I find that having a basic rotation saves money. We like leftovers so generally these are big pot or skillet and last multiple meals. I keep the basic non perishable parts of these meals on hand and it makes shopping easy. Mine are: chili, beef barley soup, fajitas, split pea soup, tacos, rice and beans. Obviously we make other meals but there’s something comforting to me about having similar meals and it prevents needing take out.
Do you have a simple meals rotation?
byu/fridayimatwork inFrugal
Posted by fridayimatwork
11 Comments
I’m actually the opposite – I get sick of eating the same things over and over. If I’m bored with the food I have at home, I’m more likely to just go out to eat. Planning new and interesting meals to cook and eat helps me stay excited about eating at home. I do have a well stocked pantry of spices, sauces, and staples that make preparing a wide variety of ingredients from various cuisines easy.
I really like meal prepping. I tend to not have energy for cooking in the middle of the week, so I do my cooking on the weekends and portion it out. Also has the bonus of veg and stuff rarely going off before I use them since I use them almost right away.
Plus I’m not bothered eating the same thing lots of times.
my main meals are chili,
pasta (sometimes spaghetti, or a baked pasta dish with red sauce, or my mom’s cauliflower noodles, which is penne/rotini noodles with olive oil, cauliflower and lots of garlic),
rice with veggies (sometimes i add chicken or beef),
what i call “burrito bowls” (rice, black beans, canned tomatoes, corn, chickpeas, cheese),
and jota (sauerkraut, sausage, potato, cannellini beans)
We have a rough schedule. Some days are set, some days are more like broad categories. We try to make things that use the same set of ingredients. The kids and my wife love it, I am bored to death. I do 95% of the cooking.
Mon: burgers (beef/chicken/veggie)
Tues: chicken Caesar salad wraps
Wed: some sort of pasta, usually spag and meatballs
Thurs: tacos or pierogies
Fri: leftovers or breakfast for dinner
Weekends: varies depending on schedule/energy
A lot of ingredients I buy are interchangeable so they can be mixed and matched to create “new” dishes: same form factor with different flavors, same flavors in a different form factor, or mashing up things that don’t belong together at all. I like options but I’m lazy, so I don’t want to have to think too long about what to eat or spend too much time cooking. If I can put everything in one pot and ignore it for 30min, it’s perfect. But I don’t tend to have leftovers.
I enjoy cooking enough that I can get the ingredients and then figure out what to make. Helpful since I don’t always know what kind of produce I’ll find reduced
Yeah
Meats: whatever is on offer or left over
Veggies: frozen peas, spinach or left overs
Carbs: sweet potat or noodles
Any combo
We don’t have a meal rotation because we plan the upcoming week’s meals based on what is on sale in the weekly ad. It compels variety, but does add a bit of work.
Yes, we have a small rotation of meals but it varies seasonally. We know what we like and making the same things again and again makes shopping easy and we aren’t buying extraneous ingredients that may not get used up before they go bad.
Not meal rotations but ingredient rotations. I always have beans, chickpeas, onions, and canned tomato products and those are good bases for a lot of different things
One time when my schedule was crazy busy I created a document with four weeks of simple meals and an attached weekly shopping list. This way anyone in the household could do the shopping or cook on a given night.