DO you plan your dinners

[Kyrielle]

or open the fridge that night and decide what to make on the spot? and why? I prefer to plan my meals, because so many times I've wanted to make something and didn't have the stuff this way I know exactly what I'm making and only make one trip to the store a week.

In between. I tend to keep a lot of general spices and oils around so if I want to randomly make something, I can. Every week I buy a set of vegetables that I know I'll eat in some manner or another. However, if I want any kind of meat, I have to plan when I'm going to eat it and how I'm going to fix it (due to defrost and marinating times).

 

[violaine]

A bit of both. I always make sure I'm stocked up with vegetables and spices and my favorite staple ingredients so I can make a range of my old favorites. I prefer my own cooking so I often make large portions of favorite soups and sauces and freeze them for later use.

 

[Cimarron]

When I shop for groceries, I have to decide what I'll buy, and that's based on what I'll eat, and so I lay out a rough plan for meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and extra snacks) over the next few days to one week.

 

[paixfleurs]

I try to plan meals for the week based on what I have stocked up and sales at the grocery store. When that doesn't happen, I figure out something the night before or the morning of so that the meat is thawed in plenty of time.

 

[Poki]

I plan my meals while grocery shopping or right before. If I plan before I shop, I am lucky to make it past 3 or 4 days worth of dinner. That is 3 to 4 meals out of atleast 21 for the week. The rest I just wing it as I shop. I do much better when I have my son. When its just me my meals arent any where near well rounded. Just me dinner could be Ranch Style beans drenched with Franks hot sauce FTW

 

[Saslou]

No. I buy enough food to fed a small country then decide at the last moment what to cook.

 

[ThatGirl]

On Sundays I used to make several different dinners. Italian pot roast, Enchiladas, Soups, Steak and Potatoes, etc. Then I would separate them into individual containers, and freeze them. That usually gave me dinners for a month. Just reheat, and make a veggie to go with it, and done.

 

[kyuuei]

What I was doing before I left on deployment:

- Keep a few staple quick-dinner food items on hand. (i.e. spaghetti fixings, or casserole mixings.. etc.) That way if I screw up, we have back up.
- Prepare from frozen dinners for the month. This helps a lot when everyone's schedule goes haywire.. you can just grab something out from the freezer, bake it, and you have nice yummy home cooked meals without trying to get everyone together. Did this at the beginning of the month, usually ran out before we'd like to.
- I try to make a menu... buy a bunch of things I know I'll use, and try to make a menu of "Lets take this meat and use it in three ways these next three nights.." sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The top two usually fixes it so it's never a big deal.

- If all else fails, going out to eat isn't such a bad thing sometimes.

 

[Thalassa]

In between. When I cook for others I have to plan out meals for several days, as I've been cooking for elderly/disabled folks, and much of the time eat whatever I fix for them (though not every single time). I also love to plan special meals, like things I particularly love, like I'm gonna make homemade borscht, that kind of thing. On holidays I also like to plan elaborate things with recipes.

But I take cooking very seriously. If it's just me, I'm not cooking for any one else and it's not a special occasion, I will wing it, truly. A lot of time I eat what my mood dictates. I'm one of those people who listens to my body, and I would go insane if I ate the same thing every day or every week for long periods of time.

 

[011235813]

In between. I plan when I'm motivated and have a bit of time, and I take my time cooking and end up eating properly. Then I get lazy and just decide to wing it and eat crap the rest of the time.

 

[ReflecTcelfeR]

My lifestyle is not conducive to the planned meal.

 

[prplchknz]

this week's menu:
sun-potato soup
tuesday-baked ziti
wed-lime cilantro shrimp quesadillas
thur-brats and german potato salad
fri-spicey vegatable soup
sat-pork loin

 

[mmhmm]

right now sortof. i'm on this all-liquid diet.
and i just eat these nutrient densed foodpacks
as the sole source of my daily intake.

 

[Laurie]

I wing it. I'm a stay at home mom with four kids.

 

[skylights]

wing it all the time, pretty much. usually i have pasta/rice and bread and soup and veggies and fruits and cereal on hand, and if i need anything else i'll run down to the supermarket. i like grocery shopping so this works out fine for me.

 

[Betty Blue]

I rarely plan. If i have an actual real arrangement for people to come round to eat i may make a rough mental shopping list and have a look at a few recipes (real or mental ones)... then i might shop...then i'll wing it.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

The only thing I plan is going to a restaurant.

Otherwise it's catch as catch can.