It always surprises me when people do not meal plan. My working mom did weekly meal planning, so it was the only thing I knew. Had no idea that some people just wing it and make multiple trips to the grocery store until I was an adult. There was a period of time when I was younger and eating a lot of take out that I didn’t meal plan (I could also walk by the store on the way home from work), but I can’t imagine it with a family.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We meal plan and make ahead and freeze. Started as a way to save money and cut down on food waste.

Bought a large pork roast on sale. Sliced some off for pork chops, 2 small roasts, then another chunk in the crock pot for pulled pork.

Large pack of ground beef was made into chili, spaghetti sauce, meatloaf and taco meat.

You are using the same cut of pork for pork chops and pulled pork? OK.

Sounds way better than some of the weekly menus I've seen on this thread. I'm always amazed at what DCUMers eat.

Anonymous wrote:OP that list looks great. Could you and any PPs also post shopping lists? I am hopeless at sticking to the shopping lists for some strange ADHD/commitment phobe reason. I really need a list and a plan to get over this mental block.

OP here.
It's a little hard for me to do a grocery list but what we do us keep a running list on our phone. Also, we always keep extra food. For example if I open the last maple syrup we will add two maple syrups to our list. I never buy one BC I don't want to run out. Not just maple syrup, everything. I have a basement where I have a pantry room. If you are in a small city apt this is obviously not realistic. I keep loads of pantry staples. So even on the week where cupboards are getting low, you can still find inventory to put basic meals together. I also buy lots of longer lasting veg, since I only ship once a week. E.g. cauliflower, butternut squash etc. Don't make your meal plan specific. That way you can be flexible with what was available. Just survey your cupboards and start putting staples on your list and start rounding it out with extras. One weekend I really wanted to make a leach cobbler but the peaches didn't look too good at the store. I used apples instead to make apple crisp. But on my meal for that week I had just written (fruit dessert). When I first started meal planning many years ago I would set my heart on one very specific recipe and if I didn't get say Brussels sprouts for said recipe, then it was more frustrating.

We use a meal service which provides 3 meals (it's one of thos ones where you choose your recipes and then you get a box with the ingredients and you cook it) and then for other meals I basically have a few different recipes which I cook. So a pasta, spaghetti, fried rice, chicken schnitzels and I just rotate. One night a week the kids can get take out and one night we usually go out for dinner. I always have a lasagna I make and freeze, spaghetti sauce and chicken thighs in the freezer that I can take out and cook as well. I then have a standing grocery order for a pile of veggies and staples like rice and pasta etc. to make sure I have everything to hand.

We did when we had kids and teens doing sports. The family was fine with it. But it’s seen as old fashioned because every time I asked someone (looking to expand offerings ) they would say oh tonight grilled salmon! Really every night?
When we became empty nesters we stopped but that resulted in a lot of expensive take out.
I really can’t image the time waste of just randomly preparing stuff and the attendant trip to the grocery store or expensive take out. Also healthier as take out has a lot of salt, butter, oils and so on to make it tasty.
We eat a lot of fresh vegetables so that takes planning.

I shop one a week. I look at what is on sale and form meals around it. I generally really cook 3-4 meals a week. The other nights are leftovers, something in the freezer and 1 night of takeout.

This week I will cook:
Homemade black bean burgers
Turkey meatloaf
Chicken thighs (cooked somehow)

Tonight is just tortellini due to an evening appointment,

We meal plan dinners. Lunch is usually leftovers. We have a seven day white board on the fridge and the kids are free to fill in days, too. Sometimes that ends up with dinners that I might not choose, such as Wednesday when apparently we're eating bacon, bacon, bacon.

I added a cauliflower soup and I'll add bacon to as a topping. The kids can have bacon, veg, and leftover rice.

Anonymous wrote:We are a dual working parent household with 3 kids. I don't exactly *want* to meal plan, but I only want to go grocery shopping once a week. I don't really understand how else I could buy the ingredients I need at the grocery store if I don't meal plan for the week.

This is exactly it. If you're childless, don't mind eating at 8:00 pm after a day of working, a trip to the grocery store, and then cooking (or eat takeout all the time), them meal planning isn't necessary.

Anonymous wrote:We meal plan and make ahead and freeze. Started as a way to save money and cut down on food waste.

Bought a large pork roast on sale. Sliced some off for pork chops, 2 small roasts, then another chunk in the crock pot for pulled pork.

Large pack of ground beef was made into chili, spaghetti sauce, meatloaf and taco meat.

You are using the same cut of pork for pork chops and pulled pork? OK.

We are a dual working parent household with 3 kids. I don't exactly *want* to meal plan, but I only want to go grocery shopping once a week. I don't really understand how else I could buy the ingredients I need at the grocery store if I don't meal plan for the week.

OP that list looks great. Could you and any PPs also post shopping lists? I am hopeless at sticking to the shopping lists for some strange ADHD/commitment phobe reason. I really need a list and a plan to get over this mental block.

Sure, we do this most weeks. We make a chart. On the top across are the days of the week. Down the left side it says lunch, dinner and grocery list. I'd say we do this about 3 out of every 4 weeks.

This week I had a daughter pick out a recipe from her cookbook and then I picked out one from a cookbook of mine. The rest are more standard meals.

We meal plan and make ahead and freeze. Started as a way to save money and cut down on food waste.

Bought a large pork roast on sale. Sliced some off for pork chops, 2 small roasts, then another chunk in the crock pot for pulled pork.

Large pack of ground beef was made into chili, spaghetti sauce, meatloaf and taco meat.

I started when my son was young. I hate everything to do with cooking and got stressed every night over dinner. Planning meals helps reduce the stress, looking back, I do not know how I lived without meal planning. What did I do? Buy random crap at the store and hoped it went togethor?

I've always meal planned, and was chatting with some co workers about this. They seemed genuinely surprised. This is apparently not a thing? How many of you meal plan? How does your meal plan look?

I have been meal planning for a out 15 years and it makes life infinitely simpler.

For reference I am Gen X. I grocery shop once every two weeks. I meal plan every weekend for the upcoming seven days. I rarely do takeout and make nearly everything from scratch. Maybe twice a month max for takeout. You'll notice my meal Lan us vague BC I'm never quite sure what types if veggies etc I'll have on hand.

My meal plans are general. For 7 days I plan 5 meals BC you always have leftovers. So I'll have a couple smorgasbord nights.This is my 7 day meal plan (5 meals) for this week:

Grilled tofu and grilled veg with spicy sauce (siracha mayo and bell pepper onion)
Salad night (all the toppings and green lentils for protein and barley or farro)
Fish (grilled) tacos with fresh salsa, avocado
Pasta night with basic marinara
Soup night with nuns puffs (puffy bread). Soup this week will be white bean with farro, kale etc.)

I do the same for the second week but by the end if the second week we are eating the cupboards down. At that point there won't be as much fresh veg. But I'll have plenty of frozen. So one night will be a spinach quiche and another night will be a chick pea curry with canned whole tomatoes and brown rich, yoghurt etc. You get the idea. Or black beans and rice with corn salsa roasted, made with frozen corn.