Looking for examples of meal planning / pre-logging

Hey pals,

I would love to learn from any of you who are pre-logging your meals and planning them out for the week. I used to log as I went throughout the day but I'm finding that is more challenging to do under new conditions.

I'm especially interested in seeing food journals from people who eat relatively clean most of the time, as in little processed foods.

If you don't mind me friend requesting you or peeping your food diary, drop a line. And/or if you have any resources that you would recommend for meal plan building, batch cooking, and sticking to a set schedule, drop me some links!

Thanks :)

Replies

  • successgal1
    successgal1 Posts: 996 Member
    You could look at mine, its kind of sameness though. Go back to pre-thanksgiving though, lol. I plan the day maybe not the week, maybe so since I eat alot of the same stuff.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    lotushead wrote: »
    Hey pals,

    I would love to learn from any of you who are pre-logging your meals and planning them out for the week. I used to log as I went throughout the day but I'm finding that is more challenging to do under new conditions.

    I'm especially interested in seeing food journals from people who eat relatively clean most of the time, as in little processed foods.

    If you don't mind me friend requesting you or peeping your food diary, drop a line. And/or if you have any resources that you would recommend for meal plan building, batch cooking, and sticking to a set schedule, drop me some links!

    Thanks :)

    I prelog but I'm not sure how looking at my diary would teach you about that. I plan dinners for the month.
    My diary is public and you can look if you want. I do eat processed foods. Not looking for more friends.
    I can explain how I prelog. Every morning before breakfast I open my food diary and start logging with dinner. Then lunch, breakfast and snacks.
    This is the type of food I eat and how I spread out my calories.
    Breakfast- Greek yogurt, granola bars, cereal with milk, sandwich, dinner leftovers, fruit, cottage cheese (about 200-300 calories)
    Lunch- sandwich, salad, or dinner leftovers (about 300-500 calories)
    Dinner- something different every night of the month- planned in advance (about 500-600 calories) I have soup once a week usually.
    Snacks- things like fruit, chips, popcorn, pretzels, chocolate, cookies, granola bar, carrots, celery, broccoli, trail mix, deviled eggs, pickles, cottage cheese (about 100-300 calories)
  • zdyb23456
    zdyb23456 Posts: 1,706 Member
    I pick 2 recipes (main dish type) per week ie. meatloaf and baked chicken. I create the recipes in the recipe builder and weigh it all out. When it's done cooking, I portion it out into Tupperware containers. I usually cook up rice and a vegetable and add those too. So I have 8 microwave dinners ready to go. They are pre-portioned and I can pre-log most of my lunches and dinners for the week.

    It really keeps me on track cause it's ready to go, no excuses and takes just a few minutes to heat up.
  • Skyblueyellow
    Skyblueyellow Posts: 225 Member
    I pre-log my evening snack and my morning coffee and then I know what I have to work with throughout the day. I tend to not get much time to eat during the day and end up consuming almost all of my calories between 5 and 10 pm. It probably sounds nuts to eat about 1000-1200 calories in the span of 5 hours but it is just how my life works right now. I'm lucky to squeeze in my coffee and a KIND bar throughout the day.

    It also just helps to know, in general, what I'm planning for dinner. Like tonight I knew we were having a NY strip roast with baked potatoes and broccoli. I can look back to the last time I had those things and see how many calories I used. That helps me to work in other things I want throughout the day. I know that tomorrow we are having chicken breasts with baked potatoes and green beans. Tuesday my hubby is out-of-town so I'm treating the kids to baked chicken nuggets and oven fries (I'll have the chicken nuggets, skip the fries, and add in leftover veggies from Sunday and Monday). Wednesday I'm making a pot roast with carrots and mashed potatoes. Thursday we are having breakfast for dinner (eggs, toast, and bacon/sausage). Knowing what my week looks like, even just roughly, helps a tremendous amount. Friday we usually go out for dinner, and I use menus to plan my meals.

