I have 4 weeks worth of menus that I rotate through. Unless using leftovers, which I like to do the next day rather than let them sit in the fridge, I planned them to use a different meat on consecutive days.

Then I found out that this was only important to me. DH said he doesn't care if he eats the same meat for lunch and for supper on the same day! He said: "They're different meals."

Maybe you could relax your own requirements a bit if your family doesn't care either??

I have kids and a husband who do care about repeat meats in one week. I am of 2 minds re this. One is-I make great meals usually and they'll have to live with chicken twice in one week once in awhile--this family is hardly suffering!
The second is-I do like to make meals my family enjoys and have a lot of variety.

I actually plan my meals according to the weather if you can believe it. So a cold day might call for beef stew, on an unusually warm day in the fall I might grill. I do try to have just one kind of meat in one week also.

my advice then is--try to plan the menu around something else for awhile-what's on sale, what your mood is like-and then look back and see how much variety there was. My guess is there will be enough.
good luck!

marie26: why don't you ask your family your question? They're the ones eating your meals. My guess is that it would be some combination of meat and type of recipe/ethnicity that would determine whether it seemed like too much repetition. But I'm not them.

Most families I know would not balk at having roast beef with veggies one day, spaghetti the next, beef stir fry the next day, and hamburgers the next. Would yours? I've always been able to keep adequate variety by just not serving the same meat on consecutive days. And now I learned that is only important to me--not DH!

Why not find out, rather than worry needlessly? Then decide what to do.

I asked DH and he won't commit to an answer. It's really not worth pressing him for one. This is probably more for me than him. As I stated earlier, this stems from my going through and culling the recipes I've been saving. I threw out a bunch more last night but still have a lot left that I would like to try.

To be honest, I have been trying to come up with the perfect meal plan for years. While others put their energy into sewing or whatever, I think about recipes and meal planning. Almost to the point of it being a hobby, if that makes any sense.

I really am very curious to know what other people do.

"I really am very curious to know what other people do."

FWIW my family eats chicken probably five nights a week and are mostly just happy to get it :)

I never plan meals more than a day or two at a time. I keep the refrig and pantry well stocked and can make most things without needing to go to the store. When I want to make something different than what we typically eat, I pick up what I need the next time I go to the grocery store. I grocery shop about twice+ a week. Produce stand once a week.
That way I alwyas have food (particularly meat) bought at the lowest price, and I always stock up at sales.

Well we haven't been doing this for very long, but it's worked well for the last 2 months.

I made a little matrix to help us come up with differnt meal ideas.

Meat column:
beef
chicken
pork
vegetarian

Starch column:
rice
potatoes
pasta
couscous
tortilla
bread

style column:
american
italian
mexican
asian
mediterranian
indian

We pick something from each column and try not to repeat a choice from any column in one week... sometimes it leads us to choose old favorites, sometimes it inspires me to try new recipes. It's just a tool to make sure we get a variety because without it we seem to end up eating a week of italian food or thinking 'gee, it's been a month since we had a stirfry'.

I understand now that you said this is a hobby. This is fun for you! I'll add one other thought to the mix here. I pay attention to the form or format (don't know what to call it) of the entree itself as well as the entire menu. And try not to repeat a format too often, and at minimum not on consecutive days.

Format exs:
*a slab of meat plus veggies
*a bowl of chunks of meat with other contents, and usually liquid (soups, stews, rice bowls) and side salads or whatever else
*another form of one-dish meal, with perhaps a side salad, but appears on a plate or flat pasta bowl, such as spaghetti or other pastas; stir fry over rice
*whole-meal salad
*sandwich plus a side dish
*other bread-based meal: focaccia, pizza, etc., plus a side salad
*traditional eggs and meat breakfast for supper (a winter favorite for a change, esp. since we're old and have been told to eat oatmeal or cold cereal for actual breakfasts)
*finger-foods meal, esp. in summer (raw veggies/hummus, guacamole, other dip; plus hot chicken fingers or similar)

Hope this is of interest to you. I thought of my former inlaws this a.m. and this came to mind. They grew up in the country and kept a house there but lived at the beach. He was a contractor. He had NEVER eaten, and swore he never would eat a sandwich or a hamburger. And had never eaten at a fast food restaurant. In N.C. they had their own wonderful style of dry, smoked pork bbq. But they ate it on a plate with hot veggies on the side, warm sliced bread, and coleslaw. Never on a sandwich.

Their small beach town, and of course the nearest town to their country home, was full of cafes where he always had his workday lunch. It was the same meal format as they ate at home, midday and evenings for every meal their entire lives: a meat, lots of fresh veggies (whatever was in season and in the gardens locally), hot bread. And when they ate out they went to a family style restaurant that passed around--guess what?! Big platters of meats, big bowls of veggies, and baskets of hot biscuits and cornbread!

MIL was bored out of her mind with cooking this way. It was a huge treat for me to eat that way on visits, rushed city girl that I was back then. But for my entire life, it'd get real old. Mix it up for me!

Marie, this was an interesting post. I get in a rut because my husband travels a lot, out of town for about 9 out of 10 weeks. I'm happy eating the same thing for about three days, but dh isn't too fond of leftovers. I go through my recipe file for inspiration, and sometimes it just doesn't work. Sometimes I just go to the market and tell myself I'll fix what looks good that day. I've even been known to say to a fellow shopper "I'm fresh out of ideas, what are YOU having for dinner tonight?" Amazingly, some of the best ideas happen that way.

I know, not too efficient, wastes some time, but time I got, ideas not always.

Barbara

I don't plan my meals that far ahead. When I do cook, I always I make enough so there will be leftovers. I try to avoid the same meat two times in a row. So I wouldn't have fried chicken Sunday and roast chicken Monday. I have got very good at using the microwave to re-heat leftovers.

Our dinners generally go by what meat I bought on sale. We are on a fairly tight food budget per week. So I usually will buy a variety & plan my meals around those.

However, I usually never have the same meat 2 nights in a roll--I do mix it up: beef, pork, chicken, ground turkey, fish & one vegitiarian meal (usually the veg. meal is when dh is not home, because he likes his meat).

My favorite site is www.allrecipes.com (there are many others) & I'll put in the ingred. I have and it will give recipes which have been rated. People not only rate the recipes, but, also give idea's on how to make the recipe even better. Chances are if the recipe has high ratings you can depend on it being a good dinner.

bspofford: That's hilarious, and a great idea! It's just the kind of thing I would like to do (ask fellow shoppers what they're having).

I heard one woman say her planning got a lot easier and her complaints a lot fewer when she told her family she'd cook anything they wanted, but they had to plan the menus. It's the stewing (pun intended) over the menu that gets to me. (I'm very unlike marie, who considers my agony her joy.)