This article will not teach you how to divvy up meal-sized portions and stow them away for lunches all week. We’re planning to eat and eat well! And planning for meal to be cooked is how we better ensure that our after-the-day-is-done time is spent in harmony and bliss. The meal is the pilotable point of any evening; mess up the meal…and likely the mood of the evening follows..
Food is one of those things we involve ourselves with 3 or more times a day. It’s something that we humans are about as focused on as any pet pup. You may think that dog “begs” all the time and constantly thinks about food. But given the blessing of an opposing thumb and the ability to grasp with his paw, and ol’ rover is visiting the fridge about as much as you do.
When I am referring to meal planning, meal prep, or meal prepping, I am referring to actively thinking about your meals. When you hear, “what’s for dinner?” You aren’t pondering the question, you have an answer.
We prep for most everything in our lives. From getting ready for work and making sure we have clean clothes, to bed time, and we even prep as we watch trailers and read reviews as to what movie we want to watch. We prep for life. But still we ask, “What’s for dinner?” How do we let one of the most enjoyable human experiences be left to “I hope we have something to cook tonight.”
You Have Time!
I am a nurse; I’ve been a nurse for going on 25 years. And, being a fella, I am often referred to as a “Male Nurse” by my co-workers and many of my patients. But, often…my “vintage” patients will call me “Doctor.” But I am not a doctor, I’m a nurse. And, when they call out to me, “Doctor,” I offer a friendly correction, “No, I am not a doctor…I am a nurse; I work for a living.” This usually ends up getting a chuckle from the patient, my nearby coworkers, and just about everyone else in ear-shot…except the doctor. He or she usually looks up and then back down while shaking their head a bit (but I do catch that laughing-smirk from those doctors once in a while). It was the same way in the Army when it came to NCOs and being called “Sir.” Though in the Army we tended to offer a few more colorful adjectives to express our objection to being called a “Sir.”
I do work for a living…just like you. Up and out of the home and back again after the full day has passed with only a few hours to decompress, settle, cook, eat, and spend time with the family. “Work hours” seem to linger like seafood flavor in a Dutch oven; those precious “home hours” seem to go by quicker than a knife fight in a phone booth. But, if we find those tiny margins in our day, we may be able to do a bit of planning and preparation. Yes, there may be a dirty pot or dish left behind that you may have to deal with tomorrow, but that’s okay.
There are three meal time scenarios that are all too common:
Scenario #1: There’s nothing planned, nothing thawed, no quick ingredients, no hope for a meal at home tonight. “Everybody upstairs and get dressed; we’re going out to eat.”
Scenario #2: I’ve got this pound of ground beef; what can I make to go with it? Or, what can I do with these leftovers?
Scenario #3: I’ve already prepared my ingredients over the past few days and am about to create a masterpiece. Look! At! ME!!
Truth be told, scenario #2 seems to be the most common at our home with #3 happening a bit more often than #1. We’re busy, busy folks and meal planning takes time.
“Mulder! there’s no time!” Dana Scully shouts at Fox Mulder as he turns to enter a building that is about to explode in The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998)
There’s No Time!
But there is time. On top of that, planning will actually SAVE you TIME! But we have to see that and just agree that there is a bit of planning in order to capture that time. Spend 15 minutes in planning and save an hour in preparation. Confused? Let me explain with a scenario:
You need a few things at the ready for most any meal. Here are a few:
- Broths
- Beers at room temperature
- Thawed or even pre-cooked meats
- Fresh chopped or frozen vegetables.
Okay. Hold that in mind.
It’s Sunday morning before church and I am planning a few meals this week. Tonight, I’d love me some chicken sincronizadas! Yummmm!! Beer-Brined chicken and tomato and avocados…and oh man, forget taco Tuesdays, tonight it’s…SINCRONIZADAS SUNDAY! Maybe on Wednesday, I’d like a bit of chicken stew. Friday night, let’s have Catania Jack Chicken! And next Sunday, let’s have a roast with some mashed potatoes! So far, we’ve come up with a plan for the week; we have four possible Scenario #3 evenings and stretching over 8 days (Sunday to Sunday).
Sunday Sincronizadas: Because we plan each week, that chicken that needs roasting for tonight’s sincronizadas was pulled down this past Wednesday to thaw and was put in a brine and in the fridge yesterday. I’ll pull it out after church to warm it to room temperature before roasting it in the early afternoon while I do other things.
After the hour or so to roast the chicken and letting it cool a bit, I will debone the meat and gather the bones in a pot with three, room-temperature beers to start simmering. I spend this time chopping a few tomatoes and some onion and bell peppers (to mix things up a bit) for the sincronizadas tonight and put the waste from my chopping and slicing in the pot of simmering chicken scraps to render their flavors as well (don’t throw away those veggie trimmings, use them to make broths). I remember that on Wednesday, I am making chicken stew and will need this broth. AND, my chicken stew will need its own onions and bell peppers. Since I am chopping already and could use the extra vegetable scraps in my broth, why not cut just a couple more bells and an onion? I’ll stick those in the fridge for Wednesday. I know that the labor of my Sunday-Self will be much appreciated by my Wednesday-Self.
