Weekly Meal Plans

[Sneezyone]

If anyone is interested in doing this, it might be cool to share some ideas. Obviously, dietary restrictions may make some things impossible but...yeah...here goes. This one is for our family of four. I usually cook 6 servings a day to allow for DH's lunches the next day and the kids’ midnight forays into the kitchen. This isn't a studio apartment with single burner friendly meal plan. I am typing up one of those that I used when we lived in a hotel for a month as a whole other animal. 

To start, I went to my local stores today to see what was available and reasonably priced and then made a plan to work with what I had. Yes, I know having three grocery stores within 7 minutes of my front door is VERY unusual and what’s on sale here may not be on sale or available where you are. It only takes me an hour and a half to hit all three stores so I do that but YMMV. My pantry has a ton of basics and seasonings and condiments that you might not have and I keep a single bag of frozen peas and carrots just for fried rice in my freezer at all times so, in at least one instance, I tapped that. I didn't buy enough milk for a week today b/c Aldi was out of gallons so I’ll have to go back for that but you get the gist. Also, we do not cook with tree nuts (peanuts, cashews, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts or sesame seeds due to allergies but sesame oil and pine nuts, for whatever reason, are tolerated. I limit milk/cheese except as toppings too because some of us, ME!, can’t tolerate dairy well.

WRT Drinks - We buy seltzers every once in a while. I do have boxed red/white wine for cooking on hand. We usually drink cold-brew tea, unsweetened. That's why there are no beverages on the list.

WRT Breakfast and Lunch - I don’t cook breakfast or lunch except on weekends and it's usually an egg/veggie scramble with scratch biscuits or pancakes. I use my pantry staples for that. I usually start my day with a soft-boiled egg, slice of toast, maybe an avocado, and a Roma tomato or two. Everyone else does a grab and go with fruit or eats a bowl of cereal. After school, they either reheat leftovers for a snack or make paninis for themselves with the bread, lunchmeat and cheese.

OK...with all the disclaimers done, this is our week.

SHOPPING HAUL.pdf

Edited February 20, 2022 by Sneezyone

[Faith-manor]

I think this is great. 

Frozen broccoli florets

Rice

Vegetable broth

Herbs you like

Parmesan

Optional - chicken thighs

For what it is worth, here is a cheap and easy but healthy one that I used to do when the kids were little and they didn't like cooked broccoli. I would first dole up a serving of raw broccoli for each person plus just a little extra and then fine chop, I mean pulverize it practically. Then I took vegetable broth and herbed it up to taste for us which meant a lot of garlic. I cooked the broccoli with the rice in the herbed broth, and then transferred it to a glass baking dish and topped with parmesan, and baked until the parmesan had melted. The kids really liked it, and ate it up. My daughter now does this with her crew because her five year old doesn't do steamed veggies very well. He will eat a large serving of this. As a general rule, parmesan is cheap because you don't need a lot of it to flavor the rice and broccoli. Since our son in law has a dairy allergy, she actually makes a serving on the side for him without parmesan and he puts a dollop of coconut milk plain yogurt on top. She adds onion (I have to be careful with onion because I have horrible indigestion from it) so that is different from mine.

When my eldest boy was little he thought the "green stuff" was herbs! 😂

When money was tight, I would often serve this with just the meat of two chicken thighs roasted, pulled and shredded, and mixed in. I served apples with peanut butter for the kids to make sure they got enough nutrition and calories. I used brown rice when I had the time, but always had some white rice on hand when shorter cook times were needed.

If using brown rice, my suggestion is to not add the broccoli to the rice until half way through its cook time. I also usually added just a little broth before putting the parmesan on top and sticking in the oven, that way it wouldn't be too dry.

[Sneezyone]

28 minutes ago, Faith-manor said:

I think this is great. 

Frozen broccoli florets

Rice

Vegetable broth

Herbs you like

Parmesan

Optional - chicken thighs

For what it is worth, here is a cheap and easy but healthy one that I used to do when the kids were little and they didn't like cooked broccoli. I would first dole up a serving of raw broccoli for each person plus just a little extra and then fine chop, I mean pulverize it practically. Then I took vegetable broth and herbed it up to taste for us which meant a lot of garlic. I cooked the broccoli with the rice in the herbed broth, and then transferred it to a glass baking dish and topped with parmesan, and baked until the parmesan had melted. The kids really liked it, and ate it up. My daughter now does this with her crew because her five year old doesn't do steamed veggies very well. He will eat a large serving of this. As a general rule, parmesan is cheap because you don't need a lot of it to flavor the rice and broccoli. Since our son in law has a dairy allergy, she actually makes a serving on the side for him without parmesan and he puts a dollop of coconut milk plain yogurt on top. She adds onion (I have to be careful with onion because I have horrible indigestion from it) so that is different from mine.

