I recently read a blog post on thekitchn.com that summed up my yearly frustration when I try to come at meal planning from a different angle-thus far every angle being wrong. Every attempt I've made has lasted a week (at best) and then gets sabotaged, or I get bored, or.... insert any number of reasons/excuses. The result is a crazy high food bill at our house, lots of waste and a huge dose of sub par meals. Our food bill is higher now that we live 5 minutes from a variety of restaurants and take out options (vs. a year ago when we were 25 mins away from anything). It's a combo of spending money for nothing, wastefulness, and general disorganization woes that make me revisit the meal planning situation EVERY January--it's always top of my list.
Cooking is tough with 4 kids. No one ever wants the same thing, so the concept of asking at 5 p.m.--"what do you want for dinner?" almost certainly guarantees a full blown war. I have already come to terms with the fact that whatever I make (and during the week it's mostly me, during the weekends, most John), will only get maybe 2-3 supports if I'm really lucky, at least one person will pick-it-apart so much it doesn't resemble what I made, and at least on person will absolutely refuse to touch it. The only variable might be whether someone actually verbally assaults it, that often happens, but not always. Choices are limited though, I either constantly cook dumb food (kids will almost always opt for the simple foods like pizza or pasta with simple sauce, no spice), OR I cook a variety of things each night for everyone's whims and drive myself crazy....OR I just cook something that seems good, doesn't fall into the dumb category, and is healthy but doesn't contain more than 2 of the following "uber" heathy things that don't gain support with anyone under 18: quinoa, spinach, kale, squash, garbanzo beans, bulgar wheat...you get the idea.
I got some great tips from the blog post above (it's a cool site with lots of tidbits), and then noticed on one of the comments someone suggested cooksmarts.com for meal menu planning and I'm giving it a whirl. It already seems easier than the last digital meal planning I tried (emeals.com) because on a weekly basis it allows you to use what they suggest, or choose a meal from the archives and then they still add it all together and get you one shopping list. I took an $8 gamble and ordered it for a month, and have pledged to actually use it for one solid month before I give up (a good suggestion from the blog). Maybe it will actually become a habit this time. I'll keep you posted. There's about a 50/50 chance it won't work, and I'll end up paying $8 a month on auto debit until I realize it and it's May and I've used the menus once. Please root for me. signed, LV
(also note this gorgeous pantry picture I took off another one of the blog posts they did on pantry organization -- it's just inspiring to look at)! I felt obliged to fully disclose, lest you think that's MY pantry. My pantry is like that, but opposite.
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