Meal planning

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If you meal plan, do you have a week rota and have the same things on certain days? Or a two week, three week rota?

I meal plan, but we don’t have a rota because we like to eat seasonal produce and according to the weather (plus my DM has an allotment so it’s variable what we get from her). If the forecast is good, I plan a lot of salads and barbecues, and if not, then it’s stews and casseroles. Also we’re becoming increasingly influenced by what’s on offer at the supermarket.

I don't do a rota. I do an inventory of what food we have in once a week and sit down and plan out the next 7-10 days plus snacks writing down any ingedients we don't already have in. I try to do one fish meal, two veggie and one low maintenance eg omlette/ breakfast dinner/jacket potatoes etc. A rota would work if you like knowing what's frdinner on a certain night. My lot would complain too much though ( and I like the process of finding new recipes to try out on them).

I don't rota either. I've a DF who has a 3 week rolling rota but I think it would bore me to tears.

I don't have a rota that repeats.

I use a week to view diary and write in the three meals. Gives you space to plan ahead for special days etc.

I do have some days that often have similar things, Saturday breakfast is eggs in some way, evening we need to be ready for sports early is always curry somehow.

But my planning is seasonal based, what is good and fresh vegetable/fruit wise, or weather based, easy things for busy days, or using things I have batch cooked like vegetable sauce, or chili etc.

No. I meal plan six meals per delivery, leaving a day for eating out / take away but decide which of those meals were going to eat that day. I would hate to eat the same thing every Monday or have eg lasagne on Tuesday because that's what the meal plan says.

I try to do something chicken, something mince, couple of veggie things, something lazy for the oven and something random.

I've been meal planning for years but have never had a rota. I just plan according to what we have in, what we fancy and what the budget allows.

When my DC were little, I came up with a summer and winter 4 week meal plan (with favourites appearing several times). I planned it so all ingredients were used up eg if I bought a pack of 3 onions but only needed 2, I would include a recipe that needed an onion the next week. There were a few tapas/mezze nights to use up small amounts of ingredients.

I didn't stick to it rigidly. I would swap out seasonal fruit and veg or change a meal if someone fancied something different or I wanted to try a new recipe or there were special offers/bargains or the weather changed or we had plans that made the planned meal inconvenient. I tweaked it over the years to fit around activities and new tastes/favourites as they grew up.

It took several evenings to plan but it was worth it as I didn't ever have to think about planning meals taking into account dietary requirements/nutritional needs/fussy eaters/food waste unless I wanted to make changes. Shopping and cooking became a pleasure rather than a chore. Rather than planning a week's meals every week, I was just planning maybe 1 or 2, and only because I wanted to.

The planning process took several evenings, but it was worthwhile because I never again had to consider meal planning while taking into account dietary restrictions, nutritional demands, finicky eaters, or food waste unless I chose to make adjustments. Cooking and shopping started to feel enjoyable rather than like chores. Instead of scheduling a week's worth of meals every week,