…of Meal Planning that is.
Boy has it been a stressful week for me regarding meal planning. It’s supposed to make our lives easier, less complicated and involve LESS trips to the grocery store. In week one of attempting this I’ve experienced the opposite.
Maybe I’m making it more complicated than it needs to be. All I know is that as soon as I made a plan “in stone” for the week of dinners I didn’t want to eat any of the food planned out. I immediately craved Mexican food (all week actually) and lost interest in the recipes I had planned to try. I even bought some of the ingredients for the recipes and now I’m faced with either forcing myself to make it, or freeze it for later.
Am I alone in this? Or am I just doing it wrong?
The first attempt at meal planning can be found here. As you can see I haven’t followed it AT ALL.
I finally gave in to my Mexican food craving last night. I stopped at Trader Joe’s on my way home from work to get some things for the weekend and when I got home decided we’d make Mexican food. Of course we had no ingredients to make Mexican food. Sigh. I was not going back to the grocery store.
Michael suggested we go out to dinner. I said sure. I was done with the whole meal planning thing! We went to Iron Horse in Sellwood. It was easy to say yes to Mexican food because I was starving! Since I worked out before work on Wednesday I spent the rest of the day hungry. I wasn’t prepared for that hunger either and didn’t pack the right food for the day. Bad move on my part.
I ordered the enchilada platter. It had 3 mini enchiladas. One with beef and mole sauce; one with chicken and creamy avocado sauce; and one with pork and verde sauce. Of course it came with rice and black beans.
I liked that the enchiladas were tiny. I ate the beef and mole enchilada, some of the black beans and most of the rice.
Of course I ate too many of the chips and salsa (but it was good). I’m glad I restrained myself and only had one enchilada.
I’m happy with my restraint. When I got home I also discovered that a belated birthday gift had arrived from my brother!
He lives in Philly. Hopefully he’s not completely snowed in there…He sent me some fancy olive oil that looks like it’s from France.
I’m really excited to try it. Back to some things I’m not so excited about…Meal Planning. Why was it so easy to fall off the wagon?
This was supposed to make my life easier. Come on…give me tips!
QUESTION: Any suggestions for this frustrated meal planner?
Carbzilla
OH NO – maybe my IBS (Inner Brat Syndrome) is contagious! I sure hope not. Seems to me you just don’t want to be told what to do right now (even if it’s YOU telling YOU). Can you plan one day ahead? Two? Be kind to yourself. We may just be “meal component” people through and through. 🙂
Lisa Eirene
I think you are RIGHT! I think it’s more “meal component” as opposed to actual meal plans. We’ve tried meal planning once before when we were tapering our workouts before Reach the Beach. Michael and I wanted to limit our carb intake until the day before when we’d carb-load. I spent HOURS slaving over a week long schedule of meals and low-carb recipes and we didn’t do any of it. I just think the “plan” makes me mental. 😉
Lisa @ I'm an Okie
I’m horrible at meal planning. I’ve found that I just plan about 2-3 nights a week and let the other nights be leftovers or just whatever I’m craving that I can make up easily.
Lisa Eirene
I think I want to go back to doing that, Lisa. It worked for us. There was less drama too. 🙂
Lori
Planning takes a lot of work and getting used to. I would start with planning just a a couple nights a week, getting that down and then adding in a couple more. I don’t know as I would plan every night of the week, because a little spontaneity is always good. 😀
Lisa Eirene
Do you pick specific meals and recipes or just general ideas?
Lori
Well, for actual planning, I would pick a few specific meals so I could shop for ingredients.
Otherwise, we normally just pick a protein source and build a meal around it.
Lisa Eirene
I think building a meal around a protein source is the way to go. That’s what Michael thought we’d be doing when I said meal planning.
Jennifer (She's a Fit Chick)
Sorry you are dealing with this but glad to know I am not alone – SAME thing happens to me. As soon as I plan my meals, I don’t want to eat ANY of those things. Unless I plan pizza or fried food, haha!
Lisa Eirene
YES!! That is exactly what it felt like. Like as soon as it was planned out I didn’t want ANY of that stuff. Which is how I am with exercise too…if I signed up for a class 2x a week I’d NEVER go. Just having that schedule makes me crazy.
Andrea
Lisa, I just love your blog but of course never comment. I am really good at meal planning because I have to be with kids. When I didn’t have kids it was easier to not plan because your schedule is so much more open. I try to plan by type and then just go from there. So Monday is Mexican, Tuesday is fish/seafood, Wednesday is pasta, Thursday is Chicken, Friday is free, Saturday and Sunday are open and base on whatever we feel like eating. I often try and make a triple batch on the weekend and freeze portions for another day. I only shop once a week but can always change the order up. If I feel like Mexican food on Wednesday, we eat it then. I love Mexican food like you and always have that in the plan every week.
Lisa Eirene
I like the idea of just having a type assigned to the days. That might be an easier concept for me. Thanks for the tip! And thank you for commenting. I love seeing new people share ideas. 🙂
Christine (The Raw Project)
I’ve been terrible with meal planning too lately, busy schedule and non-vegan hubby always changes his mind on what he wants. And I think maybe a little winter blahs are to blame too. My suggestion would be to grab a new recipe book or find a new recipe site and challenge yourself to try new things from it and look forward to.
