Meal Planning!!

Just wondering if you any of you ladies do meal planning... and if so, what are your tips and tricks!!

This is always something I've wanted to do (to save money and also to avoid making bad choices, like springing for Chinese food for the third day in a row ) so if anyone has advice on how to plan out your meals for the week - and be successful at it, please do share!!!

Re: Meal Planning!!

Lol I am thinking the same thing...
lol....


What I do is just google recipes or look at my cooking books at home & verify I have what I need...
But sometimes i have to improvise if I forget an ingridient lol!!!!!!!

Maybe just look at the recipes the day before... and figure out what u cookin =-)

There is also a cook book i have at home...
tells u ALL the shopping for the week and ur shopping list and tells u a different recipe per day ....
Ill go home and check out the name of it...
It has for 5 weeks planned out already...
its really cool lol

Re: Meal Planning!!

First I look and see what we have in the house already. I try to plan as many meals as possible with what we have.

Then I write down what I plan to make for the week. On days I know I won't have much time to cook I plan something quick and easy. On days I have a longer time to prepare, I will try and make something new. I've been trying to do at least one new dish per week.

When I go food shopping I have a list of what I need to make my dinners for the week. I try to mix it up as much as possible.

Re: Meal Planning!!

DH and i sit down every sunday and figure out the menu for the week
i try to buy meats/chicken when they are on sale and keep them in the freezer so the ony food shopping we need to do is veggies and side dishes. it seems to work out pretty well for us

Re: Meal Planning!!

My shopping list is very similar when I go food shopping, I may add or switch things here and there, and based out of that I google for different things to make, if I need extras I'll run to the store and pick up the extras or I'll try to replace them with something different.

My favorite websites are:

Skinnytastecom
cook. com
allrecipes.com

Re: Meal Planning!!

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Posted by Cataverri

My shopping list is very similar when I go food shopping, I may add or switch things here and there, and based out of that I google for different things to make, if I need extras I'll run to the store and pick up the extras or I'll try to replace them with something different.

My favorite websites are:

Skinnytastecom
cook. com
allrecipes.com

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all of this

Re: Meal Planning!!

Would it be fair to say that you come up with your list of meals first and then do your food shopping based on that?

I'm so bad at planning ahead - I may buy a notebook to just to keep track of my shopping list and everything! That's probably my biggest problem... shopping every day for something to eat (or not, and getting take out!)

Re: Meal Planning!!

I plan all my meals before I go shopping, and write down all the ingredients before I go out, that way I know exactly what I need and I don't impulse shop (i'm so notorious for this ).


I see what's on sale, and tend to purchase meat in bulk for the week- use only the amount I need for that night and freeze the rest (most of the time the bulk meat/chicken/pork ends up being cheaper than the smaller packages). We ALWAYS have a side salad with dinner, because it fills us up, and saves me the time of making multiple sides.

skinnytaste.com is such an amazing website

Re: Meal Planning!!

I usually stock up on things that I can make with most meals -- i.e. rice, potatoes, pasta, chicken, beef. I usually have enough to make anywhere between 3-4 meals with. Then, I just go to the store and buy veggies or fruits and things like eggs, etc. Based on what I have I then google recipes sometimes or usually I stick to the things I know I Can do easily and quickly.

I know that doesn't help but it works for us

Re: Meal Planning!!

Well we shop at Trader Joe's every week bc DH works for the company and we get a discount. Basically when we're standing in the aisles we just figure out a meal for every night of the week, grab stuff, and throw it in the wagon. TJ's has so much stuff, we never run out of ideas.

Re: Meal Planning!!

DH and I sit down every sunday and figure out the menu for the week, then we figure out what we need to buy. . . our sunday date is ShopRite and the farmers market coupons and list in hand!

Re: Meal Planning!!

I plan every Saturday. We live next to a grocery store, so it's not a huge deal. But I check the circular on Thursday- the prices change Friday at Key Food. Then I plan my menu's based on what is on sale- usually there is something good between ground turkey, different types of chicken, or cheese- then choose from there

This week was Chicken rolls with ricotta and spinach
Turkey meatloaf with sweet potatoes
Stuffed red bell pepper with ground turkey

Each of those with last us at least 2 nights. The chicken made a lot last night, so prob 3. And I make sure I have veggies to steam as a side, or fresh salad stuff

Re: Meal Planning!!

I usually just buy the essentials, pasta sides, meats, chicken, pasta, sauces, etc every other or every 3 weeks. Then I'll just figure out my schedule for the week and I'll tell DH he's on his own whatever night I have something to do or if I'm going to be late. Every night at dinner I'll ask him 'what do you want for dinner tomorrow' (this way if it's a crockpot recipe I know to take it out the night before). Seems to work one day at a time and I rarely have to go to the supermarket (we do peapod).

Re: Meal Planning!!

DH is trying to lose weight (too much eating on our cruise - lol!) so right now I'm focused on high protein, low carb meals.

When I see a recipe I like, I pull it out and file it in my cookbook as something I want to try. DH & I LOVE LOVE LOVE Taste of Home Magazine. I have yet to make a bad recipe out of there. I also get daily emails from prevention.com with healthly recipes.

Every weekend I grab 3-4 recipes and make my grocery list from what I need to make them for that week. I also tend to buy meat when it's on sale and freeze it. DH works some nights, so when he's not home, I don't cook dinner.

Re: Meal Planning!!

i wish i did keep a list or something of meals i would make for the week.
Generally speaking, I don't cook on weekends because we are either at my mother's house one day and my IL's house the other. Free food!

I always check what I have at home and base what I will make that week off of that.
When I go to the supermarket, usually every other week, i stock up on ready to make sides like rice, couscous, potatos...stuff like that and make sure to keep regular ingredients on hand to cook with.

When I get off the train at night, the supermarket is right there so I can pick up any last minute things, like milk, veggies...for thenight i am cooking.

I'm usually very good at sticking to what we have at home and we have never eaten out yet since we got back from our HM in July on a weeknight.

Re: Meal Planning!!

The trick for me is making a lot of something one night so that I only really have to cook every other day. And if you have a crock pot, then cooking is SO easy! I use mine at least 2x a week now thats its chillier out.

I don't even consult DH for what I am going to make since he really doesn't care whats for dinner, he eats anything. I try not to make the same thing more than once every 2 weeks.

Some of my favorite and easiest recipes involve ground meat (spaghetti and meatballs, turkey burgers, chili). Also, my trick is to prepare things the night before so that all I have to do the next day is stick it in the oven/crockpot/stovetop. It saves tons of time and energy.

And I've also been using skinnytaste.com for recipes, I have tried about 5 so far, and they have all been DELISH!