    Once you get more familiar with general portion sizes I think it gets easier. I also have a house with two boring eaters so we don't have a large menu rotation. That helps too. Although I'd like more variety at least I can plan with some level of precision.
  • lotushead
    lotushead Posts: 200 Member
    Lounmoun wrote: »

    I prelog but I'm not sure how looking at my diary would teach you about that.

    True.

    I guess I'm more so just trying to get an idea of how other people organize things.

    Like how many recipes one might select to last a week for one person, that sort of thing.
  • kazminchu
    kazminchu Posts: 250 Member
    Resources for meal plan building = what meals do you like? If they fit your calories, add them to your meal plan.
    My meal plan is fairly limited, because we're simple and I shop in a very small store, so have to use what is in season mostly. But we have enough for a different meal every night of the week, and most weeks are different during the month.
    My best resource batch cooking is get a giant casserole. Like at least 5L. That's how I make 12-15 portions of chilli/goulash/soup/stew/curry at once. Couldn't live without it.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    I'm not using the food diary anymore, but I don't think you'd get much out of it anyway. I'm all for keeping it simple - for me, that means sticking to single whole foods and home cooking, with little use of recipes; most meals are made to pre-set type/amount "templates", but rotating the components. (Clean eating and steering away from processed food becomes redundant when you cook from scratch anyway.)

    I have used a lot of websites, including the community right here, to learn how to plan my meals, and my meal plan has evolved through time. A big chunk fell into place when I discovered theme nights - assigning each day of the week a certain protein, or cooking style, or ethnic origin.

    My hottest tip for batch cooking and sticking to plan would be to plan and cook food you'll actually want to eat.
  • Liga24
    Liga24 Posts: 16 Member
    I have my diary open for friends, and I started to plan out my weeks ahead a few weeks ago. It honestly is amazing for my food budget, because I buy only the stuff I will need to use and my bill has shrunk like for about 50%.
    I am also vegetarian and currently trying to eat clean and make my own stuff at home :) If that interests you, don´t hesitate to friend me :)
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I don't log anymore and only pre-logged for a bit, as I found that logging as I go (but according to a plan in my head) worked better for me.

    That said, this is what made sense to me as a way to prelog:

    Do you have a standard breakfast or three? Log that for the whole week. (I have 3 standard breakfasts and they all differ from day to day, but they also all have about the same calories. I could log my usual winter breakfast of 2-egg omelet with vegetables and cottage cheese and then revise it daily based on weights, the specific vegetables used, if I sub smoked salmon for cottage cheese, that sort of thing).

    Do you pre-make lunch to take to work or otherwise have a regular lunch or set of lunches? I do -- I often make lunches on Sundays and one other evening or take dinner leftovers, so this is easy to log in advance for the week based on this plan. When I'm making ahead what I typically do is pick something that I can do in the slow cooker or otherwise something that takes longer (say roasting a chicken) and do this on Sunday and then plan sides -- usually lots of vegetables, maybe something starchy, maybe I make a stew, whatever. This is a good opportunity to do bean dishes too. If I know I am making dinners with planned leftovers I'd add that in.

    Dinner: this is where I have the most variety. I'd plan on Sunday what I'm going to have for the protein portion of the dinner and probably roughly what I am doing with it, which will usually also give me the starch portion (pasta, stir fry, on its own with side potatoes or sweet potatoes?). I like to use whatever vegetables I have on hand, so don't usually plan out that bit too specifically (and you can adjust without it changing the calories much), but if you want to plan it out just go with what you have. So for example, say I have some salmon on hand, some frozen ground beef, some frozen pork loins, I'd look at amounts and decide what I'm doing, maybe: Monday, Tuesday, use the salmon, get out the pork to defrost. Wednesday pork. Thursday, pasta with meat sauce and Friday go out to dinner. Saturday meat sauce again, Sunday I'm cooking anyway so play it by ear.

