Tuesday Tip | Think about dinner BEFORE dinnertime
If you are a person who can come up with great ideas on the fly simply by looking through your fridge/pantry, then you just keep on being you.
(I'm envious of your skills, and this post is not for you.)
For most of us, though, going into 5 pm with no dinner ideas is a quick ticket to takeout.
I'm the sort of person who does best with a whole week of meal plans. This lets me mainly stick to one grocery trip that provides my dinner ingredients and it just feels more efficient to me.
Also, I find that the further in advance I plan, the better my brain works.
A week in advance, I have plenty of ideas.
The day before, the ideas dwindle.
And by 5 pm the day of, I can barely think of anything I know how to cook.
<cries on the floor in a pathetic heap and orders subs>
Anyway.
Maybe you need to devote 15-20 minutes to menu planning once a week like I do.
Maybe you need to decide on the next day's dinner each night.
Maybe you need to think about dinner for a few minutes in the morning.
Figure out what kind of thinking-ahead works for you, and then do it! Fight the takeout!
I am more like you, Kristen. Regularly I make a menu for about 7-10days and then add ingredients to my ongoing list, already itemizing things we have runout of such as toothpaste,olive oil, etc. We keep two of many things so that when one container is depleted, we buy a backup. That way we do not find ourselves out of mayo when the grandkids come for sandwiches. I do not normally specify which day of the week we will eat a certain meal, but I try to use recipes with the most perishables first. Being retired with only 2 in our household now, I have lots of time to cook, and being used to cooking for a family, I now cook the same amounts, delighting in having leftovers and no-cook days. It works for me.
Your life sounds very much like ours...retired...extra on hand...still cook extra and enjoy serving planned overs. I rough out a couple of weeks of meals, get ingredients then pick which to fix from it on the previous night. So far, it works quite well.
Meal planning is a great idea. I just don't do it a week in advance. I do keep cooked ground beef readily available in the freezer...or quick cooking thin pork chops, beans, or chicken. Frozen veggies are also always in my freezer. Last night, we had spaghetti(used cooked freezer ground beef) with broccoli on the side. I also baked some potatoes in the oven in preparation for somewhat of a potato bar another night this week. Because I had apples going bad, I made some cooked cinnamon apples, too(copycat Cracker Barrel). I do plan, just not a week in advance. I don't follow recipes that often either, which can admittedly cause a few blah meals. We don't eat a lot of meat anymore and am gluten free so that involves a bit of pre-planning. I do plan enough that we don't eat out much.
I am similar to you, Jennifer. I plan some meals around whatever protein is on sale that week at the store, and otherwise keep staples which I can whip into a meal available at home--it gives me the structure I need and the flexibility I want to switch things up when the mood strikes. 🙂
I chuckled when I read "cries on the floor in a pathetic heap and orders subs" because "knowing " you (I feel like I know you because I am a long time reader!) , I would think always have sub rolls and lunch meat in the freezer for such emergencies (along with staples like lettuce and tomato on hand in the fridge)! 🙂
I've not had much success with freezing lunch meat; it seems like it gets pretty soggy once thawed. Any tips?
You could try patting it dry and pan-frying it!
once thawed, put lunch meat in a container with a paper towel to absorb moisture - change out the paper towel every day or two..
I have successfully frozen sandwiches or rolls with roast beef or ham with cheese & caramelised onion, taken it out in the morning to take to work then at work open up to add salad/spinach leaves then toasted in sandwich press in baking paper - works a treat.
I wish it worked for me. I'm very driven by my cravings and frequently when I plan something, I find I'm just not hungry for that particular item or food by the time my workday ends. In fact, I've even cooked meals in the crockpot, come home from work and fixed something else (saving the cooked meal for another day!)
I’m the same way. For some reason, meal planning stresses me out and I always respond by thinking “oh no I HAVE to eat spaghetti, let me think of all the reasons I don’t want to/can’t eat this.” I just pick 2-3 meals each week and then make whatever sounds good the day of. 🙂 my family is small enough that this works for us when you consider leftovers. it’s been so much less stressful than actually picking a day for each meal.
