anyone meal plan and happy share a weekly menu?

[FortyFacedFuckers]

Decided to start meal planning to cut down on waste and to try and have a variety of meals instead of the same things all the time. I am looking for things that are quick (I don't have a lot of time after work & before DS's activity) or that I can batch cook & freeze.

Was thinking of something like
Monday Some kind of Fish
Tuesday Red meat
Wednesday Vegetarian
Thursday chicken/turkey
Friday ??
Saturday takeaway/eat out
Sunday Roast

Was then going to think of at least 5 ideas with each category and rotating them?

Does anyone do something like the above?

It's an app called Copy Me That. They have a website too that's just the same.

I just found it and loveit.

It copies recipes onto the app/website (just the recipe/instructions, so no other witterings from blogs etc) and then you click to add them to your meal plan.

Its exactly what I needed and I didn't even know it.

We normally have a roast on Sunday and plate up a dinner for DC for Monday night when we tend to have something spicy. Rest of the week is loosely planned so we know what we are eating but not which night iyswim.

So this week:
Monday: roast chicken dinner for dc, Thai green chicken curry for me and DH
Tuesday: sausage casserole, parsnip and potato mash and Savoy cabbage.

Rest of week: sea bass, new pots and green beans;
Veggie risotto
Ham, egg, beans and chips

I have Stickies constantly open on my computer and add dishes I 'd like to make as I think of them (newspaper/magazine articles, blogs, what comes t my mind). From this I place my delivery order and write in the day I plan on serving them.

This week:
Yesterday: sweet potat, black bean, and quinoa patties with a spiced feta and yoghurt sauce
Today - courgetti blognese
Tomorrow: chicken cooked in vinegar with sautéed kale and quinoa
Thursday: slow braised hoisin pork belly with rice noodles
Friday: out for dinner
Saturday lunch: white bean stew
Saturday dinner: miso glazed Salmon with sea salad
Sunday lunch: out
Sunday dinner: tapenade pinwheel, tomato salad, galette des rois

Mine this week
Monday: Cous Cous with roast veg
Tuesday: chickpea salad
Wednesday: jerk sweet potatoes and black beans
Thursday: garlic mushrooms with puy lentils, quinoa and rocket
Friday: pasta with sundried tomato and goats cheese sauce
Saturday: roast veggie fajitas
Sunday: goats cheese and caramelised onion tart with salad and sautéed potatoes

I online shop as much as possible to avoid ending up with random veg and so on which never seems to get eaten. I usually go a fortnight between deliveries, topping up milk and fruit between, have lots of frozen veg in freezer, always one no washing up meal on hand in case I just can't be bothered, and a slow cooker. I also plan the end of the fortnight meals to be those I can make from the freezer. DS can't eat egg which is a pain.

Typical meal plan
Fish baked in parchment with rice, and veg
Homemade chicken nuggets with wedges and peas
Cold bits - nice bread, salami, olives, cheese
Slow cooked ham with macaroni cheese
Pasta with salmon green beans and creme fraiche
Slow cooker casserole or hotpot with mash
Broccoli cheese with bacon
Spinach and ricotta cannelloni in a tomato sauce
Veg and noodle stir fry
Pizza with salad

Leftovers - one portion for lunch, any more into the freezer

This is so helpful - we started meal planning when I went back to work when DD was 11m, quick meals we can make after DD has gone to bed, and to make sure I had something suitable for her to eat each day instead of a cheese sandwich AGAIN. It is great as it has massively reduced the amount of waste and the £ we spend, and means the only food shopping I have to do with DD is a swing by the shops for some fresh veg towards the end of the week. But we only do it a week at a time and so I sit there on Sunday evenings trying to do an online tesco order for Monday morning, getting stressed cos I can't think of what meals to make. My other annoyance is that DH is doing 5:2 and I hate almost all low calorie meals. We still need to work on a bit more home cooked stuff but we are gettign there.
Having a few weeks worth of tried and tested meals on a list to choose from is genius! I can't believe it never occurred to me!

I try to meal plan most weeks as budget goes out the window when I don't.

