Meal planning - is this possible

[shinybaubles]

I have successfuly meal planned for a week at a time and this worked out really well for us cheaper and less waste. Now with a new baby arriving next month I was thinking iff meal planning for a month at a time - has anyone done this? I want to do this partially to be organised and so I can cook some stuff in advance and also because this way I can go to the really good butcher that is quite far away and freeze the meat etc..it is too long a drive to go every week. Is this an idea doomed to failure?

I have been known to meal plan for 4-6 weeks.

I buy everything I need and then the first week I cook for example

Monday -beef casserole for 15, eat three portions and freeze 12

Tueday - chicken curry for 15, eat three portions and freeze 12

Wednesday - chilli con carne for 15 and freeze 12 portions

Thursday - spag bog - for 15 and freeze 12 portions

Friday make 5 quiche - freeze four and have with beans and jkt pots

That way the following weeks I don't have to cook so it cuts down on time and effort

That's a good way of doing it - we eat a lot of food like that. Had actually just thought of freezing all the meat raw but this is a better idea. Thankyou

Sounds good but ivy, does that mean you eat the same menu every week?

well you could do another week of cooking and pick other meals that you can freez and then have a two week rolling menu - but tbh eating the same food for three days in a row doesn't bother me.

I often cook a beef stew in the slow cooker, then will eat that meal for four days, as the week goes on it gets better and better. No washing up apart from two bowls and no cooking for a week suits me.

Then I make a chilli in the slow cooker and eat for four days, then a chicken curry etc

As the days go on I may add another tin of kidney beans and chickpeas to say the chilli - which menas it stretches for another two to three meals. Or the curry I add some lentils and butter beans to bulk it out and a bit of chopped up vegtables.

TBH I find it much cheaper to do this and a lot easier when working and come home to a meal all ready to eat sraight away with no waiting.

i would think if you have a new baby to be able to put a meal in the slow cooker in the morning and be able to eat inthe evening without cooking would be great, either getting a meal out of the freezer and popping in the microwave to defrost and then putting in slow cooker or making by bunging everything in quick when baby is sleeping in the morning and coming to the meal later in the day.

Here is a very old thread about bulk cooking. It's a vegetarian plan but gives you a basis for ideas and sauces etc and can be adapted for meat.

Ivy I am also ok eating the same food several days, I have a slow cooker and a big freezer so will put them to good use.

thepinkone I am going to look at that thread.

Thanks fo the tips

shiny - don't forget that you can

freeze the meat, then make a meal and then freeze that meal...as the meat has been cooked so it is ok to freeze again.

This helps say if you defrost the meat make into a casserole and then freeze what is left over

I'd love to be able to batch cook like ivtkaty suggests but I just don't have the freezer space, I don't think.

What size freezer do you have?

Ivy I didn't know that about meat - well I am going to give it a whirl, I am getting increasingly exhausted at 34 weeks and don't imagine I will feel any better before the baby arrives.

I freeze in bags - so there are three of us, I put four bags out and dish up our dinner and then put the other four portions of three into freezer bags - leave the bag open so it colls - then after dinner place give it an hour and close bag up and place in freezer.

The bags shouldn't really take up to much space, so for 5 dinners over 4 weeks a draw of the freezer should be enough.

As the weeks go by the freezer will empty aswell.

You can't get meat out from the freezer and let it defrost and then put it back in the freezer - as long as you cook it after it has defrosted then you can refreeze.

Fish you can cook from froozen - and i you were making a thai fish curry or fish pie - then you can freeze agian the portions you do not use.