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Not for a whole month at a time - just for a week at a time.
You guys I’m moving this to food, since it seems like a good perennial topic. Please don’t pout or act like I’m overreaching, the reason we put stuff there is so we can find it again.
I’m a big fan of meal planning, because for me the worst part of making dinner is coming up with a menu on the fly when I’m tired and everyone is starving. However, I often make the mistake of planning too many meals. And then I have too much stuff in the fridge that we don’t wind up eating. I feel like having 2-3 weeknight meals/week planned is the sweet spot. The other nights we eat leftovers, or everyone just fends for themselves.
I like to cook but mostly hate cooking dinner. It's a CHORE and a pretty thankless one (work all day and then do the second shift in the kitchen, yay!)
Something I like to do is prepping a bunch of stuff on the weekend. Like cooking a bunch of protein (a big package of chicken thighs, etc) and then having it available for a couple of different meals. If I make rice I make enough for a meal plus extra to make dried rice with. I chop a bunch of veggies so they are ready to go. Things like that. I might not have a super firm plan for how to use the prepped stuff yet, but it’s so much easier to look in the fridge and think about how to assemble the prepped stuff than it is to start from ground zero.
If DH would eat chicken it would make my life much easier. So easy to prep chicken ahead of time so many different ways.
You guys Im moving this to food, since it seems like a good perennial topic. Please dont pout or act like Im overreaching, the reason we put stuff there is so we can find it again.
As far as the meal planning, no. I have a general idea of what ingredients I have and then, wing it. I despise the idea of meal planning, but I like cooking...even dinner. And, if I am too tired, we will order in or have a pizza. That happens about once every two weeks.I do like to do a lot of cooking on the weekend and have leftovers available to either have for dinner or take for lunch though.
You don’t have dependents clamoring FEED ME FEED ME FEED ME come 6pm, though... the thing I hate about dinner is I can’t just skip it if I’m not in the mood, the kids need to eat. And yeah, they can do yogurt or cereal if I don’t feel up to it, but I don’t feel like much of a parent if that’s happening constantly. I like cooking a lot, but I mostly hate dinner.
Will he eat ground beef? I will also brown a big package of ground beef and then use it a few different ways. I do it with ground lamb sometimes when I want to switch things up (or pork, but you probably don’t eat that either).
I know it's hot there for soups and stews but they're such a good option for veg/vegans and don't have to be served piping hot. When you make one, double or triple the quantity. The rest goes in the freezer in portions that make sense to reheat for your crew. It's not traditional prepping but will get you through the days where you just can't even.
Sometimes. If I will be home for the week (not traveling) and have some time on a Sunday afternoon, I enjoy cooking and baking stuff to eat throughout the week.Billie Holiday is my cooking soundtrack (no idea why) and wine is my beverage.
I hate planning the meals but I like cooking so I pay ridiculous amounts of money for a 2 meal a week meal box.
I kind of wonder if I would like that. I’ve never tried it.
You can try the different companies out for pretty cheap...most give you a couple weeks free or at a significantly reduced cost when you first join and its easy to cancel.
This story I read today reminded me a bit of this thread. https://theweek.com/articles/864481/much-more-than-cooking
For me, everything is about the mental aspect. Taking care of the kids every day, appointments, pick up drop offs, etc, food, cooking, grocery shopping. It’s not the actual thing that exhausts me, is the thinking about 50 things every day all day.
I have heard these are a lot of chopping. Have you found that not to be the case?I want my meal-in-a-box to involve relatively little prep on my part. Otherwise, it's not worth it to me. Tonight we did a stir-fry meal-kit from Trader Joes. Honestly, stir-fry is pretty easy. But this was like open a bag and dump veggies into a pan, chop up some baked tofu & add it, add noodles & seasoning and done! That is my kind of meal kit.
I agree, the prep is what is worth the money for me. I definitely don’t want to do lots of chopping for a meal kit.
I just want the reprieve from figuring out what to cook. I don't really mind actually prepping the food.
I sometimes think I would like to have a business where people tell me what food they have around, and I send them instructions for what to make for the next couple of days.
There’s an app (ok, several) for that!https://www.escoffieronline.com/top-apps-for-finding-recipes-for-ingredients-you-already-have/
Its hard to make boneless skinless chicken breasts very exciting and that's generally what I tend to have around.
I follow a few cooking pages on Instagram and I've found some good inspiration from the recipes posted. I need a lot of variety in my diet, definitely can't eat the same thing day after day.Edited to add the IG pages I like:smittenkitchen ambitiouskitchen (you have to weed through some of her "wellness" and "happy pregnancy" posts, but her recipes are solid)pinchofyum cookieandkate (vegetarian)