Meal Planning

[Ceres]

http://organizedhome.com/kitchen-tips/menu-planning-save-time-kitchen

The full article is at the link. Does anyone do this? How is it working for you?


Menu planning doesn't have be complicated. A small investment of time can reap great rewards:


A menu plan saves money. Reducing trips to the supermarket, a menu plan reduces impulse spending. Using leftovers efficiently cuts food waste, while planned buying in bulk makes it easy to stockpile freezer meals at reduced prices.
A menu plan saves time. No dash to the neighbors for a missing ingredient, no frantic searches through the freezer for something, anything to thaw for dinner.
A menu plan improves nutrition. Without the daily dash to the supermarket, there's time to prepare side dishes and salads to complement the main dish, increasing the family's consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Follow these tips to put the power of menu and meal planning to work for you:
Dare to Do It

For too many of us, making a menu plan is something we intend to do . . . when we get around to it. Instead of seeing menu planning as an activity that adds to our quality of life, we dread sitting down to decide next Thursday's dinner. "I'll do that next week, when I'm more organized."
Wrong! Menu planning is the first line of defense in the fight to an organized kitchen, not the cherry on the icing on the cake.
Take the vow. "I, [state your name], hereby promise not to visit the supermarket again until I've made a menu plan!"
Start Small and Simple

Still muttering, "But I don't wanna ..."? Break into menu planning easily by starting small and simple.
Think, "next week." Seven little dinners, one trip to the supermarket. Sure, it's fun to think about indexing your recipe collection, entering the data in a relational database and crunching menus till the year 2010, but resist the urge. Slow and steady builds menu planning skills and shows you the benefits of the exercise. Elaborate hoo-rah becomes just another failed exercise in home management overkill.
Where to start? The food flyers from your local newspaper. Try to make your menu plan and shopping list the day the food ads appear.
You'll use the ads to get a feel for the week's sales and bargains. Use that feeling to guide your menu plan.
This week in Eastern Washington, for instance, two local chain supermarkets are offering whole fryers for the low, low price of 59 cents a pound. Clearly, this is the week for Ginger Chicken and Fajitas, not a time to dream about Beef Stew and Grilled Pork Tenderloins.
Menu Planning Basics

Okay, it's food ad day. Ready? Time to rough out a simple menu plan. The goal is two-fold: shop efficiently to obtain food required for seven dinner meals, while minimizing expenditure, cooking, shopping and cleaning time.

[Beatrice]

I've gone back to doing this every week. I could get away without it before but it really is essential without a fridge.

[Ceres]

The issue I have with menu planning is that our meal choices are often dictated by what's available in the garden or surplus stock from GG's work. I can imagine that it would be quite necessary to avoid waste without a fridge B!

[Sarasvati]

Menu planning means I spend more. What's with that?

[Beatrice]

I just had to chuck out some produce which we didn't cook last week because of various people getting sick :(

[Echo]

I try to do it, but I never look at ads to see what's on sale. I usually don't get my meat/fruit/veg from supermarkets that do ads anyway.

[Ceres]

Can you share your menu plans for the week? I'm so stuck for cooking ideas lately.
Sarasvati maybe it's cheaper when you're using up bulk purchases from your pantry?

[Kris]

Two or 3 different curries, freeze portions; tacos (huge winner here, I was so tired of nachos :lol :uhh; bakes - like potatoes and milk and cheese and seeds sprinkled on top. Are your lot vego? I'll have a squiz in my cookbooks too as I'm making up the fortnightly shopping list tonight for the big shop tomorrow morning!

[Beatrice]

This is mine for the rest of this week (I'm not being particularly vego at the moment). We're seriously into winter comfort foods, which are heavy on the cabbage and potatoes in my house :lol

Wednesday: Creamy chicken pasta
Thursday: Hunza Pie; baked spuds; steamed veg and garlic butter
Friday: Confetti vegetable bake; colcannon
Saturday: Bottom-Of-The-Vege-Crisper chickpea curry
Sunday: Sausages, mashed potatoes, peas, pickled red cabbage

And the previous one

Monday: Pizza

Tuesday: Nachos

Wednesday: Peasant Pie (from Findhorn Family Cookbook)

Thursday
Lunch: Roast Vegetables and Couscous
onion, garlic, potatoes, sweet potato, carrot, Brussels sprouts, parsnip, olive oil, Balsamic vinegar; couscous, butter
Dinner: Curried Chickpeas, Cauliflower and Potato

Friday
Lunch: Bean and pasta soup
Dinner: Vegetable Risotto

Saturday: Breakfast for Dinner

Sunday
Lunch: Lentil Soup
Dinner: Leftovers/BOTVC

[Ceres]

One is vego and the other eats fish here, GG and I are largely vego but making an effort to include some fish in our diets.

