Weekly/monthly meal plan

[threeonefour]

Hey everyone,

I decided to go back on the menu planning bandwagon, and trying to organise recipes and ideas. There has been a few similar threads, but they are all quite all so wanted to create a new one :)

Would love to see your meal plans/ideas/how and where you plan.

At the moment I have a mix of trello boards / physical calendar on the fridge and my notes. Will see what works later on.

My January menu, really hoping to stick to it:

Wed 8st– Salmon with parmesan herb crust, quinoa and salad
Thu 9th– Leftovers
Fri 10th– Beef burgers with mix of sweet potato and normal fries, cheat aioli (defrost burgers the day before)
Sat 11th– Egg benedict for breakfast
Cheddar broccoli soup for lunch
Vegetarian moussaka and salad for dinner
Sun 12th– Pancakes with frozen blueberries for breakfast
Leftovers for lunch and dinner
Mon 13th– Roasted chicken with red cabbage and potato wedges
Tue 14th– Chicken and broccoli bake (with leftover chicken, defrost Christmas cabbage the day before)
Wed 15th– Swedish meatballs with mash and lingonberry jam with cucumber salad
Thu 16th– Leftovers
Fri 17th– Out
Sat 18th– Pasta with ragu (Jamie Oliver recipe. Planning to cook it in advance and freeze) and garlic bread (Tasty)
Sun 19th– Clear-the-fridge for breakfast
Leftovers for lunch
Greek quesadillas with tzatziki sauce for dinner
Mon 20th– Pulled pork taco bowls with nachos and guacamole (defrost and slow cook the pork the day before)
Tue 21st– Courgette & lemon risotto (bbcgoodfood)
Wed 22nd– Leftovers
Thu 23rd– Home-made fish fingers, tar tar sauce, salad (defrost fish the day before)
Fri 24th– Pulled pork pizza (defrost pork the day before)
Sat 25th– Syrniki with sour cream
Pumpkin soup
Paneer korma with homemade naan (make paneer in advance)
Sun 26th– Waffles for breakfast
Leftovers for lunch
Dinner - out
Mon 27th– out or Tuna pasta with capers
Tue 28th– Chicken and Mushroom gratine Russian style(julienne) with salad
Wed 29th– leftovers
Thu 30th– Egg fried rice with veggies in oyster sauce and boy choy
Fri 31st– Spanish omelette with chorizo and salad

[lastqueenofscotland]

Done mine for next week while on hold

Tomorrow: jacket spuds
Saturday: bubble and squeak, beans and veggie sausage
Sunday: dahl, roasted cauliflower and onion bhaji
Monday: ma po tofu
Tuesday: west African peanut stew
Wednesday: pasta with creamy Sundried tomato sauce and roasted broccoli
Thursday: veggie burgers and salad

[Spam88]

Just came back to screenshot my mewl plan for the week because this is the only place I'd written it and it's been deleted 😂 darn.

We're getting a gousto box, so a few new things to try this week. In no particular order, our meals for the week are:

Honey mustard chicken
Peri peri chicken
Greek lamb meatball bake
Cheesy bacon and potato gratin
Pasta amatriciana
Plus we're going to my parents' for a roast on Sunday and my DH has requested a takeaway one night.

[IJumpedAboardAPirateShip]

Mon: lentil pasta
Tues: wild mushrooms, sesame tofu and cracked wheat
Weds: black eyed peas and jambalaya rice
Thurs: veggie mole and guac
Fri: pizza night
Sat: DH and I going to a vegan italian cooking class, so excited
Sun: at a friends for dinner

[Spam88]

Today - Barbecue beef brisket with wedges and coleslaw
Friday - Chicken, chorizo and veg fricasse with rice
Saturday - Beef pie with roasted veg (using leftover brisket)
Sunday - Spinach and pine nut pasta
Monday - enchilada lasagne
Tuesday - Paneer and cauliflower curry
Wednesday - Cajun bean soup

[lastqueenofscotland]

Tomorrow: tofu and vegetable tikka masala
Saturday: trying to make pizza from scratch
Sunday: pub lunch.
Monday: lentil spag bol
Tuesday: Greek vegetable and butter bean stew with bread
Wednesday: black bean and kale enchilada
Thursday: Tofu and veg laksa

[IJumpedAboardAPirateShip]

