Weekly planning categories?

Allegi32

Hi

I trying to get myself organized and do some weekly meal planning, but I've always failed. I think having a category for each night will help me find recipes for each night for dinner. I have the following categories and I'll go through all my recipes to choose tried and true recipes each week. I was hoping people might have ideas for others? I'm saving "soup night" for after summer since it's so hot. And I don't want to do a pasta night because it's just a calorie nightmare for me (same with casseroles). Any ideas?

These are mine so far:

1. International
2. Burgers/Sandwiches
3. New recipe night
4. Chicken
5. Breakfast for dinner

Thanks for any suggestions!

BeginningAgainMay14

How about a vegetarian night and a leftovers night? I find I end up wasting a fair amount of food if I don't schedule a meal to eat up whatever's in the fridge, plus it's nice to have a night off from meal preparation. Or if you deal with your leftovers in other ways, you can make double of something one night, then you have a free night with no dishes to wash.

I believe in making things easy and sustainable, so if it were me, I'd probably cook double on chicken night, since most ways of preparing chicken it's just as easy to make twice as much. I actually did that tonight, poaching twice as much chicken as I needed.

stuffinmuffin

Ah that's quite a nice idea. Though I tend to have to balance my weekly meal planning around the weekly shop so it's a bit less flexible and as the above poster mentioned - there's leftover night too!

You could pick different cuisines, like Italian, Indian night (homemade of course ) and you could always keep a night to have what you fancy on the day! Thinking about it I seem to leave Friday night to whatever my household fancies on the day to make it seem like a bit of a treat. Something like steak or a pie.

Have a look at some weekly meal planners on the internet too as they can be a good source of creating a lot of variety throughout the week without breaking the bank.

Allegi32

How about a vegetarian night and a leftovers night? I find I end up wasting a fair amount of food if I don't schedule a meal to eat up whatever's in the fridge, plus it's nice to have a night off from meal preparation. Or if you deal with your leftovers in other ways, you can make double of something one night, then you have a free night with no dishes to wash.

I believe in making things easy and sustainable, so if it were me, I'd probably cook double on chicken night, since most ways of preparing chicken it's just as easy to make twice as much. I actually did that tonight, poaching twice as much chicken as I needed.

I thought about a leftover night, but I usually try to eat leftovers for lunch so I don't have to plan another meal, LOL. Plus, the times when I've been planning leftovers, everybody eats everything, haha!! I just don't want to rely on it and then be stuck without food because that's happened in the past.

Lizzy622

1. chicken or turkey (usually a simple baked or roasted)
2. pork
3. vegetarian (bean based)
4. chicken or turkey ( use leftover chicken from 1. in a different recipe)
5. vegetarian (egg based) or breakfast for dinner
6. beef
7. leftovers

I usually base on my main protein source. It also varies depending on what is on sale in the circular. I will throw in lamb, or bison or duck when they are reasonably priced.

seltzermint555

~ Greek
~ salads (all different types)
~ Fish
~ Mexican (usually burrito bowls with beans/rice)
~ lentils or beans

_lyndseybrooke_

I probably don't have anything to add, but that's a cool idea. I wish I had enough recipes in my arsenal to rotate foods like that. We basically stick to Ranch burgers, sloppy joes, pork chops, Italian chicken pasta, mostaccioli, homemade pizza, tacos with steak or ground beef, crunchy Ranch chicken, and a rare breakfast-for-dinner night. And I only cook three times per week, so we have two leftover nights and two nights when we eat out (weekends).

I have no interest in eating a salad for dinner and my husband would probably look at me like I was crazy if I even suggested it. Same with any vegetarian recipe - we're big meat eaters. We definitely have pasta quite often and it always fits nicely into my calories, so I'm not sure why that's such an issue for you.

I think your categories sound great.

asdelmonte

To avoid complaints from the masses, I let each person in the family pick 1 meal a week. That leaves me 1 night for leftovers and 1 night for take out/going out. (I also bring leftovers for lunch but there's usually enough for leftover night, and if there isn't we do breakfast for dinner)

Allegi32

I probably don't have anything to add, but that's a cool idea. I wish I had enough recipes in my arsenal to rotate foods like that. We basically stick to Ranch burgers, sloppy joes, pork chops, Italian chicken pasta, mostaccioli, homemade pizza, tacos with steak or ground beef, crunchy Ranch chicken, and a rare breakfast-for-dinner night. And I only cook three times per week, so we have two leftover nights and two nights when we eat out (weekends).

I have no interest in eating a salad for dinner and my husband would probably look at me like I was crazy if I even suggested it. Same with any vegetarian recipe - we're big meat eaters. We definitely have pasta quite often and it always fits nicely into my calories, so I'm not sure why that's such an issue for you.

I think your categories sound great.

I'm Italian so we love our pasta - portion size is definitely an issue when it comes to that for me. So I try to avoid it altogether...otherwise I feel like I have this tiny little cup of pasta and I'm always starving. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, LOL.

CookNLift

but there are 7 days in a week :-/. I'd say 2 should be leftover nights

sunsoakeddreamer

I usually plan 5 meals per week and then try and have some "pantry dinners" on hand. I find if I plan for 7 dinners I usually end up tossing food that has gone bad. So 2 nights are left overs, going out, pantry dinner, or eating at MIL's.
The meals I plan are usually:
1) meatless
2) Mexican
3) salad or cooked veg with chicken or steak and some type of rice/grain
4) Pasta night
5) chicken, turkey, or fish dish

I try new recipes once a week or every other week. We try for at least 2 veggie meals during the week (ie Mexican night might be veggie chilli or last night was black bean and sweet potato burritos, one of the pantry dinner nights might be veggie stir fry). For pasta night lately we've been subbing in spaghetti squash- love that!
For me meal planning this way provides enough structure that I can put together a shopping list quickly, but I still have room for variety so we don't get bored. I usually make just enough for dinner for two and leftovers for lunch the next day.

Allegi32

Thank you for the input, everyone! I think it's obvious from the responses that what works for each person can differ drastically from another. It's definitely what works best for you.

I think what will work best for me is to use my original categories and add in "Quick or make-ahead meals" and "Family favorites/family choice." Every Monday is dance night for me so it makes sense that every monday I either need to have something I can throw together quickly before I leave, or make something during the day that Hubby can just pop into the oven when he gets home.

I'm hoping this will make menu planning easier for me, it feels better just coming up with these categories.