That sounds like meal planning to me! It's just a little different than what I do. Totally not necessary to pick a day, especially since this method is working great for you.
Our kids are grown now but when they were young and all home, I meal planned faithfully. I didn't choose specific days for specific meals, but I always had 7 meals at the ready after going grocery shopping. It was my goal to have dinner either figured out/thawing/in the crock pot, etc. by 10 a.m. each day. That made the rest of my day go so much more smoothly.
Now that we have no kids at home and my husband is pretty much the non-pickiest eater EVER, it's much easier to let things slide. We can afford to eat out more now than in those days, but we still eat most meals at home and keep them very simple. It's a nice change!
I work full time, so menu planning saves my sanity. I make the menus out the week before, make a corresponding grocery list, and hit the grocery store either before of after work on Monday. Monday's dinner is usually something I already have in the freezer/pantry that I have going in the crock pot since grocery night means I get home around 8:30 pm. This plan has worked for me for many years, and though there are only three of us now, I still like not having to stress dinner plans. Plus, I can do meal prep before I leave for work around 10:30 am. and leave instructions for my peeps on how to cook it.
Theres nothing wrong with having breakfast foods for supper. Scrambled eggs sprinkled with cheese or waffles with a side vegetable. My children are healthy adults and it didn't hurt them.
Scrambled eggs and toast is my go to meal when I need to put food on the table in 10 minutes!
Absolutely! That's a quick meal idea I turn to somewhat regularly.
I always hated meal planning. I used to try to just have a variety of things handy to cook, and would meal plan only a day ahead with what I had already, but I found that process often had me making a quick stop on the way home from work for that one ingredient I didn't take into account for that day's meal. I finally made myself sit down and plan seven dinners ahead, sides included, and we use leftovers mainly for lunches, with only the occasional lunch item (like hotdogs) bought. I look for loss leaders when planning and survey the freezer before planning. I don't plan which meals for which days except to be sure to start with a meal that the ingredients are highly perishable or for which I have a plan to use the leftovers later in the week. I started writing them down after we eat them, so I can go back through my calendar, see what we ate, and get an idea of what to serve again soon and what to avoid for awhile.
This has really helped me to have all the ingredients I need on hand -- I put the menu and grocery list on the same sheet of notebook paper and take that with me when I shop. It definitely keeps the "staring in open refrigerator with blank mind at 6 pm" syndrome at bay. Having said that, I still hate to meal plan and still struggle with "writer's block" each week when I start it, but somehow, I always come up with something. I absolutely save money and time by planning ahead.
I am all for the weekly meal plan! This is a helpful reminder for me to stick to home cooking, especially when I want to skip the cooking tasks to take advantage of warm, light weeknights outside.
But planned right, I can do both!
Do you listen to the Lazy Genius podcast? I think you would love it (and her!) But her "magic question" is what can I do for dinner NOW? Even if that's putting a pot of water on the stove to boil for pasta later.
I don't, but maybe I should check it out!
"And by 5 pm the day of, I can barely think of anything I know how to cook." That's me as well. Planning ahead has made suppertime a lot less stressful.
Thank you, fellow meal-planner - i find that my brain works better when i plan a whole week (or even two weeks) worth of meals!
Meal planning changed our lives; by dramatically reducing stress. Particularly for my husband who finds it so easy now, I write out a night by night plan. My mum never planned so I learnt this from my SIL.
We both work full-time outside the home; so if he is home first with the kids, he no longer has to think about dinner just follow my instructions! It’s really helped run a happy home; the cheaper grocery bill and reduced food waste was just a bonus. The happy husband is the main thing
I would love to know the meals in the pictures you have added to your post! Looks great!
I agree! I need to have things planned out ahead of time. It's also helpful for knowing the steps that need to be done ahead of time. Having a meal planned, and realizing at 5pm that you didn't thaw meat or do a marinade can derail your plans.
