I’ve written about how I menu plan before but I thought it might be interesting to show you a typical week.
I do a lot of work on the weekend to prep food for the week. This just saves me work and brain power during the week, when it’s in very short supply.
Here’s the plan
Monday
Breakfast: Oat bake Lunch: Falafel and salad Dinner: Lentil Sloppy Joes
Snacks: popcorn/carrots/grapes/applesauce/kinder chocolate/fruit
Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatbake Lunch: Falafel and salad Dinner: Soup
Snacks: popcorn/carrots/grapes/applesauce/kinder chocolate/fruit
Wednesday
Breakfast: Oatbake Lunch: Falafel and salad Dinner: Black Bean Burgers
Snacks: popcorn/carrots/grapes/applesauce/kinder chocolate/fruit
Thursday
Breakfast: Oatbake Lunch: Falafel and salad Dinner: leftovers
Snacks: popcorn/carrots/grapes/applesauce/kinder chocolate/fruit
Friday
Breakfast: Oatbake Lunch: Falafel and salad Dinner: Friday Night Pizza
Snacks: popcorn/carrots/grapes/applesauce/kinder chocolate/fruit
Saturday
Breakfast: Oatbake Lunch: not sure probably leftovers Dinner: out
Snacks: whatever is left over from the week
Sunday
Breakfast: Not at home Lunch: not at home Dinner: chicken, cauliflower mash and veg
Snacks: not sure
This week is a bumper week for recipes first time recipes, the oatbake, lentil sloppy joes and black bean burgers are all new. Over the last couple of months, my weekday meals have featured less and less meat, this is a budget and a responsible eating thing. If I’m going to eat meat, I want to make sure that it was ‘happy’ before slaughter, I’m not overly concerned about the meat I buy being organic but I do want to buy meat that is responsibly reared to high welfare standards. I reckon that farmers that look after their livestock won’t mindlessly feed their animals antibiotics. I also only want to buy British meat, our farmers are having a hard time at the moment and if we can we should support them.
All of this means that I’m not buying a lot of meat and am eating very differently, I like steak too much to ever be a vegetarian but I am trying to be creative about feeding myself without meat. It’s too easy, to eat pasta and cheese and think that because it’s meat free, it’s healthy. It’s a balance.
This was the Sunday food prep for the week. Salad, falafel and roasted tomatoes for lunches, the oatbake for breakfasts, dough for the bean burgers and sloppy joes and friday night pizza, defrosting soup for Tuesday night, grapes, popcorn and carrots for snacks, the sloppy joe ‘sauce’ ready to be reheated and the black bean burgers.
What about you? Are you eating less meat or will they tear the hamburger out of your cold dead hands? Do you menu plan and do weekend prep or is that too much effort? Have you got any recipes to link to?
Nic Dempsey 
I love how organised you are! I’m trying to get better at it but I’m no where near this good!
Thanks, but you seem to be doing fine to me, I always get hungry reading your blog! I feel I should confess that I’m not a naturally organised person and this took years to get to. I started off by making sure that I knew what was for breakfast (I used to be rubbish about eating breakfast!). Next weak spot was lunch and snacks at work and dinner was the last thing. Most people do it the other way around but dinner is the easiest meal to plan because it’s the one you generally have the most control over. The only downside of being this organised is that it can be overly rigid, especially if you live with other people! I don’t so it’s not too bad but I try to plan one meal a week from the freezer and another from ‘leftovers’ ’cause that allows me to be a little more creative or have a to hell with it moment! It also helps to reframe, what you’re doing, the weekend food prep allows me to be really lax during the week, I know what I’m eating, it’s mostly ready to go so I don’t need to think or work too hard, which means more time for sleep and reading!
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