Meal Planning

Do you ever plan out your dinners or meals for the week in advance?
What does that look like for you and why do you do it?
Most importantly, what do you cook?

Nope.

Plan one, maybe two meals, buy things that look fresh and/or are on sale, improvise the rest of the meals with what I bought and otherwise have on hand, and most importantly feel like at the time.

Learn to cook, OP. It will make life much more enjoyable, and you'll spend half the money on food and eat twice as well.

we try to plan the week in advance in order to streamline grocery shopping
it usually ends in "what you wanna eat on thursday?" "dunno"

Not OP but how do I learn to cook?

>Do you ever plan out your dinners or meals for the week in advance?

Yes.

>What does that look like for you and why do you do it?

I just pick whatever meals I feel like making. Why? Because that way I know what groceries I need to buy without waste.

>Most importantly, what do you cook?
That varies a great deal depending on the season. Seasons affect the cost and quality of ingredients. They also affect what I feel like cooking. Nobody wants to have the stove on for hours to make a stew in the hot summer. But in the cold winter that's a whole different story.

Here's my list for this week:
Today: Pasta with meat sauce; garlic bread.
Tues: Grilled salmon & steamed veggies
Wed: Nothing, going to a party.
Thurs: Masaman curry
Fri: Carne guisada (mexican-style beef stew)

Pick a dish you like. Google the recipe. Follow directions. If the recipe contains terms you don't understand then google them. Watch how-to videos on youtube if something is still not clear. If something came out wrong then figure out what happened so you can fix it next time. Once you've got that dish down repeat for other dishes.

I make a big batch of something for lunch at work. Either chicken and veggies, stew, chili, whatever. Breakfast I hardboil a shit load of eggs and have 3 a day.
Dinner is my main issue. I never plan this out and end up slapping shit together every night. Spaghetti is usually my choice because it's so easy.
I do it so I don't starve at work and because I lift and don't want my gains to die.

> then figure out what happened so you can fix it next time.

How?

Ask your food why it's upset.

That's the point of picking a dish you like. That means you've had the dish before and therefore know what it should taste like. The problems will likely be very obvious to you.

If it's bland then you didn't add enough seasoning.
If you taste too much of something (or lack thereof) then you added too much or too little of the ingredient in question.
If you burnt it then that's pretty damn obvious.
If it's too runny then you added too much liquid
...etc...

The whole point of picking a dish you already like is that you know the dish and therefore any problems with your attempt to make it will stand out.

I spend upwards of $1000/week on my own groceries because I buy only the best quality, most expensive meats, fish, vegetables, spices such as saffron , and caviar. I also spent at least $1000/week on a few bottles of wine/cognac. I am very fancy and sophisticated and well above and beyond all the losers here who eat fast food. Pleb manchild tastebuds for pleb Americans who never grew up. So glad I pull major bucks in the oil industry.

Clean your room, or no more computer time user.

Sure you do.

"I am very fancy and sophisticated". Ha ha ha. Lie and a drunk.

I just freestyle(hooker term). In the grocery store. told myself I was going to cut down on meat. I bought a bunch of meat and have been making pasta. Any pasta can be made in the microwave and I have been cutting up sausages for the meat.
I need to make a list but I never want to eat the foid in a timely manner. Eggplants going to waste.

Want to bet? I could prove it if I really wanted to, fucking pleb.

I don't live with anyone. In fact I live alone in the most prestigious neighbourhood in my country and have a $1,000,000 apartment all to myself. Ha. How does it feel to be a loser who eats ramen everyday and struggles to pay off his student debt while I'm an oil company executive making bank?

I have a few 'leftover' dishes that I make: Chili, shephards pie, Japanese curry, baked drumsticks, bacon tomato rice, tuna tomato rice.

The only thing I can't figure out is how to prepare eggs in advance. I tried boiling, but I prefer sunny side up or an omelette and having to peel the shell in the morning takes nearly as much time anyway.

