Meal Planning & Food Shopping

[PoliteTurtle]

Sorry if this has already been asked before, but I’m having total option paralysis with meal planning.
I’m wanting to plan our meals more thoughtfully and save abit more money but I literally don’t know where to start, particularly because I’ve been finding recipes can have really one-time use ingredients that I don’t wanna fork out on at the moment. I usually take inventory on what I already have and branch off from there, but I feel like I’m constantly cooking the same things!
How do you meal plan? Give me some tips?

I use a week to view diary.

I write in things that might have an impact on what I have time to make, such as sports clubs etc, so need a quick, early dinner that day. Or special days like making pancakes, or if we are eating out.

I have similar things on certain days, for instance, every Thursday is roasted vegetables, seasonal changes to the vegetables, also change seasonings, with a protein to match. Infinitely variable, but the same in terms of effort, both mental and physical.

I batch cook things like lentil bolognaise, korma sauce, lentil stews, and freeze in portions, so easy to get out and plan for.
I also batch cook rice and bag up in servings and freeze.

I keep a freezer inventory for planning reasons and avoiding wastage.

I think about:

• what are my/ the family members’ busy days this week (when are the best days to use the slow cooker; what days would it be handy to have leftovers for lunch next day etc)
• seasonal changes - avoiding avoiding out-of-season veg
• what odds and ends do I need to use up or what random yellow-stickered item have I got in the freezer
• don’t stick to the recipe!!! Those one-time ingredients can often be subbed or ignored completely

I tend to go through flurries of wanting to really cook and get the kids involved - so I might make a batch of turkey meatballs and freeze half for another time, and then the kids can help me make flatbreads and grated carrot/white cabbage. Or I might make a chickpea curry or dhal (I do have a really well-stocked spice rack).

If I plan an expensive meal (fish or red meat) then I’ll offset with a cheap meal in that week like macaroni cheese or homemade soup or beans on toast.

I look for opportunities to introduce my kids to new foods or variants that are cheaper (eg vegetarian versions like veggie chilli). I have just persuaded them to enjoy poached smoked basa fillets with fried eggs which is a big win, as it’s a cheaper fish and quick to cook.

Theres a few ways of doing it

1. batch lady has a good cookbook. I got mine second hand
2. old fashioned way. Roast Sunday, left meat beans and chips Monday, pie and mash Tuesday, Wednesday chops, Thursday stew, Friday fish, Saturday sausage
3. I do toad in the hole Sunday, the rest of the week is a mix of sausage/burger in bun, spag Bol, Mexican, pasta and ham, waffle and fish gingers, pizza usually homemade. I just cycle the meals they eat and try to stretch them to eat a bit more variety

You can try using Recipe Radar or My Fridge food or BBCs Good food where you enter the ingredients you already have and it will come up with some meal suggestions.
There's nothing wrong with eating favourites if the family like them even if you do feel it's boring sometimes at least you are not wasting food by cooking something that they won't eat. DH loves meals that I literally throw together with whatever is available but he's not a fussy eater which I know can be a real problem for some of us and I have a GC who is dairy intolerant so have to be inventive on occasion.

Gousto! Cannot be doing with meal planning, my least favourite domestic task.

Thanks all, I will read through properly later when the kids in bed !🩷

I also meal plan to save money- also we're vegetarian which makes a cost difference. I tend to go with weekly:
One slow cooker soup or stew (with bread and cheese)
One pasta night
One jacket potato night
One omelette/frittata night
One "freezer tea" night e.g. sausages

That just leaves me a couple of options to think about, using whatever is in the fridge and cupboards.

Know which days you're busy and need something quick - have a few easy options for then (mine are prawn spaghetti, jacket potato with tuna, filled pasta, pizza, or chicken dipper/ fish fingers and potato waffles).

I do my shopping at lidl mostly, so my first port of call is usually the app - checking the coupons section and the brochure. Try to utilise some of the 6 on offer fruits and veg, and some of the 6 meat/fish, and will often stock up on the meat for the freezer if it's a good deal. This tends to ensure I get some variety in

Always have the following dried/tinned stuff in the house, so just stock up on them as needed; pasta, rice, variety of herbs and spices, stock cubes, lentils, egg noodles, tinned tomatoes, kidney beans, coconut milk. So can generally knock up a couple of meals without a food shop if needed.

