My meal plan is stuck to the fridge. we use post-it notes for the actual meals, which makes it easy to swap things round if you'd rather have the pasta tonight and the chicken salad tomorrow.

jamescoleuk

My meal plan is opening up the refrigerator and look at what to cook: it's full of fresh produce and things like marinated tri-tip (I make the marinade). Or I go to the grocery store and look at what's on sale. I picked up a gorgeous slab of USDA Prime grade Chateaubriand on sale. The oven is preheating right now. The USDA Prime grade sirloin steaks were the same price, but looked downright wimpy compared to the Chateaubriand.

Deprong Mori

oh my god, what a dork!!! Just cook some food, it's not that complicated! Life is too short to organize everything.

1000 Tony Romo DJs

When you get to the point where you're totally responsible for other people (a.k.a. "parenthood"), you find yourself with so many things to Get Done that are vitally important, that food can go by the wayside. And you find yourself subjecting the next generation to fast food and heavily processed food because you failed to think ahead. It's fine when you're 22 and at your peak, but when you're doing this to a 5-year-old captive audience who has no choice and really ought to eat better, then you really need to plan ahead.

Or when you have a couple of kids with heavy activity schedules and not only do you not have the brain space to think about what to eat, dinner is a desperate scramble every night in the half hour between getting home and going to bed.

There are several EASY ways to accomplish this. In order from most to least expensive:
Personal chef

Personal chef's meal planning services--individualized

Dinner prep place (you see these in strip malls)

Personal chef's meal planning service--preset menu plan

Weekly/ Monthly Menu Mailer service (my favorite: www.thymeforcooking.com) **A Woman With Many Hats Best Buy**

Menu plans from food business websites (my least favorite--tend to push their processed foods and are the least flexible, even if they are free)

Putting together your own menus from recipe websites

Blank forms with spots for dishes (not really on par with the other options, but they're out there so deserve a mention)

Build Mom her own apartment on the back of your house and guilt her into cooking for you.

WomanWithManyHats

Some people want to crush every single moment of surprise, wonder, mystery and spontaneity out of their lives.

It's their choice, of course. It's also denial: denial of the fact that life is messy, chaotic, uncertain.

If there are elements of my life I need to take control over, knowing what's for dinner is very, very low on my list.

But that's just me...

Deprong Mori

My mom figured it out with resorting to prepared food when I was a kid. I figure that I should be able do the same.

And no, I don't live with mom anymore.

Wise up. Saying that you are too busy too cook simply means that you don't have your sh-t together. Good cooks can pretty much whip up a meal out of seemingly nothing. (But it's not nothing; it's the same thing mom or grandma could have whipped up in the same amount of time.)

Enough of these goddamned excuses. Cook or go out.

Deprong Mori

Good grief, why make it so complicated? I keep a shopping list clipped to a cabinet, to write down the stuff we're out of. And before I go to the grocery store I make out another shopping list (on a small clipboard that I can take with me) that includes all the ingredients for a week's worth of meals (that I choose from my library of cookbooks).

You don't actually need more than one list or more than one cookbook, but it helps keep things from getting boring.

infmom

@WomanWithManyHats: you forgot perhaps the most cheapest..that staple woman's mag from the 50's (Woman's Day maybe?) that has a monthly menu calendar in the back.

Actually, I can plan out meals in advance when I'm not working..otherwise it seems to fall by the wayside. (mealsmatter.org is a good free site for planning meals and grocery lists) But with a vegetarian, a picky eater, and 2 special medical diets, I do now have to stay slightly ahead of the game.

My favorite night is from the doner and salad from the Turkish place.

karlawithak

I had a program I wrote a while back that did this, but much simpler. It was a way for my husband and I to put a grocery list together, and a plan for eating for the week. He or I could pick the recipes, and it would autofill a list with ingredients I would need to get at the store. Then, we'd print out the list, and a reminder sheet for what we had wanted to cook in the first place. While you'd think we'd be able to remember on our own, you'd be surprised at how long two adults can look at a can of diced tomatoes and wonder what they had been intending to do with it.

MrsIrB

Umm...

What "WOMANWITHMANYHATS" said.

If I don't have a weeks meals planned out with recipes than we just end up cooking the same recipes we've been eating for years. This way we get variety.

