Discussions

With everyone going back to school it is time to start meal planning again. Of course some days are busier than others so I am looking for ideas of what other people plan for dinner.  
Quick meals plus regular meals!  
What is everyone eating??

I like to cook a big meal on Sunday's then base my meals for at least part of the week off of that. So today I'm cooking a chicken with potatoes, stuffing, gravy and veggies. So tomorrow's supper will be leftovers then Tuesday we will have hot chicken sandwiches and Wednesday we will use the last of it for chicken stir fry.

I pay for a meal planning service. Every week I get an email from eMeals and an app on my tablet and phone update with seven meals, shopping list (editable on phone and tablet) and recipes. It makes life so easy.

Plantoeat.com is a great website that I used for a trial month and it was great. Takes some time to set up your meals. You can choose your own recipes and then it's easy to make shopping lists, etc. Print your month off and then reuse and you don't have to pay. I didn't sign up for the yearly membership but it was great for the month that I used it. I still use my weeks of recipes and shopping lists occasionally but I've fallen off track. Saves us a lot of money too.

Thanks for the meal planning sites.  
What is everyone else eating?

I meal plan based on the sales but often eat fajitas, tacos, stirfys with either rice or noodles, eggs and bacon for supper bbq chicken with salad and garlic toast.  
 
steak has been on sale so much this summer too! yay bbq!  
 
I use the oven more in Winter and make lasagna, Shepard pie, shake and bake pork or drumsticks, roasts.

I am on the Budget Family Plan at eMeals and for tonight I chose Shrimp BLT salad off my list to eat. Last night was tacos as we had a birthday in our house and Birthday Person gets to choose dinner. (My menu plan had taco pizza on the list so we would have had something taco-themed this week no matter what)

I usually plan extensively (I didn't really for about 6 weeks in the summer - our grocery bills and my stress level showed it!!).  
 
I take a free calendar (this year, our candidate was a calendar we got from West End Service), and write out my menus in blue ink. If we actually ate it that day, I'll put a check mark on the day. If we didn't eat that, I'll write in what we actually wrote in red. I also keep the previous year's calendar. That way, I have a record of what I planned, what we ate and what kinds of meals I'm scratching off the list so I know not to plan those any more. I can also make note of how new dishes are received.  
 
I usually cook sufficient amounts of food that there's lunches for the next day for at least my husband and my daughter that attends school.  
 
I try to plan with one day being a "flex meal" (i.e. uses only pantry and/or freezer staples, generally quick to make, can easily be deleted, moved to a different day if I'm pressed for time etc. Examples would be spaghetti, tomato soup and grilled cheese, weiners and beans with biscuits, or army man rice), so I have a flexible day planned for disasters, needing to eat up leftover, or other things. I also plan for at least one vegetarian meal a week. Because of religious practices our Fridays are always meatless (although fish is allowed) and we make home-made pizzas the last Friday of the month (cheese or vegetarian only).  
 
I also plan for leftovers. So if I cook a big chicken Sunday, we plan on having chicken stuff the next few nights (chicken tacos, chicken stir-fry, chicken casserole, hot chicken sandwiches, salad with chicken & garlic bread, etc) until it's used up. We'll generally have soup in there too with the carcass and the leftover scraps. A ham will result in pea soup, ham sandwiches, omelets with ham, or ham friend rice. You get the idea.  
 
I tend to plan a month at a time, based on what I have on hand. We bulk-buy meat (I try for 6 months to a year at a time) so I plan around what's in my freezer. Pantry staples are bought generally once a month or according to the sales cycle. So I always have dried beans, pasta, rice, frozen veg, home-canned tomatoes or salsa, taco shells or wraps etc on hand. Fresh produce, dairy, eggs, etc are bought weekly or as needed, according to what's on sale and season. I tend to plan the "core" of the meal (example: having meatloaf and potatoes), but the sides and vegetables, etc tend to be what I have on hand/on sale. So the day we have meatloaf and potatoes, I'll check my friend and see what needs to be eaten up for vegetables. If I'm out of fresh, I always have frozen on hand especially in the winter.

