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?

Boring as hell and I think it would be hard to get the full range of vitamins and minerals.

I get the meal planning pain though.

Maybe a 3 week cycle switched up a bit a few times a year?

@Dogsitterwoes I frequently wish that a pill would be invented that has all the vitamins, minerals etc needed to live so I wouldn't have to bother with deciding what to eat/food shopping/cooking.
I find food boring in general 😂

We have set meals certain days, then 2-3 free-form days.

So Monday and Friday are set meals, same every week. Saturday we get takeaway after sport from the same place every week.

Sunday is variations on the theme of curry, or home-made pizza (or very occasionally a roast)

Then recently we got one of those recipe services to get a bit of easy variety into Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday and I'm really appreciating having the variety without having to think - but DS2 hates it as there isn't enough of the foods he likes and he often ends up making something for himself.

Having neurodivergent kids, I realised not eating the same foods every day was a waste of time, money and effort because they eat so few meals 7 meals is pushing it. But actually having that repetition and routine around it has helped them to be braver with trying foods because they have meals they know they like/ are sure of. Also helped cut the shopping bills a little bit, and the food waste a lot. If I think it's a bit boring myself I have something different for lunch or breakfast, or add a condiment or a snack I fancy. I can't believe I fought having a meal plan for so long, it works for us.

Most people's diets were much less varied than they are today in the past; and yes it is good to have a variety but if you have one starch, one protein and one fruit or vegetable that's 3 x 7 nights , 21 foods. That's pretty varied considering it's also 3 meals a day 3 x 21 is 63 foods, plus snacks/treats/desserts/ occasional eating out. You can definitely fit in a healthy, varied, balanced diet having a 7 day fixed meal plan, and by planning some variation can improve on that, eg. Having mince every Wednesday, so that could be cottage pie, Bolognese or chilli con carne.

It didn’t seem odd in ‘Shirley Valentine’ - a slight exaggeration of boring married life but not massive.

Shameless place marking, all I seem to ask is 'What do you want for tea?' every day. ( I am Northern) I will be using these ideas.

My grandparents did this, but they were born in the late 19th century.
I'd be bored after the second week!

Even my DM (world's worst cook) only regularly did fish on Fridays & roast on Sundays.

@MrsHughesPinny It's Recipe Keeper. I did pay for the premium version but it's worth it IMO. I particularly like that you can a) import recipes directly from websites into the app as well as take a pic of a cookbook and it will scan it and b) export the week's plan into a shopping list that you can print, email or just copy and paste into the grocery website.

You can set lots of different criteria for the planner, so if you properly categorise your recipes when adding you can specify lots of things, but I just have a bank of 35 dinners or so and let it do its thing and just swap out individual meals (it lets you just press a button next to a day and it swaps another recipe in to replace) if I decide I don't fancy them or if it's a bit pasta heavy or chicken heavy that week.

I have been thinking of doing a similar thing - but thinking in terms of 1 week or 2 weeks. I think 10 days is a genius idea.

I don't because its just me and DS in the house and he eats very restrictively as he's ND so I only really need to get creative with my own meals.

I tend to plan the week ahead on the Saturday but there can be some weeks I don't plan and end up going after work and picking up what I fancy.

If my boyfriend ended up moving in, or there were more kids, I would definitely plan in advance for each dinner though. Probably a 2 week schedule rotated.

I like to do what I call meal adaptations so for example make a huge pot of your spag Bol, adding beans and seasoning for chilli, adding a soft cheese for a cheesy pasta bake, lasagne or an Italian pie - do some garlic and cheesy mash for on top.

Chicken (any cut you like) with different seasonings - BBQ, Garlic and Herb, Tikka, Peri. The maggi bags are good for this. Also can stuff these with cheese, wrap with bacon and top with different sauces ie peppercorn, BBQ, pesto. Freeze pesto into servings to always have on hand.

Sausages done either fried with sides like mash, hot dogs, sausage hot pot, corn dogs, or even do a breakfast for dinner fry-up.

Different pasta bakes to use up left over meats from above. A fabulous carbonara can be made from fried pancetta/bacon, egg yolks and Parmesan with some garlic.

Vegetable bakes with some cheese sauce, left over veg can be blitzed together coated in flour and become fritters. Mashed potato can become potato scones etc.

Stir fry, egg fried rice also go great.

Instead of doing a set meal plan, I would do a set protein plan and just use seasonings/techniques to change it up, found this saves a lot of waste too as we weren’t buying specific items for specific meals🤗

Fair point.

However there's evidence that a wife range of plant foods is important for gut health, and that also matters.

I'd also be concerned that children eating a limited number of foods will not develop a wide palate and grow up into people who only eat a limited range of foods, which as a reformed very picky eater myself, is a big shame for them.

It makes shopping so much easier, I find doing the shopping completely overwhelming!