[Kris]

So, I'm thinking maybe some Thai inspired recipes might be the go? Whenever we get stuck we find ourselves gravitating towards Thai recipes.

[Ceres]

Yeah I need to do a re-stock at the asian grocer of sauces for thai dishes.

[mummy2boys]

I'm right back into this now, which is good.

I plan/shop fortnighly. I go through my books and magazines (I really like Super Food Ideas) and folders (of family recipes and one of magazine cutouts) whenever I get to it, and write lists in an exercise book of things I'd like to make, and where the recipe is. I also ask DP and L what they'd like on the mealplan. We've been trying a lot of new recipes lately, only to be made again if we really like them a lot. I pick 12 dinners to make, the other 2 nights are leftovers or frozen stuff from previous fortnights. I have stocks like flour, eggs, milk, on hand for non-planned meals (breakfast, lunch, or dinner when dinner is lunch), making bread, and I plan to make a couple of snacky things (muffins, cakes, buns, dips) each fortnight as well. I have a whiteboard on the fridge where anyone can write down things that we need/want.

The meal list goes onto a spreadsheet, listing the ingredients for each dish (this will get easier as I repeat more dishes). The total ingredients then gets transferred to the shopping list spreadsheet. I then divide that into lists such as our usual f&v stall at the markets, the deli stall, nut stall, chicken stall etc plus a list for the breadmaking store, the supermarket etc. If L sees something at the markets he wants I put it on the plan for the following fortnight.

And that's what I take shopping every other Friday. I also write up the plan and stick it up in the kitchen, then try to make things in an order such that I use up ingredients that will go off first. I try to cook/prep a day ahead in case we have a shit day and I can't do it. Plus I cook/freeze when I get the chance. Things that have been made/prepped get a tick next to them, and things get crossed off as they're eaten.

This current fortnight we're having;

Spinach & pinenut chicken sausages with warm potato salad and vegies
Lemon & thyme chicken with herb pilaf
Foldover BBQ mushroom pizza
Minestrone
Chicken, veg, noodle soup
Veg fritters
Beef stroganoff with rice
Zucchini slice
Tuna & potato pie
Pasta with spinach balls and tomato sauce
Broccoli cauliflower soup
Burgers
Muesli bars
Banana hazelnut cake
White choc blueberry self-saucing pudding

In the freezer we've got cauliflower cheese soup, bolognase sauce, spring roll filling, bread, pumpkin soup.

[Ceres]

M2b.. :bow I am in total awe of your organisational skills!

[mummy2boys]

My kitchen totally looks like a bomb hit it though! I don't do the decluttering/cleaning up/tidying type stuff so well. Maybe I need a spreadsheet for it lol.

[Kris]

Can I come to your house for dinner?

[Ceres]

Imagine what we could achieve if we combined our powers!
M2B's baking rocks my world - she does the best cakes and desserts.

[GreenGully]

The raspberry friand slice was amazing at the farm day!

[zenifa]

This is thread is definitely inspiring me to get more organised. I do some menu planning but not usually more than 5-7 days ahead, and I try to use as much stuff in the fridge/freezer and pantry as possible, so I don't have to do much shopping for ingredients - Sarasvati, that is how I keep the cost down, try to only use what you already have or get 1 or 2 ingredients, or vary the dish slightly.
I have a massive folder with clear a4 plastic sleeves filled with recipes, plus cookbooks and I have occasionally gotten that cheap $5 mag at supermarket (healthy food guide) which has some good easy cheap recipes http://www.healthyfoodguide.com.au/ It sometimes has meal plans etc,

Will share more of my meal plan for the next week/fortnight as I get organised in the next day or so.

[mummy2boys]

Of course Kris. I added corn and spinach to your zucchini slice recipe BTW. Cos I like them.

Ceres, world domination! GG, it's really good with blueberries too.

www.taste.com.au (http://www.taste.com.au) is good for recipe/ingredient finding. I used it last fortnight for spinach quiche - altered their quiche lorraine recipe by subbing bacon for spinach, adding parmesan and cherry tomatoes, and made the crust with wholemeal flour instead of white. Was seriously seriously seriously yummy.

[Sarasvati]

Yeah I guess i feel too lazy to actually check out what ingredients I have to go from there...

[Belinda]

Yes, I'm a big meal planner! I really like it because I can change it, but I feel better having a back-up.