Myles

Ugh absolutely. I hate that eternal question every evening of "What do you wanna eat?"...followed by "I donnoooo...., what do you wanna eat?" and then staring for at the fridge and freezer's content for quite a while, with nothing in mind...there are just very uninspired periods like those in life with boredom and no motivation at all.

Firefox also has an extension for meal and food shopping planning.

Serendipipse

I'm going to start keeping a list of suppers for a while... one day this will be useful!

Blimey... I can only think of 18 suppers, and some of those are 'special' ones like Beef Stroganoff (SP!!)

amykate

I think you'll find the commenters here are pretty squarely divided between parents and non-parents. With four kids, we have to be more organized and less carefree. Kids aren't going to wait while I gaze into the fridge and think about what I could do with the stuff we have, and they're certainly not going to wait while I run out to the store and check out what's on sale. Every Sunday, we plan out dinners for the week and build the grocery list based on that. We also have to plan to have enough on hand to make lunches for the kids every day. But back in the newlywed days, I remember being more spontaneous. We had to be really, seeing as we had to hunt and gather back then.

writergrrl

@Deprong Mori: Some people want to crush every single moment of surprise, wonder, mystery and spontaneity out of their lives.

Is that surprise as in "SURPRISE! You have to make your fifth trip to the grocery store this week!" or as in "SURPRISE! We're ordering Chinese instead of pizza tonight!" or as in "SURPRISE! Chicken-flavored ramen tonight!" ?

Call me jaded but I rarely experience surprise, wonder, mystery and spontaneity in the grocery store (Unless it's: Surprise they are out of bread, wonder if that meat is part of a recall, mystery of what aisle has the paper plates and spontaneity of buying a bag of potato chips that my waistline could really do without).

Plan out the meals, grocery shop on-line, pay $5 for in-store pickup, make one quick trip to the grocery store and suddenly I've invested an hour a week in exchange for 5-6 hours each week not wasted grocery shopping and trying to figure out what to eat.

That's 5-6 hours each week that can be spent on tasks more fun and fulfilling than wandering the grocery store and staring into the fridge.

Smugly proclaiming an elightened awareness of the chaoticness of life is a really bizarre justification for not streamlining the menial tasks in your life.

Troy F.

@1000 Tony Romo DJs: Its not being a dork, it keeps you from

1) buying too much food that will go bad before you eat it
2) curb impulse shopping, you buy what you need
3) get in and out of the store quicker
4) hopefully choose something healthier

Some of us have real jobs and when we get home we dont want to have to stare blankly at the fridge, or put on pounds because we're too lazy to shop and grab fast food. Yea you're right, we are dorks... < /end sarcasm

holymogwai

The problem that I have with these kinds of meal planning ideas is that my wife can't decide what she wants to eat 20 minutes ahead of time, much less a whole week. I've asked her what she wants for dinner, then gone through the 45 minutes to make what she asked for, only to have her say, "You know I changed my mind can you just make me a bowl of Spaghetti-Os." It makes it very hard to plan anything.

Ryan Fisher

a couple follow up points now that I've read a few more comments:

Meal planning hasn't limited our variety at all. I usually pick a few new things that we've never made before and throw them on the list. It's let me expand the amount of experimental cooking I do rather than take away from it. I don't know about you but whenever I get the urge to try my hand at making something new I *never* have what I need on hand and often I just decide not to do it.

We don't have children, but I still find this a big time and energy saver. The biggest benefit imo is that I don't spend 2 hours every night puttering around before we eat. I get more time out of my evening for relaxation now than store visits, etc.

Lastly this can also be helpful if you're trying to lose weight (not that I'm doing so!). Counting calories, carbs, whatever is a huge barrier. Doing the planning at once takes the impulse out of shopping and daily eating.

baconner

Other than feeling like an old married couple implementing a weekly review with my wife including meal planning has been really great. The meal planning has a couple of great benefits.

1. It's helped us slash our out of control food spending and for once stay within the budget we want. We've knocked at least 1/3 off our normal monthly food spending without feeling like we're giving up anything.

2. I've finally ended (mostly) my daily dinner decision hell with my wife. It used to go something like this:

me: What do you want for dinner?
her: Something good.
me: How about xyz
her: oh... well maybe not xyz
repeat suggestions 2 - 10 times. We find something or...
me: &$*#$@ I'm going to burger king
... or worse we decide on something and I must go to the store to get some ingredients, end up spending more $ on other junk.

