2024 meal planning

[Lastqueenofscotland2]

Anyone else starting to think about getting their arses back in gear?!
Mine for the next week
Tomorrow: baked Camembert with nice bread (not quite over Christmas yet!)
Saturday: Thai green veggie curry
Sunday: NYE - will be sitting in with a dog terrified of fire works, might just order a pizza
Monday: Tuscan bean stew and sourdough
Tuesday: west African peanut stew
Wednesday: some sort of pie with all the leftover veg
Thursday: gochujang tofu

Just drawn up our next weeks plan:

Thurs: Takeaway
Fri: Crispy Chicken & Broccoli Noodles
Sat: Green Thai Chicken Curry for DD & I; Chicken Katsu Curry for DH & DS (not homemade)
Sun: Salad Nicoise
Mon: Pasta Bolognese
Tues: Coconut Chicken Curry Casserole
Wed: Lamb Leg Steaks with cabbage & creamy lentils

Friday: mushroom Bolognese
Saturday: mushroom and asparagus risotto
Sunday: out for a pub lunch
Monday: Thai green curry
Tuesday: honey and siracha tofu
Wednesday: Pie and peas
Thursday: west African peanut stew

Friday: Battered Fish Tacos
Saturday: Out for a curry
Sunday: Toad in the Hole
Monday: Chipotle Beef Stew (Gousto)
Tuesday: Goats Cheese & Roasted Mushroom Salad (Gousto)
Wednesday: Spicy Nduja and Aubergine Bake (Gousto)
Thursday: Haddock Rogan Josh (Gousto)

Previous plan went to Sunday so have just been making a plan for Monday onwards.

Monday: Fasolakia
Tuesday: Turkey and broccoli stir fry noodles
Wednesday: Chorizo broccoli pasta
Wednesday: Shakshuka
Friday: Falafel wraps and salad
Saturday: Baked ham, broccoli cheese.

I honestly don't understand how I've got to the end of my meal plan already. Time just disappears. And now I have to shop !?

We recently got a new fridge so theoretically, I can finally shop for a full week at at time as there's space to store things. But I haven't really nailed it yet. So I'm suddenly without meal plans AND without any shopping planned.

Having said that, I can shop tomorrow and my meal plan has one meal left in it for tonight so:

Tomorrow: Sweet and sour chicken with rice.
Sunday: Lamb, butternut and chickpea casserole, served on rice. We have people coming over so I probably need to think of some nibbles and some desserts too. Will be shop bought.
Monday: Salmon with wedges and stir fry
Tuesday: Thai style aubergine and cauliflower curry with rice
Wednesday: Out for dinner or takeaway - to be decided
Thursday: Mushroom, bacon, tomato and chilli pasta
Friday: Pork Schnitzel with veg and potatoes

Hi, joining late. We're normally pretty good with MP but got a bit slack over chrimbo.
I've got a new job/hours and both kids are teens now so cook/help out at least once a week.
OH is a pretty good cook, but catering is my trade so Ive picked up a few menu/money saving tips over the years so I'm kinda in charge of buying/planning main meals. OH sorts out/buys his own and kids lunches and breakfast stuff.
We too have only recently got a proper grown up family sized fridge/freezer and inherited a MASSIVE stand up freezer and some large over dished. This has helped greatly with bulk cooking and saving/storing leftovers.
We break our shopping up into one large delivery shop at the beginning of the month, this is usually Iceland (get that freezer rammed!) Then we do a weekly or fortnightly shop for packed lunch stuff, breakfast stuff and extra fresh bits/tins. Usually at Aldi/Lidl/Asda...we go wherever the korean noodles are cheapest that week as these are a teen boys packed lunch staple. Tuesdays and Thursdays we have activities so have kinda set meals for those days.
New years res to stop nipping to the top shop for bits...doing ok so far.

I'm working all weekend, so the boys are in charge (OH, two boys 13 & 16yrs)
Sat - Pie and chips (left over frozen chicken and bacon pie)
Sun - Roast beef
Mon - 'Roast-Overs' if any left or jacket potatoes with chilli/beens/cheese and salad.
Tues - Soup and Pudding night. Leek, Potato and Cheese, Raspberry Cheesecake
Weds - (16yr old cooks) Chicken Alfredo
Thurs - (Scouts/Me and OH try to go out) Easy tea from the freezer, pizza, convenience chicken etc
Friday - Goulash
Sat - Veggie Lasagne and salad
Sun - Roast-something, probably Pork.

@Citygirlrurallife I am impressed you make two separate menus every day. I find it tough enough to think of, shop for and cook one!

So last week, instead of the pasta and meatballs, we had spag Bol. Had fresh pasta on Monday as planned - enjoyed by one, disliked by the other. on Tuesday- I made a roast dinner with all the trimmings that went down well, on Thursday I made a paella instead - using prawn, chicken, chorizo, etc, and that went down really well unexpectedly. One to remember. On Thursday (yesterday) I made borscht with homemade seeded bread. Went down pretty well too. Tonight I think I’ll make a chicken curry instead of the prawns I used in the paella.

