Cooking and decision fatigue

[Anonymous]

I buy groceries weekly for our family of five, so I meal plan ahead of time (especially dinner) to ensure that we have enough to eat for the week. I have 1 year old twins and a 4 year old. Between the pandemic, pregnancy, work, and the first year of the twins lives, I am SO BURNED OUT from picking what we will eat every week. Any suggestions? I’ve toyed with the idea of meal kit delivery but I’m not sure there will be enough food—especially since both DH and I like to bring leftovers to work to keep our food costs down. DH can’t cook, and I don’t want to deal with him learning when when we have 3 kids who need to eat every night. I don’t even mind the cooking per se, just the recipe finding/getting groceries/checking all the boxes is so tiring…
TIA!

[Anonymous]

I believe there are several meal-prepping websites out there that publish menus with shopping lists every week. Maybe find one of those and follow it?

Alternatively, just find 7 meals everyone likes and assign one to each night of the week. That's what my parents did, and we all survived.

[Anonymous]

I just go on websites like serious eats or the kitchn and go to "easy weeknight meals" and pick one. I rule out anything we've had in the last week, for variety's sake. For sides I do a lot of frozen vegetables -- I don't love it but that's where I'm at in life. You can double recipes if you want leftovers.

I gotta say I would be mentally exhausted to be married to someone who can't cook at all. That is just ... not competent adult behavior.

Here are some easy meals I've made recently!

-salmon in foil: https://www.wellplated.com/baked-salmon-in-foil/

-baked chicken with artichokes/preserved lemons: https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-baked-chicken-with-artichokes-cinnamon-and-preserved-lemons-113014

-creamy French mustard chicken: https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-skillet-creamy-french-mustard-chicken-248390

[Anonymous]

You can set up a rotation so you narrow down your options - Monday = Italian, Tuesday = Mexican, Wednesday = Soup/Chili, Thursday = grill. Then you have a starting point for every night but you don't have to necessarily eat the exact same thing every Monday.

[Anonymous]

I know some people just set up a meal rotation… You could do that weekly. Or have two different weekly menus that you alternate?

[Anonymous]

Does your husband grill? If not he CAN learn. Buy him a grill and a cookbook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I buy groceries weekly for our family of five, so I meal plan ahead of time (especially dinner) to ensure that we have enough to eat for the week. I have 1 year old twins and a 4 year old. Between the pandemic, pregnancy, work, and the first year of the twins lives, I am SO BURNED OUT from picking what we will eat every week. Any suggestions? I’ve toyed with the idea of meal kit delivery but I’m not sure there will be enough food—especially since both DH and I like to bring leftovers to work to keep our food costs down. DH can’t cook, and I don’t want to deal with him learning when when we have 3 kids who need to eat every night. I don’t even mind the cooking per se, just the recipe finding/getting groceries/checking all the boxes is so tiring…
TIA!

Me too. Plus, we have differing dietary restrictions that make the choices even more limited.

[Anonymous]

1. Make only one new recipe a week. Everything else is tried and true, easy to make things that you know your family likes.
2. Cook one large meal a week that makes leftovers for a second night.
3. Go out or take out once per week.

[Anonymous]

Look at Hello Fresh and/or Gobble. You can order 4 servings per dish and are still likely to have leftovers. (We often get 3 adult meals from 2 person kits). We generally order 3 recipes per week (the minimum) but you can go up to 5 or 6, I think. Sometimes we order 3 from each service.

Decision fatigue and avoiding procurement hassles is precisely why I started down this path (though I also appreciate that the kits have cut down on food waste for us). You still have to do a little planning (choose recipes/customize boxes) but can do it at your convenience for a few minutes every few weeks.

Basically, on the verge of dinner time, you’ve already narrowed the options down to 6 (at most) and you know that all the ingredients and the recipe are at hand. You also know dinner will be ready in 20-40 minutes (Gobble is generally quicker than Hello Fresh — they’ve done more prep work for you). So I cook more yet spend less time/thought on meals. It’s been a life/sanity saver during COVID because we’ve stopped eating out.

[Anonymous]

We do new recipes on the weekends, not weeknights. I also have a functional spouse who handles half the work, but you're over a barrel on that point I guess. Here's what you need:

1. A simple chicken dinner. Baked thighs, grilled tenders, who cares. You can take out frozen chicken in the morning and know what you're doing that night. Needs one or two veggie sides - I like roasting them from fresh but if canned or frozen is where you're at that's fine.
2. Ground beef. Meatloaf or tacos, depending on what's in your pantry. Sides based on what you make, keep it simple.
3. A big bag of frozen meatballs that can go from freezer to plate in 20 minutes. We get ours from Costco. Pair with a veggie and/or salad. Salad can come out of a bag.
4. Frozen pizzas for when the ball got dropped. Regular crust or cauliflower.
5. A bag of chicken nuggets for the kids and you and DH can have steaks after they're in bed.
6. An emergency frozen lasagna.
7. Rotisserie chicken to eat the night you get home from shopping.
8. Takeout one night a week.
9. DH learns to grill. He can do a bunch of sausages or hot dogs on the weekend and you can eat off of them all week for lunches (with mac & cheese for the kids).
10. Some frozen fish filets that can be cooked quickly and paired with a side. Tilapia, catfish, trout, whatever your kids will eat.
11. Breakfast for dinner. I like just bacon and eggs; DH will add pancakes if it's up to him.
12. Sandwiches, pickles, some fruit. It seems like a cop out but kids just think a meal is a meal. No reason to stress yourself making a sharp delineation between "lunch" food and "dinner" food.

