yea, i got a chuckle too when i realized i had answered this poll back in may 02 but on checking i found my answer was the same then as it is now--although i wasn't allowed to vote again

what i dois cook a bunch at once...like 10 hamburgers,10 drumsticks, etc then i pull then i just pick something out and eat it. once in a while i say hey i want deepdish pizza quiche and make it or something like that.


Jon

We're lucky enough to be able to order groceries via the Internet for home delivery, so we check out the sale items and come up with several meals planned in advance. We arrange deliveries of one or two weeks worth of supplies at a time.

However, the order in which we prepare and eat those meals during the week is dependent on our mood and time constraints...and sometimes the rate of deterioration in the fresh produce!

We both work sometimes unpredictable and extended schedules that can make it hard to be "in synch" for weekday dinners, so our more elaborate meals, "experimental" dishes and "make-ahead" projects are usually planned for preparation on the weekends.

I am really finding it hard to plan menus especially when everyone eats my food that I have planned for me

I plan a week's worth of meals at a time, because it's the only way I can keep the grocery shopping time and cost within rational levels. I could probably get away with winging it more if I only cooked four or five meals a week, but since DH and I both work at home, and I cook lunch as well as dinner, it's more like 12 to 14 meals, plus any weekend breakfast cooking, plus any snacks or desserts, plus cooking homemade dog food. My planning is more organizational than nutritional, though -- other than trying not to serve more than one creamy/cheesy dish a day, I don't pay any attention to carbs, calories, fat, or whatever when I'm planning it out. It's enough trouble trying to figure out what vegetable dishes go best with with what meat dishes and how to creatively prepare that 957th head of cabbage!

Also, if I don't plan meals out, make a grocery list, and check the pantry, I am sure to forget the pine nuts, or the fines herbes, or the fish sauce, or some other arcane ingredient -- and since I like to cook and try to make a new recipe once a week or so, I'm always using arcane ingredients! Then I find myself running to the grocery store every day or so, and whatever I need is invariably located right next to the sugar free chocolate .

A helpful tip: if you're just starting to plan menus, keep your old ones. After a month or two, go through and look at them, and you'll see a pattern emerge -- if you can make a list of four or five favorite meals, you've just cut your menu-planning time in half. I have a list of about 20 that I rotate through, for which I know the principal ingredients, the amount of leftovers, and the approximate cooking time. Now, instead of prowling through my recipe files looking for meals, I just pick the dishes off that list that best suit the needs of the week.

Lots of terrific ideas and advice Like others have stated here, I've found it really helpful to make double batches of recipes, then freeze in portions for future quick meals.

I remember a gazillion years ago at a Tupperware party .. the seller suggested we stop thinking about "leftovers" .. instead we should call them "planovers". Hokey, but a good point nonetheless.

Doreen

I'm another one who just wings it, although I have a LOT of choices at home. Breakfast and lunch tend to be the same type of thing most days - a LC muffin and a salad with protein. Dinners vary according to my mood and what I have defrosted or what is quick or what there is in leftovers. I tend to get my "other" veggies in with the dinner meal: cooked spinach, kale, cauliflower, spag squash, turnip, asparagus, mushrooms, peppers, tomato, onion are favorites. I'm going to try celery root soon! And fennel, although I'll have to research ideas for that one. I have it on good authority from Rikke that fennel is *awesome*.


Last night's dinner, for instance, was chicken breast strips, fried in bacon fat/oil with a liberal sprinkling of Italian seasoning. Good, and fast! Had leftover spag squash with it that I reheated in the same pan. Have more chicken for tonight and some cauliflower "mashed potato" that I did last night but didn't want to wait for.

I find that if I don't plan, I can unintentionally slip and I don't want to do that I usually plan a week at a time, and then shop for my groceries according to my plan. I like variety, so I start with the proteins and vary from beef to chicken to lamb or pork and then fish. I try to keep a variety of vegetables on hand, based on the seasons and what it fresh. Then when I bring my groceries home I plan the meals for each day of the week and freeze what needs to be frozen.

This is the only way that I can function and eat really well without sabotauging (sp?) myself. I also still keep a food diary and I have been living the LCWOL for 3.5 years now, so it is really second nature to me. I still keep track and weigh myself once a week. Have maintained my ideal weight for 3 years now. I only buy LC foods - keep no fast foods or chips etc in the house at all. And I feed a family of four these days, with our son and grand daughter living with us right now. Still able to stay on track and satisfy everyone

Planning is a must for me. I never take much time over lunch, so I always cook extra at dinner. Whatever is left over is the basis for my lunch - simple as that. I can add a quick salad or take some coleslaw out of the fridge to add to the protein and I am done.

I also plan my snacks and keep cheese, nuts, sugar-free jello and fresh berries around for between meals.


Patricia
www.lowcarbliving.ca

I keep all the LC foods I have learned about in the kitchen and carry some cheese in my purse.

I try to keep stocked up on meats and other LC options for meals and snacks. I then shop for veggies that a) are on special and b) fit in w/ LC, also trying to plan for other members of my family. Then on a day before basis I pull out the meat and decide what will accompany it. I menu planned for years as a chef and I loved to prepare "specials" w/ what is on hand. For Lunch and Bfast I eat leftovers or something simple from my reserves...
Rosie

i planed when I was on phase one because I had alot less play room with only 20 carbs but since then I have just winged it I tend to eat the same thing every day for lunch at work and breackfast at home about 90% of the time is the same so no need to plan them! and i always have fresh veggies to munch on for snacks just whatever strikes my fancy at the moment... of course I should probably plan more and try to get in them 6 meals (ah la bfl) but who has time? lol

Wow, talk about a thread from the dark ages! I hadn't realised this thread is two years old!

Anyway, I will state that I don't plan meals like I used to (I work evenings, my SO works days) so I just eat, well, usually when I get a headache telling me I haven't eaten, or I pig out. Verrrry Bad!

M

I definitely plan one day at a time and then STICK with it. When I get up in the morning I decide what I will eat every three hours and that's that.

I also stay out of the grocery store until I've eaten everything I bought previously. If I start planning meals too far in advance or try to buy too much of a variety of things all at once, I get too focused on food -- which is bad for me. When I run out of stuff in the frige and pantry, I then decide what, in general I want to eat for the next week, and go and get just that.

i generally eat the same thing every day so it's easy to plan my meals out and hit my desired cals and ratios

DH does the cooking and the shopping. He plans meals around my WOE and he eats some of my lc foods.