Meal planning?

[scotslass]

I want to start meal planning before doing my weekly shop, but I have absolutely no imagination.

I spend a fortune, but never seem to have more than a couple of days worth of evening meals, then I make lots of trips to the shops picking up bits and pieces.

What meals do you have in a week and what sort of basics do you put in your trolley?

Tricky - I always seem to have loads of food but then never have the motivation to make it into anything!
How about:
mon - beef lasagne with salad
tues - spanish omlette type thing with garlic bread
wed - salmon steaks with mash, green beans and cheesy sauce
thurs - pasta with tomato based sauce and veg
fri - toad in the hole
sat - jkt pots and cottage cheese with gammon and pineapple
sun - roast chicken/chicken curry and rice

I always have fruit/veg/cheese/eggs/meat in freezer and pasta in the house.
You can always do anything with eggs and potatoes (not necessarily together!)
Tortilla wraps are always quick and easy for everyone at weekend.
I say all this, but my kids hardly eat a thing so I never get a proper chance to make any lovely meals that get eaten!

Just a little bump for you. I'm sure that mellowma will be along shortly.

Thanks for the help, but keep it coming - I am a domestic disaster!

on say 3 nights of the week why don't you buy family sized nice ready meals (ie Tesco Finest) like a lasgane, shepherds pie etc but add your own extra veg. Then oyu could have pizza and salad another night and go out for a meal. Although ready meals are expensive, the nicer ones have a lot less salt and are pretty much like homemade versions and you said you spend lots anyway.

God I'm a disaster too! I do try to be organised, but it never works.

I try to make sure I have chicken breasts, mince and chops in the freezer. Potatoes & pasta in the cupboard and then things like garlic, tom puree, tin toms, stock cubes and also a few tinned veg for emergency sheperds pie. DH is the domestic god in my house, so he usually does the extra shopping if he needs something special.

This week it's:
Monday: pasta bolognese
Tuesday: pancetta & asparagus risotto (me & DH only)
Wednesday: chicken and Boursin tagliatelle (me & DH again, blimey it was garlicky)
Thursday: spinach and feta canneloni

Friday to Sunday nights inclusive DD and I are going away, leaving DH to ready meals! We eat as a family Friday to Monday, and then DD eats at nursery and DH and I eat together Tuesday to Thursday. Good job, as DD doesn't eat many things, and I'm not great at thinking of things for her to eat.

Other stuff we all eat together: a roast (DD tends to eat peas and gravy only ...), breaded chicken with sweetcorn fritters, sausages and mash or chips, fish fingers, corned beef hash (DD eats baked beans ...), omelette, cottage pie, sausage casserole, macaroni cheese. Mid-week adult dinners are often curry or risotto (DD will NOT touch rice).

My dad suggested having a really rigid meal plan - every Monday it's sausages, every Tuesday risotto, etc, but I'm not keen as DD would only ever eat the same four meals at home.

We've started this meal planning a few weeks ago but not doing terribly well so far. My main problem is that I want to do bigger portions and freeze for at least another night. Then I defrost it and it all turns to mush.

Here's our latest, all from a Weight Watchers book:
chicken goujons
chicken casserole
chicken & broccoli pie
moroccan lamb
chilli
cajun sausagemeat patties

Before that we had:
Thai green pumpkin curry
button mushroom provencal
potato parcels (turned out this was just enough for a side dish - always read the recipe ahead!)
cheese & onion flan (got the ingredients but didn't do it as too much hassle - read the recipe first)
mediterranean macaroni cheese (remember: DH doesn't like pasta)

We seem to end up with a similar menu every week. I try to sit down and write out what meals we are going to have before going to the supermarket.

Most weeks it includes:
Shepherds pie (Veggie DD1 has mash and a veggie burger)
Baked potatoes and sausages (Veggie sausages for DD1)
Macaroni cheese (I often cheat and buy a tub of readymade cheese sauce as although it only takes 10 minutes to make the children always seem to go into meltdown at the wrong moment)
Spaghetti with lemon, halloumi cheese and olives (bizarrely even the fouryearold will eat this)
Homemade pizza (using ciabatta bread mix for the base)
Roast dinner - a big trial for the 9-year-old veggie as she used to love roast beef so I usually do chicken now to spare her feelings.
Saturday night I ususally cook for me and DH seperately and we have something spicy as the children are not keen on very spicy food. (Or indeed slightly spicy food.)

