How do you organise food shopping/meal planning?

[indie24]

I tend to meal plan here too. I usually just write down the days of the week and put a meal next to it. I work out my list from there. I also have a whiteboard so as I run out of things I put them on a list there.
I stopped meal planning and noticed how much more I was spending so have gone back to meal planning

[*EJ*]

We meal plan here also, i write down approx 7 diff meals for the week and all the ingredients needed to make them so when i shop i get everything i need. I find we eat better this way, have more variety in our meals and spend less. I try choose things that can be made ahead of time also so i can prepare dinner while the boys are asleep. I hate having to nick to the shop to buy one missing ingredient every few days with two littlies, so this works well for us.

[Rouge]

Get yourself a food journal. Log the meals you make. If you try a new recipe log it (along with details - either site link or cookbook page details). Shop a week at a time. And if you decide not to make a certain dish one night add that meal to the following week. To keep it fun I try and have at least 2 new recipes per week (whether its breakfast lunch or dinner). If you do this you'll be able to look back and see what meals you prefer at different times of the year, and if a new meal is a success you won't forget about it. I tend to use FB to journal new meals, as I can go back look over what I've done. I also try and keep a whole heap of staples in the fridge/cupboard at all times:

Eggs,
Flour
Chocolate
Cocoa
All sugars
Frozen Berries
Bacon (we freeze in batches)
Puff Pastry (I make my own shortcrust)
Frozen vegetables
Frozen Mash (for kid emergencies)
Tinned Tuna
Rice
Pasta
Polenta
Cream
Unsalted Butter
Cheese
Tinned Tomatoes
Passata
Wine for cooking both red/white
Sherry/Brandy for cooking

And heaps more... I find if I keep staples up I spend less and there is always something I can make in a time of a food crisis. It's very rare if I don't have the ingredients for a chocolate cake, brownies, ice cream, muffins or cookies. I generally always having baking staples on hand at all times. And same goes for pasta a favourite pasta thats a quick throw together is tuna, olives, tomatoes, capers and white wine and I always have those ingredients on hand.

[Indadhanu]

We have a rotating 6 weekly meal plan. We shop for meat every six weeks (buy in bulk - about $100 for 6 weeks), so the days before our meat shop I go over our meal plan, work out roughly what meat we'll need - mince, sausages, chicken, fish etc.

I just do it roundabout, because sometimes chicken breasts are on special, sometimes fish, sometimes steak, so I just do it roundabout, but make sure that I have enough to last about 5-6 weeks. So about 30-40 nights worth of meat.
For us we us about 400g of meat a night, that includes Shel, myself, Jazz, and enough for Shel's lunch next day or to freeze as a one serve meal. Knowing how much you all eat per night helps to know how many meals you'll have in 5kg of mince etc 2 kg of chicken breast etc.

Once we buy the meat, then I get home, separate it all, and note down how many of each have... eg. 20 nights mince, 9 night chicken breast, 10 nights sausages etc...
Then I work out what meals I'll cook and when. I have to plan otherwise we'd end up with a week of eating only mince or sausage meals! Eww!

Then its just a matter of having a "running shopping list". We do our big grocery shop every two weeks. It's a matter of buying whats on special sometimes too. If I plan to have say apricot chicken one night, but the enchilada stuff is on special, then obviously it works out better to have enchiladas. So we have a list, but if I have somthing on there thats NOT on special, and I could buy soemthing that IS on special, then I do, and I just get flexible with the plan.

I don't really do many 'extravagent' meals, with intricate ingredients, so I know what I need for each meal without needing a really detailed list. If I needed a detailed list, I'd probably end up writing the name of the meal and then the ingredients I needed to buy, instead of one big list because then if I change my mind I know what not to buy. It also helps that most of the time I do online shopping because I can take my time, check out all the specials etc. I end up saving money that way, as I can eatch it add up, and take things we don't realy need off to bring the price down.

