weekly meal planning -- walk me through it

[Anonymous]

I'm a terrible cook. DH is only a little better than me. Pre-baby, we just muddled through -- we ate a lot of frozen Trader Joe's meals, spaghetti and takeout. We've pretty much continued that pattern since DC was born seven months ago. But now he's starting to eat solids, and I'm starting to think about how we're going to need to provide him with healthy, balanced meals every.single.day, starting soon.

We both WOH, so in addition to being bad cooks, we're pretty busy (though our jobs are 9-5, luckily). The consensus I've seen in previous threads is that shopping and meal-planning on the weekend is key. But seriously, I have absolutely no idea how to do this. What do you shop for? What do you cook each night?

If anyone out there like us (not gourmet cooks, 2 working parents) could give me the rundown of what their weeknight meals and weakly grocery list look like, I would be grateful. TIA

[Anonymous]

I'm sure you will get a lot of advice about this. Here's what I do. I try to shop on the weekends, planning out at least 3-5 meals so I know what to look for when I shop. I usually start with one thing and plan the meal around that.

For instance, I'll buy chicken breasts for a meal, then get a starch and veggie I can make with it.

Or I'll plan a pasta meal around frozen turkey meatballs or chicken sausage. Easy and filling. Add salad and bread and you're done.

At least once a week I make something in the crockpot, like beef stew, chili, or a bean soup. I make enough to have one night, then serve again later in the week. The soups generally freeze well.

Roasting a whole chicken is economical and easy. I will serve this on perhaps a Sunday night when I have time, then use the leftover for a stirfry, salad or in tacos the next night.

I always buy 1 or 2 "emergency" meals -- things that are frozen and can be put together quickly and don't go bad until used. Trader Joe's has a lot of stuff like this. I will also do frozen chicken strips, supplemented with fresh steamed veggies and/or a salad.

Making a few things in advance on weekends, like chili, rice, soups, can save a whole lot of time during the week.

[Anonymous]

I start with the idea of a big hunk of meat that can serve for one meal, then be repurposed into at least one more. Other parts of my framework are one pasta and one bean/lentil meal per week.

So Monday's crock pot BBQ becomes shredded tacos later in the week. A roast chicken is reincarnated as chicken stew (or chicken salad in the summer). Crock pot chicken tacos return disguised as quesadillas. Plan out your weeknight menus and do one shopping trip to gather all the ingredients. Then when you walk in the door you don't have to waste time figuring out what to make -- you know that if it's Tuesday, you're warming the tortillas, slicing the avocados and shredding the chicken that's been cooking all day.

[Anonymous]

Happy to help. I use Emeals but think I will discontinue that. There's lots of different plans and it's good for ideas, but I found myself only making 1-2 meals per week. I'm thinking of trying this one - http://100daysofrealfood.plantoeat.com/. Google and recipe apps are my friend.

I meal plan over the weekend for the following week and make my list. The I get on Peapod and order everything for delivery. I usually plan at least one meal that can be thrown in the crock pot and refuse to do anything complicated or that requires a lot of prep on the weekdays. Logistically at night, we share duties - one of us cooks while the other plays with the kids; then the cook gets the kids in bed while the other one cleans the kitchen.

Sample weekly menu:

Monday - Baked Cod, Rice, Green Beans
Tuesday - Spaghetti, Caesar Salad and Garlic Bread
Wednesday - Turkey Chili
Thursday - Sauteed Chicken, Potatoes and Brussels Sprouts
Friday - Quiche with Caramelized Onions and Gruyere, Salad

Now, I am actually a pretty good cook and used to make everything from scratch before kids, but that is impractical right now. So for rice I use the Uncle Ben's Ready Rice packs you pop in the microwave. I use jarred pasta sauce and frozen garlic bread. I use frozen potatoes. I buy bagged salad mixes. I buy the Nature's Promise individually wrapped chicken breasts, pound them out inside the package, season them with whatever, and pop them in a saute pan. Takes 10 minutes max. You do everything you can to minimize prep (and therefore, cleanup).

