I used to weekly meal plan but it wasnt enough so I made a 4 week plan and then rotate through that seasonally. Dinners will change in spring/summer to lighter fare/more grilling. I follow a pattern for breakfast each week and lunches are leftovers from dinner the previous night. Toddler has PBJ, Ham or leftovers for school lunch. The carb-based breakfasts get paired with more protein-based lunches and vice versa. Example for egg breakfasts ill pair leftover pasta or rice/beans or PBJ. Conversely for french toast/pancakes we will do nuggets/fish sticks/ham/charcuterie. I leave Saturday or Sunday lunch open for eating out since that is typically what happens when we have a big activity one of those days.

Breakfast follows:
Eggs plus carb (hashbrown/zucchini bread/chorizo tacos/etc) with veg/fruit 2x week
Smoothie 1x week
Baked oatmeal 1x week (blueberry coconut/raspberry choc chip/pumpkin pie/) plus chicken sausage
Stovetop oatmeal 1xweek (pumpkin/carrot cake/fruit based/
Pancakes/French toast 1x week (rotate. work veggies in by doing zucchini choc chip pancakes or beet pancakes)
Toast/English muffin with butter & jelly, chicken sausage/pork sausage plus chocolate milk 1x week

Snacks on weekends are planned out. We usually bake something on the weekend (plus its a toddler friendly activity) and it gets added to breakfast 1x week, lunch 1x week and is a snack 1x weekend. Example zucchini bread (pumpkin bread, choc chip lentil muffins, etc.) I am a fan of Kids Eat in Color and bought 2 of the guides but a lot of the recipes didnt work for our family so I followed her framework and filled it in.

4 in our house, 2 kids now teens. I used to try and meal plan, but tried and gave up too many times to bother. Just keep the house stocked with food, grocery shop once a week for fresh produce, and I usually decide what is for dinner the night before or the morning of (and take chicken, ground turkey or pork, sausage, etc)., out of the freezer. If I see nice looking seafood while at the store for my regular shopping, I will pick that up.

We also do Imperfectfoods.com delivery once a week, and will make a plug for them. You can change what they assign in your box (delete, add, increase) every week, and skip a week or weeks any time. I have found you do have to read why they have what they have (I don't care of the outside of a cantaloupe is scarred or a squash is funny shaped), but some items I have not cared for and won't get again (when a particular stone fruit is too small, I have found it not to be worth it).

I guess I do. I plan out the coming week’s dinner in advance, and shop for those meals on my weekly grocery run. I’m not sure what the alternative is, unless it is just deciding each day what you will have for dinner that night. That wouldn’t work for me because I cook a lot for the freezer and need a day or two to thaw things.

I keep stocked with staples (pasta, rice, beans, eggs, oats, tomato sauce...). At the farmer's market and grocery store, I have a couple ideas in mind but tend to build around what looks good at the store. Once a week, I make a quick bread or muffin, a stock or slow-cooked meat, a pasta dish, and aim for two meat-based dishes. I also don't mind cooking without a recipe, so a stir-fry or rice with assorted vegetables can help use up produce. That's the framework, and I'm able to keep the trip to once a week. (I do live within two blocks of a small grocery, so I don't feel compelled to get my shopping done in one trip a week.)

While I have a system, I wouldn't call myself a meal planner.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you not? I mean, how can you not without putting on weight, spending a ton, and/or having dinner take three times as long to make?

I plan out our meals on a weekly basis. Often, one will flow into the next -- so leftovers from one night's pulled pork will get used another day for pork tacos, quesadillas, pozole, etc. Or an uneaten salmon filet gets put into a quiche or crepe the next day.

I try to do a mix of crowd favorites and new ideas, and a mix of time/attention-intensive recipes and easier/quicker/set-and-forget stuff. Plus there's always pasta and breakfast-for-dinner if we run into a bind.

This just seems like basic adulting. It's not an exceptional skill.

I don't meal plan specifically and have no problem going to the grocery store once a week. I have plenty of staples on hand, and buy an assortment of proteins. It's not hard. I find rigid things like "taco Tuesday" boring because they quickly become repetitive. I do love to cook, though, and spend a fair amount of time finding and trying new recipes.

I did taco Tuesday and pizza friday for a year. Taco tuesday wasn't boring because there are so many types of tacos (fish, beef, chicken, black bean) and each of those has slightly different condiments. I also included quesadillas and burritos so it was really tex-mex Tuesday. Pizza friday got boring to me but we did a variety of home made, take out and frozen. After I'd been doing it for a full year, I mentioned something about Pizza friday to my teen daughter who was completely clueless. She hadn't noticed that we'd had pizza 52 weeks in a row.

My kid likes fairly green bananas so I only buy 2 when I shop on Sundays. I put them in her lunch on Mon and Tues. Did it for her whole childhood. I once mentioned it when she was in HS and she had no idea...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can you not? I mean, how can you not without putting on weight, spending a ton, and/or having dinner take three times as long to make?

I plan out our meals on a weekly basis. Often, one will flow into the next -- so leftovers from one night's pulled pork will get used another day for pork tacos, quesadillas, pozole, etc. Or an uneaten salmon filet gets put into a quiche or crepe the next day.

I try to do a mix of crowd favorites and new ideas, and a mix of time/attention-intensive recipes and easier/quicker/set-and-forget stuff. Plus there's always pasta and breakfast-for-dinner if we run into a bind.

