Menu Planning

mjd

mjd

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I would like to learn how to plan menus (ie. weekly or monthly). I've tried in the past but end up not keeping to them mainly because I either have a taste for something else or I don't feel up to preparing what was planned. I think I can fix the latter issue by prepping some ingredients when I feel well enough, but I don't really know how to resolve the first one.

How do you plan and stick to your menu plans?

Thanks in advance!
 
I come and go with menu planning. I do find that it's fairly easy to get distracted, as all it takes is a day of saying, "Let's get pizza tonight," and it throws the whole thing out of whack.

My personality is such, though, that I appreciate order, so if I have a plan, I do my best to stick to it. I can't help you much with your taste changing, that's just something you have to get straight in your head, like "I said lasagna on Tuesday, so I'm having lasagna on Tuesday, and that's that."

Once somethings decided, I'm very good about sticking with it, and not just food/meals; I positively abhor revisiting/revising things once decided. The inside of my brain is like a million-and-one spiders crawling around, and I have to have things decided, or I'd be bouncing off the walls 24/7, panicked over nothing being decided, and I find it very calming to know I'm making this tonight, that tomorrow, and this other thing the day after that.

The benefit of menu-planning also is a big help grocery shopping. I rarely buy on impulse, unless I'm specifically in a shop just for fun. Yesterday was kind of like that.

The way I approach planning is, over a week, I plan maybe four meals. I like to choose from one salad, one pasta, one beef, one chicken, one pork, one soup. That's how I think about it.

I'll think, "You know...spaghetti and meatballs sound really good...," and that's a pasta and a beef/pork, so from that starting point, I'll think, "Ok...what's a good chicken dish..." and maybe I'll go online and look or flip through some cookbooks...chicken and broccoli, that'll work, and it just keeps on like that, until I have four meals, no duplicating main ingredients or cuisines, and I'm done.

I don't plan lunches or breakfasts, unless something really grabs me. I just always have a supply of lunchmeats and cheeses, and leftovers are an option as well. Breakfast during the week is always cereal and weekends are always some form of eggs or oatmeal or syrup-based dish.

Sometimes, I'll see a cookbook I haven't used in a while, and I'll say, "Everything this week is coming out of that," and that keeps the planning interesting.

One thing I don't do, which I think would be a big help if I did, is pre-prep stuff. I do all my prep the day of, when I start cooking.
 
I never plan menus weeks in advance except for sporadic parties or other events. I plan the shopping list rather precisely; that's when I (kind of) plan the menu for a couple of days. I think it's better to focus on generally healthy and variable ingredients than to stick to a precise plan.

We go to the supermarket every two or three days as the Covid situation has calmed down. Usually there are ingredients for one bigger dish and pantry supplements, nibblings, fruit, veggies, dairies, bakery products and sweet treats on the grocery list. I made a big salmon soup this weekend - and bought some veggies, fruit, a couple of pre-prep vegetable pizzas, (healthier) lentil chips/crisps, vanilla ice cream and a bit of lean pork to accompany. We didn't have to eat many snacks during the weekend thanks to a hearty and filling soup and a cake I'd made earlier.

I often pick something extra if I find something interesting and fresh but I mainly stick to the plan. We buy pre-prep stuff weekly, as I have RA and there is a cooking and baking school in the neighbor and big supermarkets prepare a large variety of well made takeaway meals. I love e.g. the bubble and squeak with a fried egg on top and salmon salad with a tasty dressing of one particular supermarket. This Finnish brand is one of our favorites; it has low-sodium meals with fresh ingredients and no preservatives. They are handy when we're both busy.

Our youngest and I love this microwave meal from another brand with fish, mashed potatoes, peas and a big button of dill butter. Sometimes we order pizza from a nearby restaurant. We always order the integral-bottom (with a pinch of rye), just half of normal cheese and loads of veggies, meat and better cheese (like mozza', parm' or blue cheese) on top. That's something we seldom plan in advance. Sometimes I just feel too exhausted and hungry (after e.g. two hours of raking in the countryside) to cook - so the quick solution is pizza.

All in all I think it's good to look around for good bargains, make a bigger dish and eat it for two days. I seldom freeze leftovers as our freezer is packed with self-picked and purchased berries. We mix fruities or smoothies on a daily basis. As TastyReuben said, it's good to have all kinds of basic ingredients with a long shelf-life at hand. With a few veggies, an egg or two or a piece of meat, poultry, dairies or just seasoning you then have room for imagination and recipe-scrolling in terms of lunch or snacks. Fruit can be used in a magnitude of ways if they become a little old or leathery (ours usually go to the fruities or cakes), so we always have a big fruit plate with seasonal fruit on the table. Needs no special planning and produces an imposing and healthy dessert dish, if you feel like having something colorful.

If you really want to stick to a weekly or monthly plan, there are several online sites with good advice. Here are a few:
1., 2. and 3.
 
Another point, that sounds more to do with shopping, but is equally important for menu planning - always shop your pantry/freezer first.

