Meal Planning

neuro-praxis

So myself and the husband found ourselves eating out too much and ordering in too much or ending up having cereal for dinner recently. We had a chat about it and decided that although we both enjoy cooking, the worst bit is trying to decide what to eat. Once we've decided, we're inevitably missing one or two ingredients and therefore have to go to the shops. At this stage it's already 7 o'clock in the evening and we're grumpy by the time the meal is prepared and we end up eating too late, going to bed too late, lather, rinse repeat.

Our previous solution to this was batch-cooking. However we found this ate up our weekends and also resulted in a lot of mince-based meals (chilli, spag bol, lasagna, shepherds pie) and curries, which we like, but not constantly.

So!

We came up with a new solution. We made a list of all the meals we like to eat. It is by no means comprehensive: there are 35 meals on out list. Then we categorised them into:

• Chicken dishes
• Fish dishes
• Beef dishes
• Pork dishes
• Lamb dishes
• Vegetarian dishes

For each dish, we compiled a shopping list.

Each week, we now choose five meals from the list on shopping day, and we already have the list ready-made. Choosing five days allows for one evening eating out or with friends, and one miscellaneous day.

Of the five dishes we choose, we try to have one from five of the six different categories. This way we always have variation. So far so good with this method.

It means we always have between 1 and 5 choices for our dinner any given week, with all requisite ingredients in the fridge/freezer/cupboards, and each meal will be one we love and look forward to. It takes all the horrendous "What will we have?" conversations out of the equation. We also do not have to repeat a meal in a month. In a few months time we will review the meal list and add to it or take stuff away that we're not interested in anymore.

I just thought I'd share this idea. If anyone else has meal-planning tips I would love to hear them, or if anyone would like a copy of our meal plan, let me know.

Faith

That's a really good idea! I must do something like that once I move in with himself - we're demons for not being able to decide what we want to eat, and then someone goes "Will we just get Chinese?" and that's it :P.

diddlybit

No tips here! Myself and my partner keep saying that we are going to plan our meals, but it hasn't quite happened yet. We end up deciding on the night what we want, buying the ingredients and then the half-empty containers go stale in the fridge and are thown out. Or else, we order in because it's too much effort to shop and cook. What a waste of money.

You've got a great plan. The other thing that we had factored in into our as-yet-unrealised meal plan was that each week was to try cook something new.

Honey-ec

I got really into meal planning the last few months of last year, and did it quite similarly to you, NP. I used to also check the Aldi Super 6 fruit & veg each week and try and base the meals around them as much as possible, because they really do save you a fortune.

(If you're going to eat them, obviously. No point in buying them all, leaving them in the fridge for a fortnight then chucking them out untouched!)

Bulk-buying things like cashew nuts, dried spices & curry powders in Asian groceries is also very handy for both saving money and building up a good pantry, which is another essential for successful meal-planning.

nicol

Great idea!!

Could you post up the meal plan for all of us who are in the same position but just too lazy to put any thought / effort into it (unlike you)??

Alternatively you could just PM to me

neuro-praxis wrote: »

So myself and the husband found ourselves eating out too much and ordering in too much or ending up having cereal for dinner recently. We had a chat about it and decided that although we both enjoy cooking, the worst bit is trying to decide what to eat. Once we've decided, we're inevitably missing one or two ingredients and therefore have to go to the shops. At this stage it's already 7 o'clock in the evening and we're grumpy by the time the meal is prepared and we end up eating too late, going to bed too late, lather, rinse repeat.

Our previous solution to this was batch-cooking. However we found this ate up our weekends and also resulted in a lot of mince-based meals (chilli, spag bol, lasagna, shepherds pie) and curries, which we like, but not constantly.

So!

We came up with a new solution. We made a list of all the meals we like to eat. It is by no means comprehensive: there are 35 meals on out list. Then we categorised them into:

• Chicken dishes
• Fish dishes
• Beef dishes
• Pork dishes
• Lamb dishes
• Vegetarian dishes

For each dish, we compiled a shopping list.

Each week, we now choose five meals from the list on shopping day, and we already have the list ready-made. Choosing five days allows for one evening eating out or with friends, and one miscellaneous day.

Of the five dishes we choose, we try to have one from five of the six different categories. This way we always have variation. So far so good with this method.