I plan meals, but don't necessarily assign days to them, and will often wait until I get home and see dates on stuff before doing that, or can leave it until the day to see what I fancy. I usually food shop at the weekend.

For me, a usual winter week is something like:
Sat - homemade chicken burger with sweet potato wedges
Sun - meat and veg traybake with potatoes
Mon - Stick salmon with rice and green veg
Tues - Quick pasta dish (not home til 8:30)
Wed - Veg Risotto
Thur - creamy tuscan salmon with rice
Fri - fish finger sandwich with salad and potato waffles

In summer, when I do more sport and the weather is better, it's something like this:
Sat - homemade chicken burger with sweet potato wedges
Sun - Traybake
Mon - (leftover traybake for lunch), wrap, crisps, fruit and smoothie taken to training
Tues - Pizza
Wed - Usually chips after sport matches, then something quick once home (quick pasta or shove some chicken dippers into the air fryer)
Thurs - Curry and rice
Fri - salmon, veg and potatoes

We do a four day repeat plan Mon-Thurs then think what we fancy Fri-Sun.

Start with what you like best already, don't go looking for complicated recipes.

I choose a main meal to get us going and then plan from there.

So say I decided on a Spaghetti Bolognese.
Add the ingredients to the shopping list.
I usually put extra vegetables in the sauce - peppers and carrots and mushrooms.

So I’ll have a pepper and some carrots and half a pack of mushrooms left over. So they can go in a stir fry. I’ll get mangetout for the stir fry too, so then I’ll have half a pack of those to pay forward, and half a big pack of chicken thighs, and some eggs (my Dc adore eggs in stir fry)

If I get a bigger pack of mince, I can make the Bolognese stretch to Lasagne too.
So add ingredients for Béchamels sauce to shopping list, plus salad.

So then I’ve planned 3 meals and got mangetout and chicken and salad still to use. Maybe chicken Caesar salad, as I have Parmesan left too, from the pasta meals, that’s four.

Maybe Spanish omelette with the mangetout. Add potatoes to list.

5 meals down, now something to go with potatoes needed, maybe sausages and mash…and so it goes on.

I print out my favourite recipes and put in plastic sleeves, then they go in binders, sorted according to eg beef, chicken, pork.

On the back of each one I re-write the ingredients because quite often I will omit or swap something out that we don't like. If the recipe calls for say half a carton of passata then I also write down the name of another recipe that will use the other half of the passata so I can cross reference.

It took me a while initially to get it all organised but it's made things so much easier for meal planning.

I have a laminated list on the fridge of meals we all eat, organised by main ingredient..eg.mince; bolognaise/ cottage pie/ chilli. Sometimes its a frozen item like pie/ battered fish etc.

On the other side of the laminate is a shopping list of everything we usually buy, this is what is usually on display and a whiteboard pen for everyone to tick what is needed if we run out or they want me to get on the next shop.

I'll stock check the freezer and cupboards and tick off meals that I can make, add to the shopping list if I need something to complete a meal. When I'm unpacking the shopping I can add to the meal plan list. Then add the meals to the wall calendar based on which is easier to do on busy day or make something else with the leftovers for the day before etc. Ie spag bol one day and use bolognaise to make chilli and gnocchi or bolognaise on jacket potato. I check the calendar in the morning to see if I have to get something out to defrost.

I do have a homemade recipe book too, it's an A5 booklet with plastic pockets and I've typed up our harder meals and favourite recipes written out in simple instructions. Most cookbooks tend to over explain imo, I don't keep loads of cookbooks for one or two recipes that work for us, I'll borrow from the library or find something online. If it's a hit, it goes in our recipe book. I've adapted our recipes for the multi cooker.

