question about your meal planning strategies..

djm31012 · November 2014

What does your "meal planning strategy" look like? Aka, do you spend all day sunday cutting veggies, prepping meals, putting things in freezer to pull out etc. Or does meal plan for you just mean organize what you are going to eat each night and you do a lot of cooking the night of? My meal plans are great early in the week then fall off. I only get an hour and a half with DS at night and hate to spend time cooking. So sunday I cook, we have left overs to heat up Monday....usually monday after bed Ill prep something to throw in the oven tues night when I get home, but it needs to be something that can be heated within 20 minutes because DS is starving...left overs wed...but then I am tired and thursday becomes harder to plan for. Just curious how others save time during the week. I walk in the door at 6pm and DS goes to bed around 730pm..we need to eat dinner and take baths in that time.

junebugrbig · November 2014

I get home around 6pm and kids to bed at 8pm so I have a short time frame as well. I try to plan my week of meals over the weekend taking into consideration what our schedule looks like for the week and what I have on hand and what I need to get at the store. Sometimes I will cook something to heat up later in the week...like fresh sauce for pasta or cook the chicken for quesadillas. Otherwise, I am making dinner fresh each night. I really focus on quick dinners Monday thru Thursday and more labor/time intensive meals on the weekend. Friday night is my night off.

Focus on finding meals where it is a quick prep/cook or where you can take shortcuts (buying heat and eat kind of sides).

skibunny59 · November 2014

I meal plan on Saturdays or Sundays. I write out the menu for the week and a shopping list. Sometimes things carry over from the week before. For example, last week we had planned to have spaghetti and meatballs but we ended up going out one night so we are having spaghetti and meatballs this week.

For meatballs and meatloaf I generally make the mixture and freeze it so it's easy to pull out. I do a lot of soups and freeze them. I also cut up whatever veggies I may need during the week and keep those in the fridge.

I generally cook or do most of my prep at night before I go to bed for the next day but it's not every night. Every time I cook I always try to make tons extra and freeze them for another meal. For example, last night I made cream of celery soup for tomorrow night and I was able to split up the batch and freeze half for a future date.

DH also works from home one day a week so he is very helpful at prepping dinner stuff on his WFH day if I tell him exactly what I need done. It's really only on those nights that I cook the night of because dinner is already prepped for me and he can entertain DD while I cook.

djm31012 · November 2014

tas1883 said:

I try and crock pot once a week normally on Tuesdays as Monday nights DH takes the dog to agility class so I have the evening to myself once DD is asleep. This gives me time to chop and prep for crock pot dinner so all I have to do is dump and run Tuesday morning. The rest of the week is pretty much super simple and basic. Can you choose breakfast for dinner later in the week when things start to fall apart? My weekends are crazy so no major cooking then and my DH doesn't like leftovers or reheating stuff so I don't do that very often.

yes breakfast for dinner is a good idea. Tonight I am making spinach quesadillas with yellow rice and black beans. I made the rice last night before bed, and the beans are rinsed and drained just need to be heated up. So all I have to make are the quesadillas which is easy (i am using frozen chopped spinach). I need to get better at the casserole thing....I never think to make any!

Also @privacywanted I love the idea of making a batch of chicken and using it 2-3 different ways. Thank you!

ErinO21 · November 2014

I usually cook fresh every night or go with a crock pot meal. DH works 24 hour shifts, so some nights I have to cook for just myself and the little one. When I do cook for everyone, its easy stuff! One of my favorite websites for quick and easy meals is actually a blog, Mix and Match Mama. Everything she makes is so incredibly simple. And she has a weekly meal plan that she posts every Monday. And if you're into the Bachelor at all, she's Sean Lowe's sister!

djm31012 · November 2014

ErinO21 said:

I usually cook fresh every night or go with a crock pot meal. DH works 24 hour shifts, so some nights I have to cook for just myself and the little one. When I do cook for everyone, its easy stuff! One of my favorite websites for quick and easy meals is actually a blog, Mix and Match Mama. Everything she makes is so incredibly simple. And she has a weekly meal plan that she posts every Monday. And if you're into the Bachelor at all, she's Sean Lowe's sister!

I am ! thats so funny. I will have to check that out.

vvvvvfee · November 2014

i tend to go to the supermarket on thursdays, so i can shop with weekend cooking in mind. then i do as much cooking as possible on saturday and sunday, so we have several sets of leftovers for lunches and eating during the week. that usually lasts us through the first few days of the week. then it's time for the supermarket again. often on thursday i will get ingredients for something we can eat that night that's quick. for nights when we don't have leftovers, i generally make something quick like pasta, quesadillas, or grilled cheese, with salad on the side. if i get totally stumped, we do breakfast for dinner (either eggs or pancakes).

i try to pre-prep ingredients over the weekend, too. like if i'm chopping onions, carrots, and celery for soup that i'm making on sunday, i'll chop double and keep the extra in the fridge to use for something else during the week. sometimes i'll pre-prep fruit, or add-ons for DS's DC lunch. i am vigilant about freezing extras. like if we have brown rice or beans left over, i'll freeze it. that saves a lot of time later, or it can be part of a lunch for DS. i freeze chicken backs and necks for stocks and make stock every once in a while, and then freeze the stock.

rachael ray had a tv show and book called week in a day that was interesting- she laid out plans for prepping 5 nights of meals on one weekend day. i liked a lot of the recipes, but i never found it practical to make all of the meals in one day.

emberlee3 · November 2014

I try to meal plan a month at a time. That gives me some cushion on prepping. I cook big batches of basics like rice, chicken, pulled pork. I freeze in recipe sized portions. I plan easier meals for busy nights, like breakfast for dinner. Meal planning means I don't have to go to the grocery store midweek, not necessarily that we have gourmet meals every night.

