I need help meal planning....

I saw this thread and then looked up meal plans on Pinterest, and then 21st birthday cakes and then...squirrel!
I need to be taking notes and making a plan. I had no idea there were so many resources out there.
Excluding freezer meals and crockpot meals. My freezer is dying and it's too hot to crock.

 

I was the queen of saving time for meals when all six of my children were at home and I needed to cook BIG meals. I was always a SALE shopper so everything centered around that. I always pre-planned. What that means. If say tonight I cook rice or pasta for a meal I will double the amount then put it in the refrigerator to just heat up another night.
Quick meals my kids always liked along with adults.

slice chicken thin cook in pan pour marinara sauce over and serve with noodles. my kids always loved cheese on top
Salad on the side

Slice chicken thin cook in pan. Open your jar of roasted red peppers and artichoke heart (rinse those) dice the peppers and cut the artichoke hearts in half. add to chicken. add Cheyenne pepper, amount depends on the amount of heat your family likes. Add jar of Alfredo sauce, I always add a small amount of milk to jar, put lid on shake and pour that into the pan also. It thins out/extends the sauce. Cook the amount of noodles you like and add to pan.

What is nice about these two meals you can get away with less meat, which saves money. Slicing really thin makes it seem like there is more meat in the dish. besides cooking faster. lol

 

We do something like this. For us, my son is the picky eater and so when I'm meal planning, I try to pick meals where I can make a bland version for him. So, he gets spaghetti without sauce while the rest of us have pesto. Or I will leave his veggies uncooked while we fancy up the other veggies. Same thing with meat -- I try to make is as "sauceless" and "spiceless" as possible while I make the real version for the rest of us. It doesn't always work and sometimes he just doesn't eat what we have but it mostly helps us get by.

 

I'm terrible about meal planning...what sounds good at the time of making the menu no longer sounds good later that week LOL!! But if you like cooking in the crockpot and you have tried the Mississippi Roast I highly recommend it!! Not very many ingredients, just watch for sales for chuck roast. I'm not a big red meat eater and I love it, and it's one of my hubby's favorite meals...the kids not so much so I have something quick for them.

1. One chuck roast
2. One stick of butter
3. One packet of powder Ranch mix
4. One packet of powder Au Jus mix
5. pepperoncini peppers to your taste

DON'T FORGET THE CROCKPOT BAGS!! Best invention EVA!!!

You can pan sear the roast a bit, but I don't...I don't want to clean up any more dishes than I have too!

1. Place the roast into the crockpot
2. Dump the powder Ranch mix on top
3. Dump the powder Au Jus mix on top
4. You can either place the whole stick of butter on the top or you can do what I do which is cut the butter up and place all around...or if you're feeling even more adventurous you can cut slits into the roast and place pats of butter into the slit...but really who has time for that??
5. Add pepperoncini peppers to your liking...I personally add the entire jar; just don't add the juice.

DO NOT ADD ANY LIQUID

Cook on low for about 8 hours and enjoy! The meat is very tender!

 

My big issue is that I'm perpetually exhausted, which comes from having to wake at 4:30 am 3x week to get DD to the rink before school. I never seem to snap out of the funk all day long. The other big (or bigger) issue is that I have to cook two different meals, or something that my family will eat that I can eat. I have a condition called EoE (eosinophilic esophagitis ) where my body can't process complex proteins, so no gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, or eggs for me. Throw in no acids due to other GI issues, and it's a royal pain to cook interesting meals that don't always taste the same.

I got a great new cookbook for Christmas of easy meals that I could eat, but I purchased 4 days of groceries/meals and I was too tired to make any of it. It all went bad. So, it's kind of day to day here.

I did ask my kids what meals they love, and they said I could fix these meals anytime I want: spaghetti, lasagne, chili or enchilada casserole (think enchiladas, but layered like lasagne - easy peasy). Which I do. A lot.

I love those quick meals! We make mini monte cristo sandwiches that way (slice the whole pack in half, layer ham, turkey, cheese, brush with butter then bake in the oven). I'll need to do that again!

My DS has Asperger's Syndrome, which made mealtime a bit interesting for quite a while. He couldn't stand any of his foods touching, so no casseroles for us. If I made sandwiches, he got everything on his plate separately, and he ate everything. If I made it into a sandwich, he wouldn't touch it. Now he's 18 and has thankfully grown out of that. All I can say is that they'll figure it out. Sometimes it's the feel of the food or the taste of multiple things eaten together. It does take their taste buds a while to mature, too. I figured if they're eating, it's a good thing. I really didn't care!

 

i do this too - i'll add like lemon pepper to our stuff and leave hers plain AND THEN she gets out the tomato sauce/ketchup and i'm like 'what?!' (Apparently tomato sauce is the exception to her 'no flavour' rules) - some days this is me

 

LOL good to know there's hope, but my brain just read that as 'that's 365 dinners times by quite a few more years to go

 

Maybe have her help make the meals? I turned snack time over to the kids when they got too picky about food. It got to the point where I was so frustrated at their eating habits that I just wanted them to eat. Maybe that could work for your DD, giving her a bit of control? Just a thought.

