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How Do You Simplify Meals?!
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@missceegee, I love the planning & shopping part, so will you come over to do the cooking for us both??? Oops, that would make you the private chef….sorry!
Ok, I MUST make a simple plan. Due to having 3 major health issues right now, I cannot have the stress of this. I’m going to make a single 2 week plan and that’s that. But oh how I hate even thinking about it. I’ve tried meal planning services, but the meals have been too hit or miss. Ugh.
I did come up with a two-week plan once, but it needed tweaking & I got away from using it during the summer. (Too many afternoons of being out-and-about & then realizing we had to grab something quick to fix for dinner since nothing had been prepared.)
One thing I did to make that less overwhelming was to sit down and jot down lists of a few favorite main dishes, favorite side dishes/vegetables, and then I asked the kids to each give me three main dish suggestions. After weeding out the duplicates and a few things such as “spaghetti tacos” (no, I’m not putting something that wildly carb-y that’s from a silly tv show in a regular rotation!), I actually had a simple, two-week plan. Then making a regular shopping list was pretty easy.
We were already on our way at the time because every Friday night was pizza-and-raw-veggies night, and the kids had been requesting breakfast-for-dinner night on Sundays, so all I really needed was ten other meals.
I’m a paper chart person. So, this type of thing is in a binder with our home management charts. Most things rotate biweekly, but there is more variety for the evening meal each month.
When I’m diligent about sticking to the plan I spent time writing down, life is good! I know where you are coming from as far as needing to simplify. We have farm animals, a garden, our own business, and on, and on, too. Your post snapped me into the reality that I need to get back on track in this area to eliminate some stress I’ve allowed to creep in over the summer.
Okay, so these charts have mostly what you’re looking for in terms of meals. No peanuts. No hummus. Heh. we are mostly GF. Not prescribed, just by choice.
Snacks are veggies, or fruit with occasional plain yogurt & honey. Nuts (other than peanuts) and dried berries are another snack.
We don’t drink calories other than raw milk. For dairy free option, choosing almond milk is my favorite option. I do keep decaf and herbal tea on hand. DH adds sugar, or splenda depending on his determination to avoid sweets. But, I’m not so sure that Splenda is a good choice.
We eat eggs quite often for breakfast. (4-5 times/week)
S-bagels or muffins, fruit
M-omlettes, hash browns, fruit
T-bacon, potatoes, fruit
W-biscuits, sausage, gravy
T-taquitos, fruit (corn tortilla or skip it if GF)
F-cereal (or, oatmeal,) milk, fruit (or eggs, fruit)
S-breakfast casserole (crockpot overnight, or prepped overnight for oven,) fruit
For your Sunday crockpot needs, I’d suggest choosing your favorite crock meal and doing it every week. Choose two to alternate if you must. Keeping it simple means less frustration. Roast with carrots and potatoes, or a chicken. I make twice the amount of brown rice that it takes to feed our family when I cook it. I do the same when baking potatoes/sweet potatoes. That way, I have enough for two meals. If you had Friday, or Saturday as a double rice/potato supper day, you would have it ready for Sunday noon.
Lunches are usually salads, or leftovers at our house. I “cook big” in the evening to be able to have leftovers.
Supper is kept fairly stress free by using the grill, or crockpot. I have once a week meals for several nights.
Some ideas for week nights:
1. Beans and rice/cornbread, salad
2. Baked sweet potatoes, steamed veggies, butter/plain yogurt (leave out for CF needs)
3. Meatloaf, corn cobs, salad
4. Fish, rice/potatoes, veggies
5. Grilled meat/chicken (enough for leftovers,) beans, slaw
6. Soup ‘n salad (veggie, chicken, potato, broccoli/cheese, chili rotation) Consider having two soup nights instead of one of the other meals. Easier on the budget.)
7. Burgers or Pizza alternating. (both can be GF. No bun. Crustless.
Quick tips I like, but tend to forget. Wash & chop veggies as soon as you bring them in from the garden, or grocery store.
Make two family sized meat loaves and freeze one for the following week. Do the same for the burgers.
Read/reread French Kids Eat Everything. Reduce/eliminate between meal snacks. Drink lots of water. Have the kids help with meal prep & clean up from as early as possible.