We Only Love Us Today…Our Tomorrow Can Deal With What We Delay Today
Think about that for a bit. When I refer to you as your Sunday-Self…a person in the “here and now,” you may be inclined to NOT cut those vegetables for your Wednesday-Self. “I’ll just do that on Wednesday,” you may say. But come Wednesday, you may say, “I wish I would have done that on Sunday.” Think about that two-self paradigm for a bit. I love me some me, but why don’t I love my future-ME as much as I love my present-ME? My present self says, “chill and let future-self deal with it.” My future self looks back and is mad and my past-self, “why didn’t I do it then? The cutting board and knife and the clean up could have happened only once instead of twice…what a waste of time!! I could have used that time to (say it with me) MEAL PLAN.”
Okay, back to Sunday…
The chicken is cooked, the broth is simmering, the vegetables are sliced and chopped not only for tonight’s meal but also for Wednesday’s meal. Let’s not forget that the chicken is cooked and there will likely be left overs for Wednesday’s stew.
But, then Monday night happens. What to make for dinner? Dang, all we have is this leftover chicken from last night. Let’s make chopped chicken burgers! The problem is there’s no brined chicken to roast on Wednesday for our chicken stew. That means Tuesday, at some point, we need to swing by and pick up a chicken to start brining on Tuesday evening for roasting on Wednesday. While we’re out on Tuesday, maybe something in the store prompts a bit of creativity and a quick meal comes to mind.
Wednesday, as soon as we get home, we are pulling out the brining chicken to roast for our chicken stew tonight. The onions and the bell peppers are chopped (thank you Sunday-Self!!) and we chop the potatoes and prep the roux for the stew. Once the chicken is cooked and cooled a bit, we debone the meat, store the bones for another broth, and start the stew creation. Wait, it’s Wednesday and on Sunday we are planning a roast with mashed potatoes. Pull down the frozen roast we’re planning to use…
Meal Planning isn’t perfect and shouldn’t expect it to be rigid and forced. It needs to flow with some “forgiveness” to the process. It will not always workout perfectly. But, then again, we’re using AWESOME ingredients and a lot of the time, that alone will mask any missing nugatory ingredients that we may have overlooked in our day-to-day busyness.
Take a few sticky notes and put the day and the planned meal down; don’t worry about all seven nights of the week. Plan for leftovers…ALWAYS plan for leftovers. There’s nothing wrong with leftovers. Rule #1: Any complainers can start doing the planning. But, I doubt you’ll have any complaints; most of the time I hear, “It’s even better than last night.”
Keep a quick list of ingredients you may need for each meal. If you got it and it’s frozen, pull it out by enough hours or days to make sure it’s ready to cook when you are ready to cook. If it needs brining, get it to the brine. If you already have the cutting board out and are cutting vegetables, what is the next meal that will need cut or chopped veggies? Chopping a few more today will save twice the time as chopping tomorrow (set up and clean up…yeah!).
- Start by creating a plan for two or three nights a week where you have a specific idea of what you will be cooking. Have a plan with a shopping list for those evenings and shop when time allows. Don’t cram it in on a night that the kiddos have games or there are other family activities. You’ll just rush, forget, and have to come back. Shop on the way home on left-over nights. No worries.
- When shopping for the meal-planned evenings (scenario #3 evenings), wander a bit in the store and see what sparks your interest. It’s amazing what a jar of sauce you’ve not seen before will spark in your mind. All of a sudden you are seeing this sauce, a pound of ground beef, and the left-overs you were about to toss in your home’s fridge all blended and poured over a nice plate of pasta! Not all of your meals need to be a major production; many of your best meals will be those quick and easy, spur of the moment, toss-togethers.
- Always love and treat your future-self as well as you treat your present-self. Precut and pre slice for a brighter and happier future!
- It takes just as much energy to cook two chickens as it does to cook one. Yes, there’s a bit more prep work to it and a bit more processing work after the cook, but you’ve got the cooking done. Consider roasting two chickens for those Sunday Sincronizadas…then your Monday chicken burgers will be covered and even your Wednesday stew.
- Forgive yourself. Just do what you can. Any complainers will be issued a tissue and an apron. Cry in the tissue and don’t mess up your clothes; you’re taking over the cooking.
To respectfully alter Mr. Robert Burns’ 1785 poem just a “wee bit:”
But cast iron chef, you are not alone,
In proving meal planning may be vain:
The best-laid schemes of mice and cook
Go oft awry,
