Finally organized my evening meals!

[ScarletBegonias]

i hope this is the right place for this.......

i have spent literally YEARS trying to figure out a meal plan that will work for me and my family. i hate planning specific meals because a) i am a spur of the moment kinda woman and b) i always shop what's on sale.

so in a moment of pure genius, if i may say, i came up with a structured, yet completely flexible plan!!!!

on 7 4x6" index cards, i wrote the "theme" of the evening on the blank side and meal ideas on the lined side. i put them on a metal magnetic clip and stuck them on my fridge. everyday i see what the theme is, what my ideas are and i look forward to figuring out what sounds yummy and what i can make with what i have at hand.

Th - Pan/Rice Night: Tacos, Stir-fry, Pot Stickers, French Bread Pizza etc.,.
Fri -Salad Night
Sat - Casserole Night: Enchiladas, Lasagna, Quiche, Roast Meat & Vegetables etc.,.
Sun - Sushi Night
Mon - Hot Sandwich/Breakfast for Dinner Night: French Dip, Burgers, BLT's, Omelets etc.,.
Tue - Soup/Stew Night: Chicken & Rice Soup, Beef Stew, Coconut Soup, Broccoli & Cheddar etc.,.
Wed - Noodle Night: Spaghetti, Chow Mein etc.,.

the only fine-tuning i need to do is to adjust the procession of what theme when, but otherwise, i am so stoked to have finally found a fun, easy solution that actually works for my family!

[sleepypeanutsmom]

I love this idea and the categories you came up with. I also like the idea of making a list of meals that fit into each category...helps my mommy brain. I'm going to give this some thought!

[sapphire_chan]

[NicaG]

So do you have the themes penned in for every day of the week in advance, or do you decide on the theme every morning....just wondering how far in advance you plan things, and how it coincides with your grocery shopping.

I am forever looking for better ways to plan meals....

[ScarletBegonias]

thanks mamas! i'm so proud and relieved that i *finally* have a sensible solution to meal planning!

i have 7 themes, one for each day of the week. so each theme i listed above is designated a certain night of the week, i wrote the day of the week in little letters at the bottom corner of the card. this is the only part that needs tweeking. i might need to change the order of the meals.

dh and i came up with a list of about 30 meals that our whole family loves. i buy in bulk and buy the same stuff, just at differing intervals to take advantage of sales.

so, if for example, Friday is Salad Night, i just make sure i buy extra produce, because in a couple days we have Sushi Night and will need ripe avocados, cucumbers etc.,. or like on Noodle Night, i may not have the ingredients for spaghetti, but i do have the ingredients for chow mein or stroganoff. so there is structure in what our basic shopping needs (are egg noodles or angel hair pasta on sale this week?), but flexibility that allows us to take advantage of sales, leftovers, moods and cravings.

like last night we had shredded chicken burritos, and i threw together a tray of enchiladas. i stuck it in the freezer and we'll eat it tomorrow on Casserole Night. i like to make meals ahead and this plan gives a little structure to just throwing stuff in the freezer.

[ScarletBegonias]

i hit the grocery stores at different intervals too. sometimes i'm picking up stuff 2-4 times a week, and sometimes i'm stocked up and only need to run to the store for produce.

[ollineeba]

Great plan!

[lemontreelane]

i made a very basic plan for us...
monday is pizza
tue is pasta
wed is breakfast (our fav!!)
thurs is cooked in the oven
fri is burgers
weekends are more "whatever"
these things are the main dish, but we'll have other things like vegs, salad, nuts, bread, rice, cheese, etc...
but this is easy for my son to know whats on the menu for the night
and it makes grocery shopping easy!

[ScarletBegonias]

i used a method like that for years too.

the problem i kept having is that i would still get stumped on what to make on "free/whatever" nights, or sometimes we couldn't afford to make that night's plan or we were sick of eating xxx on every tuesday night.

my worst obstacle is that by the end of the day, i usually have almost no inspiration or imagination left. i need inspiration to cook! i love to cook and if it's not fabulous, i don't eat, and my family isn't as interested in the meal either. i needed a suggestion every night.

i love this plan because there is structure (which i desperately need), but room for ideas and inspiration. i look forward to trying to fulfill my meal duties with creativity, originality and love. food is such an important part of life and family and togetherness and preparing meals is almost a sacred thing. i feel so grateful that i have food to give my family, because many on this earth do not. and i feel ashamed that i have not embraced my blessings more fully!

[LCBMAX]

I lurked on this thread when it was started, but back then I thought perhaps you all had gone mad, or were organizational fanatics. You see, back then I was still night nursing and nearly mad myself with sleep deprivation. Now I'm getting some real sleep, my house is... ok, not clean but I could get it there in less than the 2 day frenzy it used to be. I even exercise sometimes.

So now I am ready to start feeding my family! I'm with you now! I get it! (and I need help!)

I'm getting a little confused here though when I try to plan it out - can anyone help me with the individualizations below?

I want to have a similar system of a kind of meal for each day of the week, and I also want to have 3 of those meals come from the freezer each week because we have 3 super busy evenings. Freezer would be better than crock pot, because the crock pot, though it's my best friend, requires attention in the morning and those are not days with extra time anywhere.

I guess that my week should always include some (3?) freezable meals, so I can just keep rotating things through the freezer. I guess I should also be flexible about which kind of meal which night since the Sunday night freezable freshly made meal of this week will become next week's defrosted Tuesday night meal.

It seems obvious that if I'll be defrosting 3x/week then I should be freezing 3x/week, but I wonder if I'll get a too full or empty freezer because of the inevitable irregularity (dinner out, leftovers, etc.)