I've been known to get in the habit of filling the freezer with a thousand things, then sitting around thinking, "Let's make <something that's not in my freezer>!"

Look through the freezer, find those spare chicken pieces, or that soup from summer, and work that into your plan.
 
we plan one week - mostly for shopping purposes and left over planning....
it's not set in stone; only now and then does it not change. and we both get to yammer if one of us has a particular yen.
it's not intended to specify every single detail - the sides are often 'blank' and get decided ala minute...

one advantage.... the cook gets a reminder for stuff like beef stew - which is best done 'a day ahead' - we have several dishes we prefer to 'age/meld'
simple sheet:
49631
 
It is not typical of most people to plan out a week's or even, a month's meals. Three meals a day for 7 days is 21 meals. For 30 days, it's 90. Is it any wonder that many people turn to repeats of processed food meals, often microwave zapped?

The meal plan is not a recipe. It often contains single titles for meals and it serves a number of great functions, 1) Calorie Limits, 2) Food Group adherance, 3) Identifying Grocery Needs for re-stocking or acquisition and 4) elimination of redundancy (eating the same stuff too often).

In the USA, the Department of Agriculture documents and recommends the Food Groups that every American should be taking in.

Executive Summary - 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines | health.gov
MyPlate | ChooseMyPlate

This goes for three meals per day with snacking in between meals.

And it's hard for an old grizzler like myself to deal with these guidelines as a single meal is puny by their definition. I'd be unhappy with anything, but a big meal. So, I eat a small breakfast and later in the day, one big meal, without a lot of snacking in between. I'm not a constant grazer. I eat and then expend, exerting or sleeping in between.

So, when I consider meal plans, I don't follow the Dept. of Agriculture guidelines. My choice. My habits.

Calorie management is a different matter. You need to know your gender, age and Body Mass Index. You need to know your daily static calorie burn, just sitting, doing nothing. Then you need to understand how many calories you burn in exercise or exertion and finally, calculate how many calories you can take in. If you want to loose weight, you need your calories to be less and calorie burn to be more. These days you can find out how many calories are in food, even meals you cook. It's either on the label or listed on the web.

Reviewing your meal plans can suggest eliminating things that are often repeated by exploring something new. And when you know in advance where you are going, you can plan your trips to the grocery stores, more reliably.

Before I close this post, let me say that I do not cook every day. I use a lot of time, even as an old retired guy, and often microwave prepared and processed foods or do quick meals like Macaroni and Cheese (for example) or tuna salad sandwiches, etc.

These days, with the pandemic, restaurant food has been almost totally eliminated from consideration, leaving a lot more to be done for food and meals, at home.
 
TastyReuben, I like your approach. It definitely sounds easier to pick something from each major category.

I don't usually eat breakfast or lunch but sometimes may have a wrap or eggs with toast. Nothing big that needs to be planned out really.

And, I only pre-prep because I never know day-to-day how I will feel and that's when things go off the rails. I wasn't really up to doing anything yesterday and I didn't eat anything. That's a bad habit I want to break.

I don't have any of my cookbooks (with all my notes and ratings over the past decades) so I'm having to start over. Now, I just rely on 1-3 recipe sites that I trust to have decent reviews. I stick to my rule of more than 1,000 reviews and a rating of 4/5 or higher. There are just a few dishes I've made that didn't turn out well.

Thanks for your post. It helps me put this into perspective better.
 
Hemulen, thanks for your post.

I have never really relied on pre-prepped meals before my divorce as my ex liked homemade meals and hated that I used the freezer for anything except ice cream. I'm just now learning how to cook smaller portions. LOL

I have started eating frozen meals that include the kinds of foods I would typically make. Mac and cheese, meatloaf, pot roast, etc. It's nice to have a taste without all the prep and cooking. I just worry about the sodium because I have high blood pressure. I was more concerned about ingredients when feeding my family though. I mean, I spent all these years eating "right" and still ended up with high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Yikes!

I am good about keeping fruits and veggies on hand. I love almost all them so that's a quick option when I'm not up to anything else. I guess all the years of overdoing it are catching up with me!

Thanks for the links. I will check them out!
 
TastyReuben, thanks for that additional tip.

The BIGGEST problem I have is that I forget what I have on hand. I've started keeping a list on fridge of what I have so I use that before going to buy something else.

Funny (now I laugh at it) for you. One holiday I bought 14 FOURTEEN sweet potatoes because I forgot that I had some. This was over 3-4 trips to the store that season. I was only feeding five people so it was more than enough. LOL

That's the whole point of my question. I want to get better about using what I have and planning things! LOL
 
CookieMonster, thanks for posting your menu planning sheet. It really helps me visualize how to do this.

One nice thing about being divorced is I get to make what I want to eat. That sounds bad and I don't intend it to. My ex really didn't care what I prepared as he loved almost everything I cooked (I only knew he didn't like something if he buried it on his plate. LOL). I just mean that I cooked more for my family's tastes versus what I might want here and there.

It looks like you and TastyReuben kind of follow the same model of major food with various sides. You make it look very simple and delicious!
 
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