Meal planning, breakfasts and lunches?

[Backtonature]

I currently plan evening meals, but was wondering if I could make further savings by planning breakfasts and lunches? Does anyone do this?

I have left overs for lunch! saves a fortune

Yep, just make sure whatever you're having on an evening will work as leftovers the next day (or can be made into something else - eg roast dinner leftovers into bubble & squeak, make too much fajita filling and have it in quesadillas).

I am crap at practising what I preach though

Oh dear, we don't have left overs maybe if I cooked a bit extra that would work though. I'm not sure if I could eat a big meal at lunchtime though, leftover pie would fill me up for the rest of the day!

But you don't have to eat a huge portion of the left overs for lunch ;-)

When you talk about meal planning lunches, is everyone out of the house or are you eating at home?

Simple things like make a stew into soup, meat into quiche or sandwich or have the pie but a smaller portion for lunch

Do you have kids at home?

My kids don't eat breakfast and eat lunch at school, so it's just me.

It's just me and the toddler at home, oldest dd age 5 has packed lunches twice a week, dh buys lunch at work. Then weekend is me and two dds at lunchtime and sometimes a relative might pop over at the weekend and want feeding too. At the moment for lunches I buy ham, cheese, hummus, crisps, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, soup. A lot of the salad goes in the bin and sometimes the hummus. We run out of ham, toddler can't eat cheese so she ends up with jam sandwich a lot. And I always seem to end up with cheese sandwich or tin soup, not very exciting!

Yes leftovers could work if I tried to limit myself to a small portion!!

I serve lunch on side plates with salad in a bowl to help with portion control.

Backtonature, I think meal planning can be very helpful but does have limitations. Schedules can often change without notice, OH often works late at the drop of a hat.

I think freezers can be really helpful. I batch cook and freeze in small portions, soup, tomato sauce, bolognese, curry, lasagne, I even freeze cooked rice and pasta in individual portions.
I can microwave a portion of bolognese in the time it takes to boil a kettle to plunge a portion of frozen pasta in a bowl of boiling water to defrost and heat.

Serving on side plates for lunch is a great idea!

Yes that's why I have been wary of too strict meal plans as sometimes our plans change, dh may not make it home, oldest dc has a party etc

I bake my own bread so make sure I have flour to make a loaf or bread rolls

I usually lay out cereal - quick oats, chocolate cereal and muesli. Then jam and Marmite for toast ( we tend to buy one sliced loaf a week for toast, mainly for those that can't cut bread)
There is also a full bowl of fruit and yogurt

I have a student that's why it gets laid out so everyone can help themselves

I buy foods for fillings for rolls, bread or tortilla wraps - the last one is good as they last till the end of the week. We have fillings like tuns msyo, eggs, cream cheese & cucumber with tomato.

If we have left over they are eaten either for lunch or the student loves leftvovers for breakfast.

I like to have three or four store cuboatd meals in reserve each week to allow for chsnged in the meal plan. So pea rissotto, fritatta as I usually have eggs, onions garlic and some left over vegetables.

I seem to end up with loads of odds and ends at the end of the week, half a bag of carrots, gone off lettuce, mouldy tomatoes!

How about writing down what you have eaten for lunch for a week so you can stop buying the things that get wasted?

Left over can be planned into other meals

Carrots - soup then freeze
Lettuce ,- into a side salad with tomato and grated carrots to go with lssagna

That's a good idea, as what I imagine we eat and what we do eat is a bit different! Maybe if I stop buying the crisps the salad would get eaten