We have one fixed meal (jacket spuds every Wednesday) but then like another poster I have an A4 sheet (double sided) with a huge list of our family favourites so it's not a massive brain task

We have a rough rota but it’s usually by food type. We would never usually eat the same
thing more than once a month apart from pizza and sometimes on a Saturday we will
have a favourite. It means I can batch cook a lot of the meals or sauces for the midweek meals.

Monday - minced something (chilli, spag Bol, lasagne, cottage pie)
Tuesday - pasta/gnocci
Wed - something with chips (burgers, sausages, fish, omelette etc)
Thurs - chicken (Curry, stir fry)
Friday - usually pizza for the kids sometimes takeaway and something different for the grown ups.
Sat - leave it to how we feel/what the kids want
Sunday - traditional - roast, chicken or fish pie, stew etc

Wow, that's a lot of different meals. Don't suppose you could share your list?

I think that sounds awful, how boring. Make a list of 20 meals and pick 5-6 each week.

@PinkRoses1245 I don't think I have 20 different meals I like 😂

i know someone whose family did this , literally 7 meals on repeat for their entire time they lived at the family home . Mainly just freezer to oven type foods , not cooking . There are still foods they won’t eat now because they were part of the seven day rota.

I have just started something like this on most weekdays - weekends I don't mind so much but with work and school can't cope with thinking about dinner as well. Batch cooked loads and plan and each day of the week is the same sort of thing, e.g. Mondays are rice and Dahl or chilli with the option of 4 different recipes so can vary it and Tuesday pasta bolognaise (meat one week, veggie the next) etc. Am loving no longer having to think about dinner so totally recommend - think it will also work out cheaper

Who said pies are processed? It is possible to cook a pie.

I buy the exact same items at the supermarket every week. Me, DH & DS are all picky eaters who eat different foods. We all live off about 3 meals each.

Ha ha, you asked for it!

These are all specific meals in recipe books so some names might not mean much in themselves. In no particular order:

Pea & Tuna Pasta
Salada frango
Moroccan Vegetable Stew
Pork fillet with Apple Sauce
Pasta & Mackerel Salad
Farmhouse Chicken
Penne al Pomodoro
Navarin of spiced Turkey
Lamb curry with mint
Lemon Chicken with Vegetables
Prawn and Vegetable Pilau
Summer Chilli
Chow Mein
Lamb Kebabs
Trout in Orange Sauce
Bacon- and Orange-wrapped chicken breasts
Fruity Lamb Curry
Lentil Soup with Crusty Bread
Penne with Tuna, Sweetcorn & Tomato
Savoury Mince with Rice
Pork & Ginger Noodles
Warm Potato and Tuna Salad
Chinese-Style Beef with noodles
Chicken salad with Honey Dressing
Maccheroni Piccanti
Chicken Fried Rice
Pork with Peppers
Spiced Country Chicken
Garlic & Thyme Tuna Steaks
Glazed Lemon Pepper Chicken
Sweet & Sour Pork
Quick Fish Risotto
Steak, pineapple and pepper stir-fry
Sticky Glazed Gammon
Turkey with Almond Sauce
Conchiglie with Tuna and Vodka
Turkey Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes
Tuna steaks with Sweet & Spicy Peppers
Prawns with spicy green beans
Steak with pan-fried Spinach and Peppers
Salmon Fish Fingers & spring onion mash
Lebanese Rice with Mince
Chicken Soup with Crusty Bread
Summer Veggie Pasta
Spaghetti Bolognese
Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry
Chicken with Mango & Celery salsa
Smoked Mackerel Citrus Salad
Cantonese-style Rice with Prawns
Ham & Vegetable Casserole
Lentil Chilli
Bean sprout & Green bean stir-fry
Tuna & Courgette Salad
Springtime Lamb Stew
Tagliatelle in Herb & pepper sauce
Turkey Bolognese
Marinated Steak Salad
Chicken & Pepper Stew
Smoked Salmon with Apple & Watercress Salad
Pork fillet with herbs
Coq au vin
Fish Mornay
Pasta, cucumber & Radish Salad
Lemon & Oregano Pork
Cumin-spiced Gammon
Vegetable Kebabs
Chickpea, spinach & Courgette Salad
Pearl Spelt Paella
Mushroom, lentil and double potato jumble
Pasta with Steak & Olives
Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken kebabs
Spaghetti with Aspargus & Mustard
Pan-fried Pork with Maple & Mustard Sauce

Let me know if you try any of them!

I would be starving on Monday in your house.

I lived with a friend's parents for a while and they had this. Sunday roast lasted a few meals with different types of potatoes and veg and different meat and different fish on Fridays. Saturday night was a bit of pot luck. Friend said the routine was the same for as long as he could remember so at least 20 years.

Another friend has a 6 week plan on a spreadsheet. So they know exactly what they're having and what they need to buy in for tea on the 4th Sunday next June. Lots more variety but means they never have to think after the initial plan.