When my eldest boy was little he thought the "green stuff" was herbs! 😂

When money was tight, I would often serve this with just the meat of two chicken thighs roasted, pulled and shredded, and mixed in. I served apples with peanut butter for the kids to make sure they got enough nutrition and calories. I used brown rice when I had the time, but always had some white rice on hand when shorter cook times were needed.

If using brown rice, my suggestion is to not add the broccoli to the rice until half way through its cook time. I also usually added just a little broth before putting the parmesan on top and sticking in the oven, that way it wouldn't be too dry.

I used to tell my kids they were miniature trees. As long as they still had some tooth, no mush, they’d happily eat the canopies (especially dipped in any kind of ‘sauce’—cheese sauce, garlic sauce, all kinds of sauce). Lol.

Edited February 20, 2022 by Sneezyone

[Drama Llama]

2 hours ago, Sneezyone said:

If anyone is interested in doing this, it might be cool to share some ideas. Obviously, dietary restrictions may make some things impossible but...yeah...here goes. This one is for our family of four. I usually cook 6 servings a day to allow for DH's lunches the next day and the kids’ midnight forays into the kitchen. This isn't a studio apartment with single burner friendly meal plan. I am typing up one of those that I used when we lived in a hotel for a month as a whole other animal. 

To start, I went to my local stores today to see what was available and reasonably priced and then made a plan to work with what I had. Yes, I know having three grocery stores within 7 minutes of my front door is VERY unusual and what’s on sale here may not be on sale or available where you are. It only takes me an hour and a half to hit all three stores so I do that but YMMV. My pantry has a ton of basics and seasonings and condiments that you might not have and I keep a single bag of frozen peas and carrots just for fried rice in my freezer at all times so, in at least one instance, I tapped that. I didn't buy enough milk for a week today b/c Aldi was out of gallons so I’ll have to go back for that but you get the gist. Also, we do not cook with tree nuts (peanuts, cashews, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts or sesame seeds due to allergies but sesame oil and pine nuts, for whatever reason, are tolerated. I limit milk/cheese except as toppings too because some of us, ME!, can’t tolerate dairy well.

WRT Drinks - We buy seltzers every once in a while. I do have boxed red/white wine for cooking on hand. We usually drink cold-brew tea, unsweetened. That's why there are no beverages on the list.

WRT Breakfast and Lunch - I don’t cook breakfast or lunch except on weekends and it's usually an egg/veggie scramble with scratch biscuits or pancakes. I use my pantry staples for that. I usually start my day with a soft-boiled egg, slice of toast, maybe an avocado, and a Roma tomato or two. Everyone else does a grab and go with fruit or eats a bowl of cereal. After school, they either reheat leftovers for a snack or make paninis for themselves with the bread, lunchmeat and cheese.

OK...with all the disclaimers done, this is our week.

SHOPPING HAUL.pdf 158.54 kB · 12 downloads

I'm coming for dinner on Tuesday.  Do you have a guest room?  Because Wednesday looks good too, I might just stay.  

[Miss Tick]

50 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

I'm coming for dinner on Tuesday.  Do you have a guest room?  Because Wednesday looks good too, I might just stay.  

That will work because I'm interested in Thursday and Friday, so hang the guest towel back up when you go.

I shop for the 5 of us two weeks at a time. It takes 3 days before there is any room in the refrigerator. We live close to grocery stores, but I just prefer to do it this way. It means I make two trips through Aldi in one visit, which feels nuts, but hey.

How do you keep track of online recipes? I like paper for searching through when I make my list and for making notes on my when I make changes, but everything is online and I'm feeling like I need to consider changing my ways.

[Corraleno]

44 minutes ago, SusanC said:

How do you keep track of online recipes? 

I recently started using Paprika, after looking at various reviews and comparisons of different recipe apps. It's $5 on iPhone or iPad, although I ended up springing for the laptop version because I mostly come across recipes I want to save when I'm on my laptop. I used to just save recipes to Pinterest, but Paprika lets me change or modify recipes, add my own recipes, etc. You can either use the "browse" function to browse various websites to look for recipes, or if you found one somewhere that you want to save, you just paste the URL and click download and it will automatically download the ingredients, instructions, notes, nutrition info (if given), source, photo, etc. It can also convert and scale ingredients and generate a shopping list.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Corraleno

[prairiewindmomma]

I really like Paprika also. I started with the laptop version and then got the phone version. The two versions sync with each other automatically and it’s lovely. If I find a sale at a grocery store while I am there (pre-Covid days, when I was in store) I can pull up recipes to check and see if I have the other needed ingredients. 

