Last week I did the cooking for 2 weeks. I'm not a super woman that makes all perfectly portioned meals but I like at least having part of the meal cooked ahead of time so it doesn't get to be 5 o' clock and hubby starts wondering what I'm going to be making...
And in the last week I didn't have to cook once. Well, maybe I did a few things to add to what I already had frozen to make it a meal but I didn't actually even have to turn on my oven.
And it was AMAZING.
I don't know about you but trying a cook a meal from scratch after working a 10 hour day and taking care of a baby isn't really one of my dreams. I love cooking and baking....just not when I'm tired, overworked, and full of spit up.
So then why is it so hard to do meal planning? The end results are so worth it but still, something tends to get in the way of us doing it each week. Here's my theories on what it might be.
1. Meal planning takes time. As much as I love drooling over Pinterest food pictures, I somehow don't like to find the time on Sunday to sit down and make a meal plan.
2. Meal planning takes supplies. Maybe you are one that can come up with a fabulous meal plan and then already have all the stuff to make it work that week. I'm not one of those people. I "shop" once a month when I order from my co-op. Trips to the grocery store during the rest of the month are rare. So my meal planning has to be based off what I have on hand from that one shopping trip, and often it's not very inspiring.
3. Making new dishes is fun, but sometimes we just want the old standbys. When I first started meal planning I loved added new recipes to my weekly plans...and then when it came to be the day to make them all I was craving was the tried and true good stuff. So there went my meal planning...right out the window.
So what is the solution I've come up with to help with these "unmotivated to meal plan" problems?
First of all, I changed my prep day to Saturday. I used to do my make ahead foods on Monday and honestly I'm not sure what I was thinking. Why would I want to have a hectic Monday and then spend the rest of my afternoon cooking? Saturday's work much better because they are an all around slower paced day. I have time to actually do that cooking and baking and I don't have to feel rushed.
Second, I stopped trying to plan whole meals. We always seemed to change the plans anyway. At least if I had the main item or meat for the meal ready or planned, we can finish making the meal that evening with what we feel like having. I always have staples on hand like beef, chicken, ect, so I know I don't need to make any trips to the store. My plans use what I have and only what I have.
And lastly, I stick with the old standbys. I know what we like so why not make it? Even if I do feel motivated to try something new I won't have wasted anything because I cooked just staples so we can make a "new meal" around those. easy!
What are some things that help you meal plan? For what reasons are you unmotivated to meal plan?
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{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Meal planning is something I’ve gotten better about over the last few years. I work full time, so having this all planned really helps me (and my family of 4).
I have 5 full weeks worth of dinner menu’s all set to go in rotation. It is so much work to set up in the beginning. But so worth it, when it’s completely in place.
I have a spreadsheets all setup with these meal plan ingredients (grocery lists) on it for each week. Whichever week of meals is next, that’s the grocery list I print and make sure I have all I need for the week. I do shop once a week though. Alot of the items like frozen or canned goods are in my stockpile. I usually make my own stock, BBQ sauce and red sauce. So usually all I have to buy is produce, dairy and breads etc, and maybe a few extra’s.
Sunday is usually my planning/prep day for the week. Anything I can do ahead that will make things easier during the workweek (meal-wise), gets done. I usually make notes on the recipes on what I can do ahead of time.
Every once in a while, I’ll revise things and throw in a new recipe or two for something that everyone might be getting tired of. All in all, it’s a system that works pretty well for us (me).
I meal plan almost everyweek. I make it a priority on Sunday because if I don’t, I get home from work at 6:00 and am faced with “what on earth am I going to eat for dinner?”, resulting in something very boring (rice & beans) or very un healthy (a cookie).
I meal plan on by looking in the yard at what needs to be picked and using that for the key ingredient for each dish.
Oh wow, this is something I struggle with for sure. What kind of containers do you use to keep your meals in the freezer? Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California, Heather
Right now I just use freezer bags (and I reuse them when I can) but I’d really like to find a good freezer container that works better!
