What do you use to plan your meals?

[SaraJayne]

I have made it a goal this year to plan better as far as meals at home go.

What do you use to plan your meals? Cookbooks, blogs, online recipe sites?

Hopefully, this will help others, too.

 

[Maggie Lizer]

I look at what proteins are on sale in the weekly flyers, and what produce is seasonal. During the colder months, I usually make one or two bigger meals each week, so we can have leftovers a couple of nights. In the summer, grilled meats and veggies are the rule. We usually do a pasta night - changing up the sauce/veggies - and a salad or sandwich night. We were also doing a pizza night, but I think one of DH's resolutions is to cut back ont he pizza, so that will probably change.

 

[laura.anne]

I used to use Plan to Eat, which is a website where you pay $5 a month to have all your recipes online (with a quick import button on your toolbar to automatically add a recipe from another website) and then you just plan all the meals you want to make for the week: breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc. It creates a shopping list for you and I think also lets you put reminders on the calendar portion, e.g. "Thaw chicken for Wednesday" etc. I stopped using it because I am on a major college budget and I had to trim down every little extra expense. I liked it because of how automatic and easy it was to use, and it also supports a family--it is their small business venture.
The best part about it was the shopping list creator. The only thing I really hate about planning weekly meal plans myself is looking at each day and adding all of the stuff up (e.g. 1/2 cup milk in Monday's recipe plus 3/4 cup milk in Tuesday's recipe, etc.) Plan to Eat automatically adds all that up for you so you know how much to buy when you go to the store.
They do have a free trial and I think the ability to pay for the year at a discounted rate. There is also a tour on the website if anyone is interested.

 

[DeaverTex]

You folks rock. Mrs. Tex and I use the "What's in the pantry/freezer" method of meal planning.

 

[ashley0139]

I get a lot of my recipes these days from Pinterest. They usually turn out very well.

 

[SaraJayne]

You folks rock. Mrs. Tex and use the "What's in the pantry/freezer" method of meal planning.

Me too. And I'm finding it isn't working so well for me anymore.

I do much better when I have a weekly meal plan, so that's why I'm asking for some help/ideas.

 

[DeaverTex]

Me too. And I'm finding it isn't working so well for me anymore.

I do much better when I have a weekly meal plan, so that's why I'm asking for some help/ideas.

I meant it when I said you guys rock. I just don't know if either of us would be up to planning meals a week in advance. By the time we get home from work, sometimes all we want to do is to collapse and order a pizza. Fortunately, we don't actually DO that very often, but an awful lot of soup gets heated up.

I'm keeping an eye on this thread, by the way. Maybe something will click for Mrs. Tex and me.

 

[jentifred]

I use pepperplate.com to store my recipes and plan meals. I love it. I usually plan meals on the website and then use the app on my ipad as a cookbook in my kitchen. The shopping list stinks, but I guess you can't have everything!

 

[lovemygoofy]

I don't use a specific website though there are several great ones out there. Usually groupon or living social has a discount for those memeberships.

I have a dry erase calendar in my kitchen. I do meal planning by the two weeks usually Sunday to Sunday. I include what nights are late nights and I throw in the night out meals. Should I skip a meal night, I write that on the day and add that meal to the next two week rotation.

I don't do shopping by what is on sale simply because the commissary doesn't really advertise meat sales and I usually by meat by the large quanities at Sam's Club.

Here is an example of what mine would look like:

Sunday: Baked crockpot chicken, sweet potatoes and roasted broccoli
Monday: Grilled sandwhiches with fresh fruit
Tuesday: Baked fish tacos, spicy slaw and fresh fruit
Wednesday: Breakfast (wednesday is usually breakfast meal)
Thursday: Veggie pasta bake, salad and bread
Friday: Sloppy joes, sweet potato fries, and corn cob
Saturday: dinner out
Sunday: crockpot roast and veggies with cheese biscuits
Monday: Veggie quesadillas, brown taco rice, and fresh fruit
Tuesday: Baked crunchy chicken strips served on salad
Wednesday: Breakfast
Thursday: Soup and salad and fresh fruit
Friday: dinner out
Saturday: homemade nacho grande

I own a LARGE variety of cookbooks and my goal starting Feb(I'm out of town most of Jan) to use a new receipe every week. It doesn't matter if it is simple or complicated but I want to use my cookbooks and not just ooh and ahh over them.

Every morning or the night before, I pull down all the things I need to make dinner that night and if needed I leave the recipe out so my husband can start dinner if he gets home before I do.

 

[Disneychix]

I use an accordian style folder and I use the pockets for recipes by 'group'. Breakfast, dinners, desserts, side dishes, soups, appetizers. I also have a 'frequent flyer' pocket for my most used recipes. I make copies of recipes I use from cookbooks or pull out magazine recipes. I don't like to have to look in many different spots to find things, so everything goes in the folder.

I then sit down once a week and make my shopping list as I go through my recipes. We do often have the same things from week to week. (Can you say Taco Tuesday?) But 2 meals a week I often make as bigger meals to have some leftovers (crockpot usually).

 

[HeatherC]

I keep it pretty simple. I stock up on meat when it is on sale and go from there.

Today boneless chciken breast was $1.99lb so I bought two huge packages..probably 8 nights worth of meals with leftovers. I also bought ground beef on sale and have two boneless pork roasts as well as a ton of leftover ham in the freezer.

So I will just create meals from them. Like..chicken will be chicken soup, chicken potpie, buffalo chicken, grilled chicken, stirfry chicken, etc..

Ground beef will be used for pasta sauce, beef and rice enchiladas, hamburger soup, grilled hamburgers, etc.

