All you food planners out there............... any advice?

[BubblesDeVere]

I am just thinking about food planning for the weeks ahead.

I have a few questions.

How far ahead do you plan? Do you do a month or a week.

Do you find it saves you money.

Do you have the same thing each day, eg, tuesday is always spag bol etc.

Do you find it easier than just deciding to do something 'off the cuff'?

I am thinking of doing this.

If you have any more tips or advice please let me know, it will be just for myself and the kids because dh is such a fussy eater.

I'm with skibunny on that one. I do try and avoid meals that are absolutely detested by a member of the family - but mostly they have to put up and shut up.

HMC - I am bowing down in awe.

Bozza - could I have recipe for chickpea cutlets - as long as it doesn't have any green stuff in

HMC, I am impressed too! (are you still cross with me? I hope not)

No www. Particularly not now you bowed at my altar of menu planning genius

Bloomin' eck hmc - I'm in awe! Going to start a similar project myself, methinks!!

Very impressed HMC - you are two steps ahead of me in the technical area!!

I do a 4 week rolling plan and have been doing since September - ie we only eat the same meal once every 4 weeks!
Like you HMC coming up with 28 recipies was the hardest part. We have a split of fish, chicken, red meat and vegetarian meals

I do one 4 weekly internet order ( but havn't done pre-populated shopping lists - will look into that thanks HMC!)

I have a weekly veg and fruit organic delivery (only done this for a couple of months and it HAS thrown a bit of a spanner in the works!!)

Do one 4 weekly butchers shop

All sorted - have saved both money and time! both of which I lack.

Impressed Purfrock by your spreadshhet and techincal bits!!

Ah Sonnet,

You're underselling your organisational efforts

Ah Sonnet,

You're underselling your organisational efforts

Oooops!

yeah - but an automatic shopping list!! - takes me hours each time {grin}

then all I will need ia a technical answer to unpacking the bags when the arrive - surely a mumsnetter out there has the answer {grin}

Well I feel suitably hummbled by both the planning skills and the recipes demonstrated on this thread...
Our menu plan consists of me and dh sitting down on Saturday morning doing the following:
Me: 'Monday'
DH:'pasta and it'
Me 'Tuesday'
DH 'your turn'
Me 'macaroni cheese?'
DH 'that's pasta two days in a row'
me 'can't think of anything...risotto?'
DH ' Wednesday'
.....and so on.

Not really in the league of 4-weekly rotating menu plans with drop down pivot tables into self populated shopping lists

Prufrock - no green stuff in the recipe (IIRC) in fact they come out reddish because of tomato puree. Will post the recipe tonight because book at home and I'm at work and have only done it once so can't remember.

Ooh this is a first - somebody on MN asking me for a recipe!

Elliott impressed with your DH - our conversation is more like:
Me: what shall we have to eat next week?
Him: I don't know, you decide
Me : but I always decide
Him: well what about XXX
Me: but that takes 6 hours to prepare and cannot be frozen for later in the week
And then I work it all out myself.

hmc or should i say master what week do you get cleaning products,toiletries etc?

Chorizo and Potato is a Nigella recpe (How to eat). It's basically. Chop and onion, fry in oil, add sliced semi-dried chorizo (the thin sausages). Glug of sherry, slice in raw waxy baby potatoes, cover with water, boil and simmer for 1 hour.
Very simple, amazingly filling. I've also done it with Kabanos and vodka, which wasn't quite as nice

bumptobabies - master indeed. Get outta here!

Weeks 2 and 4

Prufock,

That sounds 'delish'

Spice Chick Pea Cutlets (serves 3)

8oz chick peas (soaked o'night)
2 tbs oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small green/red pepper, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 dsspn grated root ginger
1 tbs tom puree
2 tbs nat yoghurt
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 dstsp lemon juice
s & p

For the frying:
1 lg beaten egg
3 tbs white breadcrumbs
oil

Put chick peas & water in pan, bring to boil, cover & simmer for 30 mins then drain & mash.
Gently fry onion, pepper, garlic & ginger until softened. Beat into chick peas along with other ingreidents. When the mixture is cool form into 12 patties & coat each in egg & breadcrumbs. Fry until golden brown.

I cheated and used a 400g tin of chick peas, which I rinsed and then mashed. Also didn't bother coating/frying but just oven baked them. This was enough for the four of us for one meal, and for DH, DD and I again tonight. But I am dieting and DD had already had one tea at nursery.

Did anyone receive the prufrock food plan?

Anyone else about that has an excel planner?

Incidentally, those that have rolling week plans - do you adjust for seasons? I.e. we tend to drastically change our eating habits in the hotter months of summer because I just don't want to be eating a roast dinner when the air is roasting too .

Do you end up with a week1-5 then say a summerweek1-5?

I am so impressed by you guys. My problem is that we are always all over the place each week. ATM DH is working, which means evenings, which means the kids are at the childminders and therefore eat there in the eves, so I only need to worry about breakfast and packed lunch. This is only for another couple of weeks, then dh should be at home with them after school so I'll need to get organised. However when I do he screws it up by deciding what to cook when, or cooking something totally different. Maybe I need to get organised, do a menu plan AND STICK IT TO THE FRIDGE!!

Bear in mind anything has to be so easy dh could do it Hence the kids usually get chinese noodles with a bit of soy sauce - no veg/chicken or anything. Or a pack of batchelors pasta and sauce

No you haven't got it yet. I'm not ignoring you (well I am, but all of you). I tried to expand it so you could add stuff but messed up the macro - need to get round to debugging, which I will hopefully do tonight/tomorrow