I’ve been reading up on meal planning and want to give it a try but my husband does not like to eat a heavy dinner. When I do try to make a “real” dinner, my husband gets exasperated at me because he thinks I am sabotaging his diet. I told him he did not have to eat it if he just wants a bowl of cereal, but the smells coming from the oven have just been too tempting for him (hee hee hee). I’m going to try your method of just planning the entree and not worry about the sides. I may not be in the mood for what was planned and I think that has really been a good part of what has deterred me from jumping in head first.
I fail because i am lazy
OH, Darlene…I just laughed and laughed. I think I just discovered my reasoning, too!!
I have fibromyalgia and somedays I just cant get up long enough to cook. I have taken to using my food storage on those days. I use lots of dehydrated vegetables and have canned alot of meat. On a rough Fibro day I (or my hubby) can easily open jars and have a nice meal with little to no prep. Yay for casseroles!
Hi Marty,
I too have fibromyalgia. On bad days I don’t even feel like chewing, let alone standing up and cooking. And frozen meals are a great help on bad days. It’s nice to know I’m not alone.
I commit to meal planning because it makes our life so much easier!
I fail because my mood can change between the time I plan meals and the time they’re to be served. For example, I can plan on chef salad for Thursday, but if it’s cold and rainy that day I want hot food instead. Or maybe I’ll plan spaghetti for one night only to have it served to me the day before.
The pioneers had to plan ahead — no freezer, no take out, no prepared meals — I feel lazy with my cooking ;(
I’ve been a BIG failure at this with this spring season – peeps, goslings and 5 new garden beds. My plan is to sit down tonight and make a two week meal plan so we’re prepared.
We go in waves. We lost it when I ended up pregnate because I couldn’t deal with food and my husbands is more likely to be digging in the draw for a take out menu at 6:30. Getting back on track as I have more intrest in food.
I never liked meal planning because I didn’t know what I would be in the mood to eat three days from now, so making menu plans seemed really difficult. It is also a lot of work to go through & count how many slices of bread, how much cheese, etc. in all those meals. However, I need to be more frugal than I have been lately, so I committed to doing it “for real” this time. My son actually thought of something that made it easier & a bit more fun. We decided that lunch will be some variation of green salad every day. Then we wrote main dish ideas on strips of paper & he drew one out for each breakfast & dinner. If a complicated breakfast fell on a morning that I work early, then we just changed it to that night’s dinner and picked something else for breakfast. If we chose something like casserole that is more than we’ll eat in one meal, then I put it down again within a couple of days so the leftovers will be sure to get used in time. We opted to just plan main dishes and let sides take care of themselves, although a lot of our main dishes are combination things that don’t necessarily need sides, which also helps make things easier. We decided to let desserts take care of themselves by deciding that we’ll just make a dessert when we (I) have time & energy to do it, and that’s what we’ll have for several nights. It was still a ton of work to figure out what groceries we will need for two weeks, and I’m not sure I really got enough of everything, but it is a learning experience, and I was pleasantly surprised because last night’s grocery bill was less than I expected.
I love meal planning. I base mine on what’s on sale at the store. We do 2 weeks at a time, and don’t always eat what is planned on a certain day, but what we are in the mood for. We save a lot of money by buying on sale, and tend to get a lot of buy one get one (or more) items. Sometimes we have enough food for 3 weeks that way!
Haha! I’m coming back here for ideas now because I haven’t done any meal planning for quite a while, and came & saw that I had already commented on it.
I have to tighten our food budget WAY down, starting a couple of weeks ago. I work in a deli, so the thought of coming home & doing more cooking is not the least bit appealing most days of the week. Spending my day off work in my own kitchen isn’t my favorite thing, either, but I need to do something so that we’ll eat regular meals without spending too much money. Thanks again for posting this!
I used to plan our meals out for two weeks at a time because my hubby likes to eat DIFFERENT THINGS ALL THE TIME!! He only likes the stand-by ‘soup and sandwich’ in the fall. I realize that I saved so much money because I didn’t buy whatever looked good, but when he lost his job and we knew we had six months of paychecks coming, we started buying whatever was on sale and we had coupons for so we could ‘stock pile’ quickly. It worked, but now that we are both working, I’m thinking that I need to get back to menu planning, so I can be more aware of how much we’re spending. THANK YOU for posting this!!