's like being asked to decide what you want to eat way in advance for a work Christmas lunch.

It doesn't really tbh.
I can shop really cheaply without plan. We are not some randoms throwing 50s around aupermarket on a whim.
You know your bidget, you spend to your budget, it is that simple with planning and without.

I also raise my eyebrow at this "lagging behind reality". Everyone has different reality financially, the fact that not everyone is with 50p by 15th does not mean they "lag behind reality"🤨 Realities are different. One is not the one and and only

It requires excess income not to need to meal plan.
I think it requires excess time. I plan once a week and it doesn't need headspace after that. As PP said, after a day at work I don't need the added hassle of thinking about what ingredients have I got, what can I make with that, will it cook within the time allowed, what substitutes do I need, etc, etc.

I (usually) cook by the plan, knowing that I have balanced the nutrients and varied the flavours throughout the week.

I agree about saving headspace and time. I find right now that is helping me alot because my brain is currently taken up with alot of things that are causing me stress and anxiety. So I meal plan then think about it no more.

I am actually thinking about meal planning for breakfasts now. My older DS is on medication that really clobbers his appetite. He takes them after breakfast then does not eat at all untill dinner time. He is very thin as well so although I already do a hot breakfast of some sort (usually beans or eggs) I want to sort of figure out a really good nutritional balance for him.

All of which is my justification for just ordering a second magnetic meal planner off Amazon! (I do love a planner).

I do that. In fact I need to do it now for next week but I'm too tired at the moment and can't motivate myself but you've reminded me!

Ah. I find cooking and playing with it relaxing so that probably makes a big difference as well.

I wouldn't like to have every meal planned out a week ahead like that. We often like to go out for a meal together on a whim so we'd just end up throwing the extra meat in the freezer and it would sit there for months. I live across the road from a big shopping centre with a Tesco, Aldi, butchers etc so it's easy to go pick up whatever we fancy every 2 or 3 days.

I meal plan, but then it consists of a scrappy post-it note stuck to the fridge! It's not hard and fast, but these are the meals we will have at some point this week.