I do back to front meal planning

Which means I go shopping and see what is on offer or reduced and plan around that

No such thing as buying a single use ingredient in this house, its either something I will use up in another dish or it gets substituted

You may have seen me stood stock still staring at my phone in Tescos. What Im actually doing is checking out recipes on the hoof cos Ive found a bargain and dont have a clue what to do with it or checking a recipe out to ensure I do have 90% of the ingredients already

However I do have practically every herb and spice known to man in the house already as I do cook everything from scratch - rural, no takeaway or deliveries out here and because we often have power cuts, can get snowed in or the weather is just too dammed awful to attempt the drive into town, I have a store cupboard of the basics at all times - tinned tomatoes, rice, pasta ,flour, UHT milk etc

Like a PP, I buy the super six from Lidl and also Tescos - Ive a fridge full of aubergines right now cos they were half price last week Today now Ive time Im making up a huge vat of Afghan Aubergines using up all the squidgy tomatoes in the fridge but actual dinner tonight is Pork with red pepper and black beans - 2 reduced pork chops cut into strips and the red pepper was on offer. So the recipe is for chicken but I have pork - it will be grand

Another bargain found this week was a box of ham trimmings, huge pieces, half price, so quiche and pizza are on this weeks menu and if Ive enough eggs maybe stretch to a carbonara ( poor mans version using ham )

Recipes are guidelines , just substitute away with what you have

I start with out calendar, where people are/ who I’m feeding, working late so need a quick meal.

We have pasta on brownies night because the kids will eat efficiently. They like lasagne, spag Bol, chicken and ham pasta, tuna pasta bake, braised or Swedish meatballs, sausage pasta. These became the basis for a 6 week meal plan.

Sundays are a roast - chicken left overs for in jambalaya, beef left overs become beef pie or beef stew (chicken frozen as is, beef in gravy). Other Sunday alternatives are sausage and mash, toad in the hole, cottage pie (batch cooked bases).

Theres usually a slow cooker night, pork casserole, ham joint, chicken casserole, chicken Chasseur, chicken Provençal, Spanish chicken. With new or roast potatoes veg or salad. I make full use of Schwartz /coleman sachets. Chicken casserole always generates massive amounts of left overs so it either goes in the freezer for next time, or gets turned into a pie.

Then there’s meals with a Chinese flavour, oyster chicken, teriyaki chicken, honey garlic chicken, hoi sin chicken, sesame chicken, sweet and sour chicken. Served with rice and veg.

Saturday is a bit of a ‘pub classics’ night. We had scampi and chips last night, but there’s gammon and chips, and loads of stuff I can’t remember on there for Saturdays.

We usually eat Mexican once a week, tacos, chilli, chicken tinga, enchiladas, fajitas, Southwest chicken and rice.

We leave one slot free for the kids to choose their own tea, so they normally go for pizza, nuggets, fish fingers, pasta etc. we usually have something more spicy than they will eat like a curry.

I look at what ingredients the meals use, and group them together. Ham pasta uses the left over ham from the ham joint. Beef pie uses the left over beef from the beef joint etc.

Start out with listing all the recipes you like, work out your schedule and then group meals with common ingredients together.

We also chuck in a Gousto box every now and then for new recipe inspiration. The sesame chicken is a Gousto recipe that the kids love, which I would never have picked for them in a million years!

I try to meal plan on a Saturday for a Monday grocery delivery. When I used to shop in person, I used a laminated shopping list of most frequently bought items. I miss that but I have a toddler now and try to avoid supermarkets whenever possible. I don't need to carry a child and that many heavy bags.

I have a certain ingredient/protein/theme for each day of the week, excluding weekends when I can’t be bothered. DH has recently asked that we go back to Sunday roasts, though.

Monday - meatless
Tuesday - mince (basically taco Tuesday or spag bol, occasionally chilli)
Wednesday - chicken
Thursday - fish
Friday - steak and salad

DH uses any leftovers to take to work for his lunch. Except the pasta sauce - that is mine! 🤣

I also have a list of my favourite recipes that I turn to when I need inspiration.

What kind of one time use ingredients are you referring to OP? If we know that we might be able to offer suggestions.
Having a flexible view towards best before dates does help.

Forgot to mention - I loved my laminated shopping list because I went a bit over the top for a while and added prices from a few shops (and looked some up online) and averaged them out so I could see what I usually paid and stock up if there was a good price.

Also, knowing that I have mince, for example, one a week in various guises means that when mince is on sale, I can stock up and know it will be used up within a few weeks.