Comments on: Menu Planning~ A Love/ Hate Relationship with Food

By: Sherry

Sherry — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:08:42 +0000

I love menu planning. I have a friend that I am trying to help menu plan. We were i.m.ing the other day back and forth on what she had and ideas.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:34:18 +0000

I Also Like To Menu Plan, Go To The Grocery Store And Cook All Or Most Of My Meals Ahead Of Time And Freeze Them Because When School Starts Back And It’s Really Hectic In My House, I Can Just Take Out What Were Having For Dinner That Night And Either Pop It In The Oven Or Microwave. I’m Big On Putting Things In The Crock Pot In The Morning, Letting It Cook On Low And By The Time Everybody Gets Home And Does What They Have To Do, Dinner Is Done.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:37:32 +0000

I Love To Menu Plan, It Not Only Helps With The Grocey List But I Give My Family A Chance To Tell Me What They Would Like For Dinner & Overall, It Cuts Down On My Grocery Bil And A Happy Mom Makes Eveybody Else Happy.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 12:22:31 +0000

I do it the same way you do. I have on hand items for 2 weeks worth of meals. I don’t put meals on days because maybe I don’t feel like fixing tacos on Tuesday or maybe I need comfort food on a certain day. Its way too constricting for me. Plus some days I’m just bone weary and we do YOYO (you’re on your own) and pull all the leftovers out of the fridge along with some homemade bread. My kids actually love YOYO days.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:47:59 +0000

I like to do the same as you, planning 12-14 meals at a time, and not assigning days to them.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:41:48 +0000

I like to menu plan so I only have to go to the store once a week. I check the menu’s for the week and then check what I have on hand so as to only buy what I need. I like fast, easy meals during the week since I work. Lots of times we have leftovers (or OLD FOOD, as my husband calls it) on work nights. Fancier meals are prepared on the weekends when there is more time. I used to have menu cards that I made that were season based and had the cookbook and page number of the recipes used in the menu. I loved that method because I just rotated through them and didn’t have to think about dinner. Now that it is just my husband and me at home, I just cook what sounds good (but healthy!)

By: Anne-Marie

Anne-Marie — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 04:02:11 +0000

Well, I read all of the above reasons & excuses for not menu planning & that was totally us for 11+yrs. We ate on a whim…every day. One year, we ate dinner at Applebees almost every night.

I started meal planning only a short time ago…6.29.09 to be exact…and it has transformed our meal times. DH gave me disapproving glances when I first explained that I was going to do it. He soon discovered that it is super-cool to know what’s for dinner before 5-6pm.

Like others, I didn’t know where to start…and I was terrified that we didn’t have enough meals that everyone liked to actually plan a menu. I finally just jumped in. I interrogated my kids about their favorite meals & foods they ‘might’ be willing to try. Then painfully made my first weekly meal plan. Yeah, it can be hard that first time, but the accomplishment is well worth the effort.

I posted a few times for Meal Plan Monday, but it’s just too out of sync w/the shopping schedule I developed. I start thinking about my next weeks meals on Wed, then use Publix online circular and shopping list, check http://www.SouthernSavers.com, rifle thru my coupons, & print off the online coupons on Thurs. Then I plan to be at Publix at 7am Fri or Sat or wait until Sunday evening (life dictates that I have to be flexible on that).

It may be a lot of work in the beginning, but it sure beats how we did it for so long. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

By: Savings Ninja

Savings Ninja — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 03:34:30 +0000

I’ve only been menu planning for about 6 months now, and I can’t believe I didn’t start doing it sooner! It makes my life so much easier. It is great to come home from work and have a plan, so I know right away what I need to do. No sitting around trying to think something up or staring in the fridge/freezer wondering why we don’t have any food. Before I started planning, every night my husband and I would go back and forth: “What do you want to have for dinner?”, “I dunno, what do YOU want to have for dinner?”, “I dunno…” after about 15 or 20 minutes we’d finally give up and go to Taco Bell or Subway :p

One trick that’s helped me is to have a “backup” or two for when things just don’t work out (working late, unexpected errands, or if I’m just too tired to go through with my plan). For me, this means having one or two meals that I can throw together quickly and almost always have the ingredients for – ie tuna casserole, pancakes & eggs (breakfast for dinner), or keeping a frozen pizza or some canned soup stashed somewhere. Although I’ve found that by putting some forethought into my weekly menu, I rarely need to resort to my “emergency” meals.

By: Young Wife

Young Wife — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:51:49 +0000

Our life is pretty crazy with my husband’s health issues. That’s my excuse for not doing proper meal plans, although lately I’ve been looking at the ads to see what’s on sale and making my grocery lists around them and a meal plan for at least dinners. I’m getting there.

By: ChristinaP

ChristinaP — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:41:14 +0000

We do not menu plan because we receive a weekly box of produce from our local CSA and we eat what we get. We will buy one whole chicken a week and that will cover 2 dinners and maybe some lunches. We buy dairy and other meats as needed. Using the CSA has saved us tons of money because we grocery shop once a week and we do not purchase more than we need. And we’re also supporting our local farmers that produce organic produce.