How does your meal planning work for you? I don't know what it is, but I have failed every single time I've tried to do meal planning. I'm good for a couple of days, then by the time Wednesday rolls around, I just don't want salmon anymore.
This time was no different. For the last 2 weeks I have tried creating and sticking to my meal plan. By mid-week, it and the junk mail are best buds.
I've identified 2 barriers to my meal planning success:
1) I don't "feel" like having what's on the menu
2) I forgot to take something out of the freezer
Barrier 1 eg I don't "feel" like having what's planned is the most significant of the two. And quite frankly, I'm not sure why this should be viewed as bad. Barrier 2 is easily remedied with no shortage of defrosting methods, so not a real concern.
I've learned to listen to and be aware of what I need from a nutritional point of view. Salmon may have seemed like a good idea for Wednesday's dinner on Sunday, but by the time Wednesday rolls around, what I'm really needing is a big veggie stir fry. Is that really a bad thing? I don't think so.
Where this can become a problem is if I end up running out to the store to pick up stuff because I "feel" like something different. Expensive and wasteful of the food already in the house. What I have been very good about is working with what I do have in the house - and there is plenty of it, thanks to the CSA we're part of with Heritage Harvest Farms. Every week throughout the year, we get a delivery including meat, produce, homemade artisanal bread, eggs and various other sundry items, all homemade (ketchup, sauerkraut, chili, salsa, maple syrup, etc). There is definitely no shortage.
So where does this leave meal planning? Well, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. I've resigned myself to the fact that it may never work for me. And at the end of the day, I'm ok with that because we consistently have healthy, nutritious meals full of fabulous foods from our local farmer.
The type-A in me is not happy about having failed at this little project but the foodie in me is rejoicing! Who knows, maybe one day we'll make it work. Until then, adios meal planner!
I am glad I am not the only one that can not stick to a meal plan. Often its 4pm before I have time to think about dinner. And it works so I am ok with that
ReplyDeleteThat's kind of the place I got to as well. It works 80% of the time without a meal plan and I figure if 20% of the time dinner ends up being oatmeal or dinner out at the resto down the street, it could be a lot worse :-)
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