S14 E21: Why Meal Planning Doesn't Work for You (and what to do instead!)
For more great Instant Pot recipes, please visit InstantPotEasy.com
I love to cook… I love to plan… but I’ve never been able to stick with a consistent meal planning system. And it bugged me for …
I used to make a monthly grid in my notebook and schedule a month of dinners (I usually have a few standard things for lunch and rarely want to eat breakfast, so I don't usually plan those) in advance. That worked fine but I got tired of making the grid. Now, I have a calendar nearby, to see if there are any special days I may want a special meal for. But otherwise, I just pick out what meals I want to make for the month. I don't follow any guides (didn't know there were any), I just either put things I've been craving or find recipes that I want to make, whether it's something I haven't had in a while or brand new. I'm not strict about following recipes, but I do love cookbooks and recipes, because they seem old-fashioned to me, lol. I grew up eating fast food and convenience foods (boxed mac and cheese, spaghetti that involved heating noodles and a can of sauce, tv dinners, etc.). So browsing through old cookbooks or even online (most of what I actually follow comes from websites, but I am fonder of my vintage cookbooks) is my idea of old-fashioned. I make a list of a handful of meals for the month, plus a few meals that I can pull together "as needed" from things I keep on hand (homemade pizza, canned soup, etc.). I do this so that I have an easy "backup plan" if I need it. I always fear running out of food, not being able to stomach a new recipe after I've made it, or, if it's winter, being unable to get to the store due to the weather or an illness; these backups help that. And that's my plan. Some months I pick meals I don't need to buy much for, other times I am in the mood to try new things and buy things I don't normally have. It's helpful to have a list so that I remember what I wanted to make and what I'd made sure I had the ingredients for but since I don't schedule everything to a specific day, it is pretty flexible. I do try to eat whatever is more likely to perish first, though.
I usually have salad for lunch, and leave the leftovers for dinners. I make a meal one day, and either eat it the next, too, or make a different meal and then just alternate between the two. When one meal is gone, I make another from my list. I usually don't mind eating leftovers like this, but if I do tire of something I'll freeze it to eat another time and fix a "back up".
I'm not a homesteader, though, so have to buy most everything I eat. But maybe the idea of making a list of meals you have ingredients for (or what's available in the garden, etc) and keeping it on the fridge would be helpful. Then when you're trying to figure out what to make, you have this list of doable suggestions.
There is a process that dry beans have to go through in order to be healthy to eat, that they don't get to go through in the instant pot. Beans need to be slow cooked. Doctors have warned against the dangers of making beans in the slow cooker. Please look that up!!!
I mean, to some degree you have to learn to cook and move around a kitchen, techniques, etc. Not culinary school, of course, but a little foundational. Wedge goes a long way. I’m lucky my mom taught me how to braise, roast, make a sauce/gravy, etc. This is a great idea to teach some skills 🙂
at your 18:06. An ELECTRIC Instant Pot high pressure cooker is the way to go. It doesn't vent or lose steam and shuts off when done; You don't have to babysit it. A MUST for soups, beans, pasta sauces, and processing tomatoes.
My Asian coworker told me he uses a rice cooker. They eat rice like we eat bread. It's just easy. Push the button and forget.
My other favorite appliances are:
-Battery powered handheld can opener. Crimps the lid on top off.
-Food processor for dice onions. And having jarred garlic.
-Air fryer
Don't ignore the easy go to food.
The only meal planning that do is at the grocery store. What can I afford? Meat is the biggie.
Meals are generally chili, pasta, chicken, or Spanish rice.
MAKE A LIST OF WHAT YOU KNOW!!! Write the names of a bunch of meals you family likes so when you are stuck, you can look at that list to choose what you want to make
Dutch tradition, either lunch or supper is hot. Not both. Cold meal is typically sandwiches.
My fav of instant pot is cooking meat from frozen. Chicken to the point of shredding with hand mixer, ground beef to the point of cooking on saute so it's still fried.
Love “ always have something defrosting – we’ll figure out what we’re going to do with it later”❤
We make a big breakfast on Sundays, like waffles or pancakes, freeze the extras and then pop them in the toaster. I love it. We rotate what we make and make extra so they should last 2 weeks.
