Skip to main content

Meal Planning

I'll be honest. I despise meal planning. My family is not good at it. I'll sit down on the weekend, with good intentions, cookbooks in front of me, paper and pen at the ready, grocery ad nearby, and ask the futile question "What do you guys want to eat this week?" I am usually met with blank stares and a response of "I dunno." Lovely. And then, even if we do manage to come up with a list of ideas for the week, actually sticking to the list is hard. We'll do good for a day or two, and then something happens. We'll be running late, something will come up, we just won't want what is on the list for the day, etc etc. All hope is lost, and we abandon the list all together. I'm not saying this is right, I'm just saying this is what happens in my crazy household!

The problem is that we really need a meal plan! Four out of five weeknights, we have late nights. Or at least late in my opinion. Extracurricular activities (mostly for the 8 year old) have us getting home between 6:30 and 7:00. By the time we get supper cooked, eat, get homework finished, get baths and showers, and ready for bed, it's late!! And that particular 8 year old is one that needs lots of sleep, so late nights are not good around here. But when we fall into the trap of stopping to get takeout on the way home, or resorting to sodium-filled prepackaged convenience foods, well that doesn't do any of us any good either.

I have discovered, however, that instead of making a strict meal plan, meaning Monday is this, Tuesday is that, etc, that coming up with a few meals to have sometime that week tends to work better. At least a little. So, what's a girl to do? Keep trying! Or, if you're a fan of "Meet the Robinsons"...keep moving forward! :) And with my due date being a week from tomorrow, we definitely need to come up with some sort of plan!

If you do an Internet search for meal planning, you'll come up with tons of websites, articles and even books on the subject. There are even services that, for a fee, will email you a meal plan each week, complete with a shopping list. I've actually tried a couple of these, and we were met with the same fate as when I try to do it myself. And apparently my family is quite picky too...makes things a little harder.

What's the point of all this? Eh...who knows; I'm mostly rambling. :) Well, the point is that I'm going to try to do better about planning out meals, and actually sticking to it. Granted, once the baby is born, all my planning will probably go out the window, but that's almost to be expected!

So, do you meal plan? Please don't tell me you do a whole month at a time...I feel bad enough that I can't stick to a weekly plan!! ;) Seriously, if you do meal plan, how do you do it, and how to you stick to it? Tell me your secrets!!!

Comments

sevgi said…
Meal planning can be a challenge and for someone like me who does not like to be rigid, it can be extra challenging. I figured out a way to do it that works for us. I meal plan on a weekly basis, but do not get fixed on the days. Based on the ingredients I bought at the store, we eat what we feel. The only exception is, we tend to eat the meal with fresher ingredients at the beginning of the week. Also, I use recipes that are not very challenging or time consuming, ideally 30 minutes or less. However, depending on my week, some meals take up to 1 hour. If you like, read on how I did it on my site.
Good Luck!!
Katrina said…
I don't meal plan really at all (but should at least like you mentioned, have a few ideas in mind for the week). Too much work and the things we eat depend a lot upon what we're in the mood for and what I feel like making at the time. Sometimes my husband eats leftovers, the kids have hot dogs and I make myself a salad. Nuttin' wrong with that.

Popular posts from this blog

Thick and Chewy Snickerdoodles

I admit, I love snickerdoodles.   Cinnamon and vanilla?   Yes, please.   What’s funny is that I never really had them much as a kid, just occasionally in the school cafeteria.   I know, ew. Anyway, snickerdoodles were one of the first cookies that the Munchkin helped make when he was little.   He could help dump everything in the mixer (or “loud noise” as he would call it!) and then it was fun for him to roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar before putting them on the baking sheet. Even since then, my go-to recipe for snickerdoodles has been this one by Emeril.   It’s a great recipe, baking up a thin, crispy cookie (at least when I make them!).   However, I was looking for something different this time, something thicker and chewier.   I found this recipe from the blog How Sweet it Is .   I decided to try it, and while I did keep the ingredient list the same I changed up the method a bit to suit me better.   The result?   What I was looking for – thick and

Homemade Cinnamon Dolce Latte

I recently professed my love of coffee and fancy coffee drinks.  After the success of the Peppermint Mocha , I decided to tackle the Cinnamon Dolce Latte, another one of my favorites.  According to the Starbucks website, it has flavors of "cinnamon, butter and brown sugar".  Well, I covered the cinnamon and brown sugar components, but left out the butter.  And you know what, I think it turned out quite well, if I do say so myself!  I honestly wasn't sure if the cinnamon flavor in the syrup was going to be strong enough, but it was.  I will admit to being impatient and not letting it steep for very long, so the cinnamon flavor might develop more if you do actually let it sit and cool off first.  If you wanted it to be even stronger, you could always add a tiny bit of cinnamon oil to it as well.  But be careful -- a little of that goes a long way! How much to make depends on how much you'll actually use.  I just made a single batch this first time, but considering

Hello Dolly Cookie Bars

Several years ago, my mom gave me an old cookbook, it was hers but I'm not sure she ever used it, Favorite Recipes from Southern Kitchens:  Desserts .  I love this cookbook!  I thought it would be great to go through it and pick a recipe or two to use for this year's 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats series.  For this week, I chose a super easy one, Hello Dolly Cookies.  I have absolutely no idea where the name came from.  I'm really not sure I've ever eaten one before, though the ladies I shared the finished product with knew about them!  I did an internet search too, and it seems they go by a lot of names, including Magic Layer Bars.  Honestly, they are so easy to make.  There's no mixing required.  Kids could absolutely help with these.  The cookies smelled divine while they were baking, and I barely waited for them to cool before trying one. At first I thought "these taste almost like German chocolate cake", then "or definitely like a ca