It means we always have between 1 and 5 choices for our dinner any given week, with all requisite ingredients in the fridge/freezer/cupboards, and each meal will be one we love and look forward to. It takes all the horrendous "What will we have?" conversations out of the equation. We also do not have to repeat a meal in a month. In a few months time we will review the meal list and add to it or take stuff away that we're not interested in anymore.

I just thought I'd share this idea. If anyone else has meal-planning tips I would love to hear them, or if anyone would like a copy of our meal plan, let me know.

neuro-praxis

Happy to link to it!

Recipes are not included, as I have them in books. However if there's anything unusual you'd like the recipe for I would be happy to post it up.

neuro-praxis

PS - The shopping list for each dish assumes you've got olive oil, butter and basic seasonings in the cupboard as standard.

neuro-praxis

Actually while I think of it, here's another tip on not wasting produce...I was given a €75 voucher for my birthday, so I spent it on a good juicer from Arnotts. I was slow to buy one as I was afraid I would use it once and then shelve it. But now we use up any carrots, cucumbers and fruits that are getting a bit wobbly looking for juice in the mornings. It's surprising actually how good it tastes over ice.

Neyite

This is excellent timing - I was just thinking about this today, planning to do a monthly plan, and began to jot down the dinners we eat regularly.

I used to have a great routine of cooking in large batches -Now I never devoted my weekends to it like you Neuro, but whenever I was making something like a Spag Bol for dinner I would make the biggest pot I could, and freeze portions in the plastic chinese takeaway containers. I did this for stew, soup, spag bol, curry, jambalya, and other "wet" type meals. I would usually do a pot a week -so if it was Spag one week, it was Curry the next and so on. I found that the cost of the meat spread out a bit more over the month.

So, I plan to combine the meal planner with this so that I get a couple of dinners in the week that I can just defrost and heat up.

I have to figure out how to open your list Neuro, I dont have Word 2007. Once I have my planner done, I will post the list here too.

neuro-praxis

Hiya Neyite. I've re-saved it in an old version of Word, hopefully you can open this? It's lost some of the original formatting but is still coherent.

Ophiopogon

Yeah I do something similar, it saves alot of hassel/waste/money on dinners.

It can take a bit of getting it right, I think, as for me anyway I didn't want to go back to my parents gereration' rigid meal planner...it was fish on fri, egg & chips on Sat, etc come hail, rain, or shine.

Mellor

We're similar. Only simplier.

We'll buy 3 or 4 meats for the week.
Beef pieces, chicken breast, diced pork, kangoroo steak, fish (maybe).

Then we'll buy general veg, onions, muchroons, potatos, pumpkin, capsicum etc.

So that covers a stirfry or curry (we buy thai curry paste and coconut that week), one into wraps. And the other two go with the veg, served with with sour cream, butter, light sauce etc. (last night was stuff mushroom with peri peri pumpkin)

Thats the basic what do we have tonight solved, and we add in one or two specific recipes to the shopping list weekly to fill the other days.

Loire

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Happy to link to it!

Recipes are not included, as I have them in books. However if there's anything unusual you'd like the recipe for I would be happy to post it up.

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Happy to link to it!

Recipes are not included, as I have them in books. However if there's anything unusual you'd like the recipe for I would be happy to post it up.

You ARE are a star! Thanks so much.

With 2 young kids in our family (who need to be fed the minute we're home!) I prepare most meals in advance in a pretty easy way as below. It might not be for everyone, but with 2 young kids and because we never eat takeaway or processed food (either for us or the kids – except the occasional fish fingers if the kids are a bit mad!) this works for us.

The plan involves a pretty easy batch cook every second Sunday:

Every Sunday morning:
Pop a large, free range chicken into the over for 2 hours (an hour in, put chopped potatoes and carrots) - Sunday roast done
After dinner, remove all left-over chicken into tupperware box and put into the fridge.

Every Second Sunday evening:
1. Boil the chicken carcass with carrots and celery for 2 hours to make delicious chicken stock - let cool and put into freezer bags and freeze (If I have enough stock in the freezer I'll skip this). It's an easy step anyway, just boils away

2. Make a BIG pot of SpagBol. I use herbs, red wine and lots of garlic and it's delish.
Half of this goes into making a large lasagne - half of this lasagne goes into the fridge for Monday night's dinner, the other half is frozen for the following week.
The other half of the SpagBol mix is also halved....both are put into freezer bags - dinner for (usually) Thursday nights - just take out of the fridge the evening before and heat up and serve...easy and it tastes better than eating it when made as the juices settle.

