Does anyone plan their meals for the week?

Laura - posted on 08/21/2012

My husband and I planned our dinners for every day of the week. We have been following it for about 2 months now and I am loving it! We have 3 young kids and I'm expecting again, so it's pretty crazy around our house. Having planned meals relieves one more thing I have to really think about. It ensures we are all eating balanced meals, and it has been really nice to know what to expect each day.

Sandra - posted on 07/20/2012

Hello,

These are such great tips! Thank you for sharing...

PS: Sian, I tried registering for free and it looks like I cannot create a free account.... I would love to register though. Please help and great website btw!

Thanks!

April - posted on 07/16/2012

I love these ideas and I am going to check out these websites! Thank you for sharing!!

Sian - posted on 07/15/2012

Hi Tracey
Glad to hear that you plan your meals and getting real benefits from doing so. Do you use an online meal planner or do you troll through books?

Sian - posted on 07/15/2012

Hi Jo
You're mum was a really good role model, lucky you. If more mums were patient and realized the importance of passing on basic home economic skills, we would all be much healthier. I bet you'll pass you're skills onto your little. I think you're idea of themed nights is a really good idea,as variety is the spice of life and it's one way of making sure we get all the micro nutrients. I try to have 1 red meat, 1 poultry night, 1 fish night, 1 vegetarian night, 1 left over /store cupboard night (to elimate food waste) and the other two nights I repeat a poultry/fish or vegetarian night unless we are celebrating something and then we go out for a meal.
Planning for me is the best therapy as I use my new free online meal planner which creates my shopping list. I couldn't live without it now.

Jo - posted on 07/15/2012

My mum went back to study when I was about 7, so my role modeling from an early age was a weekend a month cookup and freeze and a monthly shop - pretty much everything went into the freezer such as milk & bread so we wouldn't run out. it helped that we had 2.5 freezers and only one child.. now with my own 3.5yr old and partner, I do a similar thing (although the local shops for milk top up is close enough - lucky me). I have a big range of slow cook meals, soups, always our favourite sausages and rissoles (the latter home made), home made pasta sauce in ice cube sizes for flexiblity and frozen poached fruit the same way for our boy. Basically if it's a cook day, I make at least 3-4 things in the same time frame and portion out. Summer time, my husband makes a batch of double pizza dough and we freeze portions to use for later. Frozen meats for the grill plus salads get a big run.

although there are three of us in the house, i usually freeze portions for four so I have some lunch the next day. i do single soup portions so i always have an emergency lunch at work too.

I also found a really good fresh chicken dumpling at my local market butcher which i freeze. fantastic emergency dinner for DS - guaranteed eating, and portable in car or pram if we have to go back out anywhere on a work/child care day as he wil eat them anywhere. in fact some times he encourages me to go to the chiropracter just so he can have dumplings!

one trick I liked but havent tried, probably more for the new cook - look at a month as well and have theme nights - monday's italian, tuesday's indian etc. can lessen the 'stress' of planning if need help with inspiration and give you the opportunity to 'use up' core ingredients before they spoilt.

Tracey - posted on 07/15/2012

We plan our meals every week and create our shopping list based on our list. It keeps our grocery costs down and we eat much healthier because of it.

Sian - posted on 07/12/2012

Anything that makes family life easier without compromising health or budget is good, especially when the children are all at home. Enjoying this stage of your life with your families is so important as it passes so quickly. I'm going to try the emeals site. It sound helpful too. Although my family are older now and two have moved away, I still plan my meals because I live a very busy life and regular mealtimes are a must are far as possible for us.

Heather - posted on 07/12/2012

I am going to try both sites!!! Thank you ladies! I will update to let you know how we made out. I am always looking for new ideas for dinner and/or tips to make cooking easier. With three kids (ages 11, 6, and 14 months) we are busy!

