Menu planning - doomed to fail?

[jacquiB]

I have 2 small children, don't work (so theoretically have time to get to shops most days) but yet i can't seem to plan a whole week's menus for the children.

I start with good intentions, but end up resorting to old favourites, M&S children's ready meals and/or sandwiches. the shopping is the easy bit, its finding the time to make these so called "quick and easy recipes" that challenges me.

I browse through Annabel Karmel books, watching beautiful children eating japanese and chinese inspired food and feel like a failure when i dish up cottage pie for the 100th time.

Am I setting myself unreasonable goals? do other families eat like mine ?

i have just discovered the Mumsnet recipes - genius! why haven't i seen these before?!

There's some good AK recipes, but the photos in the book would make anyone feel inadequate. I don't really know anyone who eats like that. Even my DS1 who is an adventurous little body and would eat all the Asian inspired stuff, would still have a crying jag if I gave him a meat & two veg meal.

Generally, my top tip for menu planning is to use your freezer as much as possible. If you're going to make something, make double and freeze some, because that makes other days a lot easier in comparison.

Make a lot of soup and freeze that in small quantities too. Then the days you resort to sandwich meals, you can supplement it with a bowl of soup and know that all food groups are covered.

I also try to plan maybe 2 easy fish finger & beans type meals in each week, which can be substituted for clever stuff on any other day. E.g. if the easy meal is planned for Thursday but you get in late from the park on Tuesday afternoon and they're starving, just swap them over.

And anyway, there's nothing actually wrong with cottage pie .