[Sneezyone]

44 minutes ago, SusanC said:

That will work because I'm interested in Thursday and Friday, so hang the guest towel back up when you go.

I shop for the 5 of us two weeks at a time. It takes 3 days before there is any room in the refrigerator. We live close to grocery stores, but I just prefer to do it this way. It means I make two trips through Aldi in one visit, which feels nuts, but hey.

How do you keep track of online recipes? I like paper for searching through when I make my list and for making notes on my when I make changes, but everything is online and I'm feeling like I need to consider changing my ways.

I still have an old-fashioned BH&G cookbook. I print out the recipes I want to remember for precision-purposes (pizza dough and Schlotzky's bread come to mind). Everything else, I wing it from memory. My kids are screwed when I die.  

[Just Kate]

@Sneezyone I love this so much!! I really (really!!) struggle with meal planning. I need to sit down and do this with my meals. I actually really like your plan, but we are trying to eat a low-ish carb diet (add in healthy carbs), so I may have to make some changes. Thank you for sharing!!!

[Drama Llama]

For those of you who meal plan, how often do you eat what is on the plan?

I feel like meal plans are like those Pizza Hut reading programs that are proven to make kids read less.  The fact that someone (me) wrote down the menu and tried to pressure someone (me) into making it makes me want rebel (against myself), and I suddenly lose interest in whatever I planned.  

Do other people have this issue?  

[Shoeless]

17 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

For those of you who meal plan, how often do you eat what is on the plan?

I feel like meal plans are like those Pizza Hut reading programs that are proven to make kids read less.  The fact that someone (me) wrote down the menu and tried to pressure someone (me) into making it makes me want rebel (against myself), and I suddenly lose interest in whatever I planned.  

Do other people have this issue?  

We eat what's on the plan, but I might shift things around depending on mood or needing to use leftovers. 

I'm not a fancy cook.  I mostly do not want to be tied to the kitchen for long periods of time. And no one here is a foodie that will appreciate hints of nutmeg or citrus in whatever I make.  That kind of effort is wasted on folks here.

[Sneezyone]

1 hour ago, Baseballandhockey said:

For those of you who meal plan, how often do you eat what is on the plan?

I feel like meal plans are like those Pizza Hut reading programs that are proven to make kids read less.  The fact that someone (me) wrote down the menu and tried to pressure someone (me) into making it makes me want rebel (against myself), and I suddenly lose interest in whatever I planned.  

Do other people have this issue?  

I don’t usually sit down and write it out so that probably makes me less resistant. I don’t go grocery shopping with a plan; I just buy what’s cheap or what I think I might be in the mood to cook/eat. I ended up with the extra bok choy from last week because we had an extra leftover day. Writing it down did keep me from buying extra stuff tho.

 

[Sneezyone]

20 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

We eat what's on the plan, but I might shift things around depending on mood or needing to use leftovers. 

I'm not a fancy cook.  I mostly do not want to be tied to the kitchen for long periods of time. And no one here is a foodie that will appreciate hints of nutmeg or citrus in whatever I make.  That kind of effort is wasted on folks here.

My people can taste it but don’t always appreciate it if that makes sense. They like bolognese, for ex, but do not like pastitsio which would be a natural way to use up leftover meat sauce. Instead, I’ll freeze the remainder (I made a double batch) and use it for a day when I really can’t be bothered. 

Edited February 21, 2022 by Sneezyone

[Frances]

1 hour ago, Baseballandhockey said:

For those of you who meal plan, how often do you eat what is on the plan?

I feel like meal plans are like those Pizza Hut reading programs that are proven to make kids read less.  The fact that someone (me) wrote down the menu and tried to pressure someone (me) into making it makes me want rebel (against myself), and I suddenly lose interest in whatever I planned.  

Do other people have this issue?  

We usually ultimately make what’s on the plan, but it’s usually stretched out about an extra week or more and we end up filling in with quick and easy meals such as a big salad, tuna sandwiches and raw veggies, breakfast for dinner or even just apple slices with PB. And we might get carry out once every other week. But, it’s just the two of us, so no pressure to feed ravenous children.

[Night Elf]

2 hours ago, Baseballandhockey said:

For those of you who meal plan, how often do you eat what is on the plan?

I feel like meal plans are like those Pizza Hut reading programs that are proven to make kids read less.  The fact that someone (me) wrote down the menu and tried to pressure someone (me) into making it makes me want rebel (against myself), and I suddenly lose interest in whatever I planned.  