You really don't have to be a gourmet to make a balanced meal. Lean protein and vegetables should be the majority with some carbs/starches thrown in on the side. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Here is how I do it.

On Friday I take the weekly circular that comes out on Wednesday to see what is on sale - it also will pretty much give you what is in season because stuff that is in season goes on sale. I make a plan 3 meals. I will buy a red meat, lean meat (chicken/pork) and seafood (fish/shrimp)

I cook Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday is leftover night and Friday is order something in night. Saturday and Sunday we are often invited places - cookouts, friends, football parties, etc.

To make it easy just say Monday is meat, Tuesday is chicken/pork, Wednesday is fish (though I don't actually do that)
Each one needs a carb: rice, pasta and potato (this is simple - I use couscous, barley, quinoa, etc - but you can start with rice, pasta and potato) Start with brown rice and wheat pasta and save yourself the trouble of trying to switch later.

On Sunday I put something in the crockpot - let's say beef stew (with potatos). I marinade the chicken or pork. I cook the rice and a lb of pasta and toss it with oil.

So on Monday before you leave put the crockpot on and when you get home you have beef stew (as an example)
On Tuesday you get home and your marinaded chicken/pork can go on the grill or oven or stove top (grill has less cleanup). You can microwave the rice. If you forgot to make rice make couscous ready in 15 minutes.
On Wednesday - Fish can cook in 15 minutes so I cook it in oil/parsley/garlic or grill it. I will eat it on a salad which I can chop up in 10 minutes while the fish is cooking and give the baby some of the pasta.

Add a veggie - many roasted veggies can be done on Sunday and are good later. Green beans are good steamed/tossed in vinegar and oil and eaten a day later. Steaming veggies only takes about 15 minutes can be done on weekend and microwaved. Raw veggies like carrot sticks, celery, squash, peppers, etc (with Ranch) kids like.

You need 5 reciepes per food.

Meat: pasta and meat sauce, beef stew, chili, steak, flank - thinly sliced
Lean meat: Chicken Breast, Pork chop, chicken caccatori (sp?), pork tenderloin, turkey burgers
Fish: tilapia, salmon, shrimp, shrimp, shrimp (I like shrimp - can you tell)

I also cook 1 soup on the weekend: minestrone, potoato leek, butternut squash, chicken noodle - all very easy if you google a recipe and all very healthy. Good when the little one is starving and dinner is in 30 minutes.

Also, My H and have 1 night a week we have a drink while the kids eat and then have a civilized dinner once they are in bed or off playing/watching tv. I like foods kids maybe should not have at an early age like sushimi. Then they get a food I shouldn't eat like nuggets or a burger.

Please ignore all the misspellings, etc.

[Anonymous]

I sit down every Sun and plan the week. I do simliar to PP, certain days are ALWAYS "X".

Mon - Pasta
Tues - Some kind of meat (Chicken, Pork, Lamb...)
Wed - which ever we did not have on Tues
Thurs -Vegetarian
Fri - Pizza
Sat/Sun - DH smokes/grills something or I make roasts or stew/chili

I use the Best 30 Minute meal from ATK a lot.

[Anonymous]

The worst part, for me, is the actual "It's 5pm and DD is saying Ummies, Ummies, the oven is cold, and the fridge is bare" moment. DH works late most nights, so dinner is frequently just me and 2YO DD. I try to be rather thrifty, organic, local, homemade.
South Mountain delivers on Fridays (that's our day, not everyone's day). Our cutoff for orders is midnight Wed. So by COB Wed I have a rough idea of the following week's needs for milk, butter, eggs, yogurt, meat, etc.
I grocery shop at WF on Saturday AM's. Every now and then I will send DH to the store on his day off, but he tends to ignore the list and come back with ice cream and soda ("but I couldn't FIND the celery..." lol).
I use the crockpot frequently and make monster portions, then freeze soup, stew, chili, etc for later use. This is good for leftover lunches at work as well.