[Emma1979]

i haven't read all the responses and know you are asking for tips on being organised in advance etc, so this is probably useless, but i shop pretty much every day, or maybe every second day.... if its good weather i walk 30 minutes or so down to the shops with the pram and get what we need for dinner.... i cannot stand doing big food shops and having to know in advance what i want to eat for tea in 5 nights time, food always gets wasted as you never know whats going to pop up during the week, one night we might not feel like cooking and go out or get take away, another night we might end up at a family members for tea etc etc....

so for me the best (and healthiest) thing to do was to abandon the weekly shop and just get what i need each day... although this rainy weather is not very conducive to walking, grrrr.

[Bengal]

Leasha ! Wow you are organised - where do you get 6 weeks of meat for around a $100.00 ?

Feel like forwarding me the 6 week rotating plan ... ??

Rouge - do you journal your meals on FaceB ?

[HollyC]

It is interesting the different ways people do this sort of thing.

Here is a bit more info about my method. It is pretty informal and I find it easy.

We have a whiteboard where we write down things as we run out. I usually shop on Mondays and before we go I check the whiteboard and look through the fridge, freezer and cupboard. I take note of things that need to be used soon. I think about the number of dinners we need that week and I write down the ingredients to be bought. This only takes a few minutes.

These are the things that make it easier and more flexible for me...

Breakfasts and lunches are usually the same so that is just milk, cereal, fruit, yogurt, bread, cheese, etc. Bacon and eggs on the weekend.

When I'm cooking things that keep or freeze well I don't just cook dinner for two. The other night I made apricot chicken and I made enough for 4 so we had it 2 nights in a row. Otherwise I might freeze half. Or a similar thing is that today I'm making bolognese, which I will turn into 2 lasagnes. One we will eat tonight, one will go in the freezer and there should still be enough bolognese left so I will freeze enough for 2 serves of pasta.

I'm not locked into meals in advance because I plan for some frozen and pantry meals. My bolognese in the freezer makes a quick and easy meal with a bag of dried pasta from my pantry. I also make risotto with frozen peas and bacon, all the ingredients are staple items from pantry and fridge.

I sometimes leave a dinner blank on my shopping list so I can be inspired by what I find at the shops, or I will modify my list if I see some good specials at the shop.

I also have tupperware fruit and veg storage containers, I think they are called fridge smart. They keep things fresh for longer, so if I decide to get take away rather than cutting up lots of veg for a stir fry the veg will still be fresh for another time.

That ended up being long, but I hope it helps. It is my informal method of having flexibility and good food without spending too much time at the shops and in the kitchen.

[Indadhanu]

LOL wouldloveabubba... yep I'll do that, you'll have to hang on a few days, its on a USB at home, and I'm on holidays. lol, and on BB

We have a bulk butcher up the road, we buy 5kg of premium mince for $4.99 a kg among other things (can't remember the rest of the prices but they're just as cheap). We get it cheap because they have miinimum purchases, so the more you buy, the less it costs. If you buy 1kg of premium mince, you pay $7.99 a kg, 2kg for $6.99, 3kg for 5.99kg, 4kg for 4.99kg. I think it stops there though LOL!

[Gigi]

i found cooking ala carte, doable as a single and member of a couple. i liked the freedom.

but now i am actually wanting routine, boundaries, guidance - to get me out of the panic i feel, every afternoon "what the hell am i going to make to feed three people tonight".

so for the people who live a one week, two week, six week plan etc.
do you have a folder of all your "one week's of recipes" so you can make a list of needed ingredients?
if i had each recipe in a different book, my kitchen is tiny, no way could i have seven recipe books out all at once.
i still feel lost in the logistics of working this out.

Do you keep this book with all the menu plan recipes out, so each day you turn to the page for THAT day? it sounds regimental, but i actually would LIKE that much guidance right now, just to get us fed and decrease my own stress.

i feel like there is a "secret language" of this menu planning
Just like you need to understand sewing jargon to start sewing
FInd out all the little tips that the pattern don't tell you

i feel like there are some missing INITIAL bits that i don't know how to find out

i appreciate your list ROUGE (even though i must google passata, that's a new one on me!)