This just seems like basic adulting. It's not an exceptional skill.

I don't meal plan specifically and have no problem going to the grocery store once a week. I have plenty of staples on hand, and buy an assortment of proteins. It's not hard. I find rigid things like "taco Tuesday" boring because they quickly become repetitive. I do love to cook, though, and spend a fair amount of time finding and trying new recipes.

I did taco Tuesday and pizza friday for a year. Taco tuesday wasn't boring because there are so many types of tacos (fish, beef, chicken, black bean) and each of those has slightly different condiments. I also included quesadillas and burritos so it was really tex-mex Tuesday. Pizza friday got boring to me but we did a variety of home made, take out and frozen. After I'd been doing it for a full year, I mentioned something about Pizza friday to my teen daughter who was completely clueless. She hadn't noticed that we'd had pizza 52 weeks in a row.

Anonymous wrote:How can you not? I mean, how can you not without putting on weight, spending a ton, and/or having dinner take three times as long to make?

I plan out our meals on a weekly basis. Often, one will flow into the next -- so leftovers from one night's pulled pork will get used another day for pork tacos, quesadillas, pozole, etc. Or an uneaten salmon filet gets put into a quiche or crepe the next day.

I try to do a mix of crowd favorites and new ideas, and a mix of time/attention-intensive recipes and easier/quicker/set-and-forget stuff. Plus there's always pasta and breakfast-for-dinner if we run into a bind.

This just seems like basic adulting. It's not an exceptional skill.

I don't meal plan specifically and have no problem going to the grocery store once a week. I have plenty of staples on hand, and buy an assortment of proteins. It's not hard. I find rigid things like "taco Tuesday" boring because they quickly become repetitive. I do love to cook, though, and spend a fair amount of time finding and trying new recipes.

How can you not? I mean, how can you not without putting on weight, spending a ton, and/or having dinner take three times as long to make?

I plan out our meals on a weekly basis. Often, one will flow into the next -- so leftovers from one night's pulled pork will get used another day for pork tacos, quesadillas, pozole, etc. Or an uneaten salmon filet gets put into a quiche or crepe the next day.

I try to do a mix of crowd favorites and new ideas, and a mix of time/attention-intensive recipes and easier/quicker/set-and-forget stuff. Plus there's always pasta and breakfast-for-dinner if we run into a bind.

This just seems like basic adulting. It's not an exceptional skill.

I don’t meal plan. I grocery shop daily and buy what looks good/fresh/is on sale and come up with dinner based on that. I SAH though and realize most people don’t do this

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I basically do all that you do, and it makes my life so much easier. I also enjoy cooking, and I enjoy trying out new recipes, so I spend a bit of time on Sundays poking around blogs for something fun and healthy to cook, in addition to those in my regular rotation. But I, too, have a general idea that we'll have some green veggie for each meal, so I'll just use whatever we have. And I, too, buy multiples of things and have a lot of staples, so if I need to double something or switch gears because of some kink in my plans, I can either do that because i have back-ups, or I can reach into the freezer and pull out something I made and froze. It is work, but it is less work than having no idea every night what is getting made for food that night. We almost never eat out, so we save money in this way.

I also run a pantry system where it's a 1-in, 1-out type system so that I always make sure I have plenty of tinned tomatoes, flour, maple syrup, caster sugar, brown sugar, staple spices etc.

I do best with manipulatives so I have a stack of index cards, one each for chicken, beef, pork, etc, and have all the typical main meals my family enjoys listed out on them according to main protein. Then I have a card listing starch sides and another with veggie sides. On another card I have a short list of meals I can usually make for under ten dollars.

From those permanent lists I’ll meal plan three to five days into the future, based on whatever’s on sale at the grocery store I’m planning to go to.

Tonight -- leftover lasagna, salad, garlic bread
Tuesday -- cod in saffron broth, cucumber radish salad
Wednesday -- chicken marbella, mashed potatoes
Thursday -- sausage stuffed portobello mushrooms
Friday -- no idea

I kind of meal plan but also go to the store multiple tiens a week. I love grocery shopping and its close and i go on my way to work and get fresh fruit and veg. We discuss upcoming week every sunday with dh and come up with a plan.
This week:
Mon: turkey meatballs, chopped salad, rice for kids
Tues: taco night (shredded chicken and refried beans etc)
Wed: roasted salmon and broccoli sauté
Thurs: mini pizzas
Friday: butternut squash stew and challah

Dh is responsible for tues and wed this week. We split the shopping and he gets the staples and i get veg and fruit and we keep a shared grocery app on the phone. Kids are 2 and 5.

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.

Shoulder chops can come out pretty nice if you braise them. And if you’ve never roasted a whole pork shoulder before, hot damn, do you have a nice treat coming:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/cidla/i_have_13_until_my_next_pay_check_in_15_weeks_so/

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I basically do all that you do, and it makes my life so much easier. I also enjoy cooking, and I enjoy trying out new recipes, so I spend a bit of time on Sundays poking around blogs for something fun and healthy to cook, in addition to those in my regular rotation. But I, too, have a general idea that we'll have some green veggie for each meal, so I'll just use whatever we have. And I, too, buy multiples of things and have a lot of staples, so if I need to double something or switch gears because of some kink in my plans, I can either do that because i have back-ups, or I can reach into the freezer and pull out something I made and froze. It is work, but it is less work than having no idea every night what is getting made for food that night. We almost never eat out, so we save money in this way.