I like to cook something new or different once or twice a week, so menu planning gives me a chance to get any ingredients for that. Another thing I do is try to keep a few things on stand-by for those nights that everything goes out the window. Where we currently live, the only delivery food is Pizza Hut. For take-out, you're limited to McDonalds or Subway. I like to keep soup or something like sloppy joes in the freezer. It just takes a few minutes to thaw out, and you're good to go.
I am an avid meal planner. I cannot stand going to the grocery store so I only do it once a week. I do it a little differently. I come up with 6 meals (assuming one day we'll have leftovers). I don't necessarily assign it to a specific day of the week, because inevitably I won't feel like having that on that day. I generally have a night with soup and bread, a night with a dinner salad, a super easy meal night (ie breakfast for dinner). That way no matter what has happened that day or what I'm feeling we will have something to eat. And worst case scenario, I always keep cans of tuna, tomato soup and normally a frozen pizza in case of emergency. It was so much easier when I was single, I could just have a bowl of cereal for dinner, but the family prefers something a little more substantive 🙂
When I have lots of free time, I can easily look at what's in the pantry and make something.
But... since having kids that describes my life almost never. Like, maybe if we send the kids to their grandparents for a week in the summer.
Generally I do menu planning on Friday nights when (DH and) the kids are at swimming and DH goes shopping the next morning. We don't usually get through all the things I've planned but the idea is that we have ingredients for all of them and can pick and choose throughout the week based on what we're feeling like and how tired we are. Usually we have a couple lengthy things that we make on the weekend and an assortment of quick (omelete, stirfry, etc.) and super-quick (reheat/bake/pour pre-prepared sauce over) for the rest of the week. I try to incorporate leftover ingredients into the next week's meals (ex. we have open spaghetti sauce from calzones and open crushed tomatoes from the cook's country shrimp creole-- I'll put those over TJ's tortellini later this week). I also try to do one fish, one beef, and no more than one chicken each week, which is easier to do with weekly menu planning.
We did have a fail recently-- last night, DH found a super wilty and slightly yellowed fennel in the vegetable crisper... we'd put the recipe for that on the menu like two weeks ago, but it's a recipe that looks like it will take effort so we hadn't made it those two weekends. (Jon Snow's fish salad from Barefoot Countess at Home.) I don't know if we'll be able to make it before the fennel is truly bad.
Update: For those worried about food waste, DH is chopping fennel and red onions right now while white fish cooks in the oven. Sounds like we will actually put together the salad tomorrow and eat it then. Thankfully it didn't call for the green parts of the fennel and the white parts are fine.
Woohoo! I've definitely let fennel go bad before. :\
Grocery shopping in our house happens mostly on Sunday (My husband, who is now a senior citizen, goes to an expensive local grocery store on Tuesdays to take advantage of their senior discount and better quality local meats and veggies). Everyone has to make at least one meal suggestion and put any grocery requests on the list before my husband (he's the cook in the house) goes shopping Sunday morning. He fills in the menu with other dishes he's willing to make and completes the shopping list.
The rule is, "if it's not on the list it doesn't get bought" This, along with home cooking all of our meals mostly from scratch, keeps our food budget in line.
We meal plan Friday evening. We usually go to the grocery store following that and then the public market on Saturday mornings. We plan for a whole week in advance using a white board posted to our fridge. We then prep and/or cook each meal the night before we plan to eat it. We do this once the kids are in bed. Then we just come home from work and warm up dinner. We even put little notes on thr white board to help with the meal prep ie "thaw chicken", "make bread", etc. Greatly reduces stress and cost of food.
I spend a lot of time reading about food and I'm always fascinated by how people plan their meals, but I don't. I get all surly and rebellious, apparently, even when I try to tell my ownself what to do. 🙂 Usually I take meat out to thaw in the morning and throughout the course of the day, I'll come up with something to do with it. My only-in-my-head plan will change depending on how the day goes, what I remember needs to be used up, etc. I can only do this, though, because I'm at home all day, every day, and also I've been cooking pretty intensely for twenty years now.
