Why do I find this so hard? Please help!

[Honky]

Have been trying to meal plan for what seems like years but every week I think I'll start next week, as I haven't got organised. I feel like I am CONSUMED with thinking about what supper's going to be every day and it's driving me mad.

I'm not a great cook - only started learning since having dcs - and feel like there are only a few things that really go down well. Boys are 3 and 7 and fight like savages / start scaling bookshelves etc. if I am out of the room for too long, so I really need a repertoire of things that I can either prepare earlier in the day and/or are QUICK.

I live somewhere (not the UK) where provisions are pretty basic, so it's hard to get a lot of spices and even fresh herbs (can't find tarragon for example.)

They love:
pasta with tomato, basil, garlic, cream sauce
pasta with homemade pesto
broccoli (!) - mini quiches with broccoli
cauliflower/broccoli cheese
homemade chicken nuggets
homemade burgers
corn on the cob
roast beef
roast chicken
chicken pie
mashed potato
lasagne
tomato salad

They will eat:
most soups
homemade veggie burgers
spaghetti bolognese
cottage pie
stir fry
risotto
chicken casserole
green salad

They hate:
lentils (though I always throw them in soups)
sausages
pork chops
dhal

I find it really hard to put together a cohesive plan out of this - ie one that uses up the ingredients over two meals perhaps, so there's no waste, and one where I can feel confident that they're really eating healthily. Ds 1 is allergic to fish and nuts, btw.

The other thing is that I am a freelance graphic designer working from home, so I often don't even have much time during the day to prepare something - most days 1/2 an hour max. Dh comes back late (after boys are in bed).

Sorry this is so long but I'd really appreciate some tips from some MN pros.

I'm probably not going to be a huge amount of help, but I think keeping it really simple is the way to go. I tent to have the same type of thing week to week. So for example Sunday will be say roast chicken, veg potatoes. Mondays will be a repeat or maybe chicken casserole or chicken pasta bake. Tuesdays we'll have sausage beans mash or sausage casserole with pasta if not had pasta on Monday. Wed stir fry or fish bake, thurs spag bol or chilli con carne (week about) double quantity made and remainder used on Saturday in lasagne or wraps if chilli. Friday will be pizza/convenience food as
Friday treat.

If you work around a simple menu you will then be able to introduce alternatives as you get more used to working that way.

Have you thought of a slow cooker? That way you can prepare a stew or casserole when they are not around. Sounds like they might go for dumplings.

My other tip would be, when you do cook, make double, freeze half. I always make double amount of pasta sauce, chilli, etc. then use it on work nights. This will also work with slow cooker.

Thanks - I do need to simplify things, I just don't know how.
To be honest when I look at a week of proper meals like that I just feel overwhelmed and defeated.

I also think that part of it is that it's just me and the boys eating supper and if I've spent ages over something, it feels even worse when they turn their noses up at. (Weekends are different, or when we have family visiting, because I know the adults will appreciate it!)

So I think I need things I can rustle up quickly - have a few pasta / veggie dishes under my belt but not enough.

Thinking about it I split meals into four rough categories

1. Quick assemble/cook. Salads, quick pasta dishes, stir-fries, omelette, steaks, pizza etc. that can be thrown together and on a plate inside 30 minutes. This is what we mostly eat weekdays. No leftovers.
2. Batch cooked. Bolognese sauce for pasta, Chilli Con Carne, various Casseroles, Curries, Lasagna. These take longer so they get cooked at weekends in large amounts, some gets eaten and the rest is portioned up and end up in the freezer.
3. Frozen portions. See above. These come out when there is no time at all due to other commitments. Quick 5 mins in the microwave, a bit of salad or a few peas on the side.
4. Other. More time consuming things like soups, roasts, pot-roasts, new recipes or one-off 'special' dishes that can't be frozen. Again, these get made at the weekends when there is time to spare. Leftovers reappear as lunches or incorporated in quick cook dishes.

So my menu plan would be Mon-Fri 'Quick Cook' and 'Frozen Portions' depending on time available... Sat and Sun 'Batch Cook' and 'Other'.

Will it help if you do a meal plan for say 3-4 weeks, and then just rotate the 4 week plan? That's what they do in nurseries. It keeps up a good variety, but you don't actually have to plan every week. I think my DD's nursery has a winter and a summer meal plan.

Cogito has already given you ideas on how to make more meals than one everytime you cook.

Do you want to learn to make more things? I quite like my daddy cooks for quick simple meals. Many of it are toddler proof. It's from a video blog so you can see what I mean by toddler-proof if you google for it.

I work FT, and cook everyday for both my packed lunch and dinner. It's about learning a lot of dishes that's very very easy to put on the table. I have a list of quick dinners, and when I plan my grocery for the week, I tick meals I want to eat out of the list. I like to cook new things though, so when it's not a busy week, I add something I've never cooked before into the plan. If it's a hit, then it gets added to my list.