Melody - posted on 07/12/2012

I found emeals (www.emeals.com)! It's a service that's very affordable and they email you every week with 7 recipes and the shopping list...all based on the type of meal plan you select (low fat, vegetarian, etc), the number of people you're feeding, and the grocery store you select. I've been using it about a month now and it's been a lifesaver! I'm a working mom (with a great supportive husband) and I have a 15 year old and a 6 year old. Everyone has loved the recipes (sometimes with a few tweaks) and the recipes are relatively easy to prepare. They have recipes for crock pots, "do ahead", and grilling. While I take a reprieve on Fridays (that's my one night I do not cook and don't feel guilty about it either!), I've actually enjoyed fixing dinner again...it's no longer a chore. Hope this helps!

Sian - posted on 07/12/2012

That's great Heather. It makes life so much easier and cheaper. I was told that home cooks think about food 200 times a day, probably worrying what to cook for dinner. I also plan my meals. I don't have the time to flick through cookery books for recipes ( I love to try out new recipes) so I created my own online meal planner. I have a cookery school and now my students use it. If it could be of any use to you, please try it out. It's still in development but can be used and its free. www.siansplan.com. I love it that your children are involved in planning your family meals.

Heather - posted on 07/12/2012

Hi! We do save money by planning our meals ahead of time. And I am a list maker. So having a list prepared (organized by the layout of the store) makes it that much easier! Saves time too. Then we aren't all over the store because we forgot an item back in aisle two and we are in aisle 10! As for waste, we hardly throw any food out. What is left, we use for lunches the next day or we have a leftover night (the kids actually love the "smorgasbord!). But my kids are eaters so it is very rare that we much left to save. We eat a lot of fresh produce so we don't buy a lot ahead of time since fresh foods go bad faster (we are fruit eaters and love to snack on raw veggies). We are fortunate where we live that we have a farmers market on saturday/sunday and also on wednesdays. So we can always get fresh produce. But anymore many grocery stores have good produce sections too! Like Whole foods, Wegmans.

Sian - posted on 07/10/2012

Hi Heather
Thanks for the reply and its never too long. You certainly have meal planning sorted in your home. I love it that the whole family gets to choose one night a week. It's obvious that the whole family are eating from scratch so it has to healthier than the alternative. Have you noticed if you save money and /or have very little food waste?

Heather - posted on 07/09/2012

Yes. On the weekends (usually Saturday morning) we come up with a "meal menu" for the following week. We used to grocery shop every other week, but lately we have been going every weekend. We buy our meats from a local meat market...and the rest of the goods from our grocery store. We buy most of our produce at the local farmers market esp in the summer months! When we are meal planning we ask the kids what they would like for meals as well. (my kids eat everything so we don't have to deal with pickiness!) Despite that they will eat whatever is served for dinner, it is always fun to have their "own" night. Each member of our family gets to have a favorite of theirs every week. (some weeks we have at least one night the same from the previous week! such as spaghetti---only we switch up what kind of pasta we use--my husband makes his own sauce using our canned tomato juice from our garden---we love canning!) We make our list centered around the meals, then get of course snack items, lunch stuff, etc..We include an item from each of the food groups for our dinners. Of the seven dinners in the week, we have a pasta night, a fish/seafood night, a chicken night--we love chicken so we have chicken at least twice, some kind of red meat whether its burgers or steaks or chili (a favorite in our house!). We sometimes do a vegetarian night. I think that meal planning makes life easier all around. Knowing each night what we are having makes "planning" simple. We never have to say at 4 or 5 o'clock, what are we having tonight? Or what should we make tonight? And the kids always know what's for dinner. Now, life happens too. And unexpected things come up so we are also flexible. For example, this past weekend was extremely HOT so we chose to cook inside on Saturday instead of our planned bbq chicken on the grill. And it also gave us more pool time! Same thing Sunday...we were swimming until later so it was let's order a pizza instead and eat by the pool. I guess the flexibility occurs more often in the lazy days of summer than in the cold days of winter...(sorry this was SO long!)