I plan a week ahead. I have a look in my fridge for stuff that needs to be used up first. I have some stuff we do every week, like pizza, but it's different toppings each time. I have limited energy, so I sit with my calendar and my favourite recipe books and see which days are going to be hard, or I have lots on, and plan something easy for those days, or days when I'm not going have to cook. I also plan to use up anything that I didn't use from my last plan. I also plan one 'special' breakfast a week, and think about if I fell like anything different for lunch. And we tend to be really seasonal eaters too.

I don't do the shopping usually, so I have to be pretty specific, LOL! I have a shopping list template - boxes to put similar things in, like one box for dairy, one for fruit and vege - I print off quite a few and keep them pinned on the fridge. We even have different symbols - if I ? something, it means only if it's reasonably priced; a * means I really want it

This week, we had a really stressful week. This week, DH cooked for two days - he organises that himself when he does it - last night was Pumpkin rissotto, and we had more leftovers tonight so I'm going to make rissotto cakes with some veges tonight instead of what I had planned. We are also having parisian pizza, Grilled cheese sandwiches with garlic mushrooms, falafel, and then my plan runs out, lol!

We also do put stuff in the freezer if we can, so we have something for when life goes nuts. It does that a lot here!

[Himalia]

I started to menu plan when we went all organic, to try and save money. However I need to spend some time reading the JB thread on what you buy organic or conventional as I need to find a balance (whole organic is costing us too much).

I have about 6 wks of menu plans and I pick and choose from that list to plan for a week. Our family is not vegetarian atm, so I try and base my week on 2 fish, 1 chicken, 2 red meat and 2 vego meals. This weeks plan is -

Salmon and corn quiche
Bean Tortillas
Prawn stirfry
Asian beef casserole
Veg and lentil soup
Creamy chicken and veg pies
Shepard's Pie

Most of these meals we also have a green salad or vegetables steamed or stir fried to go with it.

[Beatrice]

The thing I like about meal planning is that after you've been doing it for a while you don't have to think about it. I just go through older plans til I find five meals I like the sound of this week (I try to plan for one breakfast-for-dinner and one leftovers/bottom of the vege crisper night - I tend to actually cook more consistently if I build CBFed nights into my menu plan so when I don't feel like cooking I just swap the nights :lol). If I feel bored with my regular meals I sit down with my gastro pron and find some new recipes to try, but I don't have to do that every week if I don't want to.

This week's plan is thus:

Marinated Mango Drumsticks
Nachos
Peasant Pie
Mulligatawney Soup
Pizza
Breakfast for dinner
BOTVC/leftovers

[mummy2boys]

Another fortnight, another meal plan, market and supermarket shopping done yesterday. This fortnight we're having, in no particular order;

Cauliflower sweet potato soup (new recipe)
Morroccan apricot chicken (new recipe)
Fish balls (new recipe) with garlic potato wedges, carrots, broccoli - made the fish balls last night and froze
Boston baked beans (new recipe)
Ham & cheese toasted s/w - had this last night, I had beans on toast
Pizza (slab-style this time to save time, thanks Morph)
Chicken & leek pies (new recipe)
Lasagne (L's old favourite)
Pasties (veg, no recipe)
Chicken schnitzel w/ Diane sauce & veg (no recipe)
Mushroom risotto (new recipe, trying to find one that I like)
Lentil rissoles (new recipe) w/warm potato salad (3rd time recipe, yummy), salad

Snacky lunchy keepable freezable desserty "other" stuff;
Muesli bars (have made before, will be a new variation this time)
Cranberry & Camembert muffins (old basic recipe w/new twist)
Banana muffins (as above OR usual recipe)
Banana caramel pie (DP's request, new recipe)
Creme caramel (using Kris's baked custard recipe which I've made before)
Jelly/custard (DP & kids request)
Apple almond cake (twist on last fortnight's banana hazelnut cake)

Will hopefully do a batch of bickies for the freezer at some point. Hoping to get some cooking in advance done this afternoon if that works out with the kids. Was very happy to find free-range sulphite-free gluten-free ham yesterday. Also pleased that organic beef mince is not costing me any more than top quality supermarket stuff was (quality is the same). Not pleased at the price of fish.

Planning to blanch and freeze broccoli for later in the fortnight so as not to waste any, also planning to freeze leftover fresh herbs for the same reason.

Last fortnight's disaster was the spinach balls (ended up being cubes) with pasta (according to me, blech). The dogs had some yesterday, birds too.

Also need to make more bread.

[Ceres]

The desserts just amaaaazing!!

