Asking for your meal planning tips! (and how to stick to it)

[roamingcat]

Hi all,

I feel like a bit of a failure admitting this but I find meal planning (and following through) so hard. Week after week we will plan a week of meals, buy the food, but then when it gets down to it a lot of them won't happen. We both work busy jobs so some days we're exhausted or home late, or other days we've done a bit of an "aspirationally healthy" meal plan and don't actually fancy what's on the menu. The actual planning process is also very painful and seems to take forever, we have lots of cookbooks but seem to end up not using them. We are a big fan of bbc good food recipes though!

We have every meal out of the house during the week so need to plan for lunches too (we take yoghurt & granola & berries for breakfast). We're both pretty active so need a semi-decent lunch. On top of that we're trying to eat a low UPF diet, lots of fruit and veggies and not too much red meat, although we don't have any children which makes life easier. Because we find it so difficult we're just eating the same set of meals on repeat (bolognese, chicken curry, cod and chorizo orzo with a veggie and chickpea cous cous for lunch) and I feel like I'm slowly going insane.

Please can you share your tips on how you do it successfully? I'm wondering whether I need to start "theming" the nights to make it easier and ensure we have variety e.g. pasta night. If you do "theme" the nights - what are they?

I'm not much help as I need to meal plan too. I have seen the Cherry pick app recommended on here and have downloaded it. I need to actually start using it though! The recipes look great, so I think it's a good starting place

The trick is to make it as easy as possible for yourself. My three steps when I meal plan are:

1. Check out the diary/plans for the week. Which days are busy/late ones and which days have more time? Schedule in quick and easy meals for the busy/tired days (stir fries or traybakes) or even leftovers from an earlier less busy evening!

1. Have a look in the fridge/freezer/cupboards to see what you have already to give you meal ideas or to work meals around.

1. Map out the meals and then make your list.

This week I know I need something quick on Tuesday as we've a quick turnaround between clubs so I'm making pad Thai and using straight to wok noodles to make it easier.

Wednesday is my in office day so I'll be late and tired so it's fish finger sandwiches!

Thursday I'm out at a concert, dd has an event at school and my dad is visiting. That day I have a meal to do in the slow cooker which I'll put on at lunchtime and will have microwave rice to hand so people can help themselves to the Chinese braised beef as and when it suits and the rice is quick and easy to do.

Monday, Friday and the weekend I have longer so meals don't need to be so quick.

I cook every night and use as little packet food as possible (the fish fingers are very much the exception than the rule) and serve plenty of vegetables with every meal.

I always have salad and the protein like salmon, chicken, feta etc in the fridge. If I'm cooking a meal I'll often cook chicken or salmon at the same time which I can then pop in the fridge for lunches. I often prep my lunch the night before and have it in pots in the fridge to either take into the office or to put together at home.

Good luck!

I go vaguely by themes.

So Monday is freezer (always in a rush on Mondays).
Tuesday is Italian (usually pasta but sometimes homemade pizza or risotto).
Wednesday I do an Indian curry.
Thursday is either Asian or Mexican.
Friday maybe a fakeaway type meal (burgers, kebabs) or sometimes go out.

There’s flex so maybe if I know I’m busy we might have an extra freezer night or jacket potatoes if we need to.

We plan according to who is in at what time. So if we are both going to be late back and know we have had stressful meetings next Monday the we make sure that's a leftovers day or something like stir-fry or omelette that's quick. We also will have a few options in the cupboard to swap into the plan if we don't fancy something or if an ingredient went mouldy too quickly. I also use our slow cooker to batch cook things to be taken for lunch. Freeze and label.

We keep a list of recipes we like and when we had them so we rotate then frequently. A friend has an 8 week rolling plan so she always knows what's for tea on a Tuesday in November.

But the planning really does save on food waste. And I never have to think when I get home from work, I can just get straight on with cooking.

I was going to say don’t be too aspirational. Keep it to meals you know you’ll eat and most of them midweek keep very basic.
Also be very realistic about how healthy you will eat when you’re tired

@roamingcat I could have written this myself a month ago, and actually joined MN to ask for advice (got lots of it).

I've now been home cooking fairly regularly since, I take 2 days at a time which helps. But sadly the only advice I can really give you, from my experience at least, was to bump it up the priority list.

I used to 100% come home and think F this i'll just get takeaway, something easy. But a month ago I decided to really commit to spending time making it a priority. It's still only about half hour a day, but its enough to make a difference.

I'd absolutely echo what other people have said above about keeping it easy and simple. Weekday meals you can cook in XX minutes without frantic multitasking or getting out of your comfort zone cooking-skills-wise.

Trial a few recipes / work out shortcuts at weekends until you get to a three or four week rotation so you don't get bored.

If you haven't got one already, a slow cooker is great as one meal a week can be a casserole-type (which would include stuff like curry) that takes anything from 5-20 mins to prep, but you can do that the night before, in the morning, weeks before and stick a prepped bag in the freezer, whatever works best for you. Then just thicken the sauce before you serve.

And for the days when I just can't face it or really have no time, I do double batches of casserole-type stuff and freeze half so it's just a case of sticking something in the microwave but we're still eating well.

We find having batched cooked stuff in freezer is good for busy days, just have to heat up, so very easy when you get home. We also have things like pre bought fish cakes with a salad and steamed veg, I think for weekdays it’s about making it easy and quick.

Om a Sunday I like to chop all my veg for at least 3 days. Put them in separate tubs/bags. Put a sheet of kitchen roll in to soak any moisture and they last longer. May take me half hour on a Sunday but means I'm more likely to actually have the meal. I have one freezer meal a week and I like a slow cooker meal a week (curry good in slow cooker). Makes life much easier

I live alone so this is easy for me to say. Cook two meals and freeze one, or freeze something made with the left overs.

So I do a creamy mushroom dish in my small slow cooker. I will eat a portion but the other half of it goes into a foil dish, I add pre rolled puff pastry and that goes in the freezer.

Also plan things to have left overs. So again, using my slow cooker, I will roast a chicken, that's meal 1. I then take the left over meat and either eat it a second day or I freeze it. I still have the bones so that makes chicken stock.

I either freeze the stock or make French onion soup with it.

Don't be scared to use tins and packets, some are UHP but not all.

If I do a roast dinner I will again freeze a couple of portions.

Plan some simple meals, an omelette made with cheese and smoked salmon takes 5-10 mins, have some salad with it or some fruit after.

Beans on toast - simple or you can add crispy bacon and or cheese.

Sandwiches / toasties are also fine on busy days.

A picky meal one day where you just put everything on the table.