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Meal Planning Pain

I don’t even want to try to count the hours I spend every week on trying to make sure my family is fed. Meal planning is a pain! I have some food sensitivities that require me to basically make everything we eat. I have to avoid garlic, which is basically in everything that tastes good. Any premade or packaged sauce, seasoning mix, dressing, marinade or even a bag of frozen veggies typically has garlic hiding in it. On top of this, I have a picky eater in the house. Luckily, my husband will eat just about anything! In fact, I was so terrible at cooking when I met him that he almost broke a tooth eating one of the first meals I made for him- whoops! My cooking skills have improved over time as I’ve had to learn to make everything I eat. I am still not great in the kitchen (my son loves telling the story about my trip to urgent care after a failed attempt to cut a squash) but I’ve come a long way and do enjoy cooking when I have the appropriate amount of time.

The problem is, making every meal is a lot of work. It takes so much time to constantly think about what to make, what inventory you have in the fridge and pantry and what you need to make a meal, going to several stores to get what you want to make a healthy meal, prep and cook the meal and then clean up after the meal is consumed. I feel like this takes up a lot of mental energy and time and I want to make the process more efficient. So I tried lists and apps and all kinds of meal planning tools. None of that worked for me and honestly felt like more work!

Instead, what I do now is pick a protein, veggie and carb. That’s it. I find three proteins we want to eat first and build the plan around that. Sometimes I need to lookup recipes but sometimes I just prepare things either baked, grilled or sautéed with very simple ingredients. It has made my life easier and so far seems to be the plan that works best for me. I pick three proteins and I’m off to the store. I try to pick a veggie that’s on sale if possible and we have pretty standard carbs that my family will tolerate (read lots of pasta for our toddler!). Sometimes I email a picture of our dinner to a few friends and ask them to do the same so I can steal their ideas for the following week (not the full recipe but the basic protein, veggie and carb choice). Here’s one of my favorite simple, easy recipes for the fall- Creamy Butternut Buffalo Chili. You will see my recipes are just outlines to keep things simple. How do you tackle meal planning?

Creamy Butternut Buffalo Chili

In a large Dutch oven, saute olive oil and chopped onions (amount depends on your preference) then add 12 ounces ground buffalo. Add 2 teaspoons each of sage, paprika, and chili powder. Once cooked thoroughly, combine 19 ounces cubed butternut squash and chicken broth (enough to cover the ingredients) over medium heat until squash is cooked through. Then add one tablespoon of tomato paste and ¼ cup of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and let continue to cook on low for 30 minutes. To finish, add ¼ cup of cream and simmer 5-10 additional minutes. I like to serve this meal with a big salad, topped with pumpkin seeds. It’s a fall favorite in our family. Enjoy!