    I'd then get more specific:

    Mon: Salmon with sweet potatoes and roasted vegetables (again, what I have).
    Tues: stir fry with rice, lots of veg and leftover salmon.
    Wed: make pork loin with roasted root veg, apples, and brussels. Use leftovers for lunch on Thursday. Also make a meat sauce while cooking dinner. Add lots of vegetables to the meat sauce.
    Thursday evening: super quick one pot dinner with pasta and the meat and veg sauce that just needs to be heated up, make a salad too.

    Stuff like that.

    As you can see, what I find much, much easier is cooking in a way that is inspired by what I have on hand, what's in season, etc. Cooking from specific recipes, let alone way ahead, would never work.

    I don't think of how I eat as "clean eating" (never even sure what that means), but I do get most of my meat from a farm and produce seasonally from a farm when possible (which is why I cook from what I have, in addition to just that being the way my mind works).

    My understanding of pre-logging is that it's a loose guide and you adjust based on the specifics. Since I don't find logging it to make a difference as the general guideline is in my head anyway, I found it felt like extra work, but if you don't plan in your head like that I can see it being a great way to get started planning.

    Maybe that's helpful, maybe not. Sorry my diary won't be, as I no longer log and so don't have it open.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    lotushead wrote: »
    Lounmoun wrote: »

    I prelog but I'm not sure how looking at my diary would teach you about that.

    True.

    I guess I'm more so just trying to get an idea of how other people organize things.

    Like how many recipes one might select to last a week for one person, that sort of thing.

    Will you eat leftovers or do you want something different every day? Most recipes are scaled for at least 4-6 people. If you don't mind reheating things and eating the same thing repeatedly then you might only need 1-2 recipes per week for 1 person.
    I plan 7 different dinners a week. I'm feeding 2-3 people daily.
    I eat the same things for breakfast, lunch, or snacks every week so I don't really plan those meals in advance. I don't cook for those meals but often have dinner leftovers to reheat.
    As a pp mentioned I often have themes in mind for different days when I plan for the month and just find things that fit my themes.
    A couple of weeks of dinners my family is having:
    Minestrone
    Veggie burgers, mac & cheese, salad
    Chicken and bean taquitos
    Punjabi red beans, rice, vegetables
    Scrambled eggs & pancakes
    Lemon lentil soup
    Grilled cheese sandwiches, salad

    Beef stroganoff with egg noodles, rolls, salad
    Turkey chili
    Chicken strips, mashed potatoes, broccoli
    French toast, sausage, fruit
    Falafel, pita bread, green bean salad with feta and mint
    Burritos, fruit
    Parmesan tilapia, pasta, salad
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    lotushead wrote: »
    Lounmoun wrote: »

    I prelog but I'm not sure how looking at my diary would teach you about that.

    True.

    I guess I'm more so just trying to get an idea of how other people organize things.

    Like how many recipes one might select to last a week for one person, that sort of thing.

    I'm cooking for more people than you are, but I do plan for the week and shop/pre-log accordingly. This is how I organize it:
    1) one main meat cooked over the weekend used for several dinners, e.g.
    - whole smoked chicken (we smoke most weekends) served with sides the first night then used in mole enchiladas, green chile stew, chicken-apple salad, on pasta ... you get the idea. All this works with roasted whole chicken as well. I make a gallon of stock with the carcass.
    - slow cooker pulled pork used in pork tacos (w avocado & ancho spiced pecans), pork fried rice, pork hash, "hot mess" (is this a Texas thing? BBQ in a baked sweet potato, with toppings if you have the calories for them)
    - pork tenderloin served with fried bananas & black beans 1st night then used in posole and pork tacos
    - pot roast also used in salpicon, pot pie, beef fried rice
    - I buy extra chicken breast when its on sale to freeze raw for dishes like chicken marsala, lemon chicken, stir fry, soups, etc. It helps to pound the breast to a uniform thickness & wrap individually for even/quicker defrosting. I also make a big batch of chicken meat balls & freeze them raw in small portions.
    - If all the kids are home and I'm cooking for more people (and more lunches) than usual, I'll plan for 2 main meats. We might smoke both at the same time, or I might cook the second later in the week. When pork shoulder is on sale, it is a huge hunk of meat, too big for my slow cooker, so I freeze half raw.
    2) When we run out of the main meat, I turn to the freezer for fish or chicken. Also beans as the main course over rice (or spinach). If I have Andouille in the freezer, that's perfect with beans. Or pasta. Or anything really. I always try to have some sausage in the freezer and this time of year stock up on tamales, too.
    3) For lunch, I usually have soup using some of the meat cooked over the weekend or saved in the freezer. I eat legumes every day, and that's usually in the soup for lunch. If not, I'll have a fried egg on black beans for breakfast or serve beans as a side with dinner. Also sandwiches, wraps or salads are easy lunches with left overs.
    4) I log breakfast last and really don't plan ahead much for that. Usually some combination of egg & vegetable (omelette, frittata, tortilla espanola, etc). When we run out of eggs, oatmeal with fruit.
    5) I have the same snacks pretty much every day -- fruit&yogurt and/or nuts&cheese&dried fruit depending on calories left/macros needed.

