Meal Planning Intro?

FindingCynSporation

Does anyone have any advice on meal planning/meal prep? I want to start doing that to help eliminated the dreaded "what's for dinner" talks every day. I find it hard to know what I'll want to eat for the rest of the week though - sometimes I want more carbs, sometimes I'll want something overly healthy, sometimes it's just a salad... I also have a live-in boyfriend who isn't as focused on health as I am, and while not intentional, he often sabotages my plans with date nights and cooking less-than-deal nutritional meals. Would love other MFPer thoughts and input!

TavistockToad

Make a menu at the start of the week, add a day to eat out or get takeaway or whatever, and plan your cals accordingly so you hit your weekly deficit

kommodevaran

Meal planning and meal prepping are two different things.

If you don't want to not know what's for dinner, you have to decide in advance what's for dinner. If you tell your boyfriend in advance, he'll also be less likely to make different plans. You can have parts of the meal planned in advance, and just adjust sides. But if you don't want to decide what you want to eat any given day, just decide what you want to eat during the week, buy/prep ingredients, and then pick whatever meal/combo you want that day. Make a list. Post the list (somewhere, anywhere, on the fridge, Google calendar) if you want boyfriend to see it.

Sira125

You can use the weekly sales to help drive your menus somewhat and feel good about saving money as well as eating healthier.

Sira125

Maybe just start by planning a few meals a week. Then you don't have to focus as hard to make good choices on the days you are tired and just want something/anything to eat

kbmnurse

I have been making a pot of soup on Sundays. I love Skinnytaste.com recipes. I portion out the soup and usually have one daily at around 11AM seems to help my appetite. My routine is 5 smaller meals daily. I do a lot of prep. Cut up veggies and have them with hummus. I roll up Thin-Trim turkey with a thin slice of provolone. I do so much better when there are things I can grab when hungry. I always keep a few Lean Cuisines in the freezer for those time when I don't know what the heck I feel like. I love their Panini's. Dinner is usually whatever we are having but, a small portion. Good luck and check our Skinnytaste.com.

Lounmoun

I blogged about my meal planning process last year. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Lounmoun/view/my-meal-planning-process-765880
After I plan, I have a list of 7 diferent dinners for the week. We shop weekly for groceries so I have all the things I need. I do not have to assign an item a particular day of week unless I plan to use it as an ingredient in future meals like leftover chicken going in a soup or casserole. So I can pick from the list each day. I cross things off as I have them. My choices get more limited at the end of the week.
Our budget is tight. We eat the food we have in the house that week. We only eat out one meal a week.
I have staples like pasta, rice, potatoes, eggs always and usually a container of soup in the freezer if things need to change.

lizandrashaw

I use a free app called AnyList. You can import recipes from the web and make a shopping list from it. Unlike MFP you can save the instructions for the recipe as well, so I actually cook from my phone now. You can get it for iOS and Android, plus you can access it on your computer at https://www.anylistapp.com/web Any changes I make to my recipes or shopping list on the web-based app will show up on my phone. Great app.

nowine4me

It takes some time, but I log all my meals for the week (except Friday night and Saturday) into MFP on Sunday mornings. I shop for everything for the week on Sunday afternoon and meal prep all breakfasts, lunches and snacks for the entire week on Sunday night. I can tell you now (Sunday night) that Thursday's dinner is beef tenderloin and zoodle caprese salad with baked potatoes. If anything changes during the week-- which of course it does-- I edit my log accordingly. I do quick adds for Friday dinner and Saturdays and eat that and any calories I might have left over during the week. Some *might* go towards wine. I also have 10-15 great dinner recipes and the ingredients lists stored on my phone that I can drop in my shopping list and those same recipies set up in MFP.

tryett

When I started I found several new recipes that supplemented the standard ones we had. I still look out for more. I try to keep all the base ingredients for them and purchase the meat and veggies for them on a weekly or no-weekly basis. I have two adult sons and they are given a choice in the meals. Because there are several recipes that use chicken or other things, it leaves a lot of room to change our mind at the last minute for the meal.

Evamutt

what I've always done is have a "set" menu plan of very simple foods. Like lean turkey patties, boneless/skinless chicken thighs, lean beef strips (the kind you buy for stir fry) potatoes, sweet & regular & various fresh veggies.
So I have these on hand (I cook them on our small goerge forman grill) so I always have a back up what to eat & already have in case i don't WANT to cook anything else.I will cook something different during the week that we want but if i don't, i fall back on these as they're so convenient to have around.

valerialeek

I use an app called Yummly that gives me plenty of ideas but I usually let the oven do the cooking: zucchini lasagna, eggplant parmigiana.... but I also cook curries and stir fries. I divide up into single serves and chuck 'em in the fridge so they are good for both dinner and work lunches. But I also have a sandwich presser and I use pitas as pizza bases