Also, my 2 1/2 year old son and I are carnivores, and my husband is a vegetarian. Usually I manage this by making a vegetarian base/ main dish, and some animal protein as a side for me and sometimes son too. So also I'm guessing I need to have 2 levels of frozen food - main dishes and meat sides to add on.

We tend toward traditional foods, though it's harder with the vegetarian thing.

AND - I have almost no time for evening prep, so I'd like suggestions for meals that do well with prep/ assembly hours in advance!

THANK YOU!

[mkksmom]

I don't know much about traditional foods, but when I was pregnant, I cooked double and stocked up like 20 meals in my freezer. One thing that I found made my life easier was browning 2 lbs of ground turkey and freezing it. Then we would have pasta and I could just heat up some ground turkey and sauce which I had frozen in cubes.

I also made chicken and cut it up and froze it. Another thing I like to do is boil a turkey breast or whole chicken in a pot on the stove and eat from that for 3 days. I freeze anything we won't eat in the 3 days. Those are my quick and easy tips for meat. Most of my meals these days are quick because my LO is only 9 months old. I'm just glad I'm actually cooking.

Here are a few of our staples:

tacos from ground turkey (I like to make the meat ahead of time and freeze it already seasoned)
burgers (turkey, beef) on bread with veggies
thinly sliced chicken breast with cream of celery soup. I make the celery, garlic and seasonings ahead and freeze it. Then the night of, I do the flour and oil and water/milk. I serve this with rice and veggies.
Chicken and alfredo sauce with brocolli

Another time saver for me is that I finally mixed some salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder in one container. I use that a lot, so it helps.

[kanga2roo]

I love this plan and I can see it working for us, too. ScarletBegonias, or whoever, can you help me out by sharing some of your recipes? I'm sort of stuck- there is no way I could ever come up with 30 recipes my family loves- more like 5-6 Thanks for sharing!

[clutterwarrior]

Originally Posted by lemontreelane

i made a very basic plan for us...
monday is pizza
tue is pasta
wed is breakfast (our fav!!)
thurs is cooked in the oven
fri is burgers
weekends are more "whatever"

I like the sound of your plan lemontreelane...I think I am going to steal it!

To the OP, your plan sounds cool too....I am dying to know though what a 'pot sticker' is??

Also I am kinda curious about the quiche being listed as a casserole?

[ParisApril]

I had a very nice three week rotating menu going all winter but as soon as the hot weather hit the menu has gone out the window. We have been eating a lot of sandwiches and fruit.

I really do need to make a simple summer menu though.

[LCBMAX]

ParisApril - A 3 week rotation... hmmmm - more complicated or allows enough variety to keep it fun?

So not categorizing, but thinking of the actual meal? (Not lumping casserole and enchiladas but thinking of them separately?)

[FireWithin]

THis is a great idea. Regular meal plans don't work for me, but I've been in such a cooking funk. I'm 7 months pregnant and nothing sounds good or right, ever. I will think it through and add my thoughts.

[zoebird]

i'm trying to come up with something that works for us too. it's been challenging because i don't just have stuff around and we tend not to buy in bulk. and, there are various dietary restrictions (DH is gluten free, for example).

but, we'll get there. i like this idea of "themes" and then having recipes that stem out of that.

[FireWithin]

So we decided on themes and wanted to share. Problem was I didn't realize I picked 8, but we don't want to give up any, so we might split the 8th one (rice/noodle dishes for two days).

Sunday - cook together night: bbq/grill, sushi, vietnamese spring rolls, lettuce wraps, be bim bop, etc or other more mama involved meals (pierogis, tempura, spring rolls,etc) Thought this would also be a good night for leftovers when we have a busy Sunday.

Monday - egg/breakfast night/ (maybe also noodle/rice night) vietnamese eggs with rice, scrambled eggs with breakfast meat, homefries, waffles, etc

Tuesday - soup/stews
Vietnamese noodle soup, rice cake soup, portugese with sausage and kale, "cheesy" soup, fish chowder, chicken noodle, lentil, split pea, etc

Wednesday - roasted meat/casserole (make extra meat for future meals) but am now wondering if I should flip this with the soup and stews. . . think I might

Thursday (or Wed) we get fresh local fish every Wed from local fishermen. I can't always guarantee that the fish will be prepped in time for Wed, thus move it to Thurs

Friday - salad/sandwich/pizza (because I don't make bread very often sandwiches always feel like a celebration - thought it would be nice to have on a Friday)

Saturday - ground meat/chicken night/noodle rice night
kheema, stuffed cabbage rolls, stuffed veggies, meatballs, chicken with mushroom gravy, tacos, taco salad, shepard's pie, fried rice, etc

We are gluten free (plus dairy, corn, soy, beef, plus 10 other things), so I like this list because I will be only making bread-like things once a week, with the option of biscuits for soups.

I will also have a misc. category for things that don't fit, plus super easy meals to plug in when necessary.

Meals could change according to season, and especially veggies, which I didn't specify will change according to season. I'm a little worried that these seem so meat intensive. Will make sure we still eat as many veggies as we do now.

We have about 75 meals we thought of for these categories, so many that we love, but often forget about. I am hoping this will help.

[BelovedK]

I am liking these ideas

[ParisApril]

Originally Posted by LCBMAX

ParisApril - A 3 week rotation... hmmmm - more complicated or allows enough variety to keep it fun?

So not categorizing, but thinking of the actual meal? (Not lumping casserole and enchiladas but thinking of them separately?)

At some point during the fall I got sick of hearing complaints about meals. Someone didn't like something or we were eating something "Again?" After 3 days straight of this I sat everyone down and we took turns thinking of meals that we like. We ended up with 24 different meals. So then I organised them into a coherent order. Sunday- Roast chicken. (Leftover meats for lunches.) Tuesday- Chicken pot pies. Friday- Chicken soup.

It was working really well until it got hot.