Weekly Dinners
Monday Lasagne...just heat up
Tuesday Chicken curry with chicken already cooked - sometimes I'll make this on Mon night so we just have to heat up on Tue
Wednesday - usually buy fresh Cod or Salmon and cook up – fish is so fast anyway, the kids aren’t waiting long an love it
Thursday - SpagBol - just make spagetti and heat up spagbol mix
Friday - BBQ fillet steaks from Aldi – buy enough of these every second weekend (when buying incredients for spagbol mix) a freeze
Saturday - whatever we fancy!


I do all the above and Mrs Loire usually prepares things like homemade chicken nuggets for the kids which can be frozen. I realise that the dinners above are a bit beef related, so I’m planning to introduce other meals in where I can…and the list you have provided is a great starting place, so thanks again.

Loire.

_feedback_

Great thread neuro-praxis.

Any chance of the recipe for the Pork Char Sui? The shopping list for it sounds lovely

neuro-praxis

Sure thing. It's a Nigella recipe.

Get 1 pork tenderloin weighing around 300g. Slice it in half lengthways.

Make a marinade from:

4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp ketchup
2 scant tbsp dark muscovado sugar
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp sweet sherry

Get two freezer bags. Put half the meat in each bag, then split the marinade between the two bags. Seal the bags and squish to coat the pork. Pop in the fridge for 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 220. Line a baking tin with foil and lay the fillet onto it. Reserve the marinade for basting while the meat is cooking. Roast for 15 minutes.

Turn the oven down to 160 and roast for another 20-30 minutes, basting regularly. If it looks a little dry, add some water to the remaining marinade.

Serve with rice and stir fried greens. Enjoy.

_feedback_

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Sure thing. It's a Nigella recipe.

Get 1 pork tenderloin weighing around 300g. Slice it in half lengthways.

Make a marinade from:

4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp ketchup
2 scant tbsp dark muscovado sugar
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp sweet sherry

Get two freezer bags. Put half the meat in each bag, then split the marinade between the two bags. Seal the bags and squish to coat the pork. Pop in the fridge for 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 220. Line a baking tin with foil and lay the fillet onto it. Reserve the marinade for basting while the meat is cooking. Roast for 15 minutes.

Turn the oven down to 160 and roast for another 20-30 minutes, basting regularly. If it looks a little dry, add some water to the remaining marinade.

Serve with rice and stir fried greens. Enjoy.

Superb! This is getting done next week

Neyite

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Hiya Neyite. I've re-saved it in an old version of Word, hopefully you can open this? It's lost some of the original formatting but is still coherent.

Brilliant! Thank you. I'm all inspired now to build my menu plan.

Great idea neuro.
We sort of started what you've perfected. In that we go shopping on a Sunday and before we go in to the supermarket we have decided what our dinners will be for the week and we only buy those, but sometimes even thinking of what to have is a pain because you're trying not to be repetitive. So I think we'll do what you do now and pick a good load of meals that we like and pick weekly from that list. So simple!

The Black Oil

I've made a PDF of your file and it on my iPad, neuro, now where do I send the royalty cheque? :pac:

curly from cork

Excellent tips NP thank you. Could you please tell me how you make your teryaki sauce ? Our house love saucy stir fries.
I confess to buying the pouches of Amoy or Blue dragon !

neuro-praxis

curly from cork wrote: »

Excellent tips NP thank you. Could you please tell me how you make your teryaki sauce ? Our house love saucy stir fries.
I confess to buying the pouches of Amoy or Blue dragon !

Sure thing.

I make my sauce for 4 as follows:

1/2 cup dark soy sauce
Heaped 1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 clove garlic, crushed

Combine ingredients, stirring well. Heat until just at the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 3 minutes. Drizzle over griddled meat, stir-fried veg and noodles.

Kimia

Neuro this is unbelievable!!! Thanks so much for sharing

neuro-praxis

Aw, delighted it's helpful. If there are any recipes from the document that you want, let me know.