Menu planning seems like a dead-end task. But the one thing that I am trying to minimise in my life is menial decisions that take away my energy. The decision on what to eat each night is one of those. Now, generally, I try to make a couple of bulk meals a week (there is only my child and I in the house), so we have a variety available for nights when I don't feel like cooking. The great thing about this is that I can do a big pot of bolognaise, and it will last us for weeks of meals if we freeze it down into portion sizes. I use a 3 x 300ml freezer container to freeze the meal down. 300ml is plenty for a meal. Also, bolognaise doubles as tacos, lasagne, or nachos. 

Or I roast a couple of chickens in one go (saves time, money and energy, win-win). Take off all the chicken, save the bones and bits for stock at a later time. The chicken itself, I pop into 140gm packets, or containers. Which is enough for dinner to make chicken pasta, chicken fajitas, or chicken pie. And if you want a little more, take out two packets. I will do this fortnightly. I make myself a chicken salad for a couple of days as well. 

Other time-saving suggestions would be: 

1. Grate your cheese (pop into a container and freeze it),

2. Sautéed carrot, onion and celery to add to things to shorten the cooking time.

   Making a big batch of anything is time-saving!

Below are my two meal planners - available for free! I love the 4-week one, but sometimes a week at a time is plenty enough to think about!

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