Meal Planning/Rotation

[fogleer]

IIRC, lots of you on here are expert menu planners.  I have my favorite recipes but I have never "managed" them before in any organized way.  In an effort to make meal planning more useful, I just made a chart of our 35 "Proven Favorites," the 4 take-out meals we love, and 8 things that have been on m Pinterest "To Try" board for too long.  Goal is to go through the whole chart before I repeat.  Does anyone have an tips for how they plan?  Do you have a certain order or combos you try for in a certain week?  I expect to have to tweak/hack my overly simplistic list.

[bibliothecary]

I look at what's on sale before I meal plan. Good deals on roasts and chicken thighs? That means beef stew, cranberry maple pot roast, and Mexican chicken. My advice is to plan, but leave one night open. Shit happens and you don't want to be beating yourself up over straying from the plan.

I don't plan on a specific meal a night, but that's because I crock pot, so time isn't as much of an issue. Don't plan a bunch of time consuming food prep if you're working late all week. As much as you can, prep ahead of time. You're going to get lazy and takeout willseem like an awesome option, but it's less attractive if your veggies are already sliced up, y'know?

[laurelita42]

I crock pot all the time, too. I will usually buy a ton of poultry and meat whenever it goes on sale, then it goes into the chest freezer, and I'll take it out the day before I want to use it. There's a couple good websites out there that are 'my year of crock pot' themed and I've gotten some good ideas.

I also look for things that I can do most of the prep on earlier in the day, and then just throw in the oven when I'm ready for it to cook. Lots of casseroles/lasagnas like that, and if I'm particularly motivated I will double the recipe and freeze one for later, since I'm already cooking it.

I've found that if I plan the whole week in advance, life always happens and things get pushed a day, and then another day, and eventually stuff I thought I was going to use on Tuesday I can't use until Sunday, and things are no longer fresh. For fresh fruits/veggies, I usually don't shop more than three days out.

[Deleted]

You're doing better than I! I can only think while using pen and paper, and I just hang it on my fridge. I plan out what I'm going to make for the week, make a grocery list based on the schedule, and that's it.

[bibliothecary]

That's another thing: frozen veggies. As much as you can. They're just as fresh ( sometimes more so) and they'll keep until you're ready.

And double recipes for freezing. It's a tenth more work for another whole meal later on.

[fogleer]

Jan 24, 2015 11:04:11 GMT -5 bibliothecary said:

And double recipes for freezing. It's a tenth more work for another whole meal later on.

An recommendations on what freezes well or doesn't?  I usually do that with chili and such, but any chance a non stew recipe like pork chops could survive the freezer?  Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions so far!

[motownthrowdown]

I always shop the ads as well. That's my plan for today, actually. I'll go through the ads and make a list of everything that's on a good price (that I will actually cook with) and then make the menu off that. I usually leave Fridays open so I can move things around during the week when something happens (forget to thaw meat, unexpected delay, etc). Prepping ahead is also really helpful. Chop up all your onions, slice up veggies, and then just measure as you need them. Bonus: your knives and cutting boards only get dirtied once and they are cleaned and out away before you start cooking.

Buying in bulk is also really helpful. We have a club store membership and a vacuum sealer, so once every few months we will buy all of our meat, portion it out, and seal it to be frozen. The hardest part is remembering to thaw it. Pinterest has great stuff if you search for freezer meals.

[bibliothecary]

Jan 24, 2015 11:19:00 GMT -5 fogleer said:

Jan 24, 2015 11:04:11 GMT -5 bibliothecary said:

And double recipes for freezing. It's a tenth more work for another whole meal later on.

An recommendations on what freezes well or doesn't?  I usually do that with chili and such, but any chance a non stew recipe like pork chops could survive the freezer?  Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions so far!

Pork chops should be fine. They may dry out some. Don't freeze fruit. Just don't. Uncooked potatoes. Rice and grains. Pasta is fine, like lasagna. I've had good luck with soups, curries, pretty much anything liquid based. I've frozen pot roasts, seasoned chicken, pork. Fats don't freeze especially well. It's a lot of trial and error.