Last week i bought a twin pack of roast chickens, thinking i would try that.
The butcher shop person told me to cook one chicken at 160 degrees for one hour. i had to put the chicken back in twice, for a total of another hour, by then the top skin was black. I didn't know how to cut it up. Even putting the chicken in the tray to cook, my cake airing rack, that i was told to put UNDER the chicken (so juices/oil have somewhere to go) was the wrong size for the tray, so i felt so inept - about this suposedly simple thing of roasting a chook!

the bit i was really pleased about though, was my "alternate stuffing". i put ginger, shallots, mushrooms, capsicum, honey, oyster sause in the chicken cavity, instead of the seasoning that me and dh never eat anyway (in bought roast chook). That turned out really nice.

the food journal idea is good.
when i am having a good day and feeling confident, i cook things like:

- falafel in a box (organic aisle at IGA) with couscous and salad
(toddler friendly, bilby can help me roll up the falafels)

- vegetables stirfried with currypaste, noodles and some coconut milk

- chips done in microwave and fish fillets dipped in egg and plain flour with herbs, shallow fried. with salad.

- veal tortellini from supermarket and tub of carbonara sauce (i would like to learn how to make this sauce myself). with lepinja bread and salad.

- omelettes

- i made quiche from scratch once, but the using 8 eggs in one meal, really put me off.

- cut up vegies with olive oil and fennel seeds, baked in convection oven, so simple but tastes nice.

- homemade pizza on wholemeal pita bread

- i used to make tomato based pasta sauces to go with pasta, but bilby's dad won't eat tomato based sauces so i gave up on that.

so pretty basic, not much from scratch, it's all i feel i can cope with, given the tiny kitchen, very limited bench space. i need to improve my cooking so much.

Late afternoons i dread. bilby gets all whiny and pretty noisy, i can't think straight. if anything needs converting (measurements, temps), no way can i deal with that, at cooking dinner time.

How do mums of large families manage? instead of ONE whiney child, they must have four or five whiney kids to listen to. They manage obviously, i don't know what's wrong with me, that i am struggling when i only have ONE CHILD.

i used to throw dinner parties years ago. i must have been able to cook properly then. my concentration is shot.

i'm so over making multiple meals for bilby every night that don't get eaten.

Most nights, i am just SO relieved to get "food on the table", i am too stressed out to even sit down and eat anything, let alone eat with my family.

maybe i should google "The Idiot's Guide to Menu Planning". so many of you have posted, i still don't get it, i must be missing something really obvious. Feeling very thick.

[Bengal]

Gigi,

I went surfing on the net yesterday, and found one womens blog that is dedicated to her meal planning, recipe's etc, oh my goodness she is super organised ....

1. Sit down with DH, show him some recipe books, "post it note" , which one's he likes, and throw in a few new ones you have not tried- she copied the recipe's into a A4 binder/with the plastic sleeves, I presume she photocopied or wrote them in, and has that in her kitchen. I think, the planner would get more recipe's the more you plan ..

Once a month she sits down with her diary (to note bday's/anniversary's etc) on her planner, and plans her meals for the next month, writes it on the planner, an eg below, and sticks that on her fridge

http://www.vertex42.com/Files/biweekly-meal-planner.pdf

I am waiting on the other gals to come back in with some more tips on the logistics of the grocery shop, because I do it daily, and it is so tiring, and everyone is waiting for me to start cooking when I get home, so this planning will be great, they can start before I get home from work

Thanks Leash, enjoy your trip away hun, and I look forward to seeing your ideas

[CrazyLady]

I get whatever is on special and basic frozen veg/meat staples and anything I forget we go without unless it's tp or the like......... awful i know but way too much going on right now to take times to meal plqn. anyone got any tips?