I do a loose weekly meal plan off a set selection of favorites while trying to pepper in a few new recipes each month. I shop monthly instead of weekly (I've tried a million times to swap to weekly and never can seem to make it work...old habits die hard) I usually try to have the next day's protein thawing in the fridge overnight. This works well until my husband sees the chicken breast meant for a slow cooker lemon chicken with a side of yummy roasted asparagus and declares he's cooking gumbo. Now I gotta figure out what to do with all that asparagus. Men.....gotta love them.
Years ago my husband and I designed a daily spending record and suddenly realized we were spending over $1000 a month for the two of us on food. It was insane and happening largely because we both worked very stressful jobs that took us out of the hours a day, so eating out was our default. We tried meal planning but neither one of us had the appetite for daily cooking and cleaning. So, for almost the last 12 years I make a huge pot of soup on Sunday and we eat the same thing for dinner every night until Friday. That night I have my McDonald Fish Fillet and he eats an omelet. Saturday we plan some fancy dinner for Saturday and Sunday, and go out and buy the ingredients for those meals plus anything we need for the upcoming soup of the week. It is boring but for us it saves money and is healthier and minimizes clean up and cooking stress. I now work from home but we still do the same thing. I know it is not for everyone but it worked out the best for us. And when I feel like rebelling at the same old soup, I think about the money we save (we spend about $350 a month on food now, including the costs involved in having a huge garden that provides food we can and freezer for the year) and ask myself, "Does this taste better than _____ (whatever we are saving for, like buying our next car for cash...)" The first thing we did was put the almost $650 we were saving every month toward paying extra on our mortgage. We are now mortgage free and while eating boring didn't do all of it, over the decade it helped a lot.
That’s amazing! Definitely not for everyone, but it sounds like it works fine for you!
Way to go on paying off the mortgage; I’m sure those extra payments went a long way towards paying it off!
Wow! You and your husband are impressive and inspirational!
Honestly, I've tried weekly meal planning and fail miserably. I know that schedules and plans feel like security to some, but they make me rebel. I'm also terrible at following recipes.
What I do find keeps dinner on the table on time is thinking about dinner at breakfast. That gives me enough time to take out meat from the freezer if needed and makes for a more interesting meal come 5pm.
We do end up eating a lot of the same meals again and again, but I'm ok with that.
Hi! I am thoroughly enjoying reading everyone’s comments! Kristin, question: what meal is in the third photo of this blog? It looks delicious - pasta, sauce, chicken, cheese. I’d like to include that in my meal planning rotation.
I started meal planning about 15 years ago when my kids were young, because trying to figure out at 5:00 what to cook for dinner TOTALLY stressed me out. At the time I came across an article that said making fewer trips to the grocery store saves money. So I decided to meal plan and shop for two weeks at a time, based on our the timing of our paycheck. I use a steno notebook (each week gets its own column) and only write in pencil (so I can make changes or switch things around). I use a few lines for each day, and also record family activities that will impact my cooking. This format also allows me to forward to the next page any meals that don’t get used up, or look interesting. For meal ideas I look at blogs, ask my family for input, refer back to other weeks in my notebook, look at the school lunch menus, and anywhere else I find recipes or meal planning calendars. I hate shopping, and only do a “big shop” every two weeks, and make 1 or 2 *quick* trips as needed during the week. It works for us and is easy.
I am all about meal planning--but making the grocery list is no fun. I was doing a complicated google calendar to schedule/pinterest board to file recipes (plus cookbooks plus my memory)/list app to make the grocery list. I just tried out plantoeat.com and its amazing--I think you would like it too. It is definitely a big upfront time cost but I really like the concept and have found it to be really robust (which I think in the end will outweigh that it takes a bit to get it up and running since its all personalized.)