#8 Let's do this - menu planning!

or... let's at least talk about it

one of my friend, Shelley’s beautiful salads

It’s possibly because we’re at the end of summer (but it’s still hot so not quite autumn yet) but I’m tired of thinking about and planning food. Although I do like reading about food, especially since I just finished Stanley Tucci’s memoir, Taste, today.

I was in Cape Town this week for work and a very lovely and concerned colleague asked me, “what are the children and Dion going to eat?”

I said, “they’re all old enough to figure it out but don’t worry, I left them a few meals in the freezer”.

Reader, they did not eat even one of my meals.

Normally this would annoy me but I’m thrilled because it means I don’t have to think too hard about suppers for this week.

sourdough, greens, boiled eggs and a sweet chilli sauce

How we do things around here

1. Dion gets two days to provide meals. These are usually the nights I exercise but I may switch them around if I happen to work from home one of those days and I have a light afternoon (not a lot of meetings).

2. I provide suppers for the rest of the week. Some of this cooking is from the freezer and I just make the carb (pasta, rice or potatoes) or cooking from scratch, like stir fries.

3. I also do at least one leftovers night. One of my superpowers is using up things in different ways. On this night (I never call it “leftovers night” otherwise no-one would be excited about it) I take out everything from the fridge that needs to be used up and I create a meal or meals out of it.

From Cafe Paradiso in Cape Town - gnocci with butternut and bacon

There’s a mindset component to all this…

1. I have relaxed my thinking about meals a lot since the early days of parenting. I only have to provide the meal; they choose whether to eat it.

2. I still don’t cook two (or more) separate meals unless it’s “leftovers night” and the leftovers lend themselves to two distinct meals. This happens semi-regularly and since both my teens are not a fan of rice, often Dion and I will eat the rice-based meal and they will eat the potato/ pasta-based one.

3. No-one’s going to starve.

4. No-one’s health is going to suffer if they don’t have vegetables on two days.

5. Here is the key - once you delegate any days to a partner, never ever take them back and (most important), don’t complain about anything. I can’t eat “dry food” (chicken strips and chips) so I always make sure I have tomatoes and cucumbers to slice up for my portion.

Cattle Baron’s chicken and pine with rice

Some tips and tricks if you’re uninspired

1. I have a summer and a winter list of “acceptable meals”. This is lowbrow and contains meals everyone will eat without too much complaining. When I’m stuck, I guarantee if I give this list a glance, I’ll find something to prepare.

2. Anandi links her menu planning to her quarterly planning. How genius is that? Click over and read her post (and then you’ll see one of the winter meals we all eat in the comments :))

3. Delegate the actual menu plan to your family. I say, “what do you feel like eating this week?” Someone will pipe up and suggest something and that will spur the rest on.

4. Something else that works for me (a sensor on MBTI) is to go into an actual supermarket and walk the produce aisles to get inspired. This is a very expensive option these days unless you’re very disciplined but once every month, I really need to feel, touch and smell food. I did this yesterday morning after Zumba and I cooked yesterday (my “famous” tuna pasta salad) and will cook again tonight (chicken rolls and coleslaw).

5. Many more posts on my blog about menu planning

Peppersteak pie, chips and gravy from the Clarens Golf Club - utterly delicious

Now I want to hear two things from you:

Do you menu plan? Yes, no, sometimes?

What is your family’s current favourite meal?