A lover of all things organising I had for a while been contemplating getting cleverer about the meals (dinner) I cook during the week. However, despite thorough research on the internet I didn’t come across any meal plan I wanted to copy.
Therefore, I had to resort to DIY (or, in this case, DIM).
The other Saturday I sat down with Mr A and we discussed our evening plans (joint and separate) for the upcoming week as well as dinner options to minimize trips to the supermarket as well as further decrease waste in regard to food. We came up with the following:
- Saturday – lasagna from the book Vegan to go – Schnell, einfach, lecker
(at the moment only available in German)
- Sunday – lentil soup with potatoes (I made twice the amount and froze 4 portions for lunch at work)
- Monday – Mushroom (porcini) spinach risotto with walnuts (I used this recipe and simply omitted pumpkin while adding a generous handful of spinach just before serving)
- Tuesday – Bread with avocado, hummus and tomatoes
- Wednesday – Couscous with vegetables
- Thursday – Mr A requested a big bowl of salad
- Friday – (store-bought) tortellini with tomato sauce
I copied the meals onto a post-it note which stuck next to the fridge for us to remember.
Just like every week I did our grocery shopping on Saturday. Only this time I was able to buy almost everything required to feed us through the week. I merely picked up fresh bread, fruit and salad on Wednesday. What a welcome change from having to come up with a meal every day and then having to pick up from the shops the one thing we don’t have at home but definitely need for dinner.
This newly acquired routine also makes my lunches since often there will be more than two servings and I will be able to freeze leftovers for a lovely mid-day meal at work.
I wonder if it will also affect the amount of money we spend on food (I’ll keep you posted on that).
I personally think this is a great approach. AND I would like to see more of the future plans!
Great post, Alice! My boyfriend and I tried to stick to a meal plan as well, but as soon as a sheet of paper says us what to eat we don’t feel like it anymore. Hah 😀 It’s really strange. We are mostly cooking at home, sometimes we decide it very, very spontaneously (while cooking) and sometimes we do have a plan, but it all works out in the end (at least most of the times). And we’re eating out (at least) once a week, because we meet our friends at our favorite indian restaurant every sunday for dinner.
Thank you, Bianca! I can be surprisingly pragmatic when it comes to food and once it’s written down (and the ingredients have been bought) I’ll cook and eat it. However, we aren’t 100% strict about our meal plan and will sometimes rearrange the days of the week, i.e. have Thursday’s dinner on Monday night, then eat what was planned for Monday on Tuesday and Tuesday’s on Thursday (which is less confusing than it sounds like).
We also include our evening commitments in the plan, only in the week I used above we didn’t have any (except for Wednesday). Therefore, there will be days one of us will have dinner by him-/ herself and either make something up from what’s left in the fridge (myself) or simply eat bread (Mr A) 🙂
A great way to organise your self. At least you don’t have to think daily :):) I would love to see more of such plans.
Thank you, Vidhi! I’ll keep posting more of our meal plans as we go along.