Using up stuff from the freezer and the top up shopping earlier this week we are having the following over the next 12 days:

Monday: homemade lasagne and garlic bread and salad
Tues: Left over lasagne with garlic bread and salad
Wed: Gordon Ramsey's Italian Style Turnip soup with brown soda bread
Thus: Bill Granger's creamy mushroom and proscuitto pasta with salad
Fri: Crispy duck in pancakes, egg fried rice, stirfry veg
Sat: Chicken curry, rice, poppadoms and chutney
Sun: left over curry with rice and poppadoms
Mon: M&S southern fried chicken with coleslaw and baked potatoes
Tues: Shepherds pie topped with parsnip and potato mash, green veg
Wed: left over shepherd's pie, green veg
Thurs: chicken breast stuffed with black pudding, roast potatoes and veg
Fri: homemade pizza with salad

It is not as varied as I usually like but I am trying to spend as little as possible until the end of the month and also use up stuff from Christmas that is in the freezer (cream, black pudding etc) It is a little pasta heavy, but dd loves pasta so we shall survive!

I meal plan carefully.

I plan for 7 dinners a week in advance and do a food shop every Sunday. I keep a list in my diary of family favourites/likes, what we have in the freezer & cupboards, new recipes I want to try. This helps a lot with meal planning as there is usually a list of 10-14 meals so I am not starting from scratch every week.

Next weeks meals are
Steak, chips & veg
Prawn Marie jacket potatoes and salad
Spaghetti bolognese
Fish & chips with mush peas
Chicken tray bake with sweet potatoes
Brocoli & Stilton soup (to use up a load of Christmas Stilton)
Honey & Dijon mustard chicken in the slow cooker with rice.

On my ideas list is
Carrot & chickpea soul
Fettuccine Alfredo
Beef stew

Tonight: veggie fajitas
Tomorrow: Italian mean stew and mash
Monday: chickpea and spinach curry
Tuesday: Greek salad and pitta and hummous
Wednesday: going to my friends house
Thursday: ma po tofu
Friday: pea risotto

Ours is -
Home made curry with rice
Baked potatoes with sausages and salad
Roast
Pasta w home made pesto and tomato sauce
Prawns and rice with veg and seasoning - sortof cheap paella style
Home made pizzas
Veg stir fry with noodles.

Rather than vary the meals, I just vary the ingredients, so we have different kinds of curry, different pizza toppings, different veg in the pasta sauce and stir fry, different protein things - sometimes prawns, quorn, chicken, whatever is cheap/in the house. I batch cook sauces and soups, and pizza dough for the freezer.

This week ours is:
Mon: Pasta with broccoli, anchovies, chilli
Tues: fresh tuna, brown rice , kale & mushroom stir fry
Wed: butternut squash, pepper & halloumi bake,
Thurs: curry - daal, prawn curry, rice,
Fri: take away / pub
Sa: homemade pizza & salad
Sun: veggie lasagne & salad

I look at lidl and aldi special buys and go from there

Tonight is meatballs and pasta
Sun beef stroganoff (aldi 2x beef pk €4) loads of veg will feed 7
Mon roast chicken veg and potato
Tue fish cake and something (€4 for 2 pks) loads of veg in fridge and freezer or salad
Wed chicken noodle soup (mon left overs) more veg and noodle then chicken --dc will have had hot lunch in Nana's
Thur frozen fish chip and peas (dp cooking)
Fri Bbq chicken with sweet potato wedges and corn
Sat Homemade pizza
I also have made spicy sweet potato soup and a sweetcorn chowder and frozen them in portions for during the week
School lunches are usually sandwich or hot pasta or soup with fruit and yoghurt
DP and I have sandwich or soup or if there is left over dinner DP will have that.
Breakfast is cereal or egg and toast.
After school snack this week is fruit cake or oat and fruit cookies
Dessert is fruit

I hope no one mind but I am stealing some of the menus here as I an in a bit of a rut. And I am totally over using my crockpots

This week we are having :
Monday - vegetable pasta bake using veg from Tomorrow- parsnips, carrots, sugar snep peas, broccoli + pasta and cheese sauce
Tuesday - vegetarian sausage toad in the hole, mashed potato, broccoli and cauliflower
Wednesday - vegetarian cottage pie with peas, carrots and broccoli
Thursday - macaroni cheese with pancetta and onion
Friday - feta, mushroom and spinach lasagne with nutmeg and gruyere cheese.
I also make fegetable or lentil soup as a starter some days and DH takes it to work for lunch.Other days he buys burger and chips!

Ours is

Monday salmon, roasted new potatoes, broccoli, fried courgette with garlic sauce

Tuesday chicken and mushroom pie, mash, sweet corn and sprout flowers

Wednesday spaghetti bolognese

Thursday chicken curry

Friday out at a party

Saturday pizza delivery

Sunday roast beef with yp and cauliflower cheese.