Menu planning: what were some of your Beginner Misakes? - Page 2

[kfillmore]

I have a terribly hard time meal planning. I keep trying and then give up. I am now trying again. Here is one problem-I can't look at most websites for menu ideas they are too fancy or complicated or expensive or even too heavy on the meat. It is so hard for me to cook. I procrastinate, I don' t want to etc. Somedays I worry if I feed my dd enough! Half the time only way I can cook is if I put DD in front of a movie!

ANYway, seriously simple recipes are hard to find although I do find some on Mothering!!  The only thing interesting or health I make is soup. And those I make up.

[erigeron]

kfillmore--I've had a lot of luck finding good recipes on the Internet. Usually if I have two ingredients that could go together and I want to use both, I just google those two ingredients and read through a few of the hits for ideas. I don't usually use websites that have a lot of recipes as my first line for searching. By keeping my pantry well-stocked with nonperishables, and keeping a lot of spices, oils, vinegars, etc. on hand, I can usually find a recipe I can make with what I have plus whatever fresh ingredients I want to use. Also, a lot of recipes seem complicated but are simpler than they look, and if they call for ingredients you don't have you can often do some substituting. You can substitute stuff like different kinds of beans, some vegetables can be substituted for each other or left out, red wine vinegar for white if you don't have white, leave out a spice if it calls for several and you don't have one of them, etc. I made a recipe that called for yellow squash and white beans; I used some yellow squash and some zucchini (because I had both), left out the red peppers because I didn't have any that day, and used black beans instead of white beans because I didn't have white beans, and it turned out great. In some ways I use recipes as sort of a starting point rather than a set-in-stone list of what I have to do.

[liscat]

I would go to the effort of making a monthly meal plan. Then a week or two in something would happen to disrupt my plan. I would give up and chuck the rest of my plan out the window. Now I have a more flexible plan that includes similar ingredients each week.

[BellaBub]

Mistake  : not accounting for left overs
Solution : Midnight snacks, of course. LOL.  But really, I needed to make a day just for left overs.

[OkiMom]

leftovers equal lunches the next day over here.. No having to make lunch the next day

[BellaBub]

Originally Posted by OkiMom 

leftovers equal lunches the next day over here.. No having to make lunch the next day

That'd work too! lol

[Buzzbuzz]

For a while I was essentially having someone else do the mealplanning for me -- I used a mealplanning blog, where five dinner recipes were e-mailed to me for each week with the selling point being that I would be able to prep the five dinners in one hour.  The recipes came with a shopping list already set out.  My husband did the shopping, I did the preparation work and then he did the clean up. The concept itself worked fairly well, the problem was that we found a number of the recipes to be fairly bland and we were cooking too much -- we should have done something like picked the best three recipes for the week and eaten leftovers or other favorite recipes the other nights.

We are now working on a more once a month cooking/freezer cooking concept -- I purchased the Fix, Freeze and Feast recipe book which is focused on cooking around the large amounts you get at Costco and freezing the extra meals.

For example, we bought an 8 lb pork loin at Costco for $18.  We cut the pork loin into 8 pieces (1 lb meat for each meal for our family of 2 adults and 2 toddlers) and made 8 dinners with two different preparations of the pork loin from the book and then froze them.  That worked out to a meat cost of about $2.25 per dinner, plus the costs of the marinades we made.  Using an "assembly line" process reduced our time investment as well. 

So, this seems to be working well for us so far.  As the meals are defrosted the night before, we are really able to be flexible so if something comes up (dinner invite, etc.) we can just leave the meals in the freezer and not waste.  We are also moving towards more frozen versus fresh veg as we found that does reduce waste.  We were practically 100% fresh at one point and found that we were regularly throwing away large portions of veg that had gone bad.

[puffingirl]

Mistake: not checking the cupboards (either before or after meal planning), leading to not using stuff we had, buying duplicates, or thinking that we had more of a staple item and find out when I'm ready to make the dish that we don't.

Solution:  just trying to remember to do a quick scan of what we have before thinking of the new week's menu and then double checking stuff after I've made my shopping list

I generally plan to cook 4 main dinners/week.  The 5th night, DH is in charge; 6th night is usually either leftovers or something easy from the freezer or sandwiches; 7th is take-out or going to a restaurant.  Meal planning is essential for us, otherwise we end up spending tons of money at the store with nothing to make a complete meal and then I'm running out to the store every day or two for something.  

[Jenni1894]

I usually plan 2 weeks worth of meals.   Including breakfast, lunch and snacks for my kiddos. 

One thing that has helped me is to have my calendar in front of me when I plan.  For instance I know that Wednesday we go to church, and are out the door right after eating.   I plan something that is quick and easy to prep and clean up.  i.e. spaghetti, crockpot, frozen/homemade pizza.  Twice a month I have to take my son to school early, so again, it's a quick breakfast (cereal or oatmeal).  

Also, know your family's eating habits.   I know we don't eat leftovers.   So I try to make sure there aren't any!   And if there is, get creative.  Leftover chicken?   make tacos or flautas, chicken salad...etc.   Freeze what you can before it goes bad. 

[MamaBookworm]

I'm trying to get serious about meal planning (again). We are still spending way too much at the grocery store. We have a fabulous co-op less than a block from our house and tend to shop every day. My biggest mistake at first was cooking too much.

I've heard some of the other posters say it's not really necessary for them to cook 7 days a week, and that's what really clicked for me. We have only 2 adults and a 3 year old, so cooking 4 days a week is plenty. I cook a little extra and freeze half right now, because we're expecting a baby in January and I want lots of leftovers. I also made Monday crockpot night, Tuesday pasta or stir fry night, Wednesday burger or taco night and Thursday pizza night.  I am thinking I might switch up the categories once a season or so, but for now it's really helping me to just quickly decide what I'm going to make.

[PumaBearclan]

Originally Posted by Buzzbuzz 
For example, we bought an 8 lb pork loin at Costco for $18.  We cut the pork loin into 8 pieces (1 lb meat for each meal for our family of 2 adults and 2 toddlers) and made 8 dinners with two different preparations of the pork loin from the book and then froze them.  That worked out to a meat cost of about $2.25 per dinner, plus the costs of the marinades we made.  Using an "assembly line" process reduced our time investment as well. 

So, this seems to be working well for us so far.  As the meals are defrosted the night before, we are really able to be flexible so if something comes up (dinner invite, etc.) we can just leave the meals in the freezer and not waste. 

This is one of the best food preparation techniques I've learned over the years. However, I don't cook the whole meal ahead of time. If I'm using a pre-prepared side dish, such as spinach, cabbage, or eggplant, I cook that in a large batch then portion it into small baking dishes with raw meat and spices. Then I freeze the meals and defrost as many as needed each day.

I calculated the calorie profile of a meal and serve 3 oz meat & 3/4 cup of starch or starchy vegetable in each portion. There are no leftovers.

We don't eat a lot of vegetables. Mostly herbs and salad greens which we buy or grow fresh as needed. Vegetables seem to be one of the most-wasted foods.

We dry most fruit so that it doesn't spoil and is more portable.

We also use cold foods quite a bit, such as egg and tuna salad. These keep well for a few days without becoming "leftovers."

Many good tips in this thread!