 

I dont know why but she loves the Food channel and helping cook but i think it's more the engineering or doing, or science of cooking?? She was excited to find out she's in the cooking & sewing class this term at school and that they'd make things like spaghetti bolognese. She told me and i said 'so that means you'll eat the sauce at school and when you make this at home for us?!' and she was like 'do you think at school i'll have to eat the sauce?!' !
(I'm just looking fwd to her teaching me how to sew LOL - told her i can put up with the food in exchange for that)

 

we do meal planning for 2 weeks after dinner together. It is hysterical time.
I tell them I need a chicken meal
ideas fly
and they bring up things I forget
lasagna? I never remember and it is pretty easy to make 2 and freeze one! winner
we eat a ton of mexican food, like 3 times a week, and you can put meat in flour or corn torts and make up names

2 chicken breast (I do in instant pot 8min) shreds for tacos, soup, sandwiches

hot dogs, but I make chili one night, and hot dogs the next for chili dogs..and then the goobers will cut those dogs up and put in their raman for lunch (hurl)

we make hamburgers at least once every two weeks. sometimes with pinapple and teriyaki sauce, bacon and shrooms another, sliders (smaller burgers done early and made on small rolls with cheese and pickles, wrap pan in foil and cook 200 degrees or less for a few hours) and then regular burgers toms and lettuce

steak and potatoes (insta pot the pots) and salad every two weeks, and thin sliced pan fried second night with onions and H57 on grilled rolls! to die for! deeelicious

chinese at least once a week. Panda Express has the best sauces. there orange chicken is so so good! I cut up in small bite sizes (we like thighs) . Sprinkle liberally with pancake mix! YEP! then pan fry, until cooked and pour sauce on top! YUmmy. Add some stir fry and rice and that is easy.

marinade chicken with almost anything, toss on BBQ with noodles (suddenly salad fiends) and baked beans. bomb diddly

My kids are good eaters, love vegi's and will try about anything...even octopus! lol


and becky!?!? @bbymks5 I had done that without the aujuice and ranch, use a beef boulion, onion soup mix and pepperoncinis but that ranch addition sounds remarkable, like I am drooling and wrote it down for this weekend!

 

@AnneofAlamo It's so good!! It's one of hubby's favorites and anything I can throw into the crockpot and forget about until dinner time I'm ALL over!!

 

just a note, I make what I make, and if they don't like it, pnut butter and jelly sandwich is nutritious, and they can have it after what we call a no thank you portion. No one evah died from missing a meal.

 

I use the Once A Month Meals website... It has been the best $16 a month I've ever spent. They put together menus, which I read and usually swap out quite a few things to stuff my family will actually like/eat, lol. But, then it creates for me a custom shopping list, prep list (what to chop and slice and such), and then a cook/prepare list. I do the shopping on Friday morning, generally prep Friday evening, and "cook" on Saturday. I prepare 16 meals in a double or triple batch (my choice) and fill my freezer with home made from scratch meals that last us almost 2 months when you add in pizza nights or anything that means you ate out that night. It's a crazy couple of days, but I have learned a few tricks to make it all go faster, like buying some things pre chopped, and checking to make sure all or most of my recipes are easy assembly meals. It's a HUGE life saver for me. In the morning, I pull something out of the freezer to thaw, and cook it for dinner. (Most of the time, that's actually hubby's job, he takes it out in the morning, I cook it for dinner) It's saved us a ton of money and probably a ton of calories too, although I need to take it up a notch so we could actually lose weight instead of just maintaining our current weights... Either way, that's how I plan the meals!!

Huggles!!
~Sarah~

 

This is one thing I feel I've mastered. I like, no I need, to try new things. But some nights, we need the quick and familiar. Also, if we're having people over, I might want a tried and true recipe. So here's how I've got it organized:
I have two files in Evernote. One called, "Things That Look Yum" and "Family Favourites" each one has subheadings for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Desert & Snacks. When I find a recipe that interests me, it goes under the appropriate header in "Things That Look Yum", I write down where I found it (a cookbook, is it saved on Pinterest, or in my magazine subscription service?) And a suspected effort level. When I make a new recipe the whole family votes. If a recipe gets 3 thumbs up (out of 4 people), I make it again. If it gets 4 thumbs up the second time around, it moves to the Family Favourites board. (Kids are sometimes fussy about new things, and sometimes I need to tweak a recipe to get it right, so I give myself some leeway.)
Knowing our family schedule, I try new things on Monday and Wednesday. Tuesdays is basically a non-cooking night (soup anyone?) And Thursday is something familiar, and not too hard. Friday, Saturday and Sunday vary by what we've got going on. But because we celebrate Shabbat on Friday, it's always a little fancier.
Within that framework, on Sundays, I ask everyone to shout out ideas for the week, or ask for their favourites. I make my meal pland and grocery list based on that, and then I go into this app called Flipp (not sure if it's Canada-only, but it's AWESOME). To put together a list, looking at what's on sale. I also shop at a store that lets me price match based on Flipp. So, it's a bit of work, but I've found that the planning reduces midweek stress, saves me money on wasted food and DEFINITELY makes us eat healthier. If I leave the decision until the last minute, we eat a lot more pizza.

Love reading how everyone else does it! You are all giving me lots of ideas.

 

As for the picky eaters... When my oldest was 6 we came up with a deal. I could make her eat something new, or not well liked 3 times a week. That was it. Knowing that she'd only have to put up with it 3 times made her much more willing to try the stuff she wasn't fond of. She got to call when she was using one of those 3 times. If she really didn't like it, I'd never force her to clear her plate, but she knew that there was no more food until the next meal if you didn't finish your plate. That was a pretty good incentive. No tricks, just, "We're not short order cooks, the kitchen is closed."