Meal Planning Week One
Okay, so it's Monday and I idea we ought to communicate approximately meal making plans a piece.
Who's with me?
If you haven't read Edie's posts about long range meal planning here please go do it next. She has a simple plan that goes over how to add your meals into google calendar on repeat. She's also got a ton of good recipes. The repition on your calendar eliminates a whole other level of stress involved in meal planning. You know, I did okay last week, but what about this week, woes. I tend to get lazy and this eliminates that for me. I spent my first day adding in an entire month's worth of recipes on repeat. I had them set for day of the week each month since I'm only cooking five nights a week.
Truth be told Matthew is involved in our process so he's in charge of cooking freezer meals for our family on Sundays. This affects my meal planning so I'll be sure to throw those in on Mondays if it includes something to be used later in the week. For example, Matthew made crock pot barbecue that I can freeze and pull out as needed.
So here's what you need to do next: Click through and see if you're on board with what I'm cooking. Substitute for other meals if you'd like or rearrange days. Then add the meals to your google calendar with the links and full recipes and set to repeat as often as you'd like.
Go through each recipe and write down the ingredients you'll need. You'll see some repeats so make sure you account for quantity. Also note where you can substitute in a rotisserie chicken like I plan to do tonight and Wednesday to make things more achievable.
Monday: Barbecue Chicken Pizza
Tuesday: Lemon & Garlic Roast Chicken
Wednesday: Four Cheese Chicken Ravioli with Apple Gorgonzola Sauce
Thursday: Lemon Fusilli with Arugula and Grilled Chicken
Friday: Black Bean and Corn Quessadillas with Chips and Salsa
My friend Natalie swore she enjoyed cooking. In fact, she considered it her me time.
I thought she was crazy.
I have little kids with needs not just wants in the late afternoon. They need constant supervision. We don't have an open floorplan where I can watch them play while I cook. We have an unbearably small and impractical galley kitchen. I'm not good at it.
Cooking just doesn't work for me. It's not possible until my kids are older.
Well my loves, I drank the cool-aid. After just one week I can proudly say I did it and I'm going to do it again this week. And the one after that too.
I used some good old fashion tactics and they worked.
I rearranged the contents of our cabinets and cleared out room for a club house in one of the bottom cabinets. You'd be amazed at how much this entertains Wells and Tagg. I also confiscated the iPad for myself. I put on my pandora stations and pull up my recipe for the day. Then I poured a glass of wine.
Of course they were nipping at my heels the whole time but at 12months and not quite 2.5 this is to be expected. I fed them veggies straight off the cutting board and went about my cooking. Wells climbed up in her little chair to help me stir a few things. They both ate everything I cooked last week.