Now it goes something like:

me: here's the menu
her: I'll have #2

I like to keep a meal plan with more than 1 week worth of meals to get around the don't feel like xyz issue. 10 planned meals is good.

baconner

My wife and I plan our meals out in advance to save money. We don't go out, we don't see movies. Our form of entertainment is usually dining out, which is expensive. We came up with a plan to set our meals up for 3 to 4 days in advance and then on the last day we dine out and grocery shop for the next 3 to 4 days. It has saved us money and there is some surprise when we comeup with something that we made awhile ago and remember with great enthusiasm.

Hockeycop

    I like the original post, in theory. If you have two teenaged kids, you pretty much have to have SOME sort of organization about meals! Still, I like to see what the store has that looks fresh, and/or is cheap. Deprong Mori's post above about the Chateaubriand, above, is exactly what I'm talking about!

    I'm usually able to re-configure the menu and shopping list on the fly. Oh, look at those potatoes! Hmmm... scratch the rice, what goes in potato casserole? Cream of mushroom soup, 16 oz. sour cream, onion, 16 oz. shredded sharp cheddar, Corn Flake crumbs, extra butter... [write-write-write]. Besides, even if my fridge and pantry are filled to the max, the kids will wipe it out in 4 days or less.

    It's also good to have at least two or three easy, throw it together with minimal fuss items on hand, like frozen salmon filets, frozen veggies, rice... You do need to actually use these up and re-buy, from time to time. Nothing's sadder than ancient, freezer-burned salmon you forgot about!

AcidReign

i've tried the meal planning thing for a while. it just doesn't seem to click with my wife. she always forgets to take stuff out the night before.

we do somewhat plan what to eat for two weeks in advance (bi-weekly pay cycle) and we tend to stick to our guns. the problem is she forgets to take it out the night before!!

B1663R

@Ryan Fisher: In my house, I do the cooking. My attitude is that if I prepare something, and you don't want it, then you're on your own. My bf doesn't want to have to shop and cook, so I do it, but in exchange, he has to eat what I make. Of course I ask for input, and don't make things that I know he doesn't like. My point is, I don't think it's unreasonable to have some control over meals if you are the one who's taken on the chore of preparing them.

cabingirl

@Deprong Mori: Wonder and surprise is seeing a child discover something new for the absolute first time... like the first time my daughter saw the actual moon in the sky instead of in a story book.

Opening your fridge and choosing to eat the chicken before it goes bad or the Chinese left over from Thursday before they go bad is definitely not wonder and surprise.

JFitzpatrick

@baconner: I really like the menu idea. Instead of planning to eat meatloaf on Wednesday, plan on eating meat loaf some time in the next two weeks. If you keep 2 weeks worth of meals on the menu, but shop every week, you will always have 7-14 meals to choose from. Everyday my wife can choose a meal from the menu, and feel like she has a choice. I won't be stuck running to the store for stuff every other day. Sounds like a win win. The only hard part is coming up with the first 14 days.

Ryan Fisher

@karlawithak: Yes, I forgot about that option (the monthly menu in a magazine).

I really like the Menu Mailer option. The service you pick will email you weekly with a menu, recipes, and shopping list coded to the recipes. Different services have different options: scalable, allowing you to pick preferences or not, kid-friendly vs. gourmet-friendly, menu-subbing when you don't like a meal, etc.

There is one free one out there: menus4moms.com . This is going to be a bit more on the kid-friendly side, but if you just can't shell out the $3-$10 a month for another menu mailer service that will save you spending who knows how much on fast food, it is a good option.

Like another poster mentioned, they save you time, because everything's on the shopping list, so you aren't going to have to make multiple trips to the store. Meaning you're saving gas, too, as well as the money you didn't spend on eating out and more-expensive prepared meals.

And you could use Jott + Sandy to remind yourself to take the meat out to thaw.

Menu Mailers = GTD with food. Gotta love it.

WomanWithManyHats

And if you're living on less than $50 a week, in a city, prefer to cook, and generally want to avoid weight gain, like me, you basically can't decent things every night without planning ahead. If I didn't, I could have something fantastic maybe twice and then be stuck on buttered noodles until the next week.

Lemon_Curry

I meal plan as well - single with no kids. The biggest positive in my book is not having to think about dinner when I get home beyond the cooking of it.

Of course, I go a little above and beyond - I plan out two weeks of meals, and double them to get a monthly meal plan. Towards the end of the month I evaluate things I liked or didn't, and adjust accordingly.