[karnelac]

I use emeals.com for meal planning. It changed my life.

[hopefulreturn]

I plan out our meals for each night and put it on a small magnetic paper calendar on the fridge. (I also make our shopping list at the same time) It works well for us so whoever gets home first starts dinner. I usually plan one new recipe a week from pinterest or cooking magazines. I mix the weekly meals with chicken, vegetarian, beef options. We always have something in the fridge or freezer for backup on a rushed night!

I also buy certain items in bulk and freeze. Such as chicken breasts when they're on sale. I watch sale flyers to add items to our list such as snacks we like, cereal, baking goods, etc.

I usually love menu planning but my nausea is getting in the way these past couple weeks. I look forward to enjoying it again soon!

It's old and nothing professional, but I kept track of many meals we tried on a cooking blog for a bit. I hope to get it going again soon. I don't want to post the link since our pregnancy isn't "out," but message me if you're curious to check it out and I'd be happy to share.

[fogleer]

Jan 24, 2015 11:47:28 GMT -5 karnelac said:

I use emeals.com for meal planning. It changed my life.

I just looked at the site and I was surprised how far the seem to have come with fresher meals!  I remember the suggestion floating around our July '11 board and at that point it was all "cream of crap" and casseroles.

[motownthrowdown]

Jan 24, 2015 11:19:00 GMT -5 fogleer said:

Jan 24, 2015 11:04:11 GMT -5 bibliothecary said:

And double recipes for freezing. It's a tenth more work for another whole meal later on.

An recommendations on what freezes well or doesn't?  I usually do that with chili and such, but any chance a non stew recipe like pork chops could survive the freezer?  Thanks to everyone for the great suggestions so far!

If you froze them in a marinade, it will keep the meat from getting too dry and will flavor it also. I've done that with chicken (such as citrus marinade, bbq sauce, or Italian dressing). The less air in the bag/package, the better, so I really recommend a vacuum sealer if you intend on doing this on a large scale. We've kept stuff frozen in our deep freeze unit for a year and it was perfect. 

[Deleted]

Pinterest is my savior. I have about 45ish freezer crockpot meals that we love. I make them all every 4-6 weeks and double our favorites. Then the night before I grab one, let it thaw and put in the crockpot on low.
It's a lot of work the 1-2 days I make the meals, but it means I don't have to think or worry about dinner for close to a month.

[telos]

So, I typically plan about 3-4 meals a week and otherwise stock my pantry with "the usual suspects" that make it easy to improvise. We make homemade pizza most Friday nights, for example, so that makes things easy. Pizza toppings (spinach, peppers, onions, mushrooms) are easy ingredients to use in other meals. And we just brown/cook a little extra meat from another meal earlier in the week and use that as a topping.

I use the crock pot a lot, but also the pressure cooker. The pressure cooker is the best and fastest way - by far -to cook beans. Pressure cookers are also great if you like to improvise and can't always plan ahead to slow cook. Ten minute mashed potatoes, for example. There are a lot of great pressure cooker blogs and cookbooks out there. I have a stainless 6qt. Presto.

Were definitely bulk buyers of meat. The last two years, we've gone in with members of my DH's family to purchase a hog and steer for market at a local fair and have it processed in the cuts we like. It nearly fills our entire chest freezer and lasts us the whole year - but I rarely if ever have to buy meat at the grocery store.

Mark Bittman's Food Matters Cookbook is one of my favorites because of the list if pantry staples and recipes you can half plan/half improvise. As with PPs, I find that if you don't give yourself flexibility, you're more likely just not to plan at all.

[oopsiedaisies]

Thanks to Naria and Biblio I've gotten into crockpot freezer meals and it's saved my life on dinners. I've only had one fail out of all the ones I've done and I'm over 20 so far.

[shortstack]

DH is originally for England so we frequently make beef and onion pies (single serving and freeze them. Its a super easy meal which he loves. I made a big batch of chicken noodle soup and froze it to have on hand if we get sick and that usually defrosts and reheats very well.