And I am back needing to plan for next week.

@BackCat DD plans her own meals to be honest and I love cooking so this way I get to continue my enjoyment of cooking because I don’t have to adjust to her and her stuff is easy and she helps or cooks herself

We have a 6 week rolling meal plan that has alternatives for 3 of the 4 days so there’s some mixing it up. We also chuck in a Gousto box now and then just for the hell of it (like next week because I have some credit to use up).

DH cooks on a Friday so it’s usually a chicken and veg curry and the kids pick freezer food - typically a pizza. I usually force some veg sticks on them to assuage the mum guilt.

The rest of the week looks like this:
Sat: Yoshida's chicken, cheesey mash and veg
Sun: Beef stew (using the left over cooked Christmas beef) and dumplings
Mon: Maggi bake in the bag chicken, packet rice and salad (I work late on Mondays)
Tue: Home made turkey meatballs, home made tomato sauce and pasta. Previously batch cooked and both meatballs and sauce are already in the freezer
Wed: Ham, new potatoes, peas and red cabbage
Thu: Southwest chicken & rice one pot

I’ve planned this upcoming week, but I have one day missing, I want to do some kind of stew with some kind of bread or dumplings because the borscht was a nice change. I also notice there is no vegetarian day, so it would be nice if it was veggie.

Here goes

• Sat - eat out
• Sun - salmon, rice, steamed cabbage and probably a white sauce involving dill and capers. (See whether salmon is still a no-no)
• Mon - pizza (Mondays needs to be super quick)
• Tue - chilli con carne, baked potatoes and little gem and sweetcorn salad.
• Wed - pasta carbonara and broccoli
• Thurs - some kind of stew with some kind of bread or dumplings.
• Fri - chicken katsu curry, rice and various salad bits.

@BackCat I've never made dumplings but always love them when I have them. Have only planned until Wednesday mainly using veg box items. I need to go through the freezer for the rest of the week really

tonight: at a friends’ they’re making katsu curry and tempura veg

sunday: mum and dad over so another excuse for a Sunday mezze. DH is roasting a beef joint with ras el hanout rub and making his infamous pitas, then I’m also making spiced pomegranate and walnut kidney beans, mashed aubergine with peas from OTK, sweet and sour leeks from Nistisima and an avocado and rocket salad with a pomegranate molasses dressing

monday: I have a late night at work so it’s yellow sticker surprise for the rest of them from the freezer

tuesday: butternut squash and Brussel sprout risotto

weds: African peanut stew

Meal planning is a ball ache, but is something that I feel I need to do stop me wasting money in the supermarket.

Tonight. Chicken Curry and rice

Sun Slow Cooker. Beef Stew , veg and mash

Mon - Chicken and halloumi burgers, home made sweet potato wedges and mixed veg (using leftover chicken, halloumi and sweet potatoes)

Tiue Chilli, lentil and veg pie with sweet potato topping

Wed - Veg Soup and Crusty bread for me
Everyone else dinner at MIL

Thurs - Tuna Pasta bake and salad ( usiing up stuff in the. Pantry and fridge)

Fri. - Jacket potatoes with cheese/ baked beans/ creamy mushrooms and home made coleslaw

Sat. - Minced beef kheema and naan bread

Does anyone else plan their packed lunches for work?

If so what do you have? Looking for work day lunch inspiration- I can't have egg. Must be quick prep ideally .TIA

Burns night this week!

Saturday- ‘chicken’ and leek pie (quorn!)
Sunday - spicy Thai salmon traybake & rice
Monday - one pot mushroom pasta
Tuesday - hot dog & fries (vegan)
Wednesday - couscous salad & something
Thursday - veggie haggis, neeps & tatties
Friday - tattie soup & homemade bread

kind of loosing mojo with making all the meal decisions.. even have my oldest DD messaging from uni asking what she should make!

Good point @MrsBlueFly

we usually host a Burns dinner but aren’t this year - but that’s Thursday sorted! Haggis, neeps and tatties it is

Also totally forgot about Burns Night. Have removed the noodle dish from the plan and reorganised the other days in order to have haggis, neeps and tatties on Thursday.

@bugaboo218
"Does anyone else plan their packed lunches for work?"
Only one packed lunch here, for fussy Boy no.2
His choices are quite bland/boring but the same principal can be applied to more grown up food stuffs :)

He's got a bento box (took a while to find the right one - size, seal etc)
On a Sunday we try and prep a few days worth of snacks for him/us to just grab each morning to fill 3 bento 'slots' - carrot stick, cucumber, cheese cubes, mini scotch eggs, mini sausage rolls, apple chips, pate, soft cheese, bread sticks, nuts etc.*
Fourth slot is for a sandwich/wrap/bagel etc - filling prepped/ready and a single bread item grabbed from the freezer the night before to defrost. Sometime he'll have crackers or toast or a sandwich without the bread 🙄This is the only thing that needs making in the morning (you could make the night before, but Boy 2 doesnt like cold bread!)
He'll take a piece of fruit of (prepped) fruit salad and greek yog in a separate tub.
Boy 1 takes a flask of hot soup/stew or hot water to make cup noodles.

