Do y’all meal plan?

[diablita]

I'm terrible at meal planning and greatly prefer to wing it for one or two days in a row.  Sometimes I'll do a little bit of the meal prepping and, say, roast sweet potatoes and some vegetables and put them in different containers to turn into combinations for a few days.  It's especially helpful when I'm trying to follow a certain eating style, like macro counting or clean eating.

I definitely cannot do the meal prep thing where people make 10 of the same containers for the week and then eat that very same thing for all lunches/dinners.  I've tried it for 5 lunches and I never end up wanting that same thing by day 5 -- or something comes up.

[picote]

We don’t meal plan, but we do have pretty regular rotations and I’ll usually think about the week and when we’ll want the ‘easy’ stuff, though most of what I make these days is pretty easy. Since we’ve moved the delivery options are just unappealing, so we’ve cut our take out bill substantially.

Growing up in the Midwest means I’m a prepper at heart, so we buy in bulk and make use of the freezer. We pretty much always have chicken breasts and thighs, steak, pork tenderloin, lamb chops and ground beef and pork. Our dinner is some form of protein, salad and a veggie, sometimes beans. DH picks up fresh fish or seafood twice a week. Now that my herb garden is up and running I usually have most of what we use regularly on hand. Lately almost 100% of our veggies have been frozen from Costco—we love them and haven’t gotten bored yet. I basically do a Costco trip once a week and DH picks up things like green onions, garlic and other misc stuff when he buys fish.

I think it would be harder if we were vegetarian, because you just need more to be fresh. I do get tired of the regular stuff, so try to add something new to the rotation every few weeks. But still usually follows the same pattern. Last weeks new dish was pan seared ahi with cilantro, garlic, lime, soy and ginger dressing. All from the pantry or the garden with the exception of the Ahi and an avocado (though hoping the avocado tree  starts producing soon). It was amazing! But we ate it with our Costco veggies and a salad

I’ve tried to meal plan before and just ended up with a mess of wasted food. I find this way of cooking gives us some flexibility and doesn’t waste as much.

[moroccangirl]

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 wish. He’s been vegetarian for maybe 2 years. Now, he will eat a good steak when we are back home. But he’s totally done with chicken. He doesn’t eat any red meat here in Saudi.
We had more options with tofu before but tofu and soy (and black beans) don’t agree with him anymore. So those are out too.


Take out options here are just meh. We have a chili’s on camp, but you can only eat so much of that. Places off camp will deliver, but not to your door. We have to drive to the security gate to pick up. There’s only one place off camp DH likes enough to have delivered.
I’m making him sound picky but he’s not at all. He will generally eat whatever I make and eats leftovers as well.

I don’t know why I just have never liked cooking. It feels like a chore to me. And not knowing what I am going to make until it’s time to make it every day is even worse.

[diablita]

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.

[moroccangirl]

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.

DH used to think I was crazy making soup when it’s 115 degrees out. I tell him to turn down the AC and act like it’s soup weather. Otherwise no one gets food that day. 
I love soup because the few that are favorites are so easy and I don’t need to read a recipe to make them. I always add a huge salad and baguette so it’s not just -soup-.

[Chasing Amy]

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.

[Rejaneration]

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 love cooking to the blues!

[Magic Microbe]

I hate planning the meals but I like cooking so I pay ridiculous amounts of money for a 2 meal a week meal box.

[BonitaApplebum]

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.

[Magic Microbe]

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.

[BonitaApplebum]

This story I read today reminded me a bit of this thread.

https://theweek.com/articles/864481/much-more-than-cooking

[radial]

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.

Yep, there's no reason to wonder.  I test drove five different meal services before I found one that suited me. 

[picote]

We loved blue apron when we were doing it. I don’t want to spend the extra $ now, but it’s really nice as a way to mix things up. There can be a fair amount of prep though, which is a drag if you’re tired and don’t feel like cooking.

[nadra24]

Yes. It's one of my least favorite chores, but there's not enough time in between when I get home from work and when Cletus goes to bed to do anything on the fly. On Saturday evenings I plan Sun-Thurs and do a grocery order, which we pick up on Sunday afternoon. I prep what I can on Sunday (usually dinner for Monday, plus washing fruits and veggies). Friday and Saturday are some combination of eating from the pantry, leftovers, and takeout.

I really should put more responsibility for this on kenyan. He is good about making dinner a couple of nights a week, but his repertoire is limited. Which I guess makes meal planning easier, since we know it's always gonna be Taco Tuesday and Breakfast for Dinner on Thursday. Also the final decision making about what the family eats seems like it should naturally fall to me, given that I'm the nutrition expert. But it's so exhausting sometimes.

[Rejaneration]

This story I read today reminded me a bit of this thread.

https://theweek.com/articles/864481/much-more-than-cooking

 

Then, about a year ago, I had a sobbing meltdown in the kitchen in front of my spouse. It had started out innocently enough: He'd invited a friend over for dinner, but I was on a high-pressure work deadline and had no time or mental energy to spare. "I'll make dinner!" he said. "You don't have to do a thing."
That evening, he waltzed through the door from work, bubbling with enthusiasm. I met him in the kitchen, exhausted and hungry. "Okay, I'm ready to start cooking," he said. "What do we have in the fridge?”


Sounds familiar.

[moroccangirl]

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.

[moroccangirl]

I wish we had a meal delivery service like blue apron here.

Well, if no one else likes my meal calendar, Sophia LOVES it. I put it on the fridge so DH could see it. I had “breakfast” down for dinner on Thursday (that’s our Friday night). I picked Sophia up from school for lunch on Thursday and she said “don’t forget, tonite is breakfast for dinner. You wrote it on your calendar”. 

[BonitaApplebum]

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.

Yes. A million times, yes.

[Run Amok]

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.

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.

[diablita]

I like those for a quick meal, RA.  They really are pretty decent.