Do other people have this issue?  

Its rare that we don't eat what's on plan. We make the meal plan to know what to cook for dinner every night. It makes weekly grocery shopping much easier, but more importantly it cuts out that annoying nightly question: What do you want to eat for dinner? No, what do You want to eat for dinner. I'm fine with whatever. What do YOU want to eat for dinner? And on an on it goes until you end up with toast and a chocolate milk. Toss in the kids saying I don't want that, what else do we have? Nope, nope, nope. I hated every minute of it. Having a dinner meal plan made life so much simpler and even now when we're only cooking for the two of us, we plan our meals every weekend. 

Oh, and if the kids didn't want what we we were having, I was happy to help them out provided they gave me enough time. When I did a meal plan, I'd usually run it by them and they knew what meals they didn't want so we planned for that as well. OTOH, if it was a spur of the moment decision, they got a sandwich or eggs & toast.

[Carrie12345]

4 hours ago, Baseballandhockey said:

For those of you who meal plan, how often do you eat what is on the plan?

I feel like meal plans are like those Pizza Hut reading programs that are proven to make kids read less.  The fact that someone (me) wrote down the menu and tried to pressure someone (me) into making it makes me want rebel (against myself), and I suddenly lose interest in whatever I planned.  

Do other people have this issue?  

We typically eat what’s on the meal plan. I will bump a night if there are too many leftovers in the fridge, or something comes up that leaves me completely unwilling to cook, but it’s generally the meal plan.

I don’t do well without one. It might be my adhd. I just don’t think about dinner until at LEAST 4pm and, by then, making a choice, making sure I have everything, and actually cooking seems overwhelming most days.
When I devote a chunk of time to the planning part, shop on a fairly routine basis, and set some time once or twice a week for prep, it’s way easier for me to get through the early evening energy slump.

The choosing part is often what I find most taxing, so just doing it once instead of 7 times is a huge relief.

[Faith-manor]

8 hours ago, Baseballandhockey said:

For those of you who meal plan, how often do you eat what is on the plan?

I feel like meal plans are like those Pizza Hut reading programs that are proven to make kids read less.  The fact that someone (me) wrote down the menu and tried to pressure someone (me) into making it makes me want rebel (against myself), and I suddenly lose interest in whatever I planned.  

Do other people have this issue?  

I used to be rather bad at it. But now I am better. Our refrigerator, only five years old (Samsung 21 cubic feet) bellied up last November. We had a long discussion about what to do, and decided not to make an investment in a large refrigerator. We are only here for four years, and our youngest graduates college this spring, and by fall will move out to live near his first posts college job. It is just the two of us. There is a massive fridge in our Alabama house which is becoming our new gathering place, and due to this Michigan area becoming stagnant and more people leaving than moving here (by a startling margin), this house lost value. Any appliance we leave behind, any improvement we make to the property is an utter loss. Several remodeling projects that we started and then stalled for lack of capital while paying college bills will remain unfinished. We also read that small fridges tend to have very long life spans compared to large ones, and we wanted a small one eventually for the Alabama house which has a lovely walk out basement which we are converting to a little living space so our son with the permanent disabilities from our car accident can live with us and have privacy. He may not need it, but we want the option available. So we bought an 11 cubic foot refrigerator. It will go with us when we move.

This small fridge means I have to carefully plan what goes in it, and use that up because there isn't space for anything new. It has been surprisingly good for me in the food planning department. So while I don't say such and such is absolutely going to be eaten on a specific day, I will plan 5-7 evening dinners, and 7 days later all of the ingredients for those dinners have been used. I also can't really lose track of what is in there where previously I had a terrible "out of sight, out of mind" thing going on. I do though have a nice chest freezer in the basement here so I can take advantage of meat sales, and freeze produce, avail myself of frozen veggies from the supermarket, etc. It would be a lot tougher for me to manage without the freezer.

I can attest to the life of small refrigerators. The camping size fridge my parents owned, 5 cubic ft, had a 30 year life. We bought similar size units, used, for our sons for their college dorms, and those things are like the energized bunnies of appliances. One was already 20 years old when we got it for $20 eight years ago. It shows no sign of stopping.

 

[73349]

I usually plan a month at a time and shop twice a week. We normally eat what's on the plan. I use Plan to Eat ($39/year, but with a free trial, and half price at Black Friday).

For those who don't tweak as much and who use Chrome on one device consistently, I hear good things about Copy Me That.

