Meal Plans and Meal Planning
Should we all do it?
This week’s edition of FoodStack Reads is curated by Lynn Hill, author of two cookbooks, a member of the guild of food writers, and the founder and creator of the FoodStack Library.
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Hello, fellow home cooks and bakers, and a warm welcome if you have recently subscribed to the FoodStack Library Community.
Welcome to this edition of FoodStack Reads.
No matter how hard I try, weekly meal planning has never been on my radar. Christmas is about the only time I do any planning. That is until I started curating this week’s FoodStack Reads about Meal Plans and Meal Planning.
I’ve never liked the idea of it being Tuesday, so it must be Pasta Bake. Or Friday is Fish Day. Many people plan their meals, and their shopping lists are built around them, as shown in the Meal Plan section of RecipeStack.
However, I do like to make enough of a meal to allow for leftovers the next day or make enough of a recipe to freeze some of it for another week, such as these Vegetable and Lentil Pasties, which I recently made a variation of - six pasties with a slightly different filling. We ate half and froze the remaining three for another meal next week.
Supporting local businesses is another thing to include in our weekly shopping. If you can’t or don’t have the time to bake bread, local bakeries will often have a good supply, including Sourdough, which has been so popular since the lockdown years. Sourdough can take time to master, but it is so worth it if you can find the time to take care of a starter.
has a recipe for ‘Same Day Sourdough Bread’ for anyone starting out on this journey.Meal Planning Without Having to Meal Plan.
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on Real Food SanityI love Christi’s idea of building a supply of essential ingredients to enable you to plan meals without making it seem like a time consuming job.
My way was born out of necessity. We were living in Napa Valley, where I had access to the absolute freshest ingredients, but we had no money. We moved there literally on a prayer with no job and no home with 2 small boys. Though my husband got a job in the wine industry as was the plan, it barely paid the rent.
Katie Living Simply
I enjoyed reading this short post 5 Things I don't do by
If you are looking to simplify your life because you are tired or overwhelmed or you just want to live life at a slower pace, these lofty ideals probably won’t help you at the beginning. In fact, trying to find time to bake bread and make your own clothes detergent when you are already struggling with burnout, is a surefire way to set yourself up for a breakdown.
One of the ways Katie simplifies her life is by ordering her weekly groceries online, and having them delivered.
While I agree this can save a lot of time, leaving you free to do other things, I prefer to do all my shopping in person rather than run the risk of being given the wrong alternative or overripe produce, as so often happened in the past during our lockdown months when the vast majority of people were ordering online. Things are different now, and it gets me out of the house.
On the odd occasion, it offers the opportunity to chat with fellow shoppers.
This post, Meal Plans and Jury Duty, by
, is part of a Four Week Cooking habit series of Meal Plans and Recipes and includes a few recipes that came in handy as she served with 11 others on jury service. Read The BackStory of how Betty planned 1,500 meals over 30 years. ‘It didn’t start Easily’, she says.
The nice thing about having a menu plan and recipes before the weekend hits is that you have a few days to get in your grocery shopping and prepare for the week ahead.
Cooking with Kayla
Kayla has put together a series of weekly Gluten-Free and Dairy-Free Meal Plans and Recipes over the past year.
5 dinners in 30 minutes or less, made with minimal dishes and minimal ingredients
Roots
plans her weekly menu on Sundays with her family, as she writes in this post, A Real World Look at My Kitchen Routine in a Week.We spend the most time planning dinner. It’s when we spend time in the kitchen prepping, cooking, and sharing our days together. We each choose a couple of nights, and write down what our meal will be. It might be a meal we love and look forward to creating, or it could be something new we’ve recently read about in a cookbook.
Fridays are classed as Free Days, where Lori and her family often have Pizza, homemade by Lori of course.
Edible Living by …
… writes, ‘My Dinner Planning game is stronger than it’s been in years. In the post, she includes a ‘No Stress Dinner Strategy Guide’ and includes 10 dinner recipes to try.
STOP OVER-PLANNING: As I always tell my kids, break big projects into bits before you start (see overwhelm > paralysis, above). I don’t plan a week of menus, write detailed shopping lists, or waste energy thinking about what dinner will be tomorrow, let alone next week. Each day, I set the goal to make one simple, delicious evening meal with a starring protein and at least two vegetables. Tomorrow’s a new day!
Recent Q&A Other People’s Kitchens
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Fantastic! I’ve always been terrible at this- I constantly pivot to whatever the mood strikes!! It does make family life a whole lot easier when I do it!
I’m a second generation meal planner! I still have some of my mother’s menus in my files. I plan a week ahead but also allow flexibility if something comes up. I do a fair amount of hosting and couldn’t do it without a plan in place. I’m pretty sure I’ve passed this on to my daughters so they are third generation planners…