Recently, I took the time to read the archives of Small Notebook, one of my favorite blogs, written by Rachel Meeks. The amount of simple tips and excellent points is almost enough to be overwhelming. In a good way. It’s going to take me a while to implement all of the new ideas, but I’m getting started this week with meal planning.
First, let me say that meal planning is the last thing I thought I would ever be doing. Three years ago when we moved to Israel, we were a young couple with no kids. For a long time, my husband and I worked opposite shifts – nearly five years of marriage were spent with him working 7-3 as a teacher and me working 3-midnight as a page designer and web geek at newspapers. Although food was still home made, it was neatly boxed up into tupperware containers and available for your microwaving pleasure. We didn’t unbox a fair share of our dishware until we moved to Israel – because we rarely ate off of plates.
Wow, what a difference a few years can make.
Life has a routine, if not a set-in-stone schedule now. And that routine means daycare pickup at 4 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m., bathtime at 7 and bedtime by 8. Somewhere in there, with a toddler and a newborn, dinner has to get made. Admittedly, it’s a bit easier now with my husband (a Ph.D. student) home for summer break, but we’re building some good habits to keep things running smoothly in the fall.
Habit #1: A meal plan.
Meal planning seems a bit strange to me since I love cooking. But very little cooking seems to get done when there isn’t a plan in place. There’s not enough Parmesan cheese for pesto, the veggies went bad in the crisper when no one was looking and we could have chicken – if only we had taken it out of the freezer a day or two before. The dinner rush can be such a mess.
In hopes of improving things, I’m taking a few ideas from Simple Mom by way of Small Notebook – especially the part about using a Google Calendar to keep everything organized. You can follow along to see what we’re having here.
Our plan thus far is to cook a little extra on Sunday and Monday (our work week here is Sunday-Thursday) to have leftovers on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday night will be breakfast for dinner – American breakfast one week, Israeli breakfast the next. Shabbat is brisket one week (with leftovers on Saturday lunch) and chicken the next with a variety of easy side dishes.
We’re four days into our first week and … at the risk of sounding crazy dramatic … it might be the single greatest thing I’ve ever done to simplify my life at home. Dinner is ready to go at 6 every night – no delays. Dishes are minimal since we’re cooking once and eating at least twice from the same meal. The stress levels have plummeted.
But the biggest kicker is that we aren’t eating out. I’m genuinely looking forward to what’s planned for the next few days and I feel no desire. To. Eat. Out. Period.
It never occurred to me that my frequent desires to visit the mall and dine out had very little to do with a desire for what was on the menu. Instead, it appears to have been mostly avoidance of the “what to make for dinner” issue.
How, I ask you, did we not try this earlier? I’m gob smacked at the difference it makes. Food gets eaten. Leftovers get eaten. Ingredients get used during their prime. Everybody’s happy. And our food budget is getting accordingly lower since we’re eating at home.
It’s a little early to celebrate, but I think this might just be a huge problem solved.
Thanks to Simple Mom and Small Notebook for the great advice. It’s just one tip that makes a huge difference.
How wonderful Kelli! Other benefits: improved health from home-cooked food rather than restaurant food; teaching the kids the importance of cooking well and sitting down together to eat and talk (there are all kinds of studies that show kids who grow up eating a family meal have better mental health); and less likely to raise picky eaters. Great job – great article!
You’ve inspired me. I’m going to cook more. Really this time.
Congrats! We started meal planning last year to help our budget and its made a HUGE difference! Now we get a weekly box of seasonal veggies and we have to plan our meals so nothing goes to waste! Keep it up!
Thanks for the comments. I’m surprised how well things are going – nothing is going to waste and I’m not running around like a crazy person wondering what and how much to make.
It’s a simple change, but well worth it.