[Soror]

I usually do a very basic meal plan. My plan is generally wrote out by hand on notebook paper, posted on the frig when I finish. I make a brief note to what site a recipe is on if it is not something easy or that I make all the time. I use Out of Milk for my grocery list, that gives me a general idea of how much my groceries are going to cost too. I mostly shop at Aldi's where the price doesn't vary as much. Sometimes I'll hit up loss leaders at other places but haven't been bothering lately.I usually grocery shop on Tuesdays while the girls do TKD so my menu plan is WEd to Tues. Today is my meal planning day but I'll be busy on Tuesday with dd's belt testing so I won't be shopping until Thursday. That means I'll be hitting the frig and freezer to see what I can make with what I've got on Wednesday and aim to have enough leftovers for Thursday I don't have to cook.

Listening along because I love to hear new ideas (even if I all too often make the same ol' same ol').

[Ausmumof3]

This is a great idea! Short on time now but popping in so I can find it later.

[Drama Llama]

8 hours ago, Faith-manor said:

I used to be rather bad at it. But now I am better. Our refrigerator, only five years old (Samsung 21 cubic feet) bellied up last November. We had a long discussion about what to do, and decided not to make an investment in a large refrigerator. We are only here for four years, and our youngest graduates college this spring, and by fall will move out to live near his first posts college job. It is just the two of us. There is a massive fridge in our Alabama house which is becoming our new gathering place, and due to this Michigan area becoming stagnant and more people leaving than moving here (by a startling margin), this house lost value. Any appliance we leave behind, any improvement we make to the property is an utter loss. Several remodeling projects that we started and then stalled for lack of capital while paying college bills will remain unfinished. We also read that small fridges tend to have very long life spans compared to large ones, and we wanted a small one eventually for the Alabama house which has a lovely walk out basement which we are converting to a little living space so our son with the permanent disabilities from our car accident can live with us and have privacy. He may not need it, but we want the option available. So we bought an 11 cubic foot refrigerator. It will go with us when we move.

This small fridge means I have to carefully plan what goes in it, and use that up because there isn't space for anything new. It has been surprisingly good for me in the food planning department. So while I don't say such and such is absolutely going to be eaten on a specific day, I will plan 5-7 evening dinners, and 7 days later all of the ingredients for those dinners have been used. I also can't really lose track of what is in there where previously I had a terrible "out of sight, out of mind" thing going on. I do though have a nice chest freezer in the basement here so I can take advantage of meat sales, and freeze produce, avail myself of frozen veggies from the supermarket, etc. It would be a lot tougher for me to manage without the freezer.

I can attest to the life of small refrigerators. The camping size fridge my parents owned, 5 cubic ft, had a 30 year life. We bought similar size units, used, for our sons for their college dorms, and those things are like the energized bunnies of appliances. One was already 20 years old when we got it for $20 eight years ago. It shows no sign of stopping.

 

To be clear I am not wasting the food.  I just decide that we are having pork chops with cabbage on Monday and hamburgers on Tuesday and then on Monday I need some taco meat with cabbage thing I read about five minutes ago (NEED I tell you!) and I move the pork chops to Tuesday to be served with the apples I planned on serving on Wed with Italian sausage that will now, apparently be eaten with pasta marinara.  

I do have a lot of freezer space but that is a recent acquisition and this is a long term problem.

[Faith-manor]

8 minutes ago, Baseballandhockey said:

To be clear I am not wasting the food.  I just decide that we are having pork chops with cabbage on Monday and hamburgers on Tuesday and then on Monday I need some taco meat with cabbage thing I read about five minutes ago (NEED I tell you!) and I move the pork chops to Tuesday to be served with the apples I planned on serving on Wed with Italian sausage that will now, apparently be eaten with pasta marinara.  

I do have a lot of freezer space but that is a recent acquisition and this is a long term problem.

Oh, I wasn't speaking to you at all! I was just speaking to how the smaller fridge, for me, has been a bit of accountability to make sure things get used in a timely matter. That's all. No judgement. This was my issue. I literally came to adulthood with no talent for food management whatsoever!

[YaelAldrich]

I can give you this week's menus. I just restarted because I have been accumulating too many leftovers.

M - roasted chickpeas (olive oil, salt, smoked and regular paprika, garlic powder, oregano) cabbage salad (thinly sliced cabbage, extra virgin olive oil, salt, slivered roasted almonds), Israeli salad, hummus, techina, baba ganoush, roasted sweet potatoes, , French fries. Sounds like a lot of work but it really isn't. Crockpot the sweet potatoes, bake fries, chickpeas and warm pita in oven, make salads. Already have hummus and baba ganoush from Shabbos (Sabbath) masks

T - Asian inspired vegetable soup with rice noodles 

W - veggie burgers, fries, cut up vegetables (not home to cook much and it's grocery shopping night)

T - bean and barley soup, bread

F - jambalaya (and Shabbos food)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shoeless]

I don't have a price breakdown for any of this; I did a huge stock up shopping trip last week, ($300-ish), which isn't typical. 

