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Food Help!!

nitag
nitag Posts: 706 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
I am sitting here searching the internet for a weekly meal plan...

Why are they all such hard things to make?? Not hard, but maybe detailed.. I don't have half the spices they need.. Too much gourmet for me.. Guess I am a plain Jane..

I am looking for a weekly meal plan that is simple and easy to follow..

Any ideas??

Replies

  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    edited August 2016
    When I was doing this I made up a monthly meal plan, based on four weeks that I rotated. I did a big meat Sunday, usually a roast, making enough to make several meals throughout the week (sandwich meat too). The roast could be beef, pork or chicken for instance.

    Monday then would be stew or casserole day, doubling the recipe to make a frozen dinner for later. After a few weeks I'd have a variety of meals from a variety of meats ready to go.


    I would then fill in around this. One night would be egg night. I tried a fish night but hubby figured it out and always managed to weasel out of it.

    Oh, yes. I would rotate themes like North American Meat & Potatoes, Asian stir fry, Italian, Mexican, Moroccan and Indian. If getting all the different spices for these is too much to start, get the canned sauces.

    I marked my recipe books for favourite repeats. Or I guess you could create a themed Pinterest board. I have one board named "Today's Menu"

    Lunch is leftovers from the night before. Fill in with salad fixings and wraps.

    I find the South Africans to have simple meal plans explicitly laid out.

    http://weeklymealplans.co.za

    I only have about three breakfasts that I rotate, and I make about three days worth of oatmeal at once.

    [Edited to add:] I forgot. There would be one legume based meal a week too.
  • Vegplotter
    Vegplotter Posts: 265 Member
    Don't sit! Get off your butt and go down to your local thrift store and get a recipe book. Then go to your local farmers market and buy some herbs in pots and spices that you like.
    I agree that plain food is best, but dull food does not a diet make. Herbs and spices have pretty well zero calories and provide loads of nutritional benefits, as well as flavour.
    Any recipe can be modified to fit in with a diet. Reduce the total quantity, or simply reduce the amount of butter, sugar or cream.
    It's time to be brave and experiment a bit. Learn to love good food!
  • SophieSmall95
    SophieSmall95 Posts: 233 Member
    edited August 2016
    I've never had difficulty to with this and find meals plans easy to follow and make.

    I'm also cooking for my mum currently for her diet and she doesn't like many spices so don't need any "fancy" stuff as you say. Dinner meals tend to be a meat, salad and veg with varying differing marinades or occasional pasta or pizza. My mum is a very fussy eater so it gets repetitive but I don't much mind.

    Just use a little bit of initiative, it's not hard. Be honest with yourself...if this really hard or are you just making excuses?
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    Green onion ~ chives from the garden
    Prosciutto ~ thin sliced ham or bacon
    Shallots ~ onion
    White Pepper ~ Black pepper
    Pumpkin Pie Spice ~ Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Ginger. Allspice if you have it
    Fresh Herbs ~ smaller quantity dry herbs
    Cilantro ~ Parsley
    Asiago Cheese ~ Parmesan

    I think it is easy for veterans to forget what a struggle it was to menu plan at the beginning. It only seems easy now because it is an ingrained habit. At every meal I am planning how many other meals I can make from it. The stock from a roast gets added to the stew planned for the next day. Stew on day two becomes lunch on day three. And so on.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    edited August 2016
    Make your own meal plan. It's not difficult and you already know what you like so you'll be likely to follow it. Your plan will also grow with you. Ordinary meals aren't difficult to make and you don't need a lot of different spices or other ingredients. Not even recipes, for most of them. Variety is good, but you don't need everything at hand at all times. Alternate and rotate, and buy just the amounts you need (and can eat up) of perishables. A stock of versatile non-perishables like grains, beans, nuts, pasta, canned tomatoes and frozen vegetables can sit in your cabinets/freezer and just wait for the right meal.

    Find out how many and which meals you will be making, and set up an overall structure for each of them. Start with what you already are doing and tweak that, unless your diet is completely broken. Dinners often center around protein, starch and veg, and this opens for infinite options. Protein would be meat (pork, chicken, beef, lamb, turkey are the most used), fish (salmon, tuna, cod, tilapia...), seafood (shrimp, shells), eggs, beans. Starch is grains like rice, pasta, bulgur, and starchy vegetables like potatoes and sweet potatoes. Vegetables can be raw, cooked, oven roasted; salads, stir-fry, mashed...

    I have a weekly rotation plan for my dinners, so that I go through lots of different foods regularly. For other meals, I eat a portion of the pack/tub/bag until it's empty, and then buy something else, but in the same category.
  • ashcky
    ashcky Posts: 393 Member
    I always look up crockpot or one pan meals if I'm searching for something new and easy
  • nowNOTthenmylife
    nowNOTthenmylife Posts: 47 Member
    edited August 2016
    easy meals for myself are steamed vegetables + a cup of any grains ( rice/quinoa), or a protein ( a cup or 4 Oz) with steamed vegetables. As condiment you can just use salt but i put saracha sauce.
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