We don't plan a menu for the week, but we have a lot of old standbys that can be thrown on in a pinch. The trick is to have your pantry and veggies stocked well - buy the green veggies that don't go bad too quickly (broccoli, brussels sprouts, green beans), have a few bagged salads on hand, keep an eye on your frozen rations so that you know what to restock when you shop. And because most meals are dead easy, you can enjoy cooking on the weekends when you try something new.

[Anonymous]

Make one meal a week that you can have warmed up or use the next night. Casserole, soup, bisquik impossible cheeseburger or chicken pot pie. Roast in the crock pot one night, shredded for BBQ sandwiches with fries the next night. Or beef tacos. Or chopped with gravy over noodles. Have enough for ten days so you’ll always have some flexibility. Stock up on some staple ingredients for easy meals as backup. Already browned hamburger in freezer, spaghetti and jarred sauce in pantry, or the hamburger with just with Kraft or Velveeta mac & cheese. Frozen pizza. Brown rice, frozen veggies, frozen chicken to throw in crock pot before before you leave in the morning. I know we all want to eat healthy but an occasional not as healthy as we’d like is not going to make a difference.

I used to painstakingly have to plan for every meal for the following two weeks, shopping the night I got paid. It’s time consuming and can wear you down. So I do understand. Try to find some tricks and shortcuts that work for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I believe there are several meal-prepping websites out there that publish menus with shopping lists every week. Maybe find one of those and follow it?

Alternatively, just find 7 meals everyone likes and assign one to each night of the week. That's what my parents did, and we all survived.

+ 1 I grew up with my mother rotating through about 10 different amazing dishes. She never had to look any recipe up and knew to make them and we all looked forward to them. I kind of do the same. I Experiment with new things over on the weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We do new recipes on the weekends, not weeknights. I also have a functional spouse who handles half the work, but you're over a barrel on that point I guess. Here's what you need:

1. A simple chicken dinner. Baked thighs, grilled tenders, who cares. You can take out frozen chicken in the morning and know what you're doing that night. Needs one or two veggie sides - I like roasting them from fresh but if canned or frozen is where you're at that's fine.
2. Ground beef. Meatloaf or tacos, depending on what's in your pantry. Sides based on what you make, keep it simple.
3. A big bag of frozen meatballs that can go from freezer to plate in 20 minutes. We get ours from Costco. Pair with a veggie and/or salad. Salad can come out of a bag.
4. Frozen pizzas for when the ball got dropped. Regular crust or cauliflower.
5. A bag of chicken nuggets for the kids and you and DH can have steaks after they're in bed.
6. An emergency frozen lasagna.
7. Rotisserie chicken to eat the night you get home from shopping.
8. Takeout one night a week.
9. DH learns to grill. He can do a bunch of sausages or hot dogs on the weekend and you can eat off of them all week for lunches (with mac & cheese for the kids).
10. Some frozen fish filets that can be cooked quickly and paired with a side. Tilapia, catfish, trout, whatever your kids will eat.
11. Breakfast for dinner. I like just bacon and eggs; DH will add pancakes if it's up to him.
12. Sandwiches, pickles, some fruit. It seems like a cop out but kids just think a meal is a meal. No reason to stress yourself making a sharp delineation between "lunch" food and "dinner" food.

We don't plan a menu for the week, but we have a lot of old standbys that can be thrown on in a pinch. The trick is to have your pantry and veggies stocked well - buy the green veggies that don't go bad too quickly (broccoli, brussels sprouts, green beans), have a few bagged salads on hand, keep an eye on your frozen rations so that you know what to restock when you shop. And because most meals are dead easy, you can enjoy cooking on the weekends when you try something new.

NP. We would be friends in real life! Calm, competent and practical.

[Anonymous]

I was also driving myself crazy trying to meal plan every week but recently had an epiphany that it doesn’t need to be so hard. I pretty much make the same things every week now. It’s predictable, and without the extra decision-making, I actually want to try new recipes. Plus, I can buy in bulk and save money shopping, waste less food.

Two hours a month I spend time prepping a chicken dish that freezes well and can be popped in the oven. I make four for the month.

One night a week I make spaghetti that is always enough for leftovers.

One night I bake salmon (with artichoke and lemon butter or teriyaki sauce).

One night my husband grills steak, pork chops or hamburgers.

One night we have one of three soups that I like to make (avgolemono, lentil, split pea) when WFH on a call or on the weekend.

One night I try a less-used or new recipe (shrimp scampi, roast, fajitas, pasta primavera, etc.)

One night we eat leftovers, go out, or get take out.

I always serve the same sides - salad, sauteed veggie, rice (except for nights with pasta), fruit.

I have two little kids (one very particular eater), and if they don’t like what I made, they can have a smoothie, yogurt, pasta, cereal, eggs, peanut butter sandwich.

[Anonymous]

Pick a few items that have worked and rotate through them every 2-4 weeks. This way you can stock up on non perishables once every few months and just focus on perishable ingredients during weekly shopping. No need to keep making something different every single meal, especially with kids that age. I also like doing meal prep one day a week and getting 2-4 meals taken care of. Double and triple recipes and freeze portions for days you don't feel like cooking.