Meal planning

kcult

kcult

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I'm struggling with this, fellas.

As a thank you to my wife for her buy in on my early release from work, I try to have supper ready, or at least "just a few minutes" out, but I find trying to decide what to prepare difficult. It's incredible the amount of thought and planning (at least for me) that goes into deciding what we're going to eat today or tomorrow. And considering how most of what we eat is coming from our freezers, there's not much you can do "last minute."

For those that have successfully figured this out, how are you managing?

I know it can't be meatloaf Monday, taco Tuesday, Welsh Rabbit Wednesday... every week, can it?

I do consider myself lucky that, it really doesn't matter what food hits the table, my wife is thankful and never says, "I didn't want this."
 
First question. Can you cook? If not then nothing we can tell you here is gonna change that fact and whatever you fix is gonna taste like something prepared by someone who can't cook.

First thing you need to do is collect a list of what you cook best. Hopefully that list is 10 or more dishes. Get a calendar and list one for each day. Keep repeating the list but change up the order you have them in. Nobody wants the same dish on the same day all the time. Then figure out changes to each dish so they aren't always the same.

Add dishes when you find something new that you both like. Keep trying new things. You might not like everything but you won't know till you try. That should get you started.
 
Ask her what she likes and couple it with what you like and work the menu out from there.

Toss on crockpot meals. Super easy and you can set it and forget it, then you are not tied to the stove per se’.

Also, make ingredients work double or triple duty. Ex: large rotisserie chicken from Sam’s can be 1, 2, or 3 meals. Meal one is rotisserie chicken with sides and subsequent meals can be chicken salad or bbq chicken pizza (shred chicken and add favorite bbq sauce, spread a bit of bbq sauce on the crust, top with chicken / cheese / thin sliced onion,”, bake, then top off with cilantro).
 
Also, I put a weekly menu on the fridge and confer. Then menu items may get moved around within the week or completely replaced…. But having the list helps everyone know what’s up and helps me to stick with the plan.
 
YouTube is your friend on this.
Also just google recipes with titles like hearty winter recipes or supper recipes with chicken or other ingredients you like.
 
I've been cooking for 50 years and my wife and everyone else that tries it loves it. I also do most of the grocery shopping and like to get stuff on sale and freeze it. The wife and I sit down usually and discuss the next weeks menu and the shopping list is formed from that. The best thing to do is know what you want to make tomorrow and take it out of the freezer and let it defrost overnight in the fridge. Also - a few decent cook books doesn't hurt. The 1997 version of "The Joy of Cooking" is indispensable. I find recipes on the internet to be irritating, unreliable, and generally a waste of time (and food sometimes).
 
Pop N Shots said:
Also, I put a weekly menu on the fridge and confer. Then menu items may get moved around within the week or completely replaced…. But having the list helps everyone know what’s up and helps me to stick with the plan.
Click to expand...

But how do you decide what goes on the menu?

I mean, I've been eating my whole life, but I've never been the manager.

I can eat just about anything. My wife? She is huge on comfort foods and a meat and three.
 
We have a family sit-down to discuss the menu for the week. Dates for each meal are juggled around school activities, but the overall list tells me what we need to shop for. We incorporate one meal out each week, and that has at least driven us away from fast food (they want better restaurants than just fast food).
It isn't easy by any means, but it is worth the effort to help control portions and get more vegetables in our lives.
I use one of these to help me keep track of what we decided and what I need. Amazon product ASIN B07W7N88DW
 
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kcult said:
But how do you decide what goes on the menu?

I mean, I've been eating my whole life, but I've never been the manager.

I can eat just about anything. My wife? She is huge on comfort foods and a meat and three.
Click to expand...

If I don’t have a plan in mind I go to the store, walk around, buy what is on sale and make something up. We have some standby’s that I can plan and nix in. Around here. Mexican and pasta dishes are safe zones. I can create something decent, and a side version that’s la e for my skinny daughter.

Cookbooks. Flip through and just pick something.

Know thy audience.
 
kcult said:
But how do you decide what goes on the menu?
Click to expand...

I start with..

1) what do I absolutely need to cook (what will be out of date soon or what meat needs to go first so it doesn’t go bad.

2) what do I have available at the house - I look through the fridge and cabinets to see that I already have on hand and cook that or find a recipe that incorporates 1 & 2.

3) What do we want or crave.

I also try to keep the proteins rotating. After the three above it’s off the the store to get what I need.

Example …Menu for this week is

Week 1
Mon - Tuna Salad with Asian cabbage salad

Tues - POPS (potatoes, onions, red / green peppers and turkey kielbasa roasted in the oven with olive oil and seasoning.

Wed - Sloppy Joes with green bean casserole

Thursday - Breakfast dinner: fresh country sausage patties (from local farmer) and waffles

Friday - most likely char-grill

Weekend is grilling, eating out, or leftovers

Week 2
Mon- Greek lemon chicken and potatoes roasted in the oven with sautéed spinach

Tues - Pan fried pork tenderloin medallions with baked sweet potatoes

Wed- Crockpot beef tips with onion and bell peppers over egg noodles or mashed tater (not sure on which yet)

Thurs - Rotisserie chicken with squash casserole

Friday - RED hotdogs with all the toppings. Chips and salsa.
 
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I would say pick your proteins first. Lets say beef, ground beef, chicken, pork. Pick how many you would want of each for a week, be it due to preference, price, etc. We would probably do 1-1-2-1, and then either two "wildcard" days, or days where the protein isn't the determining factor. From there, pick a handful of recipes for each protein and your "wild cards" from YouTube, cookbook, etc, and write them down. Each month, add one or two new recipes. That way you can circulate recipes, plan in advance, and have an ingredient list ready to go. You can then stagger/break up your proteins so you don't have two consecutive beef days, chicken days, etc.

As was noted previously, if you have a freezer, that helps a lot with respect to stews, soups, crock pot dishes, or even just being able to buy larger cuts/bulk.
 
If you are working out of a freezer maybe let FIFO drive your decision as to what gets consumed next. Then you only have to decide how it will be prepared.
 
Pop N Shots said:
I start with..

1) what do I absolutely need to cook (what will be out of date soon or what meat needs to go first so it doesn’t go bad.

2) what do I have available at the house - I look through the fridge and cabinets to see that I already have on hand and cook that or find a recipe that incorporates 1 & 2.

3) What do we want or crave.

I also try to keep the proteins rotating. After the three above it’s off the the store to get what I need.
Click to expand...

This is similar to what my wife does. She bases meals around what's available, what proteins we have, and what's on sale--and she is an absolute beast with coupons, Ibotta, etc., so she ALWAYS gets good deals, and goes from there.

At least a couple meals a week, usually three, are "stretchers," soups, pasta, things that can be eaten over a couple or three meals in order to stretch the food dollar. I eat the hell out of leftovers, and I do not like wasting food.
 
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