    I hope that give you useful ideas that can translate to cooking for one!
  • Raptor2763
    Raptor2763 Posts: 387 Member
    I do all my cooking during the weekend for the following week. Since my culinary skills are limited, my prelogging is pretty easy. Basically, all I have to do is open my lunchbox when I get to work and...log my meals for the day.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    lotushead wrote: »
    Hey pals,

    I would love to learn from any of you who are pre-logging your meals and planning them out for the week. I used to log as I went throughout the day but I'm finding that is more challenging to do under new conditions.

    I'm especially interested in seeing food journals from people who eat relatively clean most of the time, as in little processed foods.

    If you don't mind me friend requesting you or peeping your food diary, drop a line. And/or if you have any resources that you would recommend for meal plan building, batch cooking, and sticking to a set schedule, drop me some links!

    Thanks :)

    I don't log anymore, but when I did, I pre-logged...and my wife and I eat primarily whole to minimally processed foods and meals prepared from such.

    Basically, we'd just sit down over the weekend and decide what we wanted to make for the week. My wife and I swap kitchen duty every other night and we'd just sit down withe our Pinterest account or whatever and figure out what we were going to be making on our perspective nights. Then of course we just had our staple stuff...we always have eggs and/or egg whites and/or oats for breakfast...we often make double portions of our dinners to take leftovers for lunch but otherwise keep salad fixings and sandwich stuff on hand...we keep plenty of veg and fruit in the house as well.

    Mind you, this isn't so much about pre-logging as it is about putting together a shopping list as we prefer to shop only one day per week (usually Sunday) and be done with it. This has helped immensely with our food budget and saving money as well.

    As pre-logging goes, it's just like keeping a budget...you don't budget after the fact, you project out. I only ever pre-logged a day...I would sit down in the evening and figure out what I was going to be having for my breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner the following day and I would log it and then I would have my projected plan. In most cases I stuck to the plan, but there are always deviations here and there.
  • lotushead
    lotushead Posts: 200 Member
    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    lotushead wrote: »
    Lounmoun wrote: »

    I prelog but I'm not sure how looking at my diary would teach you about that.

    True.

    I guess I'm more so just trying to get an idea of how other people organize things.

    Like how many recipes one might select to last a week for one person, that sort of thing.

