One of the secrets to menu planning and meal success is to know yourself. But not only to know yourself, to accept yourself.
Let me give you a few examples:
- you might be a cook who likes leisurely weekend cooking sessions but hate the haste of weeknight cooking, or the opposite
- you might like the fact that you have to get a meal prepped and put on the table within 30 minutes because the torture is then done
- you might be a batch cook once a month and a heater-upper of food
- you might be an excellent assembler of random food (do you remember Cher in Mermaids?!)
- you might be an excellent orderer of food, or picker-up of convenience meals at the grocery store on the way home
Why is this important?
You know what works, you accept that this is who you are, and you remove decision fatigue thinking through options all the time.
I’ve shared before on the blog that my mother-in-law lives alone and hates cooking (although she’s good at it!) so she cooks four-portion meals for 5 nights every month, eats one and freezes the other three.
These meals change according to the seasons (soups and casseroles feature more in winter) but this system works really well for her.
She doesn’t concern herself with what other people are doing, or that others (like me) would be bored eating the same meal every Tuesday for a month. It works and that’s it