Menu planning

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Terrie724
Terrie724 Posts: 18 Member
in Getting Started
Anyone have suggestions on how to menu plan for the week ahead. I feel overwhelmed with what to come up with to eat

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  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    What did you eat before? Eat that but less of it.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    My wife an I have a few websites we like...we each have assigned cooking nights so on the weekend we pick what we feel like doing either from one of those or one of the many things we just have banked in our heads...like I don't really need a recipe to grill some chicken and serve with some veg and a grain or starch. Anyway, we just figure out what we're going to make on our particular nights and we put a shopping list together and go shopping.

    Are you new to cooking? How did you meal prep before? It seems like you would have had to plan things out to some extent to know what to shop for.
  • Terrie724
    Terrie724 Posts: 18 Member
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    I love to cook. Our meals before were not so healthy. I guess since I don't know calorie counts and now I know I have to stay at a certain number I was trying to figure out meals ahead of time so I could figure out calories and carbs
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    Terrie724 wrote: »
    I love to cook. Our meals before were not so healthy. I guess since I don't know calorie counts and now I know I have to stay at a certain number I was trying to figure out meals ahead of time so I could figure out calories and carbs

    How were they not so healthy? I find that most home cooked meals are pretty healthy. The only thing I really had to change in my cooking was using less oil...not that oil is unhealthy, I was just adding in a lot of calories unnecessarily.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Terrie724 wrote: »
    I love to cook. Our meals before were not so healthy. I guess since I don't know calorie counts and now I know I have to stay at a certain number I was trying to figure out meals ahead of time so I could figure out calories and carbs

    How were they not so healthy? I find that most home cooked meals are pretty healthy. The only thing I really had to change in my cooking was using less oil...not that oil is unhealthy, I was just adding in a lot of calories unnecessarily.

    This^^ plus make a big salad or roast some vegetables, roast a chicken and add a little rice or potato. A meal that satisfies.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
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    Good tips already.

    Keep it simple. Break it down. Start with what you already do and what you like.

    Do you cook? If so, do that. If not, learn how to. Cooking for your family isn't really that complicated either, just heat some stuff and chop some other stuff and/or mix it. lol. You don't really need recipes for that. But if you want to cook something you don't know how to cook, google recipes for it.

    If you need suggestions for meals, try Pinterest, nigella.com, thekitchn.com, foodnetwork.com, rachaelrayshow.com or just surf the web.

    If you don't know what you should eat, keep in mind that a usual dinner consists of protein+starch+vegs. Endless possibilities, but some will work better than others. Much up to preference. For other meals, there really are no set "rules". Eat what you like! It's a good thing to get in some fruit and vegetables every day, and meat/fish, grains, dairy. Nuts, seeds, eggs, butter often. Log in your food diary and you will soon see if you need to increase intake of some foods and cut down on others.

    You will get into the swing of things and find your own rythm. A good strategy for me is to plan all meals in a spreadsheet, and rotate dinners based on weekday themes (soup/stew, chicken/pork, fish, beef/lamb etc) and leave one day a week open for experimentation and whims. I portion and freeze meat/fish, and take out to thaw/soak the night before. I have a list of what's in my fridge, freezer and pantry. I write shopping list based on the recipes for the next 3 or 4 days (shopping days Mon and Fri) and all the fruit and other vegetables I'm going to eat until next shopping trip, and anything else I need, minus what I already have (sounds obvious, but it's smart to check with inventory first, so you don't have to guess in the store). I buy just the amounts I need (whenever possible), or substitute ingredients, or plan for several dishes with the same ingredient to avoid waste, and alternate so that I get variety without filling my fridge to the brim (for instance apples, oranges and pineapple one week; pomegranate, melon and pears the next).
  • MsArriabella
    MsArriabella Posts: 469 Member
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    I'm in the same boat, I love cooking delicious food but it's not always so healthy. I'm trying to plan out the week's meals on Sunday so I can avoid extra shopping trips (where I'll cave and buy junk food) and keep a handle on the overall calories for the week. This week, for example: Sunday Stir fry with homemade sauce to lower the sodium, Monday Omelettes loaded with veggies, Tuesday Taco Salad, Wednesday Spaghetti (I'm going to try zucchini noodles or just a small portion), Thursday Baked egg rolls stuffed with lots of veggies, Friday is dinner out and Saturday is Grilled chicken...I guess I'm really trying to fill everyone up on veggies :)
    Of course the hard part is to come up with something new for next week!
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    Terrie724 wrote: »
    I love to cook. Our meals before were not so healthy. I guess since I don't know calorie counts and now I know I have to stay at a certain number I was trying to figure out meals ahead of time so I could figure out calories and carbs

    I try pre-logging my day, which has helped me come up with some go tos that easily fit into my day. I've also found that I'm hungrier at night, so pre-logging helps me to see how much I can eat throughout the day to have enough calories for a larger dinner.

    For dinners, I tend to focus on a lean protein, a vegetable (almost always roasted in a relatively small amount of oil), and a carb (usually bread/roll but sometimes beans, rice, or quinoa). There are tons of recipes for this combo, and "meat" can be pretty interchangeable with main dish.

    There's a huge recipe section that you can look through. I also don't always have a ton of time to cook, so I looked for a lot of crockpot recipes.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    queenliz99 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Terrie724 wrote: »
    I love to cook. Our meals before were not so healthy. I guess since I don't know calorie counts and now I know I have to stay at a certain number I was trying to figure out meals ahead of time so I could figure out calories and carbs

    How were they not so healthy? I find that most home cooked meals are pretty healthy. The only thing I really had to change in my cooking was using less oil...not that oil is unhealthy, I was just adding in a lot of calories unnecessarily.

    This^^ plus make a big salad or roast some vegetables, roast a chicken and add a little rice or potato. A meal that satisfies.

    I was going to say this too...I started adding a lot more vegetable sides to my meals...I used to think a few sprigs of asparagus was a serving of veg.

    And one of the most important things you can do is figure out what an appropriate serving of whatever it is, is rather than just putting food onto your plate. A food scale comes in very handy here.
  • christinedegennaro7
    christinedegennaro7 Posts: 5 Member
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    I like to find recipes I'd like to try, and stick to quick and easy go-to snacks- veggies and fruit, prepackaged snack foods like popcorn, etc, and plug things in for the week ahead of time. It gives me an idea of how I can spread out my meals, and gives the expected calorie count. I print it up and use it as a guideline for the day or the week, and check things off as I go along. Now obviously, you can make changes as you go, but it helps with the planning for several days or up to a week at a time. Hope it helps!
  • auddii
    auddii Posts: 15,357 Member
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    Terrie724 wrote: »
    I love to cook. Our meals before were not so healthy. I guess since I don't know calorie counts and now I know I have to stay at a certain number I was trying to figure out meals ahead of time so I could figure out calories and carbs

    How were they not so healthy? I find that most home cooked meals are pretty healthy. The only thing I really had to change in my cooking was using less oil...not that oil is unhealthy, I was just adding in a lot of calories unnecessarily.

    This^^ plus make a big salad or roast some vegetables, roast a chicken and add a little rice or potato. A meal that satisfies.

    I was going to say this too...I started adding a lot more vegetable sides to my meals...I used to think a few sprigs of asparagus was a serving of veg.

    And one of the most important things you can do is figure out what an appropriate serving of whatever it is, is rather than just putting food onto your plate. A food scale comes in very handy here.

    My parents cooked dinner when I went home, and they made food for 6 of us; they made enough asparagus that I would normally split half and half with my fiance. Most people ate 3-4 spears. I took thirds of the asparagus because there was a lot left over after it went around the table.

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