MommyAtty · November 2014

Thursdays were our most likely fall-apart day, so I've started planning for success those days. I either use my crockpot or plan to have takeout that night if it's a really rough week. Or, sometimes, I plan for leftovers that night. I don't do a big prep over the weekend, though I do keep chopped onions ready to go in the freezer. I actually started that because I was tired of wasting half an onion every week, but it's turned into a great shortcut!

jenn43 · November 2014

I meal plan a week at a time. We usually do tacos or fajitas, pasta, soup, some other type of casserole, pizza, and the other two nights are usually leftovers. I started taking Wednesdays off once LO was born, so I do all my grocery shopping and food prep that day. I'll cook the taco meat or fajitas to heat up during the week. I'll also cut up everything for the soup and put it in a ziplock so that I can throw it on the stover or in the crockpot later in the week. Tuesdays are my late night, so DH makes spaghetti that night. I usually make large casseroles or batches of soup, then freeze half, so we may have a meal out of the freezer one night as well.

shannm · November 2014

I plan a week at a time.
I take into consideration our schedule (who is working late, activities).
I then usually plan for one eat out/take out night.
I then do a more complicated meal on Saturday or Sunday and try to have leftovers.
Then I chose 4-5 meals that I can put together in under 30 minutes or are from the slow cooker or freezer stash.
I try to have at least one meatless night and one fish night.
Finally, if DH is going to be around, I take advantage of this and make sure I have something he feels comfortable cooking in his own around.

NLewis1 · November 2014

PrivacyWanted said:
I meal plan generally on Fridays. The first thing I do is look at our calendar for the week going forward, and try to plan based on that. So like Fridays, DD has dance till 6pm. She and I get home at 6:30, DH picks up DS and gets home about 6. I need something that's easy for DH to execute with the toddler underfoot, so I generally try to do salads, sandwiches, soup or leftovers.

I sort of plan backward from there. So last week I knew I wanted to do chicken wraps on Friday, so Thursday I did a crockpot chicken so I'd have left over meat.

I also try as often as possible to cook 1 big thing that can be used multiple ways. So like the chicken in the crockpot, then becomes chicken wraps. I also last week did a pulled pork in the crock pot on monday, that the meat went into pork ragu on wednesday. Once I have the big meals in I fill in the smaller ones.

I try to make everything either 15 minutes or less in cooking, or crockpot.

Oh and I do prep veggies every sunday and wednesday night.

You, my friend, are a genius. I never would have thought to plan backwards but it makes so much sense!

NLewis1 · November 2014

How are you guys prepping your crock pot meals? Are you getting everything ready and then freezing it?

shannm · November 2014

I prep my crock pot meals the night before. I have an insert that is stove top safe so I sear meat, add the ingredients, let it cool down, then put it in the fridge. I pop it in the cooker as I walk out the door the next morning. This way, the insert starts cold, in theory, adding to the cook time and lessening the chance that I overcook it.

NLewis1 · November 2014

Awesome thanks guys!

mcgeeva · November 2014

Your schedule is 100% like mine. Home by 6 and kids in bed by 7:30. I will cook one big dish sunday night for the week but we can't eat that every night. Other nights I keep it easy and make nuggets and veggies, or grill some chicken if I am running out of time with a screaming baby as well. I think when my kids are in preschool I will have to plan better since I will have to make lunches as well depending where he goes. I don't know who has the time to cook a awesome meal each night.

dashofreality · November 2014

I agree that Wed/Thur are when things start to fall apart. I really focus my meal plan on M- Th because those are the difficult days, and Friday we usually do takeout etc. I usually always have breakfast for dinner stuff on hand but not in the plan for when I get off of my plan for whatever reason (which happens frequently).

I also try and chop once, use twice, prep sunday night, or prep the night before. For example, sunday I ground up veggies for meatloaf and spaghetti. I prepped the meatloaf and put it uncooked in the fridge for the next night. I separated out a bit of meat and veggies that will make a quick spaghetti sauce on Tuesday. Wed. crockpot and Thursday leftovers.

Dinner is getting a bit easier now that the kids are older and I don't have to worry about DS trying to kill himself every 2 minutes.

VitaLuna · November 2014

My schedule is weird, so I meal plan off of the days that I will be home, and the days I'll be at work and H is in charge of dinner (and by H, I still mean me).

I prep the night before or on the weekends when I can. I plan on eating leftovers Friday because I know my energy/motivation is winding down by the end of the week. I do crock pot meals on my late work nights, or make something on the weekend that's ready to go and easy to reheat (ex: teriyaki meatballs.. All you need is the rice).

Like PPs, I also plan meals off of one bigger dish. For example, oven chicken on Sunday turns into chicken enchiladas, BBQ chicken pizza, slow cooker Mexican quinoa and chicken, chicken noodle soup, etc.

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question about your meal planning strategies..

Re: question about your meal planning strategies..

Mrs. H

Crohn's Dx: August 2008

Endometriosis Dx: May 2010

Married: 05/19/2012

TTC #1: June 2013

BFP: December 2013

DS: Born 08/29/2014

TTC #2: July 2015

Mrs. H

Crohn's Dx: August 2008

Endometriosis Dx: May 2010

Married: 05/19/2012

TTC #1: June 2013

BFP: December 2013

DS: Born 08/29/2014

TTC #2: July 2015

Mrs. H

Crohn's Dx: August 2008

Endometriosis Dx: May 2010

Married: 05/19/2012

TTC #1: June 2013

BFP: December 2013

DS: Born 08/29/2014

TTC #2: July 2015

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