Criticisms:
-Cravings. If I feel like it, yes, I sometimes order in pizza instead of what is scheduled. Otherwise, the foods I generally crave are already on my meal plan somewhere.
-Inflexibility. I sometimes switch a couple days around if I feel it would work better that week. Sometimes I go out to dinner with friends instead of eating the regularly scheduled meal... and that's really okay. It's just a guideline.

To each their own - I like not having to think once I'm home from work, yet still knowing I'm going to get a healthy meal :)

pinksquirrel

I do meal planning as well (single, no kids), though I plan out two different weeks (dinner only) and double them up to get a monthly meal plan. This way I only have to think once a month about what I'm going to eat. Towards the end of the month I evaluate what dinners I liked or grew tired of, and adjust accordingly for the next month.

Positives of meal planning:
-"fresher" foods planned closer to the shopping day to prevent pesky freezing/thawing issues (I always forget to thaw)
-variety of foods to get healthier meals throughout the week
-not being tempted by the random junk foods in the aisles

Supposed downsides of meal planning:
-No room for cravings (not true, sometimes if I REALLY want to order in pizza, I'll do so. I also crave crab cakes, so, guess what, it's on my meal plan.)
-No room for unexpected dinners out (I will totally sacrifice a planned meal at home for an unexpected one out with friends.. which is why my fri/sat night meals are usually fall-backs anyhow)
-Apparent robot-ism for being so darn particular about this... well, I don't have a response for that one :)

To each their own, but I love not having to *think* when I come home from work. That's the biggest positive in my book.

pinksquirrel

Check out Meal Outlaw ([mealoutlaw.com]) -- a social recipe calendar-sharing website. I love it!

zimage

This is a great idea - I'll try this out next week! I generally make a large meal that can be enjoyed between my husband and I for about 1/2 a week.

LarissaMarks

@1000 Tony Romo DJs: That's quite the logical leap you make from the article's "Starting Saturday morning with a cup of coffee, a stack of cookbooks and a pad of post-it notes" to your "spending a whole Saturday morning." Along with going to a grocery store and a farmer's market plus an extra mid-week trip to the farmer's market becoming "several runs to various places."

If this planning takes anyone more than a half hour he probably needs to work on making faster decisions.

Troy F.

@holymogwai
Um, I eat healthy food, am not remotely in need of losing any pounds, and I have a real job, thanks. That's cool if some people need to plan meals but I remain astonished at how "uncluttering" = spending a whole Saturday morning (Saturday!!) going through a stack of books, plotting items on a spreadsheet, planning several runs to various places to buy groceries.. wtf. I should probably go back to wonkette and jezebel though.

1000 Tony Romo DJs

I plan meals largely because I'm a recipe junkie and don't want to miss out on the delicious-sounding things I glean from the Oregonian's excellent weekly food section and my ever-growing collection of cookbooks and food magazines. For me, meal planning is a pleasure, not a chore. Going through my reference material and making lists of what I'm planning to make and which ingredients I'll need to buy makes me feel good all over: creative, organized and thrifty, all in one food-loving package. The "wonder and surprise" comes in the tasting of five to seven delicious dinners a week, at least four of which I've never made before, not in the "thrill" of opening the refrigerator and trying to decide what to make out of five slices of sopressata, half a jar of kalamata olives and some elderly broccoli.

"Automated" meal planning, though, smacks of lots of repeats of spaghetti, chili and hamburgers. No thanks--I've checked out a couple of meal planning sites and magazine meal plan lists and never found them to include more than one or two meals per week that appeal to my tastes.

(No spreadsheet here... I do have lots of obsessively neatly lettered notes in my Miquelrius notebook, though.)

RedMolly

There are other ways to "unclutter" than spend a day going through things and planning. Tim Ferris talks a lot about automating unnecessary tasks, and David Allen talks a lot about not spending time figuring out what to do. So the solution is to come up with a way to automate your meal planning so you save time in the plan itself, and developing the plan. I use mealmixer.com and it works for me, but there are plenty of options out there just gotta find what works for you.

Famer4five

@RedMolly: "Automated" meal planning, though, smacks of lots of repeats of spaghetti, chili and hamburgers.

Molly, you'd probably like www.thymeforcooking.com or www.theweeklymenu.com, which is specifically for working people.

WomanWithManyHats