For example, the upcoming week (this is just dinner):
S: hamburgers, broccoli
S: fish, sauteed spinach
M: just me and DD, probably scrambled eggs, peas, and toast
T: beef fajitas
W: pizza quesadillas with marinara dipping sauce (cheese, pepperoni, spinach), fruit
T: just me and DD = leftovers
F: just me and DD = no idea yet, but in all honesty, probably fruit and yogurt smoothies or scrambled eggs again.

This morning, SMC delivered milk, eggs, yogurt for next week. I sent DH to the store for tomato paste and crushed tomatoes. The hamburgers and beef for fajitas are frozen. I have salsa, rolls, and will make the tortillas and marinara at night after DD is asleep.

Tomorrow at WF: fruit, broccoli, spinach, peppers and onions, shredded mozzarella, pepperoni, and whatever fish/seafood looks good and doesn't require a 3rd mortgage.

Granted - this kind of menu assumes a certain level of stocked pantry and ability to "just throw things together" I do not mess with old el paso taco/fajita/whatnot kits.

Not this week, but many weeks I will do a large crockpot meal on the weekends when I can set it up during DD's breakfast (I leave REALLY early). The meals during the week are super, super quick prep, ie making quesadillas is not complicated and also does not create 1,303 pots and pans and bowls to wash. I hate that.
I am a big fan of cook once, eat twice (or 3, or 4). Ie roast a chicken and eat several meals off of it. Chicken salad is fast! I often put a chicken in the oven right before taking DD upstairs for a bath/bedtime. I know I won't be gone TOO long lol, I'll still have time to clean up after, and then we have a tasty and easy source of protein for several meals Those fajitas? I will make the tortillas, marinate the meat, and cut the peppers and onions the night before. So once I get home from work it's just drop and stir... like a cooking show.
I found once DD was mobile, cooking became harder. Now that she is older and can stand on a stool at the end of a counter and"help" mom (ie tear lettuce with her hands) it is easier to make dinner. If she starts whining that she is hungry, I usually give her fruit or veg to snack on... that way, if she fills up before dinner, hey, no problem. OR... i will give her whatever I think she will like LEAST. If she's really hungry she'll eat it, but also make room for spaghetti in 10 mins.

Also, we fully embrace breakfast for dinner, yogur and fruit smoothies for dinner, and cheese and crackers and fruit for dinner. Hey, it's balanced and it's not every night. Beats the golden arches.

[Anonymous]

Oh, a super easy trick, I did this last night: one pot mac and cheese.

Make macaroni noodles like you normally would, only make sure it's in kind of a big pot (which you should do anyway, but I don't always).
When the noodles are done, drain them and leave them in the pot. Add a little bit of milk and/or butter and/or cream cheese and/or heavy cream (whatever I am trying to use up) and some shredded cheese, stir really well until everything melts. Keep adding cheese/etc and stirring until you've got it where you want it - literally this takes 30 secs.
If you put some veggies in the microwave, or make a salad, this is dinner. Fast, easy, healthy, minimal cleanup. And kids are likely to eat it (No allergies in your family, OP?)

[Anonymous]

One word: freeze. Make large batches of whatever every weekend and freeze it in one-night portions. When yolu have enough stocked up, you can eat 4-5 different meals a week while only cooking one. All you need then is some side salad.

[Anonymous]

OP, also think about getting out of the rut that every meal has to involve a protein, starch, and veggie. Mix it up. We've been trying to eat less meat and tonight for dinner we had soup, kale and cauliflower (roasted), plus my 2 year old had sweet potato fries (just sweet potatoes cut in strips and roasted), which he was thrilled to dip in ketchup, and some healthy bread. He was happy and full and he had milk and cheese and peanut butter through the day, so I wasn't worried about the food groups when looking at the day as a whole. I found that I was really stressed trying to provide a "healthy" 50 style version of dinner until I let that go. My son's favorite go tos are pasta with peas and cheese and quesedillas with black beans and mild salsa. these are not hard and you can eat them as well. If you aren't a good cook, don't start out being overly ambitious. Try to come up with simple meals and build from there.