Sunday: shepherd's pie. I had leftover mashed potatoes and peas to use up.  It was just ok; kind of heavy, so I probably won't repeat it.

Monday: firecracker chicken meatballs, brown rice, broccoli, green beans

Tuesday:  Egg roll in a bowl (ground pork, cabbage, scrambled egg, garlic, ginger, soy sauce)

Wednesday: turkey meatballs with romano, spinach and mushrooms (I have mushrooms I need to use up soon)

Thursday: probably jerk chicken, sweet potatoes, and brussels sprouts.

Friday: no clue! I have a bag of shrimp in the freezer, so maybe that.  

[Shoeless]

We ended up having a spicy shrimp stir fry tonight because I forgot to thaw the chicken.

I'm on a mission to use up the random stuff in the pantry and freezer.  Meals might get a little weird next week. 😄

[alysee]

Today we are doing breakfast for dinner for the family who feels up to it.

Pancakes, scrambled eggs and fruit. It's a very frugal meal even if I chose to have gluten free waffles. 

[Scarlett]

@Sneezyone that is an impressive grocery list and menu. 

[almondbutterandjelly]

So this is our meal plan for this week:  (noting that we have milk, egg, and peanut allergies)

Wednesday:  Bow tie pasta, marinara, turkey Italian sausage, kale salad

Thursday:  Tuna salad made with Hellman's vegan mayo, apples, celery, raisins.  On sourdough bread since we ran out of saltines.

Tonight:  Either Little Caesar's Pizza or if we are cooking, Southern Style Chicken Strips, sweet potato fries, and kale salad.

Saturday:  Tostadas/Mexican Pizzas with tostada flat, ground turkey taco meat, organic refried beans, lettuce, tomato, guac.  Spanish rice.

Sunday:  Lemon pepper chicken, asparagus, basmati rice

 

[Soror]

Finally got most of my menu done-- really procrastinated this week.

As I think I mentioned above I usually shop on Tuesday and make Wednesday to Tuesday menus. This week I didn't shop until Thursday because of plans on Tues.

I like to have things planned but if I end up with extra food we'll throw in a leftovers night and I'll push  a meal to another night. At the end of the week especially I'll look at what we've not used up and throw it in something. 

My strategy with meal planning is the same as everything else keep it as simple as I can. Write it on paper, make a list on Out of Milk (where I store prices and frequently bought items) so I know when I got my list done the approximate cost.

------------------

Wed- Cilantro Rice/Black Beans/Chicken (I had chicken w/ a sweet potato/green bean mix)

Thurs-Leftovers

Friday- Baked Cod/Purple Cabbage Slaw/Baked homeade Fries (frozen seasoned fries for the family)

Saturday- Chicken Shawarma/Basmati-Brown Rice/Roasted Cauliflower+ Carrots

Sunday -Bibimbap

Monday- Garlic Parmesan Pasta (Damn Delicious) /Baked Chicken Legs/Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Tuesday-- Fat Tuesday-- still trying to think of a sufficiently indulgent meal- weather will be nice so maybe I'll grill/ kabobs? brats (for dh, dd2, and ds- hotdogs for dd3) and ? for dd1 and I?

[Shoeless]

There were some good digital coupons this week, so I ended up spending more than I originally planned. I wish DH would give up the diet soda habit, but oh well.

Breakfast: chocolate chip banana muffins, chocolate zucchini bread, homemade protein bars, cereal

lunch: DH eats the deli meat, DS and I have leftovers.

snacks: bananas, muffins, yogurt with granola, peanut butter oat bars

Recipes I will be making this week:

Protein bars

Chocolate zucchini bread

Banana Oatmeal muffins (I added chocolate chips)

Saturday Night Beans

Ritz Cracker Chicken (I used cheez-its)

Peanut butter oatmeal bars

Enchilada meatballs

Ground turkey chili and cornbread

Granola (this recipe, but baked in the oven)

