Do you plan your meals?

M0nica

I plan my meals a week ahead and then prepare my shopping list.

The plan is not rigid and most weeks some meals get moved around or changed. I then take into account anything left in the fridge or veg rack that needs using up when planning the enxt weeks menus.

I am always scanning recipes when I come across them and over the years I have built up an archive of a 100 or so recipes that we have eaten and enjoyed and about 20 years ago i listed these on a spread sheet, which I refer to when planning menus.

I love food and love trying new recipes and eating across a wide range of foods. It is only by having a list of recipes and planning my menus that I can ensure I eat the wide variety of foods I enjoy eating.

You ate describing my routine Monica 😀👍

I plan about an hour beforehand with whatever I have in the fridge. I do make sure I have plenty of veg and raw materials every week and plenty of onions and garlic. I usually have some meat and fish in the freezer, too. If all else fails I am really, really good at omelettes!

Still getting used to eating alone here. Not a clue what I am eating tomorrow .

Just as Sago said. But the planning was with children’s input and pinned up so there was no complaints as they’d had their views and choices and could look at what was coming!
Don’t you have to be ahead of the game with dear children.

BlueBelle

He can you know on a Monday what you ll fancy on a Wednesday !!!

Indeed.

Or who will be round for meals?

He can you know on a Monday what you ll fancy on a Wednesday !!!

I don`t really plan now that I am on my own. Being a family of five was very different, planning was so useful then, to provide nutritious and balanced home cooked meals

I know what is what is needed to give me optimum health. If I make a soup then it is often done in my soup maker, which makes enough soup for 4 days, which means that basic planning has been done for three days. Meal planning can be as simple as making a big all-in-one `low meat` casserole and dividing into ready meals for the freezer

Things change when widowed and meal planning is one of them, no need for it

I realised that I was just using a couple of recipes from most of my cookery books, so now I have a 'book of the week'. I choose one of my books and plan meals from that for the week. I annotate the book with comments so I don't repeat one we weren't so keen on - it's fun

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I have done this, too, as I have some lovely cookery books. But when planning, I get lazy and go online. It's a wonderful pastime though, browsing through the books and looking at the pictures.

crazyH

Callistemon - same here - had an M&S stir-fry veg with Pad Thai style sauce - I did sneak in a couple of chicken strips.

Probably better - the beef was ok but some pieces were a bit chewy.
But very tasty.

I have just had over 3 weeks of never repeating a main course. In these weeks we might have had different curries so things like curries repeated but not the same meat or sauce. My children remember a run we had of not repeating a pudding when they were young and it got quite mad in the end but good fun. I only cook for 2 mostly but have a big chest freezer and a fridge freezer as well so always meals cooked and frozen and yesterday was a great big pot of chicken broth portioned and frozen. I have started getting my meat from Donald Russell an Aberdeenshire butcher which is real quality meat and we can taste the difference but we do not have it too many times a week . I like at least two fish days and maybe a veggie day . Because of the recent floods I was so glad to have large stocks of all the things we need including milk and rolls. Thank goodness our rain has stopped now but shelves empty in the supermarket as they did not get any deliveries.

I decide on the day. I check with my husband and he usually agrees with anything I suggest.

Callistemon - same here - had an M&S stir-fry veg with Pad Thai style sauce - I did sneak in a couple of chicken strips.

I have always planned meals and shopped to a list though the meals may well change around during the week.

I realised that I was just using a couple of recipes from most of my cookery books, so now I have a 'book of the week'. I choose one of my books and plan meals from that for the week. I annotate the book with comments so I don't repeat one we weren't so keen on - it's fun!

Meal planning seems to work for me as I am not an inspirational cook and like to know what I'm going to do each day (and maybe prep a bit in the morning).
I plan about 2/3 weeks worth of meals and try not to have repeats of each type of meat or fish each week but use different recipes. I find somehow, it save me quite a bit of money to do it this way, as well as not having to think what to do each evening!

No but my DH does.

I plan a couple of days in advance but I'm also prepared to change it if it seems the best thing to do, ie I can't be bothered with lots of cooking so I do omelettes or similar, mostly I enjoy it but sometimes not

It's a lazy M&S one.
Good planning!

And me. If I have only 3 meals planned, we can be more flexible. I always have bought frozen pies and frozen batch cooked meals so we won't starve.

I've planned a stir fry
Now I just have to cook it.

Same here fancythat. I used to plan and stick to it, now it’s a much more flexible approach. Works for us.

I hated my childhood because I knew the =days of the week by the food on the table. Roast on a Sunday, cold meat on the Monday, stovies on Tuesday and so on.

Now I usually know about 3 days in advance so I am not shopping every day. It is not rigid unless something must be eaten that day but if I fancy a cheese omelette, fine.
I waste little.

I 1/2 do and 1/2 dont.
I have an idea of two or three meals, and wing the rest later in the week.

We plan our menu for the coming week on a Sunday. We have an Ocado shop every fortnight on a Wednesday and shop in Waitrose and/or Tesco the alternate week. I’m always comparing prices which is fairly tiring.

I used to plan carefully and batch cook so I always had a freezer full of meals when I worked full time and had a family.
Now I'm on my own I still only shop weekly but eat a lot of ready meals so plan more by sell by dates!
I still keep a shopping list on the go throughout the week and will obviously shop extra if the grandkids are coming over!

DH and I do a week each so when it is my week I start by looking in the fridge and freezer to see if anything needs using up. Then I write the meals in the desk diary so I know what to shop for. I also grow a bit of veg so using what I've grown is a priority and the rest of the meal is planned around that. We hardly ever have any food waste.