Another meal planner thread, vegetarians especially welcome

[iheartdusty]

I am still fumbling about with this, so thanks for fantastically useful tips on recent threads.

But another question please; what do you use as the non-meat central element of the dish, to plan around?

ie do you have rice on Mondays, pasta on Tuesdays and so on?

or a stir fry on Monday, a roast (vegetables) on Tuesday, a soup on Wednesday, etc?

my mind goes absolutely blank when I try to remember what we eat, and I seem to be shopping every day in addition to a vegbox delivery.

I alternate animal and vegetable proteins, as much as possible.

So we'll have one meat, one fish dish planned (usually get leftovers from one of them), and the rest I organise around pulses - lentils, chickpeas, etc. That helps with the variety.

Then I think about 'flavours' - eg. dh wants spag bol so if I decide to go ahead with lasagne that needs to be later in the week - and then the grain/starch (noodles, pasta, rice etc). If that makes any sense.

I tend to think more about flavour and texture.

So if it's something sloppy like soup or stew on Monday, then something "dry" like pan fried fish on Tuesday, and something "mixed" like stir fry or spanish omelette on Wednesday.

thanks, very helpful

I think I would plan mainly around the protein rather than the carb. We eat meat but try to limit it (for health and budget reasons!) and I try to plan two fish, two veggie (or mainly veggie), and one red meat meal per week (the additional two will vary!)
If doing it without meat, I might plan around different pulses or grains, dairy based meals (i.e. cheese sauce mainly!) and then veg based meals.
Some of our veggie meal ideas include: lentil based pasta sauce; dal and rice; chickpea and spinach stew with rice; lentil bake; macaroni cheese; veg bake with cheese or white sause; pizza; cheese and bread pudding; veg risotto; veg soup; lentil soup; lentil lasagne; spinach and cheese pie; baked potatoes with home made baked beans (or tinned ones!); 'curried' lentils (basically green lentils in tomato sauce with coconut, garlic and ginger)
hth. will watch thread with interest

I'd do it completely the other way round, particularly if you have a veg box. We always have the staples in - pasta, rice, lasagne sheets, flour for bread, couscous etc etc. We also have plenty of store cupboard things - tins of beans, chopped tomatoes etc.

We then plan our meals around what nice veg we have. Last night we did slow-cooked ratatouille which we will eat this evening (and perhaps tomorrow) with either some toasted nuts or cheese, perhaps some pasta (or rice, or fresh bread). If we've got a nice squash or some good mushrooms, we might do a risotto. Veg stews with beans great this time of year - perhaps with a sprinkling of cheese as an extra garnish. As long as we have a variety of different proteins throughout the week, and a variety of different pasta/rice etc as well, I don't rigidly plan.

What I would do if I got a veg box and wanted to plan would be to decide what I wanted to cook with each of the vegetables, decide which night to cook each, taking account of ability to store and any time constraints, then decide what you want to accompany them...