horrible at meal planning...any tips?

wbh1964

I am new here and all that I have read and heard all my life is that meal planning is a must! BUT I am HORRIBLE at planning meals both for cooking and shopping (guess I should have taken home-ec after all I have alot of weight to shed and am trying to do it right this time! Anyone have any tips for planning meals?

Stage14

We do one big grocery shopping trip each week and plan a weeks worth of meals while making the list. It makes grocery trips shorter and less expensive (I'm less likely to impulse buy if I have a specific list), and still gives us flexibility on what meal we have which day because we have a variety. Most nights we cook enough of the main dish to take for lunch the next day.

We also keep a small stock of frozen meals and lean pockets in the freezer for when life throws us crazy curveballs and we don't have time to pack lunch or cook.

Francl27

The extent of my meal planning is buying a few meats/fish at the store and frozen veggies. Then I just have whatever I bought at some point during the week, depending on the sale by date, add some veggies and rice/noodles/couscous, and call it a meal (ok to be fair hubby makes most of the cooking, especially in the Summer as I have no clue how to grill).

For lunch I get frozen grilled chicken (because I'm lazy, or I get hubby to grill more so I have leftovers, but I found a brand of grilled chicken that tastes better than what hubby makes so...). Then I have grilled chicken burgers/wraps/tacos etc or just leftover from the night before. We just keep salsa, cheese, sour cream, tortillas in the fridge pretty much all the time.

And I typically do groceries twice a week, I have a hard time finding fresh meat or fish that keeps that long most of the time. But really, it doesn't have to be complicated. We just rotate what we eat a bit (tacos, different kinds of sausages, different kinds of fish, chicken breast, chicken thighs, steak, burgers - I don't really like porks except ribs so we avoid it). But we pretty much eat a lot of the same thing.

Another option if you don't mind eating the same thing a lot is making crockpot recipes, just throw things in the pot, and eat leftovers for a week.

We typically have frozen meatballs in the freezer and pasta for the 'I don't know what to cook' nights.

pita7317

Before starting this I loved planning meals/cooking.
That is no longer part of my day.
Just buy healthy foods you know, lean meats, fish, fruits, veggies, etc etc.
In the morning while having coffee and water...I decide what sounds good for that day and log all my meals in.
Can always delete if you change your mind later.
Preparing meals if you eat simple takes no time at all.
I have to just plan day by day, works best for me.

JessicaBR13

This is a great list, I pretty much follow all of these tips.
http://www.thekitchn.com/10-tips-for-better-weekly-meal-planning-reader-intelligence-report-177252

Lupercalia

I plan out the dinners, as I'm the one doing the cooking and shopping. I keep a file of recipes on my computer that I add to regularly--I read lots of food blogs. Each week, I sit down and decide what we're going to have for dinner for the week. I typically make at least two, sometimes three things that may be involved to cook, but will result in there being enough for dinner the next night as well. That cuts my cooking time and generally makes me feel less insane. Other days we have things that are just one night affairs, but I typically look for things that won't take me 3 hours to prep and cook.

I make my grocery list from that--I do a big shop once a week, and fill in with fresh veggies (especially greens) throughout the week. I inevitably forget something, or perhaps I thought I had some ingredient that I don't actually have, so I end up having to pick up a few little things here and there throughout the week, but all the big shopping is done and I'm on track.

Breakfast and lunch aren't really planned so much--there are three of us in my family, and we all eat separately for these meals as we like different things and have different schedules, so I just get whatever each of us eats regularly, and that's that.

I typically cook a bunch of chicken on Sunday nights to get my son and I through the week (or at least the first half). We both like salads, so that's how it typically gets used, though sometimes I'll just eat a piece cold with an egg or two and some greens.

I always have meats in the freezer, and typically some sort of frozen veggies and fruits as well.