This week we're having/had:  
 
Sunday: BBQ pork chops and baked potatoes with corn and veggies & dip  
Mon: chili and rice (slow cooker)  
Tues: ham and a yet-to-be-determined side  
Wed: pea soup  
Thurs: meatloaf and potatoes  
Fri: crumb fish and rissouto  
Sat & Sun: TBD it will depend if we go out for my birthday or not.

Like Abbysmum, I typically plan our meals a month at a time. Here are some examples of what we eat:  
 
Day 1: Roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas  
Day 2: Hot roast beef sandwiches, fried mashed potatoes (left overs)veggie  
Day 3: Chicken breasts and salad  
Day 4: Homemade pizza  
Day 5: Taco's  
Day 6: Pork chops with rice and salad  
Day 7: Roast chicken with mashed potatoes and corn  
Day 8: Chicken casserole (using the leftovers)  
Day 9: Farmers Sausage, perogies and salad  
Day 10: Tomato rice soup, grilled cheese sandwich  
Day 11: Breakfast (bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, toast)  
Day 12: Chicken drumsticks, some sort of side and a veggie  
Day 13: Hamburgers and fries (all homemade), raw veggies  
Day 14: Ham, scallopped potatoes, corn  
Day 15: Left overs  
Day 16: Spaghetti with garlic toast and salad  
Day 17: Hotdogs and salad  
Day 18: Pork tenderloin, rice, green beans  
Day 19: Chicken Fingers and Fries (all homemade), raw veggies and dip  
Day 20: Steak, potatoes, corn on the cob  
Day 21: Pulled pork with shredded cheese and coleslaw  
 
And on it would go.

Like today, it is a perfect opportunity to make some soups/ chili/ stew and freeze ahead. With the Internet and Pinterest there are so many yummy soups out there. With fresh produce in abundance, I have enjoyed making borscht, beef vegetable, loaded potato soup, cabbage soup, homemade tomato basil soup and many more. I have found some awesome soups eg pasta e fajoli (Olive Garden copycat) or chicken fajita soup on the Internet. All the soups are so yummy to bring out of the freezer on a cold winter day or when you just don't have time to prepare a big meal. Served with a side salad or fresh biscuit/bun. Everyone loves homemade soup.

Mmmm homemade soup is the best, my husband makes the best for sure!!

Never_give_up said "Like Abbysmum, I typically plan our meals a month at a time. Here are some examples of what we eat:     Day 1: Roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas   Day 2: Hot roast beef sandwiches, fried mashed potatoes (left overs)veggie   Day 3: Chicken breasts and salad   Day 4: Homemade pizza   Day 5: Taco's   Day 6: Pork chops with rice and salad   Day 7: Roast chicken with mashed potatoes and corn   Day 8: Chicken casserole (using the leftovers)   Day 9: Farmers Sausage, perogies and salad   Day 10: Tomato rice soup, grilled cheese sandwich   Day 11: Breakfast (bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, toast)   Day 12: Chicken drumsticks, some sort of side and a veggie   Day 13: Hamburgers and fries (all homemade), raw veggies   Day 14: Ham, scallopped potatoes, corn   Day 15: Left overs   Day 16: Spaghetti with garlic toast and salad   Day 17: Hotdogs and salad   Day 18: Pork tenderloin, rice, green beans   Day 19: Chicken Fingers and Fries (all homemade), raw veggies and dip   Day 20: Steak, potatoes, corn on the cob   Day 21: Pulled pork with shredded cheese and coleslaw     And on it would go. "

This is great... thank you! I've done the planning thing and it DOES save money and time and headache... but usually I was doing a week, maybe 2 at a time. But it took me a long time set aside on a Sunday to plan it all... and eventually I get off track and we are back to "Whats for supper tonight????" and that sucks. I like the idea of investing a lot of time to do month to month, and just repeat. Will definitely do some looking into it - and thanks for the inspiration!!!

Thanks! I don''t use any special apps, I literally use the Word calendar on my computer, print it out and put it on the fridge. I do a month at a time. Once you have a few months done, or better yet gone through a few seasons it gets easier can you can always go back and look for ideas. It started because I leave for work to darn early to have brain function. I need to know what meat to take out when I get up.It has also helped in the sense that if I am running late, the SO knows what we are eating and can start making it.  
 
Edited by Never_give_up, 2017-09-07 13:01:02