https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 20 Apr 2026 21:29:09 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1735323 Wed, 02 Jul 2014 07:47:40 +0000 Alivoo01 1735323@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p><b>Do you plan/prep just dinners or all 3 meals? </b> Just dinner. Lunch is normally leftovers that I bring to work. Breakfast is on the run that I grab out of the pantry (breakfast bar, PB&amp;J, etc.)</p> <p><b>Do you repeat the same meals every week or twice a month? </b> I try not to repeat meals or put two of the same types of meat back to back, but if it's something I know the hubby loves, I'll repeat it later that month.</p> <p><b>How often do you have to go back to the store for pantry items/snacks? </b> I buy my groceries one week at a time. I usually go on Sunday. If I forgot something, then I'll grab it on my way home from work.</p> <p><b>How long does it take you, on average, to shop for the month? </b> I grocery shop once a week so it doesn't take long since I write out everything I need. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1735311 Wed, 02 Jul 2014 07:42:50 +0000 Tanjowen 1735311@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Sunshine: I make a beginning of the month run to get all the basics I know I will use (canned goods/sauce/condiments, etc.). And then I go to the grocery store every week for my fresh veggies and meat. </p> <p>I usually sit down the day before I go to the store and look at my week and see how many dinners and lunches I need to plan for and make my list off of that. We do a lot of sandwiches for lunch, so it makes it easier. I repeat a few favorites during the month too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1735287 Wed, 02 Jul 2014 07:22:38 +0000 Mrs. Lion 1735287@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I did a 3 part blog series about this that shows how we do it :) not sure if you saw that. I think it was in april. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1735276 Wed, 02 Jul 2014 07:10:28 +0000 looch 1735276@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I plan monthly, just for dinners, using an excel spreadsheet. I have a running sheet for the year with monthly tabs, so I can go back and review what I've done the month before. All I do is make a calendar for the month and then I put in the meals in on the specific days, with main dish and sides. I print out the monthly sheet and then I write my weekly grocery list from that plan.</p> <p>I don't try to be super fancy, a lot of our meals are repeats and we eat dinner at my parent's house twice a week (always the same day) so I am only cooking 3 times during the work week.</p> <p>I used to have a more elaborate rolling 6 week plan where I had categories of food, but I never got a good electronic version of it down and I abandoned it. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1734213 Tue, 01 Jul 2014 12:31:42 +0000 RubyCali 1734213@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gingerbebe: Wow! I am inspired to try monthly meal planning. You are so organized! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1733299 Mon, 30 Jun 2014 22:23:06 +0000 Mrs. Sunshine 1733299@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@gingerbebe: ahh, thank you! I love the tip about spaghetti sauce becoming chili! &amp; I definitely think that keeping a weekly shopping trip will be more manageable for me right now. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1733297 Mon, 30 Jun 2014 22:17:00 +0000 gingerbebe 1733297@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Do you plan/prep just dinners or all 3 meals? </p> <p>Dinner is the main portion of my meal planning, but I have a general idea of what breakfast and lunch will be each week. Usually its yogurt or batch cooked oatmeal or cold cereal for breakfast during the week and 1 brunch on the weekend. Lunches are usually leftovers but I keep sandwich stuff in the house. I also always plan to have hummus, baby carrots, and easy to grab fruit for snacks.</p> <p>Do you repeat the same meals every week or twice a month?</p> <p>I love planning meals monthly because you see how often you are eating a certain protein or type of cuisine. Also you can go back to prior months' menus and remember things you ate. I also try to go for theme nights each week. </p> <p>For instance, we usually have an ethnic dish one night, a crockpot meal or two, pizza night, in the summers we have big entree salad or grill night, and I build one night for eating out and one or two nights for leftovers. This help create some kind of formula to work from. </p> <p>Generally repeating a meal twice a month is fine, no one really notices, but I mostly like to use "double duty" proteins. For instance, slow cooker salsa chicken taco meat can be doubled. Half can be eaten as tacos, and the other half can be added to broth and veggies to turn into tortilla soup later on. Plain shredded pork or beef in the crockpot can be eaten as carnitas or French dip sandwiches one week, then added to sauce to make BBQ pulled pork or an Asian beef dish the next. Any of these can also be thrown on salad. Spaghetti meat sauce can be doctored up into chili with beans and seasonings. A bag of frozen meatballs can be spaghetti, meatball subs, or stroganoff.