Do you have a meal planning strategy to keep family dinners both healthy and stress-free? - Win £200 Voucher

[rosiemumsnet]

Now that January is here, it's the perfect time to settle back into a routine and focus on healthier eating after the holiday indulgence!

We know that getting a healthy, stress-free family dinner on the table can be tricky with busy schedules and picky eaters. We’d love to hear from parents who have a meal planning strategy that works - one that keeps family dinners both nutritious and hassle-free!

So whether it's planning meals for the week, prepping ingredients in advance, or maybe you’re a fan of recipe box deliveries, we’d love to hear your tips and ideas for making mealtime easier!

Here’s what Mindful Chef have to say:

Mindful Chef is the UK's number one rated recipe box company, set up to make healthy eating easy. Our recipe boxes ensure our customers have the tools to conveniently eat high-quality, nutritious meals that help them feel far healthier and happier.

One lucky Mumsnetter will win a £200 VEX voucher for a store of their choice. All you have to do is post your tips or ideas in the thread below and vote in the poll to be entered into a prize draw. Good luck!

The slow cooker in winter is the best stress free cooking - AND tastes the best - I just chuck a lot of root vegetables stock and the cheaper cuts of beef and make a casserole which will feed us for 2 days. I plan differently summer than winter - with summer being fish based, and I use my slow cooker for jacket potatoes. I plan roughly each week as I usually buy sacks ot potatoes, and carrots which I store in my cellar.
Minced beef is also a weekly purchase for chilii's, bolognaises and home made burgers - again I will usually buy a kilo a week.

In plan our menu for the week - dependant on term times, always cereals, milk, bread, butter, and what we are eating that week - I boy lots of frozen because it's quick and easy, and I love Iceland for this. I use my airfryer a lot for fries, burgers (using the liner) - I always have a magnetic list on my fridge if the kids ask for something for next weeks dinners.

I have a menu planner called meal board - I am sure there are android ones out there - it really helps be plan by weekly shopping delivery. My favourites are already pre added, I tend to always cook from scratch - but will use frozen when we are in a rush. My slow cooker also gets a lot of use for chillies, stews and slow cooking meat for the evening.

We make a meal plan on a Saturday for the week, and go and buy all ingredients needed. Sunday is for batch cooking - especially healthier cereal bars for the lunch boxes.

I have a rough plan for the week but it’s not set in stone. Sometimes we end up with lots of leftovers so we’ll have those one night and roll over the planned meal, sometimes I just don’t fancy what was planned so make something else, sometimes it ends up just being me and one of the kids as everyone else has gone out so I do something easy…

Two days have to be something that can be made in the instant pot in the morning and be ready almost as soon as we get home after 6pm as my younger children need to eat early. So stew or curry or similar. Always pasta at least once a week as it’s the only thing everyone eats without complaining!

I do a big shop every fortnight and top up inbetween so I tend to ask everyone if there’s anything they want to have for dinner in the next two weeks before I do that. That way there’s at least one meal plus the pasta meal that I know will be well received.

I (nearly) always cook a selection of vegetables. DC3 for example really hates courgettes so will ask to leave those but I think that’s ok when there are a few other vegetables on their plate which they will eat. Also a plate of carrot/cucumber/pepper sticks available while they’re waiting for dinner is a good way to get them to eat more vegetables.

When dc1 is home from university our meals tend to be vegetarian based with meat on the side for those who want it, makes it easier for me than cooking two things.

I don’t often batch cook. 1. I don’t have enough room in my freezer and 2. By the time I’ve peeled enough potatoes/chopped enough onions/grated enough carrots etc for the six of us for one meal I’ve had enough and do not want to be doubling up on that!

We have a list of all things in the freezer and cupboards then use that for inspiration.
we then meal plan for the week with a quick contingency meal. Keeps cost lower and then saves getting a takeaway if a quick meal is needed

I plan meals to have haddock, a meat, and vegetarian meal each week, so they are on my weekly food order, and have a variety of meals, fish pie, fish cakes, mince meat meals, and a rice or pasta vegetarian meal - I always buy fresh vegetables, but have frozen mixed veg when I am in a rush.

We have regular meals, some quick and easy, some slow cooked, but they are repetitive, it's what the children like, I plan (ish) on shopping days for pasta dishes, frozen food dishes (burgers and fries), fish fingers and chicken nuggets - I do check the ingredients for good quality fish and chicken meat. If you have a picky child and you know what they will eat - I stick to it.

I'm doing Gousto boxes at the moment. We were given a start to a subscription for Christmas eve while they still give me discounts I'll keep it going. It's waste free so sort of saves money and the teens love cooking with them, so win win!

When I run out of discounts I'm happy to try another box brand.

I meal plan for the week (so write down 7 meals) but choose on the day which meal to cook as I don’t always feel like what’s on that days plan.

I also batch cook if I have a free Sunday and keep the meals in the freezer for days that I run out of time to cook. Currently I have 5 portions of carrot & coriander soup, 4 portions of beef chilli, 2 portions of bean chilli in the freezer and one portion of bolognaise so if I have stressful days and run out of time to cook these will be my backups (I only have to heat some rice or spaghetti to go with the meal) and I know the children are still having healthy meals which lessens the guilt.

I do plan meals - but they are pretty consistant - having neurodivergent children they like the same meal on a certain day - that works for us, and keeps my shopping planning easy. I do try to introduce a variation of the set meal to add more variation to the diet.
When we have shepherds and cottage pie I add the 'hidden veg' by grating and pureeing.

