To eat the same meals every week?

[BeeEyeEnGeeOh]

I'm so bored of meal planning and the time it takes to do online shopping.

Has anyone had a weekly schedule of meals, eg every Tuesday you have spag bol, every Wednesday pizza etc and stuck to it?

How long before you get bored?

Is it a bad lesson for my DCs (all under five) to be so restrictive and unvaried?

Or is it a brilliant idea that will save me a huge mental load?

and here the OP is making an effort asking for ideas and guidance. Which means she cares about her children.

And you are just being gratuitously unpleasant @AlrightThen

We sort of do this; have the same meal every Monday and Wednesday. Tuesday my DD cooks and it’s her decision what to make (and buy). Thursday is more ad hoc but I try to make something different. Friday and Saturday unscheduled because it would be incredibly dull to not mix it up a bit.

@AlrightThen effort for what? I'd say the OP is putting in a lot of effort.

More or less. But more of a two week menu, and there are some that only get in there once a month (curry, lasagna, Hungarian goulash).
Most weeks we'll have a pasta or chilli dish, a chicken and something dish, a fish dish, a stirfry kind of thing...
This week our 'once a month' dish is marinated tuna steaks with basil, tomato, mozzarella and avocado salad. We also have a takeaway about once a month/six weeks.

I started off doing this just for packed lunches, but have now extended it to evening meal too.

I have a four week plan, and while I have a list of what we are having each week I don't stick to certain days for certain meals. So if I have a meal that needs a bit of prep planned for Tuesday, but Tuesday I don't feel like cooking I'll do another meal off the list.

I batch cook too, knowing that the meal will come back around.

I would personally avoid the idea of "Monday is cottage pie day" or whatever, but otherwise I don't see the issue with a plan.

unkind

I started a new job and was initially baffled how a male colleague who lived with his mum always knew what he was having for dinner. It was a seven day rota.

Even though he had been eating the same things every week for 28 years, I don’t think he ever got bored with it because even when he moved out to his own house around the corner, he still went back to his mum’s for his dinner.

We have burgers religiously every Wednesday and Pizza almost every Friday (unless we have a take away). The rest of the week is whatever we feel like eating.

Burgers on a Wednesday is a hangover from when I used to get home at 8pm on Wednesdays and DH did dinner - he is not a very confident cook. Pizzas replaced what was previously a weekly take away to save money and is something my parents did for years when I was a child.

A colleague of mine lives on a 4-week rotation but her weeks all follow a similar pattern so Monday for example is always a mince dish.

If nothing else, eating the same food all the time is a really easy way to maintain your weight!

I have a four weekly meal plan that I rotate through. Adds enough variety that we don't get bored but no need to think of things off the top of my head.

On Ocado, I've set up lists for each week and one for weekly essentials. So I just open the app, click to add two lists, edit slightly and pay. Weekly shopping done in less than 5 minutes each week.

Going to sound melodramatic and sad, but it's been life changing

Seems a nice and simple lifestyle!

I like the sound of cheese pie & gammon

We had a set 3 week plan with swap outs so some things were every 6 weeks including a takeaway.

How I did it was to list all the meals we usually eat and pick a week from it but considered what carb was going with it so no pasta 3 days in a row but pasta, then rice, then potatoes sort of thing and not chicken 3 days in a row.

I also had a supermarket food delivery so anything fresh like salad or veg was eaten within the first half of the week after delivery and some things were cupboard/freezer like Tuna Pasta Bake or chilli as I always had in frozen peppers, onions, green beans, mushrooms etc and I shop at Costco so portion up meat/fish etc which is frozen too. Along with the meal plan I had the shopping list and would just put all that into the online basket. It made it easy as I didn't have to think.

My mother did this but to make matters worse her cooking was shite. My brother says she could make a nice salad.

I do a two-week plan for Mon-Fri and have something new/different or takeaway on a Saturday. It does mean we eat many of the same meals on a weeknight but it’s always homemade and nutritious so that wins over trying and failing to create variety when I’m pushed for time. Also, anything that reduces the mental load for you is good for your children!

I would do a slightly longer plan - say 2 weeks. And echo other posters about varying it so eg if Wednesday is fajita night, can be chicken one week, halloumi one night etc.

A lot of these contain a lot of processed food - pies, pizza, sausages, burgers etc

We generally eat the same meals every week but we have chicken thighs a couple of times, pork chops one day, Roast dinner one day (and left overs another). then make something new from scratch on a Saturday evening and just have something processed on a Friday evening - sausages normally.

Is anyone willing to share what meals are on the rota? I need inspiration!

These are the meals I do regularly for me, DH, DD3 and DS6:

Sausages, new potatoes, veg
Hot dogs, wedges, veg
Jacket potato, cheese, beans, salad
Roast with Yorkshire puds and veg
Pasta and turkey meatballs
Homemade pizzas
Stir fry
Fish fingers, chips, beans, peas, sweetcorn
Burgers, wedges, corn on cob, salad

To be honest, I just cook a big pot of stew couple of times a week and we eat the same meal 2-3 nights in a row. My partner cooks at weekends.

If what you are eating is healthy and you like it, crack on. Nothing wrong with a meal rota. Not everyone places a high value on variety.

I use an app. I have about 30 recipes in there and it has a planner function that auto-populates (and you can have criteria so you don't get anything you've had in the last X weeks, etc) so I just do that every week.

Your MIL has it sorted. Good for her. If she does all the cooking, she eats what she likes.

I do some of the same things every single week, with the other days pieced together from a mix of leftovers, takeaway or "whatever I fancy". So my family always knows that Mondays are a stir fry of some sort, Tuesday is taco Tuesday (or fajitas or burritos, etc) Weds is grilled chicken salad, Friday is some sort of fish.

The rest is up for grabs. It really does make shopping easier.

If all the cooking labour and shopping labour falls to you then I say you get to do whatever makes your life easier.

2 week menu here with batch cooking and freezing so weekday meals are very easy. Mondays are the leftovers from the Sunday lunch. Takeaway once a fortnight

Bubble and squeak
Bolognaise
Chicken curry
Chilli
Fish fingers and chips
Mushroom risotto
Roast dinner

Cottage/shepherd's pie
Takeaway Tuesday
Sausage and mash
Pizza
Fish and chips
Roast veg on couscous
Roast dinner

Could do with some more ideas to mix it up but dc are happy with it.

My DH's family did that for a bit when he was growing up. He didn't even notice til his sister pointed it out a few months in!

If it works for your family then I don't see why not although I think I'd be the one getting bored with it. Maybe a 2 week rotation but themed would be better?

E.g.
Monday - potatoes - cottage pie one week, sausage and mash week 2
Tuesday - pasta - meatballs then Bolognese
Wednesday - rice - chilli then curry
Thurs - bread - fajitas then enchiladas
Fri - cheat - pizza and chips, scampi/chicken nuggets and chips
Saturday - fish - cod & chorizo stew, tuna pasta bake
Sunday - bit more flex for something you fancy?

I have a list of 30+ meals we regularly eat, mostly just basics like curry,spag Bol, chilli, spaghetti and meatballs, steak pie and 4 steamed veg, 5 spice loin of pork lettuce rolls, beef black bean sauce stir fry, steak. I get so bored of eating the same meals, if I never ate any of them again it would be too soon.