Lisa Eirene
That’s a good idea Christine…especially easy recipes. I think part of the problem was that I chose a few complicated recipes to try out and by the end of the work day I really don’t want to make much effort.
Bethany @Bridezilla Bakes
Mmm, that’s a tough one! When you’re trying to watch what you eat, the last thing you want to be doing is forcing yourself to make/eat meals that don’t excite you. That just makes it harder. I have recently learned to be REALLY careful when planning meals — do I LOVE this meal? Could I actually make it after work? I’ve learned to plan things that take almost no time. I also take a realistic look at my schedule and try to figure out what state of mind we’ll be in when we get home that day — a 4:30 work event means that when I get home by 7:00, I’m not making anything that needs 45 minutes of roasting!
Lisa Eirene
You are so right…do I love this meal? Not really…so I drag my feet about making it, or put it off a few days. Cooking shouldn’t be a chore. Not only that I need to focus on recipes that are 20 minutes or less Monday-Friday.
Joanna
This is me too!! Your post made me want to shout hooray! because it seems so easy for so many other people. I breathed a sigh of relief. LOL
But, I’m sorry it’s not working out for you! I think for me, I just have a weird schedule with grad school. I get up at a different time every day and get home at a different time every day. Also, some days I want to “make” a meal for dinner and some days I want a sandwich. Maybe it has to do with personality types too…have you ever done Myers-Briggs? For the last letter of the four letter type, it’s either J or P for judging or perceiving. I relate my lack of wanting the structure to being a total P! I like things free and open ended.
Lisa Eirene
Yay! Someone else that finds it hard! Michael doesn’t and honestly we’ve been arguing more this week JUST about meal planning. How stupid is that? We hardly ever bicker but this has been stressful. LOL
Kalin
I meal plan, and I love it, but I am kinda flexible in what I do. I’ll plan out the week with at least one meal that is super easy (costco meatballs with rice, or grilled cheese and tomato soup) and know that meal is for the day when I come home with no desire to cook. I write them out for each day, but then if on tuesday I’m exhausted that ends up being grilled cheese, and tuesday’s meal goes to wed, wed to thurs… you get the idea.
Some people plan more of a “these are what I’ll make this week” list and then pick what they wanna make the day of, that could give you more flexibility too.
And if I plan something and it just doesn’t sound good? I just make the next day’s meal…
Nicole
It gets easier with time!! 🙂 (Although I still have ‘some of those day’s too!).
Lisa Eirene
Every day has been “those days” this week. LOL
Amy
I meal planned for about 3 or 4 years back when the kids were small because going to the shop every day just wasn’t practical at all. Now though, I’ve given up. We have the exact same problems. No one ever feels like anything I’ve organized so it all languishes in the fridge and goes bad while we continue to shop on a daily basis (and I end up with a freezer full of meat I don’t know what to do with!). Very frustrating! Plus you never know what the weather will be like so do you plan a wintery meal or a summery one? (Or maybe I just have crazy undependable weather here, I still get it wrong sometimes and I’ve bought the food that morning!)
Occasionally I’ll meal plan a day or 2 ahead, but mostly I gave up 😛
Lisa Eirene
Sounds like me…I got sick of throwing away perfectly good food.
Diana P
When I do my meal planning, I intentionally give some leeway. As in, once I’ve gone to the store that week, I have everything already, so it’s not a big deal if I have “Wednesday’s dinner” on Monday. One key is to have enough variety in a given week so that you’ll generally have something that sounds appealing. For me, the most helpful thing about having pre-planned ideas is when I’m at a loss for what to cook, I have a couple options that are thawed and I have all the ingredients.
Lisa Eirene
I think I was just getting hung up on the “Today is Tuesday and I planned to eat THIS”…I definitely need to be more flexible. I think next week will work much better.
Miz
sadly I tend to LIVE off the meal planning wagon.
Im here for the other comments 🙂
Eva
Nothing new to add, just some “amen”s. As others have said, flexibility is key. Forcing yourself to eat something just because you planned it really sucks, and it isn’t the point anyway!
I agree with others who have said you should start by planning one or two days — maybe start with days that you already struggle with, like days after gym when you get home a little late and a little tired and you wander around moaning about being hungry and nothing appealing…… (is this just me?) If you have a plan for those nights, you may find it easier to fall back on it and let the other nights float free.
Also, as others have said, I leave a lot of leeway in my meal plans and often exchange one planned meal for another if it appeals more. Sometimes I simply plan a few key ingredients and work it out later — kale and chicken could be an Indian dal or it could have a mustard sauce and go with mashed potatoes… you know?
kat
I meal plan and shop once a week. I assign each meal a day on my calendar according to my work schedule that day. Since my schedule is variable (sometimes I get home at 5, sometimes not til 7) I try to plan the easier meals or crock pot meals for the days I get home later. I also try to plan a variety of meals (salads, fish, Mexican, etc). If I get home and I definitely don’t want what’s on the menu for that day I’ll just make something that’s coming up later in the week.
It took me a good month to really get in the swing of things with meal planning but I find that when I don’t meal plan is when all my food gets thrown away. Don’t give up just yet- try just a few days a week!
Lisa Eirene
Good to know there’s a learning curve. I won’t give up entirely. I think Michael and I will sit down this weekend and figure out how we want to do it next week. Hopefully it goes a little more smoothly.