Meal Planners

blunomore

blunomore

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How many of you have a e.g. weekly meal planner and use that to pre-plan, buy groceries in advance, etc ?

Does it work well for you?

I often spend too much time wondering what too cook for dinner and then having to dash out to get ingredients ... a meal planner ought to solve this.
 
I cannot imagine a life so mundane that it requires the planning of sustenance. We left the caves thousands of years ago...
 
Yeah I have a meal planner. I call it the "I eat what I feel like having" plan. Works for me. :p
 
I have a meal planner too & she better bloody well have my meals ready when I get home!!

/Joke, I live by myself & seldom plan meals more than a day in advance.
 
we dont have a planner, but we plan the weeks meals on Sunday.
We then do the weekly shopping from the meal list and purchase everything required. Seems to work well enough (Ie, i dont get sent to shops to buy things during the week)
 
My other meal planner is called the "what's almost expired in the freezer?" plan.
 
blunomore said:
Sometimes it is not about life being mundane, but about life being busy.
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And having a set, weekly schedule is going to save you the few minutes it takes to decide what to eat for the evening?

Personally, I'd despise having my meals dictated to me by a piece of paper. I determine what I have in the house, what I feel like, and it takes me all of 5 minutes. If I need something from the shop, I pop in briefly. Now I know you're going to pull the "I have a baby" card now, but that's not going to fly. Your baby can fit in a stroller surely and checking the pantry/cupboards doesn't prevent you from parenting.

If you really struggle, then have a think about it when your head hits the pillow or while you're feeding her, or while you're rocking her to sleep etc. All it takes is dedicating a few minutes to think about it...
 
tau1z said:
we dont have a planner, but we plan the weeks meals on Sunday.
We then do the weekly shopping from the meal list and purchase everything required. Seems to work well enough (Ie, i dont get sent to shops to buy things during the week)
Click to expand...

It sounds like a good idea to me because once you have all the necessary ingredients, you can even swop meals around.
 
blunomore said:
It sounds like a good idea to me because once you have all the necessary ingredients, you can even swop meals around.
Click to expand...

Oh if this is what you're referring to then it's not a meal plan. I was thinking meal plan in the strict sense of the phrase, which irks me.

When I shop, I buy a plethora of varied ingredients from all parts of the world. That way when it comes to selecting a meal, it's as simple as determining which part of the planet I feel like eating from that night and matching flavours with a protein. Or I decide tonight is mac and cheese whether the nutritionist approves or not. Perhaps try buying a wider variety of groceries - I see you focus on Indian food predominantly so your predicament is somewhat understandable. Expand yours and Mr Blu's culinary horizons and it might make grocery shopping a little easier.

Whatever you do, don't plan Monday to Sunday meals though. You don't circle sex night on a calendar, do you? Why should the pleasure of food be planned?
 
DJ... said:
Oh if this is what you're referring to then it's not a meal plan. I was thinking meal plan in the strict sense of the phrase, which irks me.

When I shop, I buy a plethora of varied ingredients from all parts of the world. That way when it comes to selecting a meal, it's as simple as determining which part of the planet I feel like eating from that night and matching flavours with a protein. Or I decide tonight is mac and cheese whether the nutritionist approves or not. Perhaps try buying a wider variety of groceries - I see you focus on Indian food predominantly so your predicament is somewhat understandable. Expand yours and Mr Blu's culinary horizons and it might make grocery shopping a little easier.

Whatever you do, don't plan Monday to Sunday meals though. You don't circle sex night on a calendar, do you? Why should the pleasure of food be planned?
Click to expand...

I think my problem is with buying fresh ingredients and keeping them fresh for long enough. It just always feel as if the veg go off too soon, so have to pop out to do e.g. veg shopping too often.
 
blunomore said:
I think my problem is with buying fresh ingredients and keeping them fresh for long enough. It just always feel as if the veg go off too soon, so have to pop out to do e.g. veg shopping too often.
Click to expand...

Depends on the veg and how you store it. Mushrooms for example need to have the plastic torn open to prevent them from sweating. Same thing applies to most porous veg. Other veg needs careful humidity control - do you have humidity control on your fridge veg drawers? I don't tend to have the same problem as you - my veg lasts as expected - a few days at least. Some up to a week...
 
DJ... said:
Depends on the veg and how you store it. Mushrooms for example need to have the plastic torn open to prevent them from sweating. Same thing applies to most porous veg. Other veg needs careful humidity control - do you have humidity control on your fridge veg drawers? I don't tend to have the same problem as you - my veg lasts as expected - a few days at least. Some up to a week...
Click to expand...

See, this feels as if it limits me - I have to either choose a dish/es in order to use up that veg before it goes off, or donate it :)
 
blunomore said:
See, this feels as if it limits me - I have to either choose a dish/es in order to use up that veg before it goes off, or donate it :)
Click to expand...

Tomatoes, onions, peppers, potatoes, carrots, beetroot and plenty others should be lasting at least a week. Others you'll need to buy more than once a week. Personally, I don't find buying mushrooms and leeks twice a week to be a schlep. You simply have to. No amount of meal planning will resolve this...
 
blunomore said:
It sounds like a good idea to me because once you have all the necessary ingredients, you can even swop meals around.
Click to expand...

pretty much what we do. I know it may be boring, but we have meals planned for monday to thursday. Depending on time and what we feel like we do swap them around a bit, but at least all the shopping is done.

blunomore said:
I think my problem is with buying fresh ingredients and keeping them fresh for long enough. It just always feel as if the veg go off too soon, so have to pop out to do e.g. veg shopping too often.
Click to expand...

depending on the meal, we may stop and buy fresh ingredients again on the wednesday. As we know what we are looking for, its usually a 5 minute stop and go.

Weekends are quite up in the air for us, so we dont plan too much. But if we do, we usually schedule a shop in on the friday or saturday morning.

total shop visits = 1 on sunday, very minor one on wednesday.
 
Unless you're a little on the autistic side, I can't see the benefit in dictating such a strict schedule to something that doesn't require it? :confused:
 
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