Do y’all meal plan?

[moroccangirl]

For about 5 years I’ve been saying I’m going to start. Never started. I am now the leader for Sophia’s Girl Scout troop, plus all of my other commitments. I don’t love cooking but I think never having a plan makes it even worse. My usual routine is to text DH and lunch time and ask what he wants, then I go to the store after I drop Sophia off at school and get what I need for dinner. It’s stressful.
I printed a calendar for October, wrote down any daily appt or meeting, then plugged in dinners for each day, and made sure on days it would be hard to cook that the previous day I make something that has good leftovers.
It’s only the end of Oct 1 and I already feel a weight lifted off of my shoulders because I know what I’m making every day. I don’t know why didn’t do this sooner.

[Lintu]

Not for a whole month at a time - just for a week at a time.

[moroccangirl]

Not for a whole month at a time - just for a week at a time.

I started with the week but just kept going 

[BonitaApplebum]

You guys I’m moving this to food, since it seems like a good perennial topic. Please don’t pout or act like I’m overreaching, the reason we put stuff there is so we can find it again.

[blue sleep]

If we didn't have a weekly plan, we'd get complacent and eat out every night. We never stick to it exactly but it allows us to buy the ingredients to make our meals throughout the week.

[BonitaApplebum]

I’m a big fan of meal planning, because for me the worst part of making dinner is coming up with a menu on the fly when I’m tired and everyone is starving.

However, I often make the mistake of planning too many meals. And then I have too much stuff in the fridge that we don’t wind up eating.

I feel like having 2-3 weeknight meals/week planned is the sweet spot. The other nights we eat leftovers, or everyone just fends for themselves.

[moroccangirl]

You guys I’m moving this to food, since it seems like a good perennial topic. Please don’t pout or act like I’m overreaching, the reason we put stuff there is so we can find it again.

Quit picking on me!

  Kidding

[moroccangirl]

I’m a big fan of meal planning, because for me the worst part of making dinner is coming up with a menu on the fly when I’m tired and everyone is starving.

However, I often make the mistake of planning too many meals. And then I have too much stuff in the fridge that we don’t wind up eating.

I feel like having 2-3 weeknight meals/week planned is the sweet spot. The other nights we eat leftovers, or everyone just fends for themselves.

I’ve started with stuff we eat all the time that I know we like since DH is a vegetarian. I built in the leftovers (because I know which meals give us leftovers). I think I will just buy groceries for one week each weekend in case we make any changes.

[Run Amok]

I like to cook but mostly hate cooking dinner. It's a CHORE and a pretty thankless one (work all day and then do the second shift in the kitchen, yay!)

I do like to plan 3ish meals at a time. That doesn't get us through the week, but inevitably if I plan for more that that we skip it. I also tend to plan something super simple during the week. Like, we've been eating "tacos" that are a tortilla, soy chorizo, shredded cheese, & hot sauce-- and that is all. Or stirfry that is broccoli, tofu, & rice. Anything more complicated than that lately and we will just eat out instead.

[BonitaApplebum]

Something I like to do is prepping a bunch of stuff on the weekend. Like cooking a bunch of protein (a big package of chicken thighs, etc) and then having it available for a couple of different meals. If I make rice I make enough for a meal plus extra to make dried rice with. I chop a bunch of veggies so they are ready to go. Things like that.

I might not have a super firm plan for how to use the prepped stuff yet, but it’s so much easier to look in the fridge and think about how to assemble the prepped stuff than it is to start from ground zero.

[BonitaApplebum]

I like to cook but mostly hate cooking dinner. It's a CHORE and a pretty thankless one (work all day and then do the second shift in the kitchen, yay!)

Amen, sister.

[moroccangirl]

Something I like to do is prepping a bunch of stuff on the weekend. Like cooking a bunch of protein (a big package of chicken thighs, etc) and then having it available for a couple of different meals. If I make rice I make enough for a meal plus extra to make dried rice with. I chop a bunch of veggies so they are ready to go. Things like that.

I might not have a super firm plan for how to use the prepped stuff yet, but it’s so much easier to look in the fridge and think about how to assemble the prepped stuff than it is to start from ground zero.

If DH would eat chicken it would make my life much easier. So easy to prep chicken ahead of time so many different ways.

[Run Amok]

I like the idea of doing prep for the week and it does make the week go so much more smoothly. But, I am doing pretty good if I make a grocery list and go to the store! 

[BonitaApplebum]

If DH would eat chicken it would make my life much easier. So easy to prep chicken ahead of time so many different ways.

Will he eat ground beef? I will also brown a big package of ground beef and then use it a few different ways. I do it with ground lamb sometimes when I want to switch things up (or pork, but you probably don’t eat that either).

[Rejaneration]

You guys I’m moving this to food, since it seems like a good perennial topic. Please don’t pout or act like I’m overreaching, the reason we put stuff there is so we can find it again.

you should have moved that buttercream thread. So there.

[BonitaApplebum]

I’ve given up on trying to get MOS to post in this forum!

[Rejaneration]

As far as the meal planning, no.  I have a general idea of what ingredients I have and then, wing it.  I despise the idea of meal planning, but I like cooking...even dinner.  And, if I am too tired, we will order in or have a pizza.  That happens about once every two weeks.

I do like to do a lot of cooking on the weekend and have leftovers available to either have for dinner or take for lunch though.

[BonitaApplebum]

As far as the meal planning, no.  I have a general idea of what ingredients I have and then, wing it.  I despise the idea of meal planning, but I like cooking...even dinner.  And, if I am too tired, we will order in or have a pizza.  That happens about once every two weeks.

I do like to do a lot of cooking on the weekend and have leftovers available to either have for dinner or take for lunch though.

You don’t have dependents clamoring FEED ME FEED ME FEED ME come 6pm, though... the thing I hate about dinner is I can’t just skip it if I’m not in the mood, the kids need to eat.

And yeah, they can do yogurt or cereal if I don’t feel up to it, but I don’t feel like much of a parent if that’s happening constantly.

I like cooking a lot, but I mostly hate dinner.

[Rejaneration]

You don’t have dependents clamoring FEED ME FEED ME FEED ME come 6pm, though... the thing I hate about dinner is I can’t just skip it if I’m not in the mood, the kids need to eat.

And yeah, they can do yogurt or cereal if I don’t feel up to it, but I don’t feel like much of a parent if that’s happening constantly.

I like cooking a lot, but I mostly hate dinner.

But I did.  For me, it just wasn't a stressor.  Which is pretty funny, because I stress about a lot.  They each had to take a night starting at about age 14 though.  I wasn't allowed to complain either.


ETA: Thinking about on the days when I just returned to the US, I did lose my love of cooking so those dinners were sometimes 'mailed in'.  It had to do with the shock of the break up.  It was something I did to show my love to my family and my ex took great pride in my cooking.    Took a good year for me to love cooking again.

[bookworm1]

We do, partly because we are trying to follow a healthy eating plan and partly because we both get really busy during the week and would end up ordering out every day if we didn't plan.