If you're this retarded, you should stick to ramen and bleach

>How does it feel to be a loser who eats ramen everyday and struggles to pay off his student debt since I didn't even graduate college.

Ftfy, loser.

I hold a Masters of Science Degree in Petroleum Engineering, and a BSc in Chemistry as well as an MBA from an Ivy League school. Get fucked loser.

>1,000,000 dollar apartment

The one thing you can be certain of in life, when people say shit like this on a Sinhalese mud patty baking board, they live in their mother's basement.

See

I'm guessing you double majored for the petroleum engineering and business bachelor's. Most engineering/physics programs roll up the chemistry degree nicely. Did you complete your masters for petroleum engineering first and then go back for the MBA? I'm just curious because that's a pain in the ass to do simultaneously.

You're wrong

Did it all at the same time, that's how I roll yo. Rich, smart, good looking and I eat like a king. No one here is better than me

Interesting. I'm finishing up a similar degree plan and there's no way I would tackle both of those masters programs at the same time.

I think you're either completely full of shit, or at least a little bit full of shit.

>completely full of shit

>>see 8406202

Overall, you can cook a week's worth of meals in a few hours if you plan accordingly. Look up and plan to buy 3 recipes worth of food for that week, assuming that the portions are large enough to feed JUST YOU(think breakfast, lunch, dinner.)

Google basic "fresh" or "dry" kitchen staples and you will get laundry lists of shit. You don't need to go out and spend 400 dollars to stock up your pantry. Get what you think you will need according to a couple of recipes you plan for that week.

Something like an InstantPot(slowcooker/pressure cooker) can do slow cooker meals(pulled pork, even in the pressure cooker is not half bad, 15.00 USD will give you 5 days worth of LARGE pulled pork samiches, takes about 90 minutes maybe.) Just need to buy bread.

Instantpot is great for rice, white, brown, jasmine, whatever. I can't say enough about that fucking thing.

I used to do a buster-ass burrito bowl. Take about 4-5 smaller chicken breasts, top with jar salsa on foil-lined cookie sheet, cut some onions and bell peppers in to strips, cook it all together with taco seasoning(just cumin, smoked paprika, garlic power, salt pepper and lime) until the chicken is done(160 F)(maybe 30 minutes depending on how big the chicken is), make some brown rice simultaneously in a pot or in the instantpot and then portion it out in to 4-5 containers for lunch. FUCKING DONE. Maybe rice is left over so you use that for dinner for the next day or two. Do some fucking stir fry then.

It takes planning, knowing what you are ok with eating for the week(or willing to cook mid-week if you want to change it) and go from there.

I've read and viewed youtube videos then fucked up some shit. One of the simplest things is what I described, a buster ass burrito bowl OR fucking stir fry.

Get good at those two things and you'll be way more confident with vegetables, chicken(a lot of people fuck up a simple bird) and cooking/personal meal planning in general.

Yes. My fiance and I usually spend Sunday cooking one or two different meals that will last us until Thursday or so. This week we have Quinoa salad for lunch, Lentil soup for a noon time snack, and Lasagna for a late lunch. Its a bonding thing and its fun to do, also saves the hassle of not knowing what to do for dinner.

I plan my meals on a weekly basis because I hate going out shopping.
It's usually fish on the first day, then some chicken dishes for the next two, then moving on to stews and finishing off with stuff that has a longer shelf life (like canned and frozen foods).

I spend 10 - 12 hours on work and commuting, so I need to plan ahead or otherwise I'm fucked.

I usually cook a day ahead, with each meal to last two days. Monday's and Tuesday's meal is usually made on Sunday, Wednesday's and Thursday's on Tuesday. Friday is take-out or something quick and easy, and I get more creative on the weekend since I have more time to spare.

Meals that get better over one or two days are chilli, bolognese, curry, chinese, soups and stews.

I also only do my shopping only once a week. Like I said, I work and commute long hours, plus I study part time, so ain't nobody got time for that shit.

Seconding the Instant Pot.

Watch Chef John from foodwishes.com