Menu planning??? Anyone???

I always do a weekly menu for our meals as it helps me budget for the week, but I also find that due to things happening I have to move meals around based on how quickly they can be prepared and cooked etc etc. However, this week I have been very careful when planning my meals so that even if I have to shift them around to other days I know I will still be ok on the calorie side of things. Would you be able to work it out as x amount for breakfast, x for lunch, and x for dinner each day? If you know all the meals work out very close to each other across the board then you won't be risking any potential losses.

Yup...dinners are planned through the end of the month. Breakfasts are pretty consistent and dependent upon how much exercise I achieve, I plan my lunches.

Somehow it seems to help to post it the day before and 'play' with the numbers. (ie. two nights a week hubby fends for himself so dinner might be a protein shake for me. On Saturdays we usually have homemade pizza so that's my big cardio day)

Hope that helps

The crockpot is your friend :-))) Also, on Sundays I do a lot of prep...cut veggies for stirfries, make casseroles. Monday night is soup night in the winter. That sort of thing.

I do a sort of plan for the week - not every night (cos there's always something that comes up), and I might not have every meal on the night I planned. But it allows me to have in the fridge enough foods to make a good selection of meals.

Menu planning to me doesn't mean "Monday we HAVE to have this, and Tuesday it must be this...otherwise we've failed"

Menu planning is more like "OK, over the next week I'm going to cook steak, chicken (maybe that recipe we like in Jamie's book), some smoked cod cos we need a fish night once a week, maybe seared haloumi salad for our veggie night...."

I am never one that can stick to a weekly menu plan because I am not that organized to get it done. On Sundays I will go through and make a big pot of soup and roast a chicken so that I can have the chicken that day and then I can have the soup for lunches as well. There are so many things that you can do with baked chicken that the leftovers can be transformed as well or the meat can go onto salads for lunch. We do beans for one night also so that we are meat free at least one day. If you roast off a big pan of vegetables you can have a healthy side and then puree it for smooth soups for future meals like butternut squash.

http://www.cookinglight.com/food/quick-healthy/20-20-superfast-soups-00400000039394/

I try try try!!!! Got one down for this week, took all weekend of menu planning, doing inventory, making a list, grocery shopping, prepping meals, chopping veggies, etc. I hope it all follows thru the way I want it to.

I make a menu and corresponding grocery list for either one week or two weeks, just depends on my mood. I don't always follow it to a tee though as some days I may not feel like cooking and will go with another option. But I find that making the menu and doing some prep work the weekend before helps a LOT. As it stands for this week I have minimal cooking because I have so many leftovers and did prep work for the other meals. Meal planning alleviates a lot of torture in my house. If the meal isn't planned we end up with Chinese or pizza...when I meal plan weekly we can go for nearly 2 months without eating out. :drinker:

I do. I'm a pretty organized person so it's easy for me (and honestly couldn't have it any other way or I'd go nuts!).

I eat the same thing for breakfast (quick oats mixed with water, raisins, a little coffee creamer and splenda) and I keep all of that at work. My boyfriend eats english muffins or Clif bars so I buy those for him.

If you look at my diary, my lunches are a "little of this, little of that". That's the way I like it. My boyfriend likes turkey sandwiches and granny smith apples, and sometimes he'll buy lunch.

I plan dinners every Sunday before I go grocery shopping. I figure out our schedules for the week and decide how many meals we'll need. Yes, things do come up and you just rearrange them or freeze meat if you need to so it doesn't go bad. I've been doing this for a few months now and it really helps me to continue to eat healthy and get into a routine.

I find life is easier when I stick to a menu plan, though it hasn't happened lately. Things that have helped:
Have your family help plan meals. I sat everyone down once and gave them index cards and each had to come up with 2 different dinners (with some parameters, like a vegetable had to be included). Then I would plan a week from the stack of cards. I fleshed out the stack with other meals we often eat, or sometimes recipes I wanted to try.

The week had to be planned before I grocery shopped for the week. And each evening before I went to bed I'd look at the meal for the next day and make sure things were thawed if needed.

Lately, I've been working late 2-3 nights a week, so the kids cook. And after cooking themselves, and planning meals themselves, they don't complain about what I cook nearly as much!

I love to plan and be organized, but it usually lasts 2 days. My SO works from 230a-1130am so by the time I get home from work, he is ready for bed, which makes meal planning difficult. This weekend, I planned out my dinners for the next two weeks and went food shopping. I am trying something new. Sundays-Home cooked, Monday-crockpot (I am starting Pilates for the next 10 weeks, so this will make it easier to eat when I get home), Tuesday-Leftovers (I tap on Tuesdays so he has to fend for himself), Wednesday-pasta, Thursday-meat, Friday-pizza, Saturday-soup & sandwhich. I find doing it this way will be easier because I can plan healthier meals without overdoing one type of item over another (ie too many carbs or too much red meat). Plus I am hoping it will cut down on buying junk and binge eating when I get home. Keep your fingers crossed that this will work! *FEEL FREE TO FRIEND ME! I NEED ALL THE MOTIVATION I CAN GET!!*