This week:
Tonight: tempeh chilli turned into kind if shepherds pie with mash on the top!
Tuesday: butternut squash and white bean stew
Wednesday: lentil soup
Thursday: Chinese style veggie fried rice with tofu
Friday: pizza night for kids, keep forgetting it’s Valentine’s Day so will wait and see if DH bothers to plan anything, otherwise I’ll be getting a black eyed peas dish out of the freezer and making cornbread
Saturday: beyond sausages casserole

[lastqueenofscotland]

Tomorrow: falafel salad in flatbreads
Saturday: vegan Mac and cheese
Sunday: depends on what time the visitors leave!
Monday: Jamaican black eyed pea curry
Tuesday: sundried tomato risotto
Wednesday: tofu pad Thai
Thursday: homemade bean burgers and wedges with salad

[Spam88]

I haven't allocated most days yet but the next week for us includes:

Nigella's chilli
Vegetable stew
Salt and pepper chicken and chips - suggestions of a vegetable side to go with this welcome!
Chicken in Black Bean Sauce
Pasta arrabiata
Taco boats

[IJumpedAboardAPirateShip]

Some of you do it monthly?! Wow! I’m impressed - I do it weekly

This week:
M: tortilla soup with nachos and Mexican salad
T: sweet potato, kale and lentil soup
W: mushroom, lentil, radish salad (DC has chicken drumsticks)
T: tempeh chilli and rice
F: we always do pizza night but I’m going out!

[wink1970]

Thanks OP. I guess part of it is that we do eat the same 6-ish dishes all the time left to DH, so I then over-order on 'other' stuff to try. Last night I made lemon & cheese stuffed pasta with prawns and fresh tomato, it mostly got left.

I'm 'home alone' tonight and am going to dig out all my recipe books and mark the ones he has enjoyed (he's not too bad, just fussy about meat but will try new sauces and sides) and then plan a fortnight around these...... last week I halved my Ocado bill by not ordering anything that wasn't in 'favourites', so I am determined!

[SwedishK]

Only a 5 day week for me:

Mon veggie fajitas
Tue broccoli soup with boiled egg and crusty bread
Wed pasta with red pesto, sour cream and roasted courgette, mushrooms, garlic and curly kale
Thu fishcakes, mash, peas
Fri mushroom carbonara with spaghetti

[threeonefour]

@wink1970 I would recommend beginning with a list of your staple dishes. Just sit down and write down all the dishes that are popular in your house/what you love. There is plenty of options with chicken/mince, but I guess also depends on whether your DH will eat any veggies/sauces that come with.

For menu planning, I'd say the easiest stuff would be something like Roast chicken (freeze leftovers or use next day on another recipe such as Burritos , soups, pastas etc), definitely bolognese sauce/ meat ragu, shepherd's pie if he will eat that. Perhaps quiches? I am planning o make and freeze a few this month.

[threeonefour]

@Bunnylady54 I have also been pretty bad with planning, and cooking random stuff from the fridge or buying way too much when I'm hangry shopping :D so that's why it's my goal for this year to get better with menu planning. I do absolutely love cooking (and eating haha), so I like a variety in my menu or I get bored and end up buying takeaway etc

[threeonefour]

@Africa2go sorry, missed your message before. I am mostly cooking for just myself and my 3.5 y.o. son, so I do have a lot of leftovers. I either take them for lunch or leave for the next day dinner. Usually, there is enough for us to eat it 3 times, so my preferred way at the moment is to eat two nights in a row and freeze the leftovers for one random day later that month. It helped me A LOT in January.

Can especially recommend Jamie Oliver's ragu for freezing. I added beans to bulk it up a bit, and froze all 2,5 kilos. We had it on pasta, on baked potatoes and in lasagne - very yummy

[threeonefour]

Loving all the ideas here :)

After the test drive in January, I decided to tweak the system a bit. Will have a list of things that I want to cook in the next month but will plan for 2 weeks at a time.

So far the menu looks like this:

Monday - pasta with salmon and peas
Tuesday - Greek salad frittata , potato wedges
Wednesday - Fish and chips, with tartar sauce
Thursday - Burrito bowls (rice, beans, guac, cheese, lettuce, probably chicken)
Friday - eating out
Saturday - Roasted chicken with cauliflower cheese, Yorkies and gravy (will freeze the leftover chicken for next week recipes)
Sunday - most likely out (if not, then leftovers)
Monday - Minestrone and garlic bread
Tuesday - leftovers
Wednesday - Chicken Julienne (Russian twist on chicken cocotte, use the leftover frozen chicken)
Thursday - Moussaka (have it frozen already)
Friday - Valentine's day. Not sure yet if I will have plans but most likely this will be a home dinner of Peking duck (my favourite!) and chocolate fondant
Saturday - Chinese egg drop soup( (halfbakedharvest); Quiche with potato wedges and salad
Sunday - leftovers for lunch; probably Falafel, flatbread and tabouleh for dinner (I think his was also from Halfbakedharvest)