I make sheet pan pancakes and basically just pour my pancake batter onto parchment paper to make one giant pancake in the oven then I cut it into square pieces. I can’t be bothered to work on pancakes for an hour lol
There used to be a cooking magazine that did something kind of like this where you could substitute things and it gave you ideas on that. My husband talks about it all the time and how much he liked that because it was open ended but also gave you ideas. I think this is a great idea!
I make German pancakes instead of traditional pancakes. I think it is easier higher in protein and the kids love how it puffs up. But otherwise breakfast is almost the same here
I'm on the struggle bus! 😂 Love this. I seriously felt like you've been spying on my life! This is exactly how I seem to function.
It’s what to cook. I like to cook but need ideas to cook:) I’d like to be on wait list.
I LOVE the idea of cooking off the cuff. Use what I have – and be creative.
I have done conventional meal planning for 30 years and I am a planner. When I started homesteading, I struggled with brain programming vs. cook what you have, etc. Now on Sundays, when I do my overall plan, I take a sheet tray, go to my freezer and take out about four pieces of protein. As I'm looking at the meat, I am thinking of a couple of things I could make with it. Then I go back to my planner and do my meal plan(ish) for the week.
I don’t meal plan and thank you for your honesty and explanation why you don’t either.. thank you for the non meal planning strategies to follow!
I am a empty nester cattle ranchers wife of 28 years and mother of 3. When my kids were young, breakfast and lunch were uniform and routine. Supper was "planned" so that i could shop accordingly at the nearest Costco Walmart and grocery store 70 miles away. But it was flexible. Beef on Tuesday, chicken on Thursday type thing. As i write my shopping list i would decide how i was making the meal. Chicken turned to chicken alfredo. Now it's 2 of us. Kind of still do that but cook still like i feed an army. Now i freeze leftovers.
I think that's a fantastic idea! Probably 20yrs ago, on the inside label of the cream of soups, was a chart of the same concept. It started with what meat you had, then which cream of, then rice or broccoli or whatever. And then you had your recipe. It was great for weeknights where you had no time or plan.
This is exactly what i do and exactly why. I never put thought into why i do it but you hit this one spot on. It's mental exhaustion, we eat based on abundance and that could be because of a great sale i find, we also don't necessarily eat "breakfast" for breakfast. My children have grown up to know that food is food despite the time of day. I'm also making double so half of our meals are left overs. We do lots of flexible meals for instance chicken salad can be made with various different fruits(grapes, raisins, cranberries, apple…) or no fruit. Chicken soup can be made with rice or noodles. If i don't have enough rice, then i add quinoa. Meal planning also increases our food expenses because you're not buying what's on sale.
Love this, thanks for sharing because I just can't get into meal planning, or even all the freezer meals, you make me feel normal. Like you said having meat thawed is so helpful. I have also found making an extra meat to freeze then pull out for a quicker cooked meal or to turn into something else. Example: a beef or pork roast can be frozen then turned in to BBQ sandwiches or tacos by just adding different spices. Or I'll cook double the ground beef for spaghetti or tacos freeze half so that's one less step for the next time. And I cook like my grandma not from recipes but just adding what I feel like at the moment and not measuring anything. ❤❤❤❤
We've been buying in bulk for years, but just started ordering from Azure Standard last year and we love it! I only have to go to the store like once or twice a month now for the same things as you, it's so great! We raise our own beef and chickens and we have a really good local source for pork. We have a couple pretty big gardens and we do a lot of canning. Looking forward to getting your meal craft system 😊
I love this idea!
Yes! I don't mind shopping(my "me" time)but I learned by example from my mom who learned from her mother. Old fashioned, from scratch cooking without stressing with meal plans! I have made a list of family favorites to remind me but making sure I have ingredients and if not, make do, get creative with what you have!
Good morning 🙏😊
Thank you for sharing. I’ve never been a “meal planner” just cooked as my grandmother did and had supper/dinner ready in the roaster or on the stove shortly after breakfast. lol and I just keep stocked up. It’s so much easier to know you have lots of ingredients to whip something up than to stress over planning for a week.
I too do not like to grocery shop. So I buy in bulk and only shop when necessary and then in bulk.
Have a blessed week and thank you again!
Very solid advice as always 🙏🏼
Thank you for your inspirations
Thank you for sharing. I could never get into the "meal planning". As a young mother, I did as you, made sure a meat was defrosting. We never suffered and never went hungry 😊