Weekly Meal Planning

We try to every Saturday Am. We start by looking at what we have in fridge and pantry that needs to be used and try to make meals around that. We also keep a lot of staples in the house for a pinch. We have a very crazy life between travel for work, a demanding 3 year old and an infant. If we don't plan we are toast. We try to get meals for Sunday-Wednesday it Thursday. Leave one night to go out if one of us gets home to late. Works for us but I find we still throw away too much food which bothers me. @Dyal_SC seems to have it down

SciAggie said:

@Chubbs Thanks for the response. We keep a lot of staples as well. My wife and I are both decent cooks - and like to cook. We have just gotten lazy about looking ahead. Take pizzas for example; they are easy to cook and you can top them with anything almost, but the dough takes time. If I make it ahead I know it keeps in the fridge - I just need to prepare ahead of time. 
Do you actually write out a meal plan (roughly) or just kind of plan loosely in your head?

We have a small dry erase board on side of fridge that has meals listed out on one side and grocery list on another. If we run out of something it goes on the board for next trip

My wife and I use an app/website called Pepperplate. It is an online recipe book, meal planner, and shopping list all in one. You can easily plan your meals for the week, then add the ingredients to the shopping list.  It takes time to set up as all of the recipes are your own and therefore need to be entered, but they also support over 2 dozen website that allow you to paste the url to import a new recipe. 

It it is free and does not have any ads so that is good. They have apps for iOS and Android devices as well as a website for creating things. I have found that an iPad is the easiest to create a list and a plan the meals and we just take it with us to the store. 

Lots of options, and I did find a thread on here that listed some others. 

I hate meal planning (unless it's for an occasion or I have the urge to cook something that requires a lot of prep).  It drives SWMBO crazy, but it irritates me to cook something "because it's on the schedule".

For groceries and shopping, we use "grocery gadget", an app that syncs on both of our phones, so one person adds it, and either of us can mark it off when we are at the store.

We keep it real simple. Our food schedule looks something like this. 

Monday- Some type of meat.
Tuesday- Some type of meat. 
Wednesday- Some type of meat. 
Thrusday- Some type of meat. 
Friday- Some type of meat. 
Saturday- Some type of meat. 
Sunday- Two types of meat. 

With the exception of Sunday, there is little room for error or confusion

I love me some T.B.D.

My Wife got heavy into fitness and working out (she does the various BeachBody workouts and since our first of two kids became a BeachBody Coach) so we are meal planners.

Warmer weather we usually pull something from the freezer to grill along with veg / salad.  keep the freezer stocked with protein options and keep the fridge stocked with veg and salad stuff.

cold weather we use the crockpot twice per week and make at least two batches of stew or soup per week, freeze some, alternate leftovers, etc.  don't grill as much.  Chicken tortilla soup earlier last week, chicken/butternut squash/sweet potato stew yesterday, chile verde today.  We'll eat on the chile verde and stew a couple of nights this week, the pork can be used many ways.  We just make stuff up with the soups and stews, it works out most of the time.

Typical week, but nothing set in stone. I had a friend whose Mom, raising 7 kids, had a 400+ day meal plan. They all learned which 2 days a year there would be green peas that they all hated.

Sat: Shopping day. See what's cheap and make a big meal that will have leftovers.

Sunday: Make a fancier meal that might have leftovers. Maybe make stock. if there's enough bones around.

Monday: Lazy. Something packaged that just needs heating. Or toss something into the slow cooker.

Tue - Wed :Leftovers. If there's just meat, then refried rice, or noodles, or something mixed in w. beans. Soup, if there's stock.

Thu: carry-in

Fri: Quick and easy. Scrambled eggs or omelet. Grilled cheese. Hot dogs or sausage in buns.

Typically on hand, various ground meats, chicken pieces, pork steaks for when there's no leftovers. Egg when inclined, weather not being too crummy.

We meal plan as well. We use it be dry erase board to figure what we're are going to eat and generally when. I will cook chicken breasts/thighs on Sunday for the rest of the week lunches. I found if we don't meal plan we will go out to eat instead IMO it's a waste of money when you could most likely cook it at home. We used Giants Peapod last week which was easy. They deliver the groceries you pick out online and they have a promotion going in where you get 60 days free delivery and 20$ off you first delivery of 100$ or more.

The key to planning is to be flexible.  While I might plan meals for each day if the week it does not mean it will actually be made in that day.  I also don't always plan the whole week so that we can cheat if I end up working late and the wife does not feel like cooking. We plan the weekends Friday night and pick up what we need then. 

It it also helps that a grocery store is only 2 miles away and I pass 3 different ones on the way home from work. 

My husband and I got a food saver from Costco. We freeze meat in portions for cooking (about 5ish so we have leftovers for lunch). We don't plan very well, but the night before or that morning we will thaw the meat for whatever we want to make. I've also stocked up on the rice/pasta sauce/whatever that goes with our go to recipes so I don't have to run to the store as much. 

@SciAggie  My family consists of my daughter and myself.   We tried meal planning and it didn't last 3 days.  Like many families, our days are not very predictable.

A foodsaver turned out to be a game changer.  Now at any given time in our freezer there are leftover dinner portions of all our favs.  Brisket, pulled pork, fried rice, chili, etc.  I also alway have pre portioned  ready to go packages of raw chicken wings, and raw smashburger balls.  If I don't have the time or ingredients to make something from scratch, I'm only a few minutes away from a great meal.  We virtually never eat out anymore. 

SciAggie said:

@blasting Do you set out frozen food in the morning, or defrost things at the last minute? What's your general procedure? Do you float in water, microwave defrost, set in the fridge all day,....?

It kinda depends.  If I'm pulling out a foodsavered meal, it is generally last minute.  I heat it up in pot on a induction burner - poor mans sous vide.

If I know I'm making something the next day - say tacos, I'll pull a package of pulled pork out and let it thaw in the fridge.

Slightly OT - I don't know if it's my foodsaver or everyone's, but my seals didn't always hold with sous vide.  I went to double sealing each end and there hasn't been an issue.  I heard the better machines do an automatic double seal.