meal ideas

This upcoming week is going to be a doozy. Can you believe I will not be at home for one single meal this entire week? We have our National Sales Meeting at work this week, so I’m staying in a hotel Monday – Wednesday and then we leave for Hawaii on Thursday morning.

I seriously cannot wait to feel the sun on my face.

Anyway, because I literally have no meals to plan this week, I thought I’d switch things up a bit and share a few of the fun tips and tricks and insights I’ve learned since I seriously started Meal Planning a few months ago….

• Be realistic: set your meal plan against your calendar for the week and plan every single meal. Take into account the way you’re going to feel and plan accordingly. If I have a big meeting at work, I plan something super simple and comforting for dinner that night like grilled cheese + tomato soup. The nights I have dance class at 7:45, I plan something really simple like a bagged salad + chicken. You get the idea. Plan for the person you are, not the person you want to be.
• If you want to stop getting takeout or going out to eat, cook food that’s better than take out. Both of these tips might sound a bit ‘no-duh’ when you read them, but they were serious a-hahs for me. I love food so much, yet when it came to meal planning, I wanted my food to be as healthy and simple and quick to the table as possible. I would plan to eat grilled chicken breasts + asparagus for dinner five nights a week and then wonder why I was opting for Thai food take-out instead. When I shifted to planning the most delicious, epic recipes that I literally couldn’t wait to eat, everything changed for me. I looked forward to cooking during the week.
• Remember that eating out takes time, too. I just realized this the other day, but I often opt to go out to eat or order take-out because I perceive that it’s easier or quicker. It’s actually neither. It’s a pain in the ass to schlep to a restaurant (plus you have to deal with strangers and act human) and take-out seems like it takes forever. I can usually a get quick meal on the table faster. I just blast the music and get in the zone and it’s over before I know it.
• Great dinners make the best lunches. I said this in an earlier post, but it bears repeating. If you cook something you love for dinner, it’s a lot easier to pack your lunch the next day. I’m not the biggest fan of leftovers past day one, but day one leftovers can be epic and save a chunk of change.
• Develop a fool-proof system. Basically any habit change requires a new routine. Here’s my meal prep routine: when I’m mindlessly scrolling instagram, I save any recipe post that looks remotely delicious to me from any number of food instas I follow. I love Smitten Kitchen, Bon App Basically, How Sweet Eats, NYtimes Cooking and Shutterbean. Then, Sunday morning I wake my ass up and write my weekly meal planning post while sipping my coffee. I scroll through those images, poll the family, look at the calendar for the week and lay it out. As soon as I lay the week out, I get on my Safeway app and order my groceries. Do you do use a click-and-collect service?? I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with my Safeway app because they are consistently out of a couple of the most crucial items I need. I also hate my local Safeway store because I have trouble getting them to answer the damn phone when I drive up to click and collect. Nevertheless, having that system is crucial for me. I honestly hate grocery shopping, so online ordering is the only way I’ve found a way to be consistent with my meal planning. I order everything we’d need for our recipes and in general. Even with the fees they charge, I am saving a TON of money because I’m not buying unnecessary impulse purchases anymore. Most weeks, our groceries cost $75-120 depending on what we’re cooking. That’s hella cheap for living in the Bay area. Then, when it comes time to cook I have another random routine. I don’t let myself change into my pajamas until dinner is cooked. For some reason, if the pajamas come on, my will to cook goes away. I just come home and autopilot that shit. Blast the music, take deep breaths, put everything in place and get to it. I forget how much I love to cook until I’m in that creative zone. It’s the way I show love to myself and to my people.
• As always, be gentle. That’s my motto in life. Be gentle with yourself! Don’t expect perfection. You’re going to make mistakes. You’re going to plan an entire week and it’s going to go out the window because you get hit with the sads and can only eat mac and cheese. You’re going to try a recipe that’s going to taste like crap. Things are going to come up that you don’t expect. You’re going to waste food because you bought too much. It’s all learning. It’s all growth. It’s all part of the process of change.

Who knew I had so many thoughts about meal planning!? If you made it to the end of this novel, thank you. Now, it’s your turn. Do you meal plan? What’s your routine and process? I’m still a total newbie at meal planning, so I’m open to all tips and tricks!