This works reeeeally well for us as it cuts out all the decision making in the morning, just mix it up and grab and go.
*Insert grown up foods as required.

Still planning this week but so far...
Mon - Roast Overs with sausages
Tue - Soup and pudding day - Chicken noodle and poached egg soup, Raspberry cheesecake.
Weds - Boy 1 cooking, not sure yet...possibly/probably something Asian.
Thurs - Eating out, freezer food for the kids.
Fri - ?
Sat - ?
Sun - Not a roast, maybe Veggie and lentil Lasagna

I'm NOT in work this weekend so have time for a think we might take a drive out to the farm shop see what nice veg is in and take it from there for next week - still plenty of meat in the freezer from big shop, so actually looking really good for the rest of the month!

M - cottage pie and veg
T - chorizo Mexican rice with fried egg and halloumi
W - gnocchi with pesto, peas and spinach
Thu - chicken pie, mash, veg
F - veggie burgers in brioche buns, chips, salad
S - out for lunch, leftover party food for tea (freezer clearout continues!)
Sun - Basque chicken

Just done the weekly shop (exhausted now!) here’s our plan for this week.
Today - Chicken Enchiladas
Tursday- Seagood pasta bake
Wednesday - Salmon stir fry
Thursday- Lamb Tagine
Friday - Veggie shepherds pie
Saturday - Chicken curry
Sunday - sausage & mash

Tonight was a stir fry - tofu/ pad Thai ribbon noodles / beansprouts / an M&S stir fry selection / sauce made from chilli sauce, soy, sesame oil, peanut butter, honey - delicious if I do say so myself!

Tomorrow I've got some par-baked bread rolls to use up, leftover from Christmas: vegan Richmond sausages plus roasted red onions in the rolls; served with roasted corn on the cob, roasted chilli broccoli plus an old bag of frozen wedges which we keep forgetting to eat

Weds = lentil spag bol

Thurs = black bean soup with fresh tomato salsa and nachos

Fri - tbc

Saturday - out

Joining for ideas, some of these sound lovely!

This week's meal plan:

Mon - cauliflower, leek and parsley soup
Tue - lentil kofta with orzo and feta
Wed - butternut squash and sage risotto
Thu - cauliflower grills (shop bought), new potatoes and green geg
Fri - gochujang and miso noodles
Sat - homemade pizzas
Sun - roast chicken and all the trimmings

I should be doing a burns night dinner but I live in a small town where the main industry is farming so finding veggie haggis is hard and I cannot be bothered to do an hours round trip for it… sorry mum.

Friday: Veggie “meatball” subs with wedges and salad
Saturday: beatroot and goats cheese risotto
Sunday: Mac and cheese
Monday: Mushroom stroganoff
Tuesday: pad thai
wednesday : out
Thursday: Cajun dirty rice

Back from holiday and I cannot get my head round doing winter dinners again 😂

Monday - chicken curry
Tuesday - ramen with chicken
Wednesday bolognese
Thursday lamb tagine
Friday leftovers

This week, I didn’t end up making a stew or anything huge, which I regretted, because I had no leftovers to chow on at short notice (the borscht and the paella from the week before were the gifts that kept on giving). This week I am most definitely making a stew - Turkish-inspired - and I will probably do a paella again.

This week:

• Sunday - Roast chicken and all the trimmings.
• Monday - pizza again, by request.
• Tuesday - paella with prawns, chicken, chorizo - and I am seeing if I can get away with putting mussels in this time. With salad.
• Wednesday - Turkish-style aubergine, red-pepper and white bean stew in the slow-cooker. I am thinking of making a tinned sardines, olives and sun-dried tomato focaccia with it - I want to get more oily fish into our diets, and salad.
• Thursday - Possibly pasta bolognaise with broccoli.
• Friday - Thai green chicken curry and rice. I’ll be throwing all the greens into the curry - kale, broccoli, sugar snaps, etc. It all gets eaten that way.
• Saturday- probably eating out, but I have a butternut squash I haven’t decided what to do with yet - maybe that.

Tonight - curry
Sunday - Sausage &Mash lots of green veg
Monday - Parawn noodle stir fry
Tuesday - Chicken & Rosemary casserole
Wednesday - Veggie chilli
Thursday - left over veggie chilli on jacket potato
Friday - Asparagus Orzo risotto
Saturday - Eating out hooray!