    I'm cooking for more people than you are, but I do plan for the week and shop/pre-log accordingly. This is how I organize it:
    1) one main meat cooked over the weekend used for several dinners, e.g.
    - whole smoked chicken (we smoke most weekends) served with sides the first night then used in mole enchiladas, green chile stew, chicken-apple salad, on pasta ... you get the idea. All this works with roasted whole chicken as well. I make a gallon of stock with the carcass.
    - slow cooker pulled pork used in pork tacos (w avocado & ancho spiced pecans), pork fried rice, pork hash, "hot mess" (is this a Texas thing? BBQ in a baked sweet potato, with toppings if you have the calories for them)
    - pork tenderloin served with fried bananas & black beans 1st night then used in posole and pork tacos
    - pot roast also used in salpicon, pot pie, beef fried rice
    - I buy extra chicken breast when its on sale to freeze raw for dishes like chicken marsala, lemon chicken, stir fry, soups, etc. It helps to pound the breast to a uniform thickness & wrap individually for even/quicker defrosting. I also make a big batch of chicken meat balls & freeze them raw in small portions.
    - If all the kids are home and I'm cooking for more people (and more lunches) than usual, I'll plan for 2 main meats. We might smoke both at the same time, or I might cook the second later in the week. When pork shoulder is on sale, it is a huge hunk of meat, too big for my slow cooker, so I freeze half raw.
    2) When we run out of the main meat, I turn to the freezer for fish or chicken. Also beans as the main course over rice (or spinach). If I have Andouille in the freezer, that's perfect with beans. Or pasta. Or anything really. I always try to have some sausage in the freezer and this time of year stock up on tamales, too.
    3) For lunch, I usually have soup using some of the meat cooked over the weekend or saved in the freezer. I eat legumes every day, and that's usually in the soup for lunch. If not, I'll have a fried egg on black beans for breakfast or serve beans as a side with dinner. Also sandwiches, wraps or salads are easy lunches with left overs.
    4) I log breakfast last and really don't plan ahead much for that. Usually some combination of egg & vegetable (omelette, frittata, tortilla espanola, etc). When we run out of eggs, oatmeal with fruit.
    5) I have the same snacks pretty much every day -- fruit&yogurt and/or nuts&cheese&dried fruit depending on calories left/macros needed.

    I hope that give you useful ideas that can translate to cooking for one!

    Super helpful! I like how you make one main meat dish and reuse it in other recipes throughout the following days. Thanks for writing out your process for me! Greatly appreciate it.
  • lotushead
    lotushead Posts: 200 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    lotushead wrote: »
    Hey pals,

    I would love to learn from any of you who are pre-logging your meals and planning them out for the week. I used to log as I went throughout the day but I'm finding that is more challenging to do under new conditions.

    I'm especially interested in seeing food journals from people who eat relatively clean most of the time, as in little processed foods.

    If you don't mind me friend requesting you or peeping your food diary, drop a line. And/or if you have any resources that you would recommend for meal plan building, batch cooking, and sticking to a set schedule, drop me some links!

    Thanks :)

    I don't log anymore, but when I did, I pre-logged...and my wife and I eat primarily whole to minimally processed foods and meals prepared from such.

    Basically, we'd just sit down over the weekend and decide what we wanted to make for the week. My wife and I swap kitchen duty every other night and we'd just sit down withe our Pinterest account or whatever and figure out what we were going to be making on our perspective nights. Then of course we just had our staple stuff...we always have eggs and/or egg whites and/or oats for breakfast...we often make double portions of our dinners to take leftovers for lunch but otherwise keep salad fixings and sandwich stuff on hand...we keep plenty of veg and fruit in the house as well.

    Mind you, this isn't so much about pre-logging as it is about putting together a shopping list as we prefer to shop only one day per week (usually Sunday) and be done with it. This has helped immensely with our food budget and saving money as well.

    As pre-logging goes, it's just like keeping a budget...you don't budget after the fact, you project out. I only ever pre-logged a day...I would sit down in the evening and figure out what I was going to be having for my breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner the following day and I would log it and then I would have my projected plan. In most cases I stuck to the plan, but there are always deviations here and there.

    Putting together a grocery list is the main part of the process so this is useful info as well, thanks! I don't like multiple grocery store trips in one week either. Essentially I'm trying to streamline shopping->cooking->portioning->logging so that I have a system in place. One I can deviate from sometimes but use as peace of mind other times. I've been a very intuitive eater and planner in general and I'm working on getting things down to more of a science in my life lately.

    So actually all these examples are great! Thanks so much!