[UsernameTaken76]

Next week’s plan all taken from Pinch of Nom website and books:
Saturday: bakewell baked oats for breakfast. Dinner is chicken goujons with barbecue potato wedges
Sunday: sausage & egg muffins for breakfast. Dinner is lemon & thyme roast chicken, cumin roast potatoes and steamed greens. Followed by tiramisu
Monday: bacon, spring onion and kale hash
Tuesday: spring vegetable soup
Wednesday: pasta arrabiatta
Thursday: cabbage rolls
Friday: chicken katsu curry

[Spam88]

@wink1970 That's pretty much what meat we eat, with the occasional bit of gammon and bacon thrown in (and a lot of chorizo...) so there are plenty of options. All your standard stuff like curry, chilli, fajitas, lasagne etc. Chicken or homemade beef burgers, chicken fried rice, stir fry, pie, southern fried chicken (we have it in wraps with salady bits), tandoori chicken.

If he won't eat veggie food you could try just cutting down on the meat in dishes, e.g. just using one chicken breast in a curry and upping the amount of veg (we also add chickpeas).

[Spam88]

Today - Cola chicken (Pinch of Nom)
Friday - Vegetable curry
Saturday - Gammon roast
Sunday - Jerk chicken tray bake
Monday - macaroni cheese with leftover gammon and broccoli
Tuesday - Nasi Goreng (Pinch of Nom)
Wednesday - veggie burgers and sweet potato fries
Thursday - Chilli (Nigella Express)

[lastqueenofscotland]

Tomorrow: going out for a curry and going to have a tofu curry with alllll the trimmings
Saturday: gnocchi, pesto, green veg
Sunday: going to see a friend who’s just had a baby and her DH is cooking
Monday: Thai veggie and peanut fried rice
Tuesday: Tuscan bean stew and crusty bread
Wednesday: pasta primavera
Thursday: sweet potato burrito

[WhatTheFronti]

@UsernameTaken76
I use a similar recipe to this -
www.delicious.com.au/recipes/homestyle-minestrone/0811c01c-29ab-4820-b983-b76c345e86de?current_section=recipes

I don't add peas - usually sub for finely shredded kale (kids won't eat peas in soup but are ok with kale ?!?)
Sometimes I'll sub out the short pasta and use a small packet of filled tortellini to make it a bigger meal and serve with garlic bread.

The ricotta and spinach parcels are from Aldi freezer section... (they are great at $2 a pack and fab ingredient wise)

[Carnabie]

There are some great ideas on here

[Carnabie]

This week:
Broccoli macaroni cheese (and dd1 made burgers at school so a small burger each)
Veggie chilli
Veggie bolognese
Veggie green curry
Lamb dolmades and grilled aubergine
Singapore noodles with prawns
Minestrone soup

Last week was
Mushroom risotto
Ginger and spring onion noodles and veg
Steak, chips, mushrooms and peas
Courgette stuffed with tomato and feta couscous and veggie sausages
Beef stew and jacket potatoes
Pizza
Roast pork

We try to eat meat free 3/4 times a week at least

[wink1970]

May I join with a request for ideas please? I have never meal planned in my life, there are 2 of us and DH only eats chicken and low-fat beef mince, (I know!) so every meal needs to contain one of those. No chance of veggie, though I'm insisting on fish (salmon mostly) once a week.

We're rich on time as I work from home. At the moment I have a ridiculous amount of store cupboard content, but the idea is to reduce this - and the weekly shop - by planning ahead rather than buying half of Sainsburys just because I am not planning!

thanks in advance.

[UsernameTaken76]

@WhatTheFronti do you have a recipe for your minestrone soup and pastries? Would love to give it try.

Just finished this week’s plan:
Saturday: breakfast is lemon and blueberry baked oats. Out at friends for dinner
Sunday: Apple and cinnamon pancakes for breakfast. Dinner is campfire stew.
Monday - sweet potato and butter bean tikka masala
Tuesday - hot and sour soup
Wednesday - chicken, Rice and veg bake
Thursday - leek & bacon tartiflette
Friday - fish and chips with peas