I enjoy sitting down on a Friday or Saturday to do my meal plan for the next week. It really helps as we have busy lives. For January I have been trying to use up stuff in the freezer which is great as the shopping bill has considerably reduced plus I can more easily see what’s in there. I have a slow cooker & try to use it weekly. Love recipes from Asda & Tescos free magazines. I would say we stick to a reasonably healthy diet, with plenty of veg. I rarely eat fruit though & my husband only has bananas usually. My 16 year old daughter is on the spectrum & struggles with her eating ( she rarely has meals with us) but we try to encourage her to make healthy choices. Bit of a minefield!

I meal plan, make extra portions of things like casseroles and lasagnes to freeze and keep a stock of frozen fruit and vegetables to make meals easy when I'm short on time.

I follow a sort of loose pattern and adapt it depending on the weather, what's in season and our plans for the week. I aim for at least three portions of vegetables in main meals and always have salad ingredients to go with sandwiches or leftovers at lunchtime.

We have roast most Sundays followed by cold on Monday which was DM's pattern when i was growing up. My DC love cold cuts and pickles and I love having a day off from cooking. Tuesdays, we have a sports club, so often have pasta, fajitas or fish finger wraps for speed. Wednesday is usually some sort of tray bake, Thursday is freezer dinner because I work late and Friday is fish of some sort. Saturday is the day I get the recipe books out and spend a bit more time cooking, so I might make a curry or a coq au vin with extras for another day.

Blitzed up punnet of mushrooms (preferably chestnut as have higher Vit D, but whatever you have or on offer) added to any mince dish - mushroom-refusing 16 year old has still not tasted them after doing it for 2 years.

Lentils added to mince dishes

Cook pasta or rice in advance, cool down and store in fridge or freezer. Re-heated changes the carb profile and has resistant starch so it's got more fibre, better for gut health and lower blood-sugar spike too. Likewise, bread that has been frozen and toasted from frozen has lower carbs

Fridge clear out for veg pasta sauce - all scraps of veg sauteed with garlic, add tin toms, mixed herbs, red lentils and blitz when cooked Season well

Great thread - I have got lots of good ideas already.
No I don't plan - and I should - both me and my DH buy shopping and we end up freezing lots - then never using it.
I am going to make a New Year Resolution to make a list for me and DH so we can get the family shop between us and not over buy. It really is shameful
I have just taken some chicken from the freezer to use tonight - so there's a start.

Cook pasta or rice in advance, cool down and store in fridge or freezer. Re-heated changes the carb profile and has resistant starch so it's got more fibre, better for gut health and lower blood-sugar spike too. Likewise, bread that has been frozen and toasted from frozen has lower carbs

That is so interesting @siblingrevelryagain. I knew about potatoes - but not pasta & rice. It's definitely giving me some ideas.

We eat a lot of veg in our house so to reduce waste and keep costs down we try to choose recipes with similar ingredients.

For example if I'm making a roasted veg pasta bake and I'm going to have 1 pepper and a courgette left I'll plan a meal that I can incorporate those into so I'm not left with "scraps" of veg at the end of the week.

We also use lots of lentils and pulses as we don't eat meat which definitely saves us money!

I have a number of favourite recipes to choose from that all use fairly similar ingredients and then loosely meal plan for the week. I batch cook at the weekend and freeze in portions so there is always something in the freezer to take to work for lunch, or have in the evening if I don’t feel like cooking.

Having a pressure cooker was a bit of a game changer for us. So many meals that can be cooked easily and quickly (a good pressure cookbook helps). It’s also good for making soup for healthy lunches quickly.

We try and make an extra couple of portions whenever we use it, having single portions in the freezer is really useful for nights with adults home late due to work commitments and teens with last minute plans.

we actually bought a ninja 15-in-1 when the world went air fryer mad, but it’s the pressure cooker function that gets used week in week out.

I’m not a planner and I’m not very consistent so I rely heavily on my freezer.

I’m making time to cook from scratch a lot more since I’ve woken up to UPFs. Once a week I do a bit of batch cooking, and stock up the freezer, and any time I cook anything, I make extra to freeze some (always in single portions).

My freezer has a great range of meals now and I can have a fakeaway on the table faster than it can be delivered. It’s a lot healthier too and we’re not gasping for water all night from the salt and msg.

I’ve come to the conclusion that prioritising food convenience is coming at too high a price and while it’s a chore to cook, I just need to get on with it. There are other ways to save time/effort that don’t compromise on health.

I want to know where my food is coming from, and what ingredients are in it (the supermarket bakery couldn’t tell me the ingredients in their bread). Labelling is misleading more often than it’s not. Yuka is a great app for a quick assessment and I follow Sophie Morris for her healthy swap suggestions.

I’m not really the target market for recipe boxes but I’m considering one for the summer holidays as a way of encouraging my teen dc to learn to cook independently, without overwhelming them with all the prepping /shopping/ planning for leftovers .

I usually plan a few days ahead. Strategy is based on using up food before it loses it's freshness and making what we've not had for a few days....

I go straight to 'offers' when I do my food shop, and buy whatever brand/variety is on offer.

And always add tinned beans and pulses. These go into almost everything to eke out the expensive ingredients - so pasta sauces, curries, chiles, casseroles, soups, even cottage pie.

I find online food ordering rather than going to the supermarket makes it easier to plan for the week. I can sit with a recipe book and add the ingredients.

We pick easy meals during the week when we're working and then running to and from after school things. Pizza, baked potatoes, stir fry, and breakfast dinner. At the weekend we have a mince dinner like chilli, cottage pie or spaghetti over a couple of days. That's the extent of our batch cooking because our freezer is a tiny box! I have to say that the best appliance I bought was a soup maker from B&M. We store the soup in those microwave cups.