[Ayla]

I completely and utterly suck at meal planning :lol I might give it another go, though.

[Kris]

I need a bread maker!!! :runcry

[Ayla]

Skip the breadmaker, get a thermomix - it can make bread and so much more! :D

[Ceres]

I have a serious case of the I WANT's over the thermomix. How to justify the cost when I don't have a functional kitchen tho!!

[zenifa]

I want a thermomix too, but the cost is prohibitive. Who on here has one?

[Ayla]

I have a serious case of the I WANT's over the thermomix. How to justify the cost when I don't have a functional kitchen tho!!

You wouldn't need a functional kitchen if you had a tmx though *enable enable* :P

[Echo]

What Ayla said. :lol I'm justifying my (eventual) Thermomix purchase with 'if I only have one power point in my kitchen, it might as well have a Thermomix on it!'

[Echo]

And a new Thermomix is cheaper than a new kitchen. ;)

[GreenGully]

:rofl you people are baaad! Personally TMs scare me a bit.

[Ravensworn]

I have one powerpoint in my kitchen and a TM. It sucks. I use it for the toaster, the kettle and the breadmaker. The TM rarely makes it out of the cupboard. But it would if I had more powerpoints. :D

[Ceres]

A thermomix will not add resale value to my house! A kitchen with all the doors still on the cupboards will. I still want one though. :lol

[zenifa]

Fiona if you aren't using yours, I would love it ;)

[Ayla]

:lol

[Ravensworn]

Fiona if you aren't using yours, I would love it ;)

Nice try! I do use it occasionally, and when I get a decent kitchen, I plan on using it a lot more. :D Every so often, I think about using it, then realise that the washing up is using up the space I need. *sigh*

[Beatrice]

LOL. I just don't get the thermomix lurve :lol

This week's meal plan is

Monday: Roast Vege and Rice Bake
Tuesday: Easy Crockpot Apricot Chicken Tagine
Wednesday: Mushroom Samosas, greens in coconut cream, dhal and rice
Thursday: Satay Tofu and Rice
Friday: Fish Pot Pie
Saturday: Breakfast for Dinner (or like this week, DH's night to cook if he doesn't fancy breakfast :lol)
Sunday: bottom-of-the-vege-crisper or leftovers

[Ayla]

I think this is what gets me on meal planning - how do you know you'll feel like eating fish on friday? :lol

[bella]

Sometimes I swap meals around, but normally I feel like eating what is planned, just because it's easier to eat that than think of an alternative perhaps!

[Beatrice]

Because if I don't feel like eating fish on Friday I'll make something I do feel like eating :lol I might swap it with the breakfast-for-dinner night, or another night onthe meal plan, or just go bugger it we're having something completely different. I do have some constraints atm - like if I buy chicken I *have* to cook it that night because I'm not willing to risk defrosting it without a fridge so there's no point putting it in the freezer, and I won't keep it in the cooler any longer than necessary. But most of my recipes use the same range of F&V so it's usually easy to find something else I can cook with what's in the cooler. I like having the meal plan there so that I don't have to engage brain most nights, unless I really feel motivated to think of an alternative.

[Ayla]

Chickens are supposed to be defrosted in the fridge? :uhh You can tell I'm a rool good cook can't you? :P

[Beatrice]

:lol It depends on the cut. I wouldn't defrost a whole chicken on the bench or in our cooler, it takes too long for safety and it needs to defrost all the way through before cooking. But I defrosted a single chicken breast to cook last week because I could cook it from part-frozen.

[Ravensworn]

I'm sorting through my cupboard at the moment and have found tapioca starch and tapioca pearls. Does anyone know what I can do with these, besides tapioca pudding, which we don't like? I haven't tried google yet, but I thought I'd ask here first.

[Beatrice]

Tapioca is a total mystery to me, I'm afraid!

[Ayla]

I've used tapioca instead of cornflour I think? I know I've used it in custard, it's way more effective though so use less otherwise you get rubbery custard :lol

[Kris]

The starch is a good binder in baked gluten free goods. I love tapioca as a pudding so haven't ventured beyond the coconut milk & palm sugar or baked lemon varieties. Have a few gf recipe books which I have a look at though.

fak

[Ravensworn]

Thanks everyone! I'm trying to use up stuff in my cupboard that's basically just cluttering it up. Usually from me intending to eat healthier and buying stuff which I don't really like but is "good" for me.

