Meal planning and the weekly shop
Every Sunday I take some time to sit down with my laptop and a notepad to create a meal plan for the following week. I know some people don’t like to do this as it takes the spontaneity away, but for me it takes a lot of stress away from having to think about what to cook each night, and I find that it’s so much cheaper to buy food just for set meals when doing a grocery shop rather than buying a load of random items with only a vague idea of what meals you’re going to make with it.
The main question I get asked:
What if you don’t fancy the meals on your list on a particular night?
The answer is to have back-ups. We always have a few key ingredients stocked up such as chopped tomatoes, baked beans, cheese, onions, spices, potatoes, frozen veg, and garlic. It’s usually possible to chop and change a couple of ingredients around to make it more to your fancy that night. For example, if I’ve got a simple chicken, mash and veg combo for dinner, I can convert that into something a bit different by adding onions, paprika and chopped tomatoes to the chicken. I buy most of my vegetables frozen so I don’t have to worry about them going out of date if they don’t get used that week. If all else fails or if it’s a meal that can’t really be changed like that, then we keep a couple of frozen pizzas or something else in the freezer at hand just in case. It doesn't happen often, though, and I try to put a lot of effort into planning meals that I think we'll actually eat and enjoy that week.
The way I create a meal plan:
Throughout the week I make a note of any meals that catch my eye or that I’m reminded of, which makes it much easier when I come to make an actual list as it means I don’t have to think of as many meals in one go! The challenge is to rotate favourites so that they don’t get boring – for example, we love curry wraps, but I’d get bored of them if we had them every week, so instead I aim for every other week if not a bit more.
I have an ongoing list of every day meals and I’ll tend to take two or three from that list to have every week, and the rest will either be new recipes or variations of dishes that we like (e.g. trying chunky chilli instead of regular chilli con carne). I also try to make sure that there’s a bit of variety about what type of meals I’ll make that week, for example I like to have one or two pasta/rice dishes, one or two with mash and vegetables, one very simple/basic meal, and two or three different kinds of meat. It all sounds very specific when written down like that, but it's just a guide that I aim for to make sure that we get a bit of balance in our diet and also a bit of variety.
I don’t assign meals to particular days because when I did I found that it’d roll onto Wednesday (for example) and I wouldn’t want or didn’t have time for the meal that I’d picked for that night. I changed our dinners around all the time so there wasn’t much point in trying to plan it that way. It also depends on the use by dates of the fresh foods that I get because products with a shorter life would need to be eaten sooner, whereas meals with chicken (which I buy frozen) could last until later in the week, so it’s hard to plan ahead and pick a meal for each night until you’ve got your groceries in and know what goes off when. It can be tricky to stick to or remember what needs to be eaten within a certain date, so I’d suggest either making a rough plan of what you’re going to have in the first few days and what you’ll eat later in the week, or to just keep use by dates in mind when deciding what you’re going to have for dinner that night, and keep checking when food is going out of date.
Inspiration:
I find thinking of a bunch of meals in one go a bit of a challenge sometimes so I turn to a few sources for ideas. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve got a list of our everyday favourites, and at the moment it looks like this:
The main question I get asked:
What if you don’t fancy the meals on your list on a particular night?
The answer is to have back-ups. We always have a few key ingredients stocked up such as chopped tomatoes, baked beans, cheese, onions, spices, potatoes, frozen veg, and garlic. It’s usually possible to chop and change a couple of ingredients around to make it more to your fancy that night. For example, if I’ve got a simple chicken, mash and veg combo for dinner, I can convert that into something a bit different by adding onions, paprika and chopped tomatoes to the chicken. I buy most of my vegetables frozen so I don’t have to worry about them going out of date if they don’t get used that week. If all else fails or if it’s a meal that can’t really be changed like that, then we keep a couple of frozen pizzas or something else in the freezer at hand just in case. It doesn't happen often, though, and I try to put a lot of effort into planning meals that I think we'll actually eat and enjoy that week.
The way I create a meal plan:
Throughout the week I make a note of any meals that catch my eye or that I’m reminded of, which makes it much easier when I come to make an actual list as it means I don’t have to think of as many meals in one go! The challenge is to rotate favourites so that they don’t get boring – for example, we love curry wraps, but I’d get bored of them if we had them every week, so instead I aim for every other week if not a bit more.
I have an ongoing list of every day meals and I’ll tend to take two or three from that list to have every week, and the rest will either be new recipes or variations of dishes that we like (e.g. trying chunky chilli instead of regular chilli con carne). I also try to make sure that there’s a bit of variety about what type of meals I’ll make that week, for example I like to have one or two pasta/rice dishes, one or two with mash and vegetables, one very simple/basic meal, and two or three different kinds of meat. It all sounds very specific when written down like that, but it's just a guide that I aim for to make sure that we get a bit of balance in our diet and also a bit of variety.
I don’t assign meals to particular days because when I did I found that it’d roll onto Wednesday (for example) and I wouldn’t want or didn’t have time for the meal that I’d picked for that night. I changed our dinners around all the time so there wasn’t much point in trying to plan it that way. It also depends on the use by dates of the fresh foods that I get because products with a shorter life would need to be eaten sooner, whereas meals with chicken (which I buy frozen) could last until later in the week, so it’s hard to plan ahead and pick a meal for each night until you’ve got your groceries in and know what goes off when. It can be tricky to stick to or remember what needs to be eaten within a certain date, so I’d suggest either making a rough plan of what you’re going to have in the first few days and what you’ll eat later in the week, or to just keep use by dates in mind when deciding what you’re going to have for dinner that night, and keep checking when food is going out of date.
Inspiration:
I find thinking of a bunch of meals in one go a bit of a challenge sometimes so I turn to a few sources for ideas. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve got a list of our everyday favourites, and at the moment it looks like this:
Nothing too fancy shmancy here - although I enjoy cooking I prefer to only spend between half an hour to an hour on dinner most evenings.
Once I’ve consulted that list and picked a couple of meals I’ll check with my partner Alex to see if there’s anything he’d like that week, and he always has a couple of good ideas. After that I’ll have a look on Pinterest, blogs (I’d love to hear any suggestions), recipe websites such as Jamie Oliver, All Recipes, and BBC Good Food, and online meal planners like Tesco’s.
After all of that I'll have my meals! For example, this was last week's meal plan:
Mongolian beef with rice (new meal)
Cajun chicken (new meal)
Fajitas (quick, favourite)
Spicy chorizo risotto (new meal)
Peri potatoes with chicken (new meal)
Burgers (quick, favourite)
Steak pie with mash and vegetables (favourite)
Once I've got my meal plan, I'll make a list of everything that I need to buy, and then it's just a case of getting it all ordered. I shop online because I find it quicker, easier, and cheaper, as I'm more likely to get distracted by all kinds of treats when shopping in store!
And that’s it! If you have any questions about meal planning or any tips on how you do it, please leave me a comment!
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