Do you do meal planning for each day of the week or do you eyeball it?
Do you have any family traditions like Meatless Mondays or Taco Tuesdays? Stuff like that? Or biryani/pulao every Friday?
Do you have a schedule you stick to?
Re: Meal Planning
We never done food planing, maintaining and sticking to the set menu is uphill task.
Meal Planning
Nope, no meal planning…nor do I have any specific days of the week where certain things are made. I like spontaneity, I work with whatever I have on hand. When I do my grocery shopping, I generally have an idea of what I want to cook that week and buy accordingly, but there is no set menu
Re: Meal Planning
Really? So its not that common.
For the sake of simplicity, I do some meal planning simply because during the week…there is no time to plan with work.
I love the older traditions too…every Thursday there’s Niyaz on meetha. Every Friday, some sort of special dish.
Re: Meal Planning
I definitely do meal planning. My schedule doesn’t allow a lot of spontanaeity, plus I can’t run to get groceries at the last minute. I know this is nerdy, but I’ve made an excel spreadsheet for lunch & dinner over 3 weeks. Planning this out helps me make a grocery list so I can buy everything (except certain produce like tomatoes) ahead of time. It’s made a huge difference for my lifestyle.
Re: Meal Planning
I really got no time to plan anything. I just go with what my kids want each day or feel like having myself and then that’s how I proceed.
However I do like to keep a stock of variety of things in the fridge/freezer for e.g I cut my own veggies and freeze them/pizza dough/puff pasty/fish/garlic ginger paste/chicken & beef stock cubes.
With little kids around I hate having to run to the store in the middle of the day to especially buy that one thing to complete a meal, so I try to have my ingredients on hand at all times.
Muslimah would you mind sharing your excel sheet with us, to get an idea. Do you also have groceries list in that sheet ?.
Re: Meal Planning
yep I started doing weekly meal planning couple of months ago and I LOVE it. I was one of those people who would spend two hours looking for a recipe online and then order pizza because there was no time to cook 
now my husband and I prepare menu on Saturday, he does grocery on Sunday for everything that is needed and then I stick to the menu.. it has taken down my cooking time to an hour or max 2 hours a day! It also helps me to make sure we have our meat, veggies and lentils.. I will have at least one chicken dish, one veggie dish and then either channa, lal lobia, some kind of daal once a week!
We always have biryani on Sunday and home made pizza is usually on Tuesdays but that changes in case I have veggies that I would rather cook on Tuesday so it doesn’t go bad and then pizza or nachos on Friday.
I am loving this.
Re: Meal Planning
My meal schedule is whatever I am craving, I usually know by morning time what I’m in the mood for and that’s how I proceed. My mom hates my system because I usually end up grocery shopping all throughout the week which makes it hectic and inconvenient, but I don’t mind.
I do take into account what was made in the preceding days so we are not eating the same food group everyday. So variety is also a deciding factor.
Re: Meal Planning
Nice! I love the idea of the spreadsheet! How interesting.
I also do it because it keeps me conscious of my intake. If I plan, there’s WAY less of a chance of me eating irrationally.
I’ve noticed that planning out meals, snacks and ALSO back up snacks keeps me on a healthy track.
If I leave it up to chance and find myself hungry…I will not think twice about making a pit stop at Taco Hell. I won’t even remember the word “healthy”.
Re: Meal Planning
Although maintaining it is a difficult task, yet it saves time, money and reduces stress. No more wrestling with food ingredients.
Re: Meal Planning
No strict meal planning, but usually saturday is where I cook something speciel. In week days it is usually just different sort of salan, salad and chapati to go along.I guess saturday and sometimes sunday as well are sort of our “cheat” day(s). This is something I’m going to hold on to when I get married 
Re: Meal Planning
no planning at all. Its just random and according to availability. However sat and sunday is always something special. I do cook chicken roast some times every sat or sometimes fortnightly And same goes with biryani. Haleem and Nihari are some special dishes that i cook when i crave for them like nowadays craving for haleem 
Re: Meal Planning
^ I made haleem twice in the last month on random weekdays…Being so cold here and Just cuz I was also craving it too!! hit the spot really 
Re: Meal Planning
I usually don’t cook on Saturdays/Sundays…we either go out to eat or get take out. During the week, I keep my pantry and fridge pretty well stocked so that I can get dinner ready and on the table in about an hour or so.
Re: Meal Planning
Working mom here so yes I plan the week.
I find that it solves lots of problems for me:
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first and foremost, it allows me to plan a healthy meal for the kids. Starches/veggies/grains/meats rather then coming home in a mad rush and frying up chicken nuggets
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Either I make a meal plan with the ingrediants I have at home or I buy what I need. This reduces the cost of grocery shopping and reduces wasting food
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I can forecast properly my time. Like if tomorow is chicken soup - then I can start it tonight. And tomorow will be come home and heat up.
I also use an excel sheet - would be happy to send it to anyone that wants but I literally pulled it off Google docs.
that being said I don’t drive myself insane if we don’t follow to the T. Sometimes my mom will drop by with something and we’ll have that.
As for traditions, yup I do that as well. Meatless Monday because we almost always have Biryani (chicken or lamb) on Sunday.
Sundays the entire family usually gets together for dinner so its more a feast then anything. Does us good to be light on Monday.
Re: Meal Planning
Sure how do I attach an excel file? Yes it has space for a grocery list.
Re: Meal Planning
Oh wow…you guys are ahead of the game! Love it!
Also, how many times a week do people eat meat?
Re: Meal Planning
Meat around 3-4 times a week; for me once a week.
I normally eat whats on the menu minus the meat; does wonders for my skin.
Re: Meal Planning
Give or take usually 2-3 times a week. There is no order for meat days, whenever we feel like having, this is a rough idea of how I break it down for meals.
Chicken x2 - karahi/qorma/salan (dark meat only) or in fried rice/noodles/stir-frys/pot-pies (white only)
Beef x1 - keema aloo/shami kebabs/koftay/lasagna or burgers
Fish x1 - baked, curry or in stir-fry
Rest of the days, my kids like mac n cheese or a poutine for dinner. So having cheese around is a must 