[Beatrice]

This week's plan:

Monday: Risotto
Tuesday: Lentil burgers
Wednesday: Nachos
Thursday: Sweet and sour sausages and rice
Friday: Kangaroo and Lentil Lasagne
Saturday: Breakfast for dinner
Sunday: BOTVC/leftovers

[GreenGully]

Bump for me. I'm going to dive in and try this. I'm going to do a bulk shop at Gaganis this week after cleaning out my pantry.

[GreenGully]

Ok first question (which may have been covered here already). What if you spontaneously don't spend the night at home? Up until now we've had a fairly solid routine, spending Tuesday nights a ceres' house, but now that I'm not working and our time together won't be dictated by babysitting (yay!), I imagine we'll be a lot more fluid and spontaneous about it all.
Maybe I could just plan 6 dinners per week...

[Kris]

TBH what DH and I have been doing is brainstorming the day before our big shop - WITH the kids and then doing a couple of big cook ups so that there are freezer meals - soups, nut roasts, extra lasagne so that instead of having to cook 14 evening meals as well as sorting lunches and breakfasts at the end of long busy days one of us can defrost something and have an easy night of it. Especially good if we're swimming in the evening or judo is on. We've got about six or seven meals that are universally loved by all and we mix it up with a couple of extra new things periodically.

[mummy2boys]

I'm planning 10 dinners per fortnight, and the other nights are filled in with leftovers, previous leftovers from the freezer, and easy things like scrambled eggs, pancakes, french toast, baked beans. I try to have a new recipe each time to try, and to work with what's in season. We don't eat out at all, and no spontaneous not-at-home nights :) I don't assign meals to days, and just pick what I feel like cooking. I'm pretty specific with each meal so that I know what to buy and so that I remember what I'd planned to serve so that I don't end up running out of stuff.

Here's the list for the current fortnight;

Vegie Patties with rolls (home made), lettuce (from home! Yay!), tomato, beetroot, mayo (home made), tomato sauce, cheese. (I already have cooked beans and chickpeas in the freezer.)

Chicken/veg loaf with oven chips, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas, corn.

Pumpkin (from home) and chive gnocchi.

Quinoa egg bake with lettuce, carrot, tomato, fruit. (new recipe, I'll use silverbeet grown at home and quinoa that's already in the cupboard, lettuce from home)

Roast sweet potato soup, double batch. (Making this today and freezing it for later in the fortnight - part way through but need to go get maple syrup because I managed to forget it.)

Cauliflower cheese soup. (Made it this morning, froze for later).

Turkey, sage, cranberry meatballs (new recipe) with mashed potato, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, peas, corn.

Vegetable risotto (this is a good end-of-fortnight one).

Sweet potato tortilla.

Beef and Vegetable casserole (new recipe).

I also made a bonus potato and leek soup because I'd bought a bag of potatoes cheaply and had more than I'll need, plus previous leftover leeks in the freezer (1/2 of one from Ceres' garden), and extra onions and leftover cream from last fortnight. C and I had that for lunch, and the rest is frozen for later.

[Beatrice]

I have two nights where I don't plan anything and we just eat whatever is left. If I don't feel like cooking the meal on the menu plan on any particular day I'll just swap it with another meal on the menu plan which I do feel like cooking, or something easy which I know we all like. If you want to go out one night, then you if the planned meal had lots of perishables, swap it with a meal which has less eg. if you go out on a night you were going to have stir fry, and the next day's meal was a casserole based on root veges, don't make the casserole. Or make both meals on the second night and put the casserole in the freezer.

[JKay]

I go to the gym two nights a week at dinner times, and DH can't cook (I really mean this - he actually sort of wants to be able to cook - but has no self-confidence in himself, and i don't think really wants to enough to put the time and effort in! :lol And, TBH, i'm a bit of a kitchen hog and don't really like the idea of his pilfering among my cupboards!)

So - I cook meals so that there is always enough for two nights during the week, and the boys heat up left-overs when i'm at the gym (and i have my left-overs when i get home!). None of us mind having the same thing two nights in a row, and, even though i enjoy cooking, i'm actually thankful i don't have to cook every night.

This week's Plan:
Sunday - Free range chicken roast, roast veggies.
Monday & Tuesday - Stir fry tofu with tahini and veggies with noodles
Wednesday & Thursday - Kangaroo Bolognaise (blended sauce - tomato's, pumpkin & sweet potato) w/wholegrain pasta
Friday - Something easy for K and I - DH comes home late.
Saturday - Phillipines Food Night - haven't found a dish yet!

DH takes his own lunch to work, I make a large veggie soup for my lunch every week, and K mostly eats monkey platters throughout the day - current favourites are tuna, apples and nuts!