I spend a lot of time thinking about food. If you look at the back of my notebook that I keep in rehearsal, you will find lists of food and meals – breakfasts, lunches, and dinner. This is what I do when rehearsals are slow sometimes – I meal plan.
Aside from the inherent nerdy satisfaction of planning, plotting out our dinners is a practical consideration for me. For one, I hate that forlorn 5:00pm look in the fridge when you wonder how your are going to pull dinner out of your rear with a jar of pickles, a block of tofu, and some shriveled carrots. Also – when I’m working evenings, I like to prep some kind of dinner in the mornings for the Husband and kid to eat when they get home – one thing to take off his plate and a way to make sure vegetables get served (if not always eaten). Another thing – I hate food waste, and if I take the time to look through the fridge and plan the week around what’s in there, less food ends up in the garbage or worm bin.
The meal planning has certainly ratcheted up since quarantine. We are avoiding excessive trips to the grocery store so Husband does the grocery shopping once a week. On Saturday mornings, we sit down and figure out what we need to keep ourselves fed for the week, then off he goes to the store. There is something hunter/gatherer about it to me.
It goes like this (as seen in my notebook above). First I write down what we need to eat up at the top. Then from there I figure out six meals for the week. My two main cookbooks are Dinner Illustrated and Indian Instant Pot Cookbook. I like these books because the recipes are for pretty complete meals; I don’t have to try put together this main and that side with whatever starch. We also keep a running list of favorite meals that I’ll look at too. Friday is always pizza. These days it’s take out pizza since our oven is less than reliable. Then at the bottom of the page, I write what groceries we need.
Once I have the meals picked, I assign them to a day. Monday is usually the least desirable meal – this way, the “meh” meal is early in the week. The Husband makes dinner once or twice – usually on Wednesday or Thursday. Then I try to alternate vegetarian meals and meat meals. Sometimes I also look at the weather so we aren’t running the oven when it is 98 degrees outside. Pre-COVID we also looked at when kids have activities and that would be something fast and simple like an Instant Pot meal, or sandwiches.
So this week:
Saturday: Chicken Salad Sandwiches and Cucumber Tomato Salad
Sunday: Potato Salad and Sausage
Monday: Cauliflower Tacos
Tuesday: Broccoli Chicken Stir Fry
Wednesday: Paneer Birayni
Thursday: Green Beans and Tofu
Friday: Pizza
Of course, some days, things go off the rails and we do plan B. Plan B is usually sandwiches. Sometimes breakfast sandwiches. Which the 8 year old can make. On those days when I feel like I just can’t with the dinner plan, I tell her she “gets” to make dinner (yay!). I turn on the stove for her and go pour myself a cocktail. Ok – I don’t drink, so the cocktail is only metaphorical.