Hth,
Becca<><
TailorMade – those meal ideas sound SO YUMMY!!! We love almond milk too, it’s all we buy! Can’t say we “drink” it but we use it in a lot of things – cereal, smoothies, recipes, etc. Otherwise, we only drink water… oh and coffee! 🙂 I enjoyed your e-book. Thanks!
Another idea is freezer meals. I am thinking about do that. Getting DH and the kids involved and making freezer meals one day (or 2 days) per month of some favorite meals. So even on the really busy days or the days that I just don’t want to cook, it is made I just have to thaw and reheat in the over.
I’ve never managed the making a plan – it is so nice the few times we have done it – but usually we’ll go to the store and some main ingredient has gotten insanely priced….
My one tip – we tend to buy a lot of hamburger meat at once (the price fluctuates, so if we see it low and can – we buy more). I precook the meat before freezing it. If it is only 1 tray (can last about 3 meals for us) – I can cook it in the slow cooker – just put it on low, stir occasionally (that is optional) until done. If it is a lot, I fill the roaster pan and cook it at a lowish temperature (250 I think – it has been a bit) but you need to watch it more of course. I add in basic spices, cut up some onions, add a bit of garlic, whatever…
After it is cooled down, I put it in ziplocks and freeze it. Suppers that use hamburger meat are SO much quicker now. And my 7yo made beef stroganoff (well, what we make doesn’t resemble the real stroganoff…..) – using one all by herself.
I am a terrible meal planner but I love to cook 🙂 Many circumstances make it hard to stick with a plan. Our schedule is unpredictable. We also eat very differently in the summer than in the winter as I do not run the oven at all in the summer.
One think that I do – when I stick to doing it, it is so helpful and controls waste – I have a magnetic pad on the front of the fridge and jot down what ingredients and leftovers I have inside, when I am wondering what to make, I can look at the pad and see what the possibilities are. I do the same for the freezer, crossing out items when they are used, adding when I put something in.
I haven’t read the previous entries due to time constraints but wanted to share a couple of my life savers (or, in this case, dinner savers).
I pick up a rotisserie chicken from Publix. Often on sale for $5.99. It serves my family of 6 when I add some quickly steamed broccoli and a pasta side dish.
Crockpot – buy the Fix It and Forget It cookbook for lots of ideas… But I often buy a piece of pork and put that in the crock pot with a bottle of our favorite BBQ sauce on low. We buy French hamburger rolls to go with them – yum. Just need a quick tossed salad to go with that.
Baked pasta – I can have this in the oven in 20 minutes. I boil the pasta, shred the cheese (or buy it already shredded if you like). Mix the pasta, spaghetti or alfredo sauce, add frozen meatballs, top with shredded cheese, and bake for 30 minutes. I make a salad while it is baking.
Hope this gives you an idea or two to incorporate in your menu planning.
Kristina
I was going to comment about cooking seasonally, but Gem beat me to it. We cook differently in the summer/hot months than we do in the winter/cold months. I DO need to simplify because it totallys stinks to look through 300+ recipes plus cookbooks trying to make a meal plan. For us, a monthly rotation works better than a 2-week one.
Oh. Forgot to mention. If you make a set menu, even if it rotates, taking the time to make the grocery list that matches it saves a ton of time. Just pull it out of the binder, note any toiletries, etc that need to be picked up. You’re good to go.
I don’t know if this will be helpful to anyone, but I used to have a list of common grocery items that we might need printed up and slipped into a page protector. As we run out of ingredients, I put a check next to the item. I had an area to add specific things not on the list, but I had every fruit and every veggie we eat, etc. This saves time and is a great memory jogger to boot.
I have a calendar that stays in the kitchen. Each week I write the meals for the week on the calendar – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Our rotation is right there in one place. Also, each of my children has their own day to cook, so when writing out the menu, I consult their desires for their day. Sometimes they choose something that isn’t in the regular rotation, but if they are willing to prep for it and we can easily get the ingredients without going over the budget. I want them to learn to cook, I had to take the time and energy to plan for a slower pace and messes when they were 3 and 4 on up, but it has paid off in that I rarely need to help even the youngest prepare the meal. They have a feeling of accomplishment and care for the family as well. This, then, allows me to work on something else during supper prep time, which is very nice indeed.
Couldn’t resist..
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