</p> <p>I also do something similar for veggies. I like to have chopped onion and peppers ready each week, plus a bag of shredded carrots (or just chop up some baby carrots) and sometimes some celery (although celery seed works fine in a pinch). I then just throw that into everything and use frozen veggies or something like zucchini on sale into the mix for variety. Whatever's left over at the end of the week goes into the weekend brunch omelet or or into the freezer for soup or something.</p> <p>How often do you have to go back to the store for pantry items/snacks? (We don't have a ton of storage here)</p> <p>I always keep canned beans, boxed broth, pasta, rice, lots of seasonings and condiments, eggs, and a good variety of frozen veg in the house. I throw the frozen veggies into everything.</p> <p>How long does it take you, on average, to shop for the month?</p> <p>I shop weekly. Once the menu plan is set for the month, I can make a list weekly for things I need, including snacks and fresh things I'm running out of. A benefit to planning monthly is that if there's a sale on something this week for something I had planned on eating next week, I can either stock up now or swap the menu item to fit the timing of the sale. Once I have a list, it doesn't take me long - maybe 30 minutes? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1733240 Mon, 30 Jun 2014 20:55:54 +0000 Mrs. Sunshine 1733240@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lindseykaye: helpful information, thank you! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1733234 Mon, 30 Jun 2014 20:53:12 +0000 lindseykaye 1733234@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I meal plan monthly :)</p> <p>It's really just dinners, but we use some leftovers in other meals and usually also have sandwich fixings in the fridge for lunch.</p> <p>I don't often repeat meals in a month, but I have several meals in different categories we have each week. And repeat this list monthly. So, Sunday nights are always a frittata - which then makes breakfasts for the coming week. Every week we also have: a big salad, a slow-cooker meal, pasta/Italian, tex-mex, pizza night and wild card (new recipes, family favorites, holidays, special stuff).<br /> I make things with similar ingredients in the same week. If mushrooms go on sale one week, I make a mushroom and spinach frittata, a spinach-based salad night, and mushroom ziti for pasta night. If I'm being awesome, I will make and freeze at least one pasta dish, maybe some enchiladas, and some of the slow cooker meals at the start of the month but it doesn't always happen. Thankfully my usual meals are pretty quick and simple even if I don't do much prep ahead.</p> <p>I shop either 1x weekly for about 30 min, or 2x shorter 15-20 min shops. Things like fruit, bread, veggies, yogurt, milk are all weekly purchases in addition to our meals. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1733123 Mon, 30 Jun 2014 19:40:14 +0000 Boheme 1733123@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. Sunshine: we absolutely love it! I made a thread on it about two months ago - several other bees do it too! Totally worth it for us. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1733090 Mon, 30 Jun 2014 19:16:01 +0000 Mrs. Sunshine 1733090@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Bump </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1732955 Mon, 30 Jun 2014 17:11:18 +0000 Mrs. Sunshine 1732955@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@grizz: I've looked at the Fresh 20 but I haven't bit the bullet yet. I wasn't sure if it was worth it </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1732946 Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:58:20 +0000 Boheme 1732946@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have a Fresh 20 subscription for meal planning. </p> <p>Do you plan/prep just dinners or all 3 meals? Dinners, but we eat the leftovers for lunch. Its laid out for me. </p> <p>Do you repeat the same meals every week or twice a month?<br /> No repeats, really - the subscription lays everything out. We've repeated a week we liked though! </p> <p>How often do you have to go back to the store for pantry items/snacks? (We don't have a ton of storage here) Just weekly </p> <p>How long does it take you, on average, to shop for the month? I go once a week for less than 30 minutes since my list is laid out for me. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/calling-all-bees-that-meal-prepplan-monthly#post-1732938 Mon, 30 Jun 2014 16:53:41 +0000 Mrs. Sunshine 1732938@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm thinking of starting to meal plan/prep once a month. I know there about a million different blog posts all over the place about everyone's system but I thought I would ask here since the Hive is a pretty reliable wealth of information. :happy: </p> <p>My questions are: </p> <p>Do you plan/prep just dinners or all 3 meals? </p> <p>Do you repeat the same meals every week or twice a month? </p> <p>How often do you have to go back to the store for pantry items/snacks? (We don't have a ton of storage here) </p> <p>How long does it take you, on average, to shop for the month? </p>