Pork will be cranberry pork roast and bbq pulled pork.

Ham..ham and potato soup, ham and hash brown casserole, ham and cheese quiche and spiral ham with potatoes and veggies.

Most of these will have leftovers to freeze or to eat later in the week.

So by stocking up on some meat I will have enough for almost 21 nights of dinners. Not bad considering I spent about $25 on the meat today.

Hope this helps give you some ideas!

 

[SaraJayne]

I use an accordian style folder and I use the pockets for recipes by 'group'. Breakfast, dinners, desserts, side dishes, soups, appetizers. I also have a 'frequent flyer' pocket for my most used recipes. I make copies of recipes I use from cookbooks or pull out magazine recipes. I don't like to have to look in many different spots to find things, so everything goes in the folder.

I then sit down once a week and make my shopping list as I go through my recipes. We do often have the same things from week to week. (Can you say Taco Tuesday?) But 2 meals a week I often make as bigger meals to have some leftovers (crockpot usually).

I have a 3 ring binder that I have recipes in page protectors. Some are from the web, some are torn out of magazines, others are handwritten.

I need to pull that out and go through it.

 

[Buckalew11]

eMeals.

 

[elizke]

(Coffee sip)

Watching for inspiration.........

 

[nancycg56]

I have a huge cookbook collection (1,000+) so I have lots of inspiration but lately I have been pinning everything I find that looks appetizing to Pinterest and then going through my boards to see what strikes my fancy. I put a Pin It button in my browser so I can pin anything.

I have also found that I get lots of yummy recipes from Tasty Kitchen which is part of the Pioneer Woman's site.

I shop twice a week so plan half a week at a time ~ weird, I know, but it works for me.

 

[Jill in Chicago]

Something that really helps us is a 3 ring binder of our favorite recipes. It is not fancy. I just use page protectors and slip the recipe right in. I would also make a list of your favorite super quick and easy recipes. Just the names if you don't have a recipe.

As to my actual system I think up a few meals for the week and pencil them in, in my calendar.

Instead of a specific "Monday will be this," and "Tues. will be that," think about some meals you can have on hand, for instance pasta and red sauce. Then all you need to add is a salad.

What really helps me is to force myself to choose dinner for tomorrow the night before. That way I know what to pull out of the freezer. Sometimes I'll assemble stuff in the crockpot the night before or chop vegetables for the next day. In the morning I am flying out the door, and after work I'll look at those things to be chopped and say, "No way!"

Eggs are also good, quick and easy to make scrambled eggs and add some cheese and vegetables.

We always have rice (the inexpensive slow cooking stuff) and then add leftover chicken and vegetables for a stir fry. Chicken broth in pantry and then add vegetables for soup. I always have Bisquick Baking Mix. You just add water and you can make biscuits. They are super quick and easy. Maybe biscuits and your favorite canned soup. You can also make pancakes with Bisquick.

Watch your fresh vegetables. If they look like they are going to go bad, cook them up and toss in freezer. Leftover cooked vegetables? Toss in freezer. Then you have them for soup. Spinach for salad lasts longer than most lettuce. Again when it wilts mix it into pasta, make a Italian soup....

Many folks cook up a big pot of something on the weekends. For me this doesn't work as I have cleaning and errands, and personally I want to sit on my butt and relax, but my husband loves to do this. Then freeze half for another time.

Sundays my husband will usually make a roast chicken, ham, roast..... Then what we don't eat I package into dinner sized portions. Then you have chicken in the freezer to turn into tacos... or to put on a salad. Ham to add to eggs....

Hope this helps you brainstorm!

 

[lovesmurfs]

Looking for inspiration, too!

Mostly I get all of my recipes online anymore. Allrecipes is my initial go-to site for recipes. I pin other recipes I find here and there to my Pinterest board.

I tried www.savingdinner.com (from FlyLady), but the family didn't like a number of the recipes each week.

I've got a large number of cookbooks, but I only seem to use one or two recipes out of each. Maybe when I've destashed (see Budget Board), I'll find time to organize my recipes.

I do have a number of the Saving Dinner freezer books, in which you make a number of freezer meals ahead of time. They were all right, but took a while to put them together, and haven't done them for quite a while.

 

[mombrontrent]

I never plan my meals ahead. However I keep a well stocked kithcen. It keep lots of different grains on hand (pastas, rices, quinoa, couscous ect.). I keep dried beans on hand a cook alot at once and then freeze extras into meal sized portions. I keep canned tomatoes and frozen peas and corn on hand. I have ALOT of different spices and baking supplies on hand.

Then when I go to the store 2-3 times a week I buy the produce that is on sale or looks yummy. I make my meals around my fresh produce (vegan) and my pantry. For example yeasterday I had a nice big head of cauliflower so I made some basmati rice and a quick curry sauce using diced tomatos. I cooked the cauliflower and added it the sauce then threw in some chickpeas that I had made a few weeks ago and froze. Served with some Naan bread I also had in the freezer. This was a quick easy meal that came together in about 30 min.

 

[dsneprincess]

I am glad you started this thread. I am having the same problem. Today I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out what is for dinner since I am determined to do only 1 night out per week hoping to make that the new "normal" here. I did find some good ideas on food.com so far.

 

[bapcap]

There is a "deal" on Groupon for The Fresh 20...it's a meal planning online service. The deal is $24 for a 1 year membership. Every Friday you get an e-mail listing 5 meal suggestions, along with the recipes and grocery list. I just signed up and printed out the lists from December 7, 14, 21, and 28...lots of ideas. As a member, you also get access to the archived lists in the past. I'm excited to try this out, since my New Year's Resolution is to better plan our meals and not spend so much eating out.