I like to batch cook things, usually set aside one day every 3 weeks or so and make loads. I freeze meals in portion sizes so there's always something to feed my sons when I 'can't be bothered' or we're busy. If I have just got something out of the freezer and microwaved it, I feel much less precious about it than if I have slaved hours over it and I think that feeling transmits to the DC and they don't whinge.

spahetti bog

chop onion and 2 carrots really small and gently saute - then add garlic if you have and any type of mixed herb or basil, then add 2-3 slices of chopped bacon or pancetta, then add the mince meat and break down with the back of a wooden spoon so that the 500g mince is not lumpy when cooked, add white or red wine a glass full, one tinned chopped tomato give a stir bring to the simmer point turn down the heat and either leave on the hob for 1 and a half hours or place in oven with lid on and cook for 3-4 hours on a very low heat.

Don't eat this until the day after and eat with spaghetti. Save half and make a lasagna later in the week as you will just need to make a cheese sauce and assemble the dish together which will not take long.

double up the mixture and freeze for the following week for ease

Thanks for all the advice, all eminently sensible.

I like the look of the Daddy Cooks book OLBT, thank you.

And the bolognese sauce --> lasagne (or cottage pie) makes sense. I would like to compile more ideas like this where you can use leftovers and are then halfway to another meal, I think this is key.

Midweek means being organised and/or quick! Not panicking at 5pm every day like I do.

Roast chicken > chicken pie/fajitas/pasta bake/curry > soup

Bolognaise --> chilli

Roasted veg lasagna --> keep some veg back to have with cous cous

Make soups and freeze in portions

Make quick stir fries with prepared veg, ready-to-wok noodles and prawns

Make big salads - leaves, cheese, avocado, nuts/seeds, pesto or balsamic dressing

Could you get the kenwood mini chopper? This has saved me sooooo much time especially when batch baking, it makes short work of chopping opinions/ carrots (cut them into chunks first) garlic/ celery etc. if mine broke I would be out buying a new one ASAP!!!!
I like to cook things which have high yeilds IYKWIM? I made the Jamie Oliver curry base sauce the other day and it produced enough for 5 meals serving two adults generously! Then you defrost sauce and add what you want to it and cook for half an hour! Can you try simpler meals like a jacket potato with baked beans or toasted cheese sandwiches with salad now and again?

Love Food Hate Waste has some good ideas for using up leftovers.

And you've done half the work in writing a meal plan with your list there! Now draw a table (or download one if that seems too hard - but don't look where it came from! ) and fill it in.

Some things on your list work well with all sorts of veg (like casserole, risotto), so it makes sense to put those in when you think you'll have leftovers. But you might have roast chicken one day, make casserole with the leftover meat and freeze it for the following week. Whatever works.

Put it somewhere in the kitchen where you can see it (mine used to be a talking point for family and friends! ), make changes if it's not working.

On mine, there was at least one meal a week which just needed store-cupboard ingredients and I used that to get back on track if there were leftovers I needed to eat up instead; I just abandoned that meal.

Thanks again. I like the idea of a mini chopper lolalotta - chopping onions etc. is so desperately boring. And high yield meals are good! I do resort to simple meals now and then. In fact, I think what I'm after is a meal plan that gives me one proper meal (roast chicken) that I can use for another proper meal (chicken pie) and then one or two quick things (pasta) and one super simple (soup, salad, bread, cheese etc.) I somehow can't face cooking a different big proper meal every weeknight. I think I must be particularly crap.

Googie - I need more of these. Have been mulling them over today! I know most of this probably seems so obvious to you all but for some reason I just can't seem to crack it. And am so demoralised when I spend ages and/or try something new and the boys don't like it.

lostmywellies, I've used that site before, I like their ideas. (For some reason I can't get onto it now, is that just me?)
It's funny, when I write meals down, as you say, I'm halfway there. And yet still I feel defeated by it. Last night it was very hot here so I thought ok, let's just keep it simple, and made a tomato, basil, mozarella salad and garlic bread - ds2 ate it, ds1 picked at it and wouldn't eat it. So bloody discouraging!

That website doesn't seem to be at .co.uk any more. My link upthread worked ok for me a minute ago.

Bolognese > chilli (add tin of kidney beans, tin of baked beans and red chilli and cumin) > nachos (left over chilli on plate of tortilla chips, grated cheese on top then under grill, have sour cream/natural yoghurt on the side)

Char Sui roasted pork (v easy in slow cooker) with rice > noodle soup > special fried rice

Roast chicken and veg > bubble and squeak > soup with dumplings

Cauliflower cheese one night, make extra cheese sauce, have with ham in puff pastry turnovers with baked beans

Use smoked salmon offcuts in quiche, in pasta with lemon, parsley and creme fraiche, with scrambled eggs

Mmm... nachos, have never done those myself, just enjoyed them out.

Smoked salmon is NEVER a leftover in my house.

Can you freeze things, start off by making a double amount of your pasta sauce and freeze half. Then do the same with a soup, then the broccoli quiches, then the chicken, either nuggets or pie. Once you have a few meals in the freezer you'll be under less pressure and hopefully find it easier to spend a little time implementing your plan. Maybe just do two or three days to begin with and work up to a whole week's plan.

Could you get the DCs involved in helping you, they might really enjoy it.

If you do decide to get a mini chopper, There can be a knack in getting to know how to make them work best for you. For example I have found if I put a whole onion in it tends to produce a bit of a wet mush which doesn't cook down so well but if I put two quarters in it chops it just how I like it! So experiment a bit and you won't look back! It is great for making homemade pesto too.