Organizing my cooking life

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  • AZAlyssa
    AZAlyssa Posts: 22 Member
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    In our house, you can count on dinners throughout the week as follows: an egg meal, a pasta meal, a legume meal, a chicken meal, and a tofu/soy curls/fake meat meal. So I'm rotating proteins and within that, I add variety. Eggs might be scrambled, baked frittata, egg salad, etc. Legumes might be pea soup, lentil curry, chili. As long as I know what protein I'm working around, I fill in with pantry/freezer stuff and whatever fresh produce is on sale.

    I keep a list of meals on the fridge. No particular order or dates are added, so whatever works as far as available prep time and what we'd like to eat is what gets made. Sometimes I prep ingredients beforehand, like chopping veg or roasting potatoes. I also keep at least 2 "throw in the oven" meals on hand (pizza, lasagne, pot pies) for days when I really am not feeling it. I, too, clean the fridge weekly and plan to use any straggler ingredients that weekend.

    Breakfasts and lunches have routine foods. Not a lot of variation there, except the dinner leftovers.

    Not terribly exciting, I know.
  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
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    I love recipe books (good ones anyway). Once a fortnight I will pick out enough recipes to last us for the next couple of weeks or so and write a shopping list based on what I don't already have in the cupboard. I don't think about it too heavily but there needs to be a balance between fresh foods and storable staples so I don't end up with food waste, and I endeavour to make 30-60% of the meals veggie or vegan. It usually works out very well. We usually have a choice of leftovers for lunch (I tend to cook things that lend themselves to feeding the two of us at least two meals) or I will make bread occasionally for my other half to have sandwiches. Breakfasts are usually just cereal and fruit but occasionally I'll cook some bacon and eggs.
  • JulieNFitPal
    JulieNFitPal Posts: 5 Member
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    There has been several good suggestions mentioned. I would like to add meal prep boxes to the list. Fix a large amount once, eat what you can and make meals with the rest to freeze. These can be eaten another week with less cooking time. Once example is pancakes. Making them is easy, but who wants to do it frequently. I may make 50 pancakes one weekend morning. Freeze the others is meal size portions. They are ready to eat any time now. The meal prep also save me money. I do not have to buy frozen foods that have additives and preservatives.
  • Walkywalkerson
    Walkywalkerson Posts: 453 Member
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    You're all so organised 😁
    I have a simple strategy of just not buying too many perishable items.
    And I eat variations of the same things over 2/3 days.
    I'm also awful for not wanting to eat what I planned - so I don't meal prep things I can't freeze.
    I don't mind food shopping so I tend to go every 2/3 days for fresh produce.
    It saves it going in the bin.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    I try to keep a list of the meals my family enjoys and each weekend I choose three meals to make throughout the week. I plan on each meal feeding us two nights to make it easier and reduce food waste. I also keep shelf stable and freezer stuff on hand so I can always throw a meal together without having something planned. I only try out new recipes every once and a while. It's a lot easier to come home from work and throw a meal together that I don't need a recipe for vs. following a recipe and instructions. Also, before you plan your meals for the week, go through your fridge and freezer and plan meals around what you already have. I typically pick out which proteins I have in the freezer and plan my meals around those. Like if I have a chuck roast I want to use up, I have basically two or three meals to choose from that I like to make from that.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    gretavo wrote: »
    OP here...thanks so much to all. I really have gotten some great ideas from all your responses. I think I will definitely scale back how many "new" meals I make a week and be more mindful of freezing/saving larger portions.

    I think it's definitely beneficial to keep things pretty simple and familiar during the week. I generally reserve new recipes and/or more complex recipes for Fridays and weekends. During the week I like to keep total time (prep and cook) to no more than 30 minutes...if I'm doing something completely new, even if it's relatively straight forward, it's usually going to take me longer because I have to keep checking the recipe and thinking instead of just prepping and cooking something familiar.

    We strategize our evening meals for the week, usually on Saturday. We try to make it so that at least two of those meals will provide leftovers for lunches...some things just aren't good for that, and others are better. We do an evening meal plan for Monday - Friday and pretty much stick to that, though we may re-arrange days. We also plan it so that perishable ingredients, particularly produce can be used in or as a side or whatever for at least 2 meals to reduce and in many cases for us, eliminate waste.

    This gives us not only a plan for the week, but also the blueprint for our shopping...particularly for those items involved in a recipe that may not be a pantry or refrigerator staple. Having that blueprint helps to eliminate over-shopping and/or buying unnecessary things (particularly perishables) and just streamlines everything, including the food budget.
  • judyvalentine10
    judyvalentine10 Posts: 65 Member
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    I have a weekly meal planner that I got from a dietician years ago. I keep it on my fridge. It starts on Thursday, because that's when the flyers come out every week.
    I start by planning my suppers. Each supper is doubled and the leftovers are used for lunch. Breakfasts are pretty much the same. Shredded wheat or Shreddies. Lunches can vary a bit. For instance, if what I had for supper isn't doubled, like a stir fry, then I have sandwich and homemade soup for lunch.
    I do do some batch cooking so I can pull out something if the meal planner doesn't work that day.(maybe my mood changed that day, or I've been invited out for lunch).
    I plan my meals around the sales, and how much I may need for a recipe. And since I live alone, I will pull apart the bunches of fruit or veggies to get only what I need. For instance, I don't need 1 lb of asparagus, so I take apart the bundle and grab maybe 10 spears.(2 meals). Three bananas. Of course that's if I can't get them in bulk, like two potatoes or apples.
    Does this help?
  • dechowj
    dechowj Posts: 148 Member
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    The main way I organize my meals for the week for a family of 5 is with my recipe card box and an excel spreadsheet. I write all of my recipes on an index card that goes in alphabetical order in a small box so they are easy to find and pull out. Then I have an excel file on my computer that has all my recipes with sortable columns: recipe name, food type(chicken, beef, pork), cooking method(stove top, crock pot, grill, over), and a rating 1-10 on how my family liked it. This way when I sit down on Friday night to plan meals I can sort what recipes would work for the upcoming week and shop Saturday morning.

    The excel sheet just makes it so easy to plan quickly. I can just easily go "gosh this is a really crazy week I'll have no time to cook after work", sort for crockpot meals. Or "I stocked up on the chicken that was on sale and have so much in the freezer", sort for chicken. Or my favorite "It's someone's birthday I want to make a special meal", sort by top rated. And then once an index card recipe is used I keep it out when I plan for the next week so I don't use it 2 weeks in a row and get bored of that meal.

    I'll plan to cook big batches of a meal on the weekend. And all new recipes are tried on Saturday, just in case they are a flop. That way I have time to plan another meal without those leftovers. We have 2 leftover nights during the week. And if someone doesn't like what's left over or we run out, I always keep on hand some simple pasta with sauce to whip up real quick or have sandwiches.
  • FoxySprinkles
    FoxySprinkles Posts: 32 Member
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    I honestly just buy whatever's on sale, and shop the perimeter. You can also pick up new spices since they help with cooking
  • o0Firekeeper0o
    o0Firekeeper0o Posts: 416 Member
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    Normally what I do is ‘meal plan’ for the week, but right now that’s all trashed because we (husband and I) are kind of trying to eat differently and we are both back to counting calories.

    I would generally plan what I was going to cook what nights and what nights were ‘fend for yourself’, and then use that to make my grocery list along with any staples we need for lunch, etc. After this weekend I’d like to overhaul the pantry and fridge and get back to that. Christmas, New Year, visiting friends and family, a week out of state for my husband… The first 2 months of ‘22 have not been kind to my organization lol

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