As far as logging goes, I put my recipes into the calculator here on MFP before I've cooked/eaten them. On the day I'm going to eat it, I enter that into the daily log as a dinner entry, and then I fit the rest of my food around that, because dinner is typically my most calorific meal, and comes at the end of the day...so I've found it smart to log that first and then work around it.

writergeek313

We do one big grocery shopping trip each week and plan a weeks worth of meals while making the list. It makes grocery trips shorter and less expensive (I'm less likely to impulse buy if I have a specific list), and still gives us flexibility on what meal we have which day because we have a variety. Most nights we cook enough of the main dish to take for lunch the next day.

We also keep a small stock of frozen meals and lean pockets in the freezer for when life throws us crazy curveballs and we don't have time to pack lunch or cook.

This is similar to what I do. This morning I looked at the grocery store's online flyer to see what's on sale this week, then I planned my meals around what proteins I could get for the best price. Since it's just me, I usually make two meals to switch between for dinners throughout the week, plus something to take for lunches and at least one or two options for breakfasts. Tomorrow I'll do most of my cooking for the week. This week it will be mini turkey meatloaves with roasted delicata squash and roasted cauliflower, pepper steak and brown rice, grilled steak with quinoa and grilled vegetables for lunches (sirloin steaks were buy one, get one free this week), some breakfast burritos, and a batch of pumpkin protein muffins.

It's time-consuming, but it makes it easy for me to be good no matter how busy I get. I'm a college professor, and if it's a week when I have papers to grade or a lot going on, I might not get home from work until after 6. Sometimes if I have time I'll cook a different meal in the middle of the week for variety and freeze what I had planned for a homemade TV dinner when I need one. Last week I didn't plan and cook as much, and I ended up working a 50-hour week and gave in to the temptation of stress eating. I felt like crap by the end of the week because of it, which was a good reminder that I need to keep meal planning and cooking a priority.

zeroinfish

I use HomeRunMeals online meal planning service for meal plans. It's helpful because it generates meal plans based on my family's preferences and dietary needs and then provides a weekly shopping list, grocery coupons, etc. Just having a meal plan and shopping list and sticking to it is a big help both for eating healthier and saving money.

These are the key parts of meal planning for me:

1) Check your local grocery ads. Plan your meals around the most expensive ingredients that are on sale (usually the protein). For example, if pork tenderloins are $1.99/lb on sale this week, it makes sense to use them.

2) Find recipes that use these ingredients. Cookbooks still work, but a lot of sites also let you search by ingredient. With HomeRunMeals I just enter a few weekly sales items, and it checks against my other preferences (like no onions - my son is allergic, no spicy food, as I don't care for things too spicy, etc) and suggests meals that match. Don't forget to plan some easy veggies/side dishes also.

3) Compare the ingredients needed for those recipes to what you have on hand, and create a shopping list. When you shop, stick to your list to avoid impulse buys. When you have real food around the house all the time you'll find you want and need junk food a lot less anyway.

4) Use your freezer if you aren't going to cook a meat or seafood item for several days. Plan things around your schedule; if you get home late one night cook something easy or have leftovers, and save the bigger cooking projects for nights you have more time. Sometimes I'll do things ahead of time like bake some chicken breasts over the weekend, then I can pull those out and have a head start on dinner once or twice during the week.

Overall meal planning is a huge help, which is why most people once they start doing it tend to stick with it. You can do it with a pencil or paper if you have the time, or use an online service. Just make part of your weekly routine to plan your meals and you'll save time in the long run and find healthy eating is easier. My two cents.

pkw58

I only buy enough fresh produce to last three days. I got tired of throwing out stuff. I buy protein like fish portions in individual frozen paks. I buy yogurt for the week and 1/2 dozen eggs. I buy bags of frozen veggies. Then I mix and match at night. I try to eat my biggest amount of calories at lunch. For example, avocado and anything at a restuarant. ( I am a business consultant and eat lunch with a client basically every day. )

I eat cottage cheese or eggs for breakfast . Add a yogurt. I try to just keep a good amount of stuff in the freezer and pantry to make a nutrition dense meal without spending a ton of money.