Meal planning for the weeks

[Zara202]

How do you plan for the whole weeks meals for the whole family ? Do you rely on frozen meals or cook from scratch?

Cool from scratch but I usually decide and shop on the way home from work. I'm not very good at planning.

Usually cook from scratch.
Usually one night, once a fortnight I'll sit in front of the TV in the evening with a cookbook and note pad and jot meal ideas down.
I have fads on cook books!!

Cook from scratch. Do a big shop once a week that get delivered on a Saturday morning. Try and cook one new recipe each week for something different as feel like we cook the same thing over and over.
I ask husband if he fancies anything. Let the 2 year old chose one dinner (or more if I like his suggestions 🤣 ) and the I chose the rest.

On a Wednesday night I write a plan - generally just a list of dinner main courses. It runs from Sat to Fri. Ideally, I also do the Internet shop that eve, to arrive Fri evening. I do it on Wednesday because that gives me a day in hand so can order or make changes /additions on Thurs if needed. The Internet shop is aided by the 'favourites' list (Sainsburys & Tesco both have this, assume others do to). The favourites nudge me to order breakfast cereal, yogurts, salad items, bread etc etc.

I mostly cook from scratch, but include some things like jar sauces midweek. I don't include lunches on plan, but get some standard items - we get by between that, leftovers-for-lunch and school dinners.

The meal plan is not fancy. This week it was

• Spaghetti Bolognese
• Dhal curry & rice
• Burger, buns, salad
• Crustless quiche, chips, salad
• Pasta & creamy tomato sauce
• Chicken fajita wraps
• Salmon fillets with orzo

I have an extra fridge in the garage to allow me to shop once a week.

Should also add - I have a skeleton outline plan to aim for 2 x veggie, 2 x Fish, 1 chicken, 1 beef meal per week. The whole process is done within an hour if I set my mind to it.

I sometimes go weeks without going to a supermarket.

I meal plan on a Saturday for the week ahead.
Favourites are;
Chilli wraps
Stir fry
Soup on a week
Pasta once a week
Lasange
Curry
Tagine
Rissotto
Pizza once a week
Roast every couple weeks
Veggi burgers

Meal plan and write shopping list on fri night/sat morning. Shop some time over the weekend. Things that help food last/reduce waste in our house...

All meat except what's for the first day or two goes in the freezer and gets defrosted the night before.

Fresh food lasts well in the fridge if stored properly. I check use by dates in the supermarket so I get good shelf life.

Use up things that don't last well first (berries, salad, some veg etc. Keep the things that can be chopped/cooked/blitzed til the end of the week.

Batch cook some meals at the weekend then portion/freeze.

Chuck anything left on a Thursday into a soup.

Have take away/ use up frozen bits on a Friday night.

We always seem to have an empty fridge by the end of the week!

Also I love traybakes for tasty but easy midweek meals.

Med veg with chorizo and fish fillets on top, jerk chicken with sweet potato wedges and peppers, roasted green veg with pesto, spiced roast cauliflower and sausages etc

And the slow cooker at this time of year!

I only ever plan 6 nights out of 7. We are busy people and there will almost always have one night where plans change, we get invited out, we eat out, don’t fancy anything but cheese and crackers, have loads of leftovers from another night etc etc. If we do end up needing a meal that night we will either eat out the fridge/store cupboards/freezer or pick up something on the way in.
The other 6 nights tends to be 2 nights meat (usually at least one chicken), 2 nights fish, 2 nights veggie.
Then I just try to pick different peoples presences, different cuisines, different carb bases, etc etc.
A mix of regular favourites with the odd new recipe thrown in when I see something I like the look of. Inspiration comes from anywhere, recommendations, websites, tv programs, dishes I’ve eaten in restaurants.

@LtGreggs
Thank you so much for sharing with me. Your plan is quite good. I will follow that. I am always end up with take away that is quite costly and not healthy for me. I will start planning for the weeks and i can save some money as well.

I meal plan for the whole month, I have a spreadsheet, then do one big shop.

I get it delivered and spend a day cooking and portioning out the food for it all to go in the freezer.

Then all I have to do through the month is pick up milk, fresh veg etc when needed.

I plan for dinners only and have a few things we rotate, all super simple and quick especially for mid week, these include

Pasta and meatballs
Salmon stir fry
Chicken with veg and rice
Fajitas
Spaghetti bolognaise
Pasta pesto
Sausages and wedges
Pizza

I buy meat or fish weekly and then plan it based on use by dates or freeze and defrost. The carbs are just made up dependent what we fancy so rice, pasta, chips etc which we always have in the freezer/cupboard.

I plan about a week of meals. I have a list of meals with their shopping in Reminders on my iPhone. They're ticked off as completed so I change the setting to "show completed" then scroll through, untick the ones I want then hide the completed items again so I'm left with my menu. (Pic attached) The list has built up over time as I've tried new recipes, they only get deleted if I hated the dish or if I've put other bits in the list like tinfoil.

As for the menu itself,

2 x higher effort but really tasty meals for the weekend
3x lower effort meals with fresh veg
1x zero effort meal for days a day when we can't face cooking. Things like a Homepride pasta bake, old El Paso nachos, freezer crap
1x store cupboard meal for the day before shopping (often a bean chilli or a Thai curry with frozen veg and pulses)

It's not a perfect system but it works most of the time. There are still days when we end up ordering a takeaway out of sheer laziness. There are also times when I'm scrolling through the list of meals to plan a week and just don't want any of it.

Thanks for this idea. I'm going to try out the reminder function on my iPhone. I currently check out blogs and Instagram posts for inspiration then see what I have in the fridge and plot it in my meal planning book but this is worth a try for ease.

I tend to cook more than I need for every meal so that I can freeze enough for a family meal, so an extra chilli in the freezer, extra bolognese, chicken and leek pie, lentil daal etc - then I can pull them out ready to heat if its a busy evening!

I plan the evening meals only. DC are teens so make their own breakfast and lunches.

We try to have:

One fish dish
One vegetarian dish
One burger
One curry

I perhaps do a roast on a Sunday and sometimes there's a crossover like a fish curry.

Friday nights the DC usually have Pizza and I have whatever I fancy

I do this too and I love my cooking day! (I love cooking anyway) but I get a load of time to myself to be creative, without the kids, and listen to music while I’m cooking. Then everyone thanks me for making their dinners!

@MilduraS
Thank you so much for sharing your plan. I will start planning and improve my cooking skill.

I have a list of all the dishes I make on the fridge, separated into different cuisines, main ingredient, sauces, side dishes etc. Once a week we sit and pick based on whats in the freezer to use, or if we need to shop, based on what we fancy.

There are loads of dishes on there so we either have one from each cuisine, or if we bulk cook, lots from one cuisine with different sauces and side dishes.