Same meals each week?

[Hatscarfgloves]

I really love food. I love eating and I love cooking. BUT, I hate meal planning. I am so time poor rushing between work and child stuff that I have to do a weekly online shop. So, every week I have to plan meals and it takes ages.

I’m not sure if I can bear it (because I like variety), but I am thinking of having the same 5 meals every weekday, e.g. stir fry on Mondays, carbonara on Tuesdays etc etc. I think this would significantly reduce the time I currently spend planning the meals and doing the online shop.

Does anyone else do this? If so, I’d love to hear your weekly plan please!

I honestly don't know why I am preaching on this post - I'm a shit cook and a shit meal planner and a bit drunk 😜

^

Fair play 🤣

Me too. Actually made me laugh out loud!

I like this idea a lot, especially ‘theming’ it so it’s not exactly the same but there’s a general template

My template is

mon - meatballs (different kinds)
Tues - tofu (probably a stir fry)
wed - wildcard (or leftovers/something out the freezer - poss meatballs or burgers) - an omelette if nothing else!
Thu - pasta (clear out the fridge - I shop on Fridays)
Fri - burgers (various kinds)
sat - lasagne (or moussaka, any kind of bake)
sun - roast (or sausage & mash)

This is a veggie plan so mix it up by different base ingredients but it helps me to think a bit less!!

@Hatscarfgloves : re the boredom of sorting the ingredients, do you actually enjoy food shopping?

I ask because I tend to buy the food 1st and then decide what to make with it - so I go to the greengrocer, buy what looks nice, then walk to the supermarket and buy what I need to turn that into meals. Admittedly a lot easier for 2 than a larger family, and I see walking to the shops a couple of times a week as an enjoyable break in my work day and I know not everyone does 😂

Its similar to what @DogwoodTree does - letting the food inspire you & create the variety

I use the Cherrypick app. I have it linked to my online Sainsbury's grocery account, and it takes me about 20-30 minutes to select my meals and do my online shopping. It's such a time saver, and there's always new meals to try out!
I think it can be used with other supermarkets too now, but not sure which ones, as I've stuck to Sainsbury's as it works for me.

Having a two week rotation gives a bit more variety. I tend to have spag Bol one Monday, pesto and veg pasta the following, chicken curry one week, fish curry the following, sty fry beef or pork, chilli or fajitas. We go out on Fridays normally or I cook something more expensive.

Or I buy hello fresh I admit

I think it sounds pretty boring tbh.

I could do it if I had a four week plan, or if it was a vague pasta night, curry night, baked potato night kind of thing.

Do you batch cook? Every time I do chilli/curry/pasta sauce I do a big pot so I've got leftovers to freeze which helps.

That might have been me

dh abd I currently work a 10 day, offset, shift pattern and I am currently "operating" two 10 menus although I will be changing it soon as I am changing shift pattern to an 8 day cycle. day one and two are my early shift, day three and four my lates and days fives and six my nights. The ease of prep is specific to the shift. The early shift meals are prep-ahead marinaded type meals, lates have to be portable and nights no/low prep. On my days off I plan on a set by set basis As this is my chance to cook (which I love), use my yellow sticker bargains etc.
breakfast and lunch for Dh and I are also planned as we usually eat one or the other t work

I don't have my plan printed at the moment, sorry.

Eg. set one
E - cold gammon, bubble & squeak, boiled or fried eggs and salad/pickles
E - lime and coriander chicken with guacamole and red/wild rice
L-Spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread
L - homemade curry (selection from pathia, jalfrezi, bhuna and korma), mini kofta, pilau rice and homemade naan (I freeze the dough in balls and cook on a battered crepe pan
N - homemade tomato soup with cheese toasties
N - Aldi salmon burgers with homemade wedges

Set two
e -Jerk chicken with mango and pineapple salsa, sweet potato wedges
E - carbonara
L - cottage or shepherds pie
L - green curry with rice
N - Chinese salmon recipe from friend at work via TikTok, got 5 spice. Honey etc with pakchoi cooked in tin foil parcel
N - black eyed bean and leek hash

the menu has been streamlined to only include our favourite dinners and I change it maybe 3 times a year. Keeping days off out of the plan also means we don't get fatigued.

I used to love that. Would go to food markets on a weekend, pop into a specialist shop if I was near one etc. I never did a weekly shop. Then I had a child. And a non sleeping one at that - 6 years and counting! What with work, keeping on top of the house, family time etc, I have to do a weekly online shop for the sake of speed. Which means planning…

Thank you for this - very helpful. This is similar to what I was thinking. To prevent boredom I intend to have menus which contain lots of variety in terms of cuisines and flavours (luckily my DD is a relatively unfussy and adventurous eater) and not plan the weekends so we can change it up on Sat and Sunday.

Yes, I batch cook. But only once a month. My DH and I do what we can to limit any chores on weekends so we can hang out as a family.

There is an account on insta called taming twins, she has a website with the meals for the week planned. Even has a printable shopping list.

My PIL do these (ridiculous) meal plans weekly that they pin up in the kitchen and stick to come what may. That is the bit where it falls down to me - if it’s 30 degrees unexpectedly and they planned soup they would still feel obliged to have it. They include breakfasts…

I think planning dinners is one thing, give it a go and see if it works for you.