[Anonymous]

I really like The Six O'Clock Scramble: www.thescramble.com. They plan your week for you, including a grocery list. I followed it exactly for a while until I got some good recipes under my belt, and now I do a mix of their weekly plan and meals I like. Reasons why I love it:

- No time planning or thinking about what to make.
- Easy to mark which recipes you like and add them to your "recipe box".
- They have teamed up with ZipList, a smartphone app, so you can load the shopping list easily on your phone. Today, on the way to the grocery store, my husband drove and I chose five meals from my saved "recipe box" and added the ingredients to my shopping list, which I used when I got there. SO fast and easy.
- Overall, the meals are pretty healthy and balanced - I also used eMeals once, mentioned by a PP, but found that the six-o'clock scramble meals include much more vegetables and whole foods.

I also bought a slow-cooker cookbook and get a lot of use out of my slow-cooker.

[Anonymous]

DD is now 3 and my goal is 2-3 meals/wk eaten together. The others she eats while I sit with her, and then DH and I eat later. I sit down on Sunday mornings and make our meal plan and then shop right away. AFTER eating breakfast so that I'm not hungry while roaming the aisles. My goal is at least 1 vegetarian night, and when possible, one seafood night.

Sunday: Often something grilled. Usually without DD since we watch football or something that night while we eat.
Monday: Slow cooker, ideally, so we can start the week eating dinner as a family. When possible, I do a vegetarian soup like minestrone.
Tuesday: Usually a salad with grilled chicken
Wednesday: Stirfry (veggie only if Monday's dinner had meat) over quinoa. Maybe another soup. Varies depending on what sounds good that week.
Thursday: DH and I order in, usually Thai food.
Friday: Dinner as a family. Tacos or something grilled, or soup/chili if we didn't have soup on Wednesday.
Saturday: Another grilled night, often steak or pork. Or, I might try to make something a bit more complicated, or even simple but "gourmet", as a reminder of the days when we used to have great meals every night!

As you can see, we're big fans of using our gas grill year-round. We also like soup.
DH doesn't like leftovers and refuses to pack a lunch, so I bring the leftover soup or DD eats it as dinner the next night as well.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks everyone, you've inspired me! We made a meal plan this weekend using some of your suggestions, went grocery shopping with a prepared list, prepped a stew last night and turned the crock pot on this morning. I think we're off to a good start. Now I'm hoping that if we can force ourselves to follow the plan this week, and keep it up for a few more weeks, it'll eventually become habit.

[Anonymous]

My approach is this

I keep my grocery list and my meal planning list in google docs so I can acess it anywhere. I also have a list called "Crap I like to eat" which are my favorite go-to recipes.

When I need to go grocery shopping and do a big shop I take stock of what I have on hand, usually in the cupboard and plan a Ibout 8-12 meals. I make sure there's a good mix of types of meals (ie maybe one soup, 2-3 meat dishes, 2-3 veggie/grain dishes) I use pintrest and read a lot of blogs to get cooking ideas.

I grocery shop based on the ingredients in the meals I want to cook and whatever else we're out of.

Then I try to order the list so that the most perishable things will be eaten first. But I don't really make a hard and fast schedule because you never know when you are going to have to make a spur of the moment change or you come home and aren't in the mood for the scheduled meal.

In my experience, meal planning is one of those activities that can be hard to stick to and you have to do it for a few months before it really becomes a habit. I usually do my plan while I'm watching some dumb tv show so I have something sort of entertaining on in the background so it doesn't feel like yet annother chore.

[Anonymous]

Once a month I stock up on meat, fish, chicken. Then I vacum seal it and freeze. That way I only have to shop for fresh stuff on the weekend. I plan out 3 or 4 meals for the week, and make sure everything is on hand. I make sure I have enough for one leftover night. I also have one easy dinner night, and one eat out night.