How can I reduce the time spent on shopping/cooking - need your top tips...

[Quandry]

I have decided I simply spend too much of my time food shopping and cooking and I want to try to be more super organised about how to reduce it. Thing is, I don't want to compromise too much on food quality (e.g. don't want to start buying loads of ready meals) or spending loads more.

We're a family of four (with 2 hungry teens) and DH & I tend to share the cooking, so I don't have ultimate control .

We do online shopping with Tesco, but it tends to be a bit haphazard i.e. remember to do a shop once we're really short of everything, and then usually there aren't any delivery slots for days. If DH does the online shop he just re-orders the last order, or all our favourites and we have to cobble together whatever we can - arrgh!

Ideally I'd like an online grocery service which lets me automatically book the same slot EVERY week, then just prompts me to add extra items and checkout. Does anyone do this? Or do I have to force myself to always sit down on say, a Sunday to do my online shop?

I know everyone on MN always seems to say meal plans are the way forward, but how do you know what is going to be happening in a week or 2 weeks time? It always seems that we have something unexpected happening like DS1 will need to stay late at school and then only have a 45 mins window to grab tea before going out again - and it will not be a 45 min window which co-incides with me serving dinner!

What about this whole cooking double portions and freezing? I've sometimes done this in the past for e.g. Spag Bol, and then DH just uses all the frozen stuff when it's his turn to cook, so I don't actually gain any time from this! (Perhaps I need to hide it at the back of the freezer!).
What dishes work well for freezing? What do you freeze them in? Do you cook from frozen, or have to remember to get out first thing in the morning?

If someone with super-organised, OCD tendencies would like to share their strategies please.....

We do a weekly shop with Tesco and try to get on the same day each week (more difficult now they have messed around with slots, but I think you can book three weeks in advance). We know from favourites what we are likely to need and some of those are the same each week. We have large (ie difficult to lose) notebook in the kitchen and jot down anything significant we use or are running low on. If the children suggest a food they like, it suddenly gets hot and we decide we need ice-cream/I see a recipe, it goes down on the list.

We used to cook in batches but I'm not sure it saved much time. The actual cooking in massive pots was a huge pain, the freezer was always too full, you still have to cook veg/rice etc and wash the dish anyway. We now only do this for something like soup or mince. Most things we cook are easy to cook and simple (children do not like 'messed up' food). So, pork chops, roast chicken joints, fish, scrambled eggs, pasta, risotto.

I rarely meal plan - we decide what we need the night before and if chops, for example, then take out of freezer. If have bought mince, I automatically buy tomatoes etc that will be needed to cook it, ditto risotto rice - so I have a vague notion it needs to be cooked before the fresh things go off, but not exactly when as things change all the time.

YY to Ocado Smart Pass.
I have a pre booked slot for the same time each week.
I have a standard order which I can adjust accordingly. If a product runs out and its not a regular order item, olive oil for example, then I can scan the barcode and add it to the order in moments.
The Smart Pass cost £10 a month and is worth the money.

Oh, you book the slot by going into 'My Ocado' then to 'Ocado Reserved', you need to have 'instant shop' set up also.

Send DH out at the crack of dawn to the supermarket to get shopping.

Meal plan and have a list. Make it like school lunches, plan menus and swap weeks round eg week menu a and week menu b.

Cook some stuff and put in freezer for busy days. Salad and meat and pickles + cheese. Very quick, go to meal.

^ Saturday morning works for us.

For DH supermarket run that is.

My top tip is get a BIG freezer!

I buy all of my frozen stuff, meat, and batch cooking stuff once every 4-6 weeks and fill up the freezer. Also get all of the tins, pasta, rice etc and toilet rolls, washing powder etc. That way my 'weekly' shop is just fresh fruit and veg, milk, bread etc (and treats or else we eat them all too quickly!).

You have to meal plan a bit, but I just work with what ive got and can usually get away with winging it as long as i know its chicken one day, then salmon, then a mince dish, then sausages etc etc.

Make sure you always have frozen veg and potatoes, and a couple of frozen pizzas, fish and chips and stuff for something on toast and there is always a quick dinner to hand.

I freeze bolognaise, veggie pasta/gnocchi sauce, chilli, curries and soups. Do it over a couple of days and that's most of my cooking for the month!