Thai Curried Carrot soup

HEB	$87.10
1.34 lb organic chicken tenderloins	6.84
0.8 lb smoked turkey	6.13
1/2 lb smoked gouda	5.52
0.75 lb smoked cheddar	3.54
3 cases of diet dr pepper for DH (20 ct cases)	21.08
1 gallon organic, grass fed milk	8.26
1 lb baby swiss	8.46
1 lb rotisserie deli chicken	8.81
8 oz hummus	3.07
10 lb pork shoulder roast	15.39
Walmart	64.94
5 bananas (48c/lb	0.87
3 bell peppers	1.92
2 broccoli crowns (1.47/lb)	2.21
2 bags rold gold pretzels	5.98
2 bags crinkle cut carrots, frozen	1.68
32oz Chobani plain greek yogurt	5.12
2 boxes chex cereal	7.96
2 cucumbers	1.20
32 oz egg whites	3.87
4 lbs great value peanut butter	4.48
32 oz Fage 0 fat greek yogurt	5.38
3 Daisy cottage cheese 16 oz each	7.74
2 cases diet coke for DH, 24 cans each	19.52

[alysee]

Just sat down this morning to make my meal plan for the week

1. Veg Pot Pie With Biscuits

2. Minestrone Soup w Homemade bread

3. Mac N Cheese with Peas & broccoli

4. Breakfast Wraps(eggs, salsa, cheese)

5. Leftovers

6. Teriyaki Tempeh Stir Fry

7. Nachos

 

Breakfasts:

1. Baked Oatmeal - Apple & Blueberry

2. Strawberry Banana Smoothies

3. Egg Muffins

4. Apple Carrot Muffins(if I make them today)

5. Cinnamon Raisin Toast w PB and Cream Cheese

 

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by alysee
Added beeakfasts

[alisoncooks]

At the beginning of 2020, I sat down with all our tried-and-true recipes and wrote out a 10-week meal plan/rotation. For the most part, I’ve stuck with it. If we’re traveling or a few meals get skipped, I shuffle them around a bit. I also like to try new things, so I have a little freedom to do that (DH doesn’t eat at home Weds and Thursday nights, so I tend to try new things then). The kids recently added a Monday night activity, so we’ve had to shuffle nights around a bit for that. 

The 10-week thing was started because I was tired of the weekly planning, and I felt like we were eating the same things too often (or the weeks weren’t well-balanced: somehow, rice with three different meals in a week!!) 

Anyway, it works for me. I never menu planned around sales anyway, so that’s not a big deal. And if someone doesn’t like a meal (last night: dd + navy bean & ham soup), well, okay — they have ten whole weeks before they have to face it again. 🙂 

This week’s menu: ranch chicken bites with sweet potato fries and salad, bean soup with cornbread casserole and spiced apples, homemade Hibachi chicken veg and rice, sausage onion and pepper pitas, and what we call “pink stuff” (slow cooker chicken black beans corn salsa cream cheese, served over egg noodles)

[73349]

Today: chickpeas (cooked from dried), potatoes, applesauce

Tomorrow: lemon thyme white bean soup, chickpea flatbread

M: chicken, zucchini, tomatoes, rice

T: sweet potato & broccoli miso bowls

W: homemade pineapple pizza (gf/df); coleslaw

R: eggs, Brussels sprouts, gf toast

F: French toast (gf bread baked in a mixture of almond milk, mashed bananas, vanilla, & cinnamon), apples or applesauce

 

I need to cook some buckwheat for breakfasts. I'm starting a no-added-sugar challenge on Tuesday.

 

Edited February 26, 2022 by 73349

[Vasha]

10 hours ago, alisoncooks said:

At the beginning of 2020, I sat down with all our tried-and-true recipes and wrote out a 10-week meal plan/rotation. For the most part, I’ve stuck with it. If we’re traveling or a few meals get skipped, I shuffle them around a bit. I also like to try new things, so I have a little freedom to do that (DH doesn’t eat at home Weds and Thursday nights, so I tend to try new things then). The kids recently added a Monday night activity, so we’ve had to shuffle nights around a bit for that. 

The 10-week thing was started because I was tired of the weekly planning, and I felt like we were eating the same things too often (or the weeks weren’t well-balanced: somehow, rice with three different meals in a week!!) 

Anyway, it works for me. I never menu planned around sales anyway, so that’s not a big deal. And if someone doesn’t like a meal (last night: dd + navy bean & ham soup), well, okay — they have ten whole weeks before they have to face it again. 🙂 

This week’s menu: ranch chicken bites with sweet potato fries and salad, bean soup with cornbread casserole and spiced apples, homemade Hibachi chicken veg and rice, sausage onion and pepper pitas, and what we call “pink stuff” (slow cooker chicken black beans corn salsa cream cheese, served over egg noodles)

Would you be willing to post your ten week routine? Thanks, I like the idea!

[KungFuPanda]

On 2/20/2022 at 11:59 PM, Baseballandhockey said:

For those of you who meal plan, how often do you eat what is on the plan?

I feel like meal plans are like those Pizza Hut reading programs that are proven to make kids read less.  The fact that someone (me) wrote down the menu and tried to pressure someone (me) into making it makes me want rebel (against myself), and I suddenly lose interest in whatever I planned.  

