Meal planning

In an effort to actually serve meals at regular intervals, today I sat down and wrote out a Meal Plan. I planned breakfast, lunch, and dinner for an entire month. In theory this eliminates the two hours of “what shall we have for dinner” which seems a nightly negotiation around here. Now when I look at the clock and realize it is supper time, I can look at my calendar and know what to fix.

Before you get too impressed with my meal management prowess, you should know that pretty much every single breakfast slot is filled with the word “cereal” Lunches rotate between “Sandwich” “Hot dog” and “Mac & Cheese”. Dinners are a little more varied, but I still have Spaghetti down every Tuesday. Mondays are soups. Fridays are grill nights. You get the idea.

When I first came up with this meal plan idea I was a little worried about how repetitive it was. Howard wisely told me “It can’t possibly be any more repetitive than chicken nuggets every night.”

Life is going to happen and I know that there will be nights where I completely disregard the schedule. But having it is a good thing.

9 thoughts on “Meal planning”

  1. *giggle* and I have a friend in Santa Cruz who eats chicken strips almost every single night. It would drive me buggy. I can quite happily exist on a menu of chicken, pork, beef, with sides of vegetables, noodles, or grains. And it wouldn’t bother me that much if they fixed the same way each time. on the other hand, craves variety and has written a cookbook so when he doesn’t feel like cooking I can pick a recipe from our cookbook and make something that will tempt his appetite.

  2. Ann and I got married in July 1998. Our junior year of college ended in May 1998. We got an apartment, and I lived in it on my own for those two months, working the graveyard shift at a Taco Bell to pay the bills and save for the wedding.

    Before the school year ended, we realized I had a lot of money left on my meal card, so we bought a case of chicken breasts. All I had to do was thaw it in the microwave, toss it in the skillet, season it how I wanted, and voila! Simple carnivorous meal, to be supplemented by whatever chips I happened to pick up. Not healthy, but filling — and I could always make the occasional sandwich or microwave meal.

    But beyond eating tons of Taco Bell during those two months, I had chicken almost every night. I got tired of just lemon pepper chicken or garlic chicken, and eventually I created:

    Two Month Chicken!

    It basically means that I took every spice that I could find and put them on the chicken. Generally, this was: salt, pepper, garlic, onion, lemon pepper, soul food seasoning, paprika, parsley, pizza seasoning, italian seasoning, and just a dash of cinnamon. I could vary the flavor by adjusting the proportions.

    It’s called Two Month Chicken because I had it nearly every night for two straight months, and because now if I see anything like it, I’d better not see it again for two months.

  3. During the week, I have the saem thing for breakfast every day, the same thing for lunch every day, and — were it not for Lut, who frequently cooks dinner now and has a repetoire perhaps a dozen different dishes — I’d eat the same thing for each dinner, too.

    Variety is overrated. What’s wrong with finding something you like and sticking to it? 😀

  4. My in-laws had a strange friend. Every night for dinner, he ate the exact same thing, one of those Swanson’s-type frozen dinners. Same kind, too, some kind of chicken and mashed potatoes deal. He had stacks of them.
    Each evening, he would carefully open the box and prepare his dinner, setting the box in the trash.
    One night, my mother-in-law snagged one of the boxes and smuggled it out of his place. She bought the same brand, but chicken stir-fry, or something, and took the dinner out of its box and into the tossed-out one, which she reglued shut.
    She smuggled it back into his house, got into the kitchen and slid it into the stack several dinners down. She counted, and made arrangements to be present on that night…
    My mother-in-law is low and cunning.

  5. So, how does this story end? Did he enjoy the new tastes presented to him by his friends. Or did he go madly psycho and kill everyone due to a slight imbalance of crucial chemicals provided by happenstance through that particular meal?

  6. If it works for you …

    Nothing wrong with that if it works for you.

    Me, I’d go bonkers in no time. It don’t work for me. 🙂

  7. Well, oddly enough, he apparently just stared at it for a second, then commenced to eat it with absolutely no comment.
    I’m not sure if my mother-in-law was more annoyed or impressed.

Comments are closed.