Meal Planning for a week

I tend to eat roughly the same breakfast, lunch and snack during the week and only vary my dinner. I meal plan and make my grocery list over the weekend and then am trying to log the whole week's worth of food on Monday to take guesswork out of it. I have a spreadsheet with 2 tabs - one has the weekly menu, and the second tab has meals that my family willingly eats. I usually try and incorporate 1 or 2 new things in per week and amend the list accordingly.

Pfft, I plan my meals for a month.


Good old pencil seems to do the trick best if you ask me.

I have a binder for all my favourite dinner recipes and then another one for lunch recipes. I also have a list of different breakfasts, to get some inspiration out of.

Then I just sit down with my pencil and some paper and plan out all my meals, trying to make sure I finish whatever I have to buy. I.e. if I buy a pack of three bell pepper, I make three recipes with bell pepper, to try and finish them before they go off.
It's actually kind of fun, like a little puzzle.

I type it in to MFP on the day. I am usually about right where calories are concerned. I've had practice.

"meals that my family willingly eats" sounds familiar, they refuse to get on board, even when I try to sneak in healthier options, I literally laughed out loud when I read that...

I'm not that organized. I buy what's on sale out of the usual suspects (lean beef, chicken, pork, etc.) and then put the meal around it. I try to do a vegetable and carb side (such as brown rice pilaf or couscous with broccoli) but if I can't think of a side, then I do a salad. Each week, I do layered bean dip, one pasta dish, pizza (from a pizza shell), some kind of steak, stir-fry and baked chicken. I try to throw in some salmon, too, but it doesn't always happen. I did a Buffalo Chicken Breast recipe that was highly regarded, and paired that with yogurt ranch dressing and carrots.

I have to do a dish with at least 3 oz. of animal protein paired with vegetables. A GI carb is acceptable, but sometimes I'm just too tired for that. If I had kids, I would probably have to make it or throw in a piece of bread.

Luckily, my husband is not very picky and will eat almost anything willingly -- but meat especially.