Do other people have this issue?  

My whole entire plan is to make a vat of gumbo so I can have it in the freezer for about 5 dinners.  I won't rest until I make this recipe.  I get a little obsessed.  On the weeks I make a meal plan my life is so much easier.  Meal plans are freedom from the decision fatigue of reinventing the wheel every night.  Still, if I see a youtube video that I NEED to make and I have the ingredients on hand, some items from the planned menu could get pillaged.  It's fine.  The goal of meal planning for me is to have the items in the house for the meals I want to make.  I don't enjoy grocery shopping, so careful menu planning can keep me out of the stores for weeks.

[itsheresomewhere]

I don’t meal plan by day but what sounds good or someone has been asking for.

So this week we will have-

Sunday sauce( spaghetti sauce with sausage, meatballs and pork country ribs),  garlic bread

Roast with veggies and potatoes.

Hamburger steak, rice, veggies

Ham steaks with veggies, rice and fried apples 

Chicken ( I marinate it in sweet tea and use a sweet bbq seasoning. Everyone likes it), veggies and Mac n cheese

Baked chicken ( I make a buttermilk and mayo mix, dip chicken in and coat in breadcrumbs and Parmesan), rice and veggies. 

Fish for the one who doesn’t eat ground meat or ham.

Bread- those delicious Scottish morning rolls, pumpkin bread and a rustic loaf need to be made this week.  
 

Sweets this week- Pineapple Upside down cake and brownies.  

 

 

[alisoncooks]

13 hours ago, Vasha said:

Would you be willing to post your ten week routine? Thanks, I like the idea!

I could, but really the reason it works for us is that I’m using recipes our family already enjoys. I just happened to have a ton collected, so then it was easy cull some and arrange the winners into some sort of balanced plan. 

Also, I’m bad about always wanting to try new recipes from food blogs (which has been a disaster more than once!). Having  a rotation keeps me from having too many blog-bombs in a given week (I try just out a few new recipes a month now).  

If I have some time later today, I’ll post a rough outline and link some of the recipes. (Unless @Sneezyone would rather I start a new thread. I don’t want to derail this one!)

[DawnM]

I guess I should think about this since we had to gut our deep freeze and need to eat stuff up.

For lunch today we are eating leftover (from dad's birthday dinner) steak with pasta and salad.

Monday: Burgers

Tuesday: salmon and rice and salad

Wednesday: chicken something or other

That's all I have on my list for now......

[Soror]

1 hour ago, alisoncooks said:

I could, but really the reason it works for us is that I’m using recipes our family already enjoys. I just happened to have a ton collected, so then it was easy cull some and arrange the winners into some sort of balanced plan. 

Also, I’m bad about always wanting to try new recipes from food blogs (which has been a disaster more than once!). Having  a rotation keeps me from having too many blog-bombs in a given week (I try just out a few new recipes a month now).  

If I have some time later today, I’ll post a rough outline and link some of the recipes. (Unless @Sneezyone would rather I start a new thread. I don’t want to derail this one!)

I did something similar a couple of years ago. I made different categories and lists within that category-

ie- Sunday- big family meal- meals that take longer to cook

Monday- pasta/Italian

Tuesday- Mexican/Tex-Mex

Wednesday- International

Thursday- leftovers

Friday-  easy/quick

Saturday- Soup/stew/one pot

My big list had several choices on each category and each week I'd pick something from each category but sometimes we'd want to repeat one meal every week for a bit.I need to redo a list with new favorites. Then it makes it easier to throw in some new recipes to try here and there when most things are things we've cooked may times and don't take much effort.

[alysee]

Our meal plan for the week

1. Broccoli Cheddar Soup w Homemade Bread

2. Taco Pasta

3. Crispy Tofu Ramen

4. Veggie Frittata w Fruit Salad

5. Pizza

6. Greek Yogurt Pancakes w Fruit

7. Leftovers

[73349]

This week...

Today - trying Kendra Adachi's Chickpea Bowl with some roasted red potatoes

Monday - maple Dijon chicken, brown rice, peas, applesauce

Tuesday - scrambled eggs, roasted Brussels sprouts

Wednesday - barbecue chickpea-stuffed sweet potatoes

Thursday - vegan Mexican-ish (black beans, tomatoes, corn, leafies, salsa/guacamole, etc., in tortillas)

Friday - Turkish red lentil soup with quinoa

Saturday - Vegan Richa's Cheeseburger Sheet Pan Dinner

Sunday - trying a vegan mac and cheese from allrecipes.com