It works for us but I think I need to vary it a bit more - I'm getting bored.

I envy those whose entire families eat pasta. DH won't touch it and cooking is always a bit more of a drag.

Message withdrawn

ashalaurent at yahoo dot co dot uk

Hey all, just come on the thread and love the idea of meal planning, the only prob being that ds does not eat a lot of the things that me and dh eat. Actually it seems he doesnt eat a lot of anything.

MellowMa I would love a menu planner too, email is pinklaura25011 at aol dot com, look forward to hearing from you xx

Hey all, just come on the thread and love the idea of meal planning, the only prob being that ds does not eat a lot of the things that me and dh eat. Actually it seems he doesnt eat a lot of anything.

MellowMa I would love a menu planner too, email is pinklaura25011 at aol dot com, look forward to hearing from you xx

I would say on an average week we have something like:

Shepard's pie
Chicken & yellow rice
Beef Casserole or stew
Roast chicken & salad
I also try at least one new recipe a week.

I always have fixins in my house for fajitas that way if I'm stuck all I have to do is go out and buy some steak.

Watching this one - get so bored with providing same old same old

mellowma - me too please

satinshoes at handbag dot com

Our menu planner this week looks like:

Meatloaf with mash and veg
Spag Bol with salad and garlic bread
Thai chicken with rice
Spicy lentil soup with crusty bread
Cottage pie and veg
Chilli nachos
bacon and red onion quiche with baked potatoes and salad

We usually have a huge pot of soup on Sundays to use up veg we haven't used during the week - we had potato, cauliflower and broccoli soup with cheddar cheese yesterday and it was delish. I freeze any leftover soup and have it for lunch during the week.

Message withdrawn

We should do a weekly menu planner similar to the housekeeping flys

Why not buy a cookbook with loads of different recipes in - then there'll be loads of new things to try.

We use The Holford Diet by Patrick Holford (though having bigger porttions now cos am PG) which is great cos there are loads of recipes in there with beans/lentils and stuff you might not normally try. I find the food delicious even though it is supposedly for dieting. But there are loads of different books. Have a look on Amazon or go to your local cheap bookshop and get some for £2!

I basically plan to have about 2 meat meals a week, 1 fish and the rest veggie. Varies a bit but not tremendously - i.e. meat meals might be as many as 3 or as few as 1. We eat pulses at least twice a week.

Within the meals, we have a range of carbohydrate - so potatoes a couple of times a week, the rest pasta, rice, couscous, quinoa, bread-based or whatever. Veggies depend on what we have growing, or what is seasonal. Often I base the meal around the veggies, rather than it being a side-dish.

I spend about half an hour to an hour a week one evening looking through recipe books and writing a menu for the following week. Before doing that though, I check fridge, freezer and cupboards and use that to start ideas.

We have a home-made soup once a week usually, tends to be kids' swimming night cos it's easy to make ahead, quick to reheat and lovely and warming!

We have just started doing this and so far it is working.

Tonight we are having spag bol and garlic bread and salad

Tues - Beef stew, sauteed potatoes and cauliflower cheese

Wed - Tuna Pasta Bake

Thurs - Sausage and Borlotti Bean Casserole

Fri - Chicken Drumsticks, chips and beans (for the boys) and something nicer for us!

I've noticed when I do plan, life just seems so ooo much easier & we have lovely healthy delicious meals (e.g. Sat we had caramelised chicken breasts on wild rice with roasted root veg. DS ate the chicken and rice hmmm)

Menu for me please too Mars holyhandbag at yahoo dot co dot uk. Thank you!

I was babysitting last night so took my recipe books along and planned there. I get my shopping delivered Thursday evening and my plan is:

Friday - pork meatballs in tom sauce with pasta (from Dinnerlady recipe book) I might also do some roast veg or salad with it
Saturday - Delia's lemon chicken (I might do with rice or new potatoes and veg
Sunday - Mother's Day so probably eat out or get a take away
Monday - chicken and brocolli quiche
Tuesday - homemade veg soup and crusty bread
Wednesday - Leftover veg goulash which I froze last week with tagliatelle
Thursday - we might be back to the pork meatballs...

I work Tues-Thurs so it is always reheated stuff and also Tues is swimming lessons for DS.