[~Kim~]

my meal planning isn't as fancy as a list of ingredients or a spreadsheet.
I just have a basic word doc of meals (dinners) we eat. I tried the whole spreadsheet thing, but it took me too long to organise and that wasn't the idea! I just think of 5-6 per week. Usually it's off the top of my head but occasionly I check to see what we haven't eaten for a bit. I write those ideas at the top of my little shopping list notebook page and make my list from there. I don't allocate days to meals or anything.
Most stuff is stuff I cook by heart, but if there's something I want to try I write the specific recipe ingredients down. I have a recipe journal for all my fave recipes. Paper works better for me, I'm just not tecchy enough to have an online system that works for me atm.
I'd love to online shop but rural areas don't have anything like that available.
Also I try to organise the basics for dinner as early in the day as possible. I have been known to chop veges as early as 5.30am before work. Usually however it's just getting meat out of the freezer, chopping veges while the baby's asleep etc. It saves the rush right before dinner.
We also try to have two 'pantry' meals per week ie toasted sangas, baked beans on toast, an omlette etc.

[Amaunet]

I LOATHE cooking and grocery shoppping - but have to do it or we'd starve I purchased some great SIMPLE cook books (Symply Too Good to be True by Annette Sym) there are 5 and all the meals are a) normal family receipes b) easy to make with simple ingredients c) low fat/sugar/salt (bonus).I find meal planning easier with these because I have lots to choose from (so I don't get too bored) and because I don't need any fancy ingredients - I tend to have them in my pantry/freezer already. Lots of the receipes are also freezable so I can make double/triple/quadruple and freeze for later. For example mince was on special this week so I made an electric frypan full of bolognaise (1.5kgs of mince made enough for 7 meals - 6 too freeze) and also 1.5kgs of mince to meatloaf (I cook this in a muffin pan and made 28 "meatloaf muffins" to freeze (also 6 meals to freeze) - thats 12 less times I have to cook now!

[MrsFabuloso]

I do a few of the things people have suggested here.

*I shop fortnightly, sometimes every 3wks (except for fresh fruit and veg which is weekly)

*I write my shopping list on a whiteboard as we run out of stuff

*I have a list of things we buy regularly (including everything- cleaning stuff, paper products, personal care things, tinned foods....etc)which I look through before I shop to see if I need anything I don't have on my list

*I plan the meat/veg I will cook for particular days (but not the meal). so Mon- veg, Tue- red meat(beef/lamb/pork- whichever I have in the freezer or feel like eating), Wed- chicken, Thu- Fish, Fri-veg, Sat- take away/help yourself (eat whtever we can find in the cupboards!), Sun- baked dinner. This helps in being flexible. I usually try to make one new recipe a week. I cook meals as to what is on special and what we have left in our cupboards at the end of a fortnight. So if I have cannelini beans left, I will buy some ham hocks and make some soup.

*I make double quantities of things like bolegnaise, lasagne and soups to freeze for lazy days, weekends or lunches

*When baking I make double quantities and freeze it if I can, like blue berry muffins, cookie dough (prepare and freeze in foil), basic cakes...(But I haven't been baking much lately)

*I buy large quantities of meat on sale like mince or chicken breasts. So instead of the usual 1kg of mince, I would get 3kgs and freeze it for future meals. Mince, I often make up into raw rissoles and freeze. Chicken or beef peices I sometimes thread onto skewers and when defrosting I marinate them in whatever sauce I have or can make. Same with chicken legs if I want to I marinate them int he fridge overnight as I defrost them.

*I prepare most of the meal in the morning when both mummy and kiddies are happy. Chop veggies and meat and put it all in pots in the fridge if I can. So when I get home from work I just put it on the stove and cook it to minimise the stress at mealtimes. My kids are feral between getting home from kindy/nanny's and going to bed. Not a pleasant time. Even better is the slow cooker- impressive, nutritious, yummy, easy food! I luuurrve my slow cooker!

*Above all else I'm flexible. I don't have actual meal plans. If I don't feel like cooking I don't stress and either have something I have frozen earlier, or it's baked beans on toast. Or I go to mums If I don't have the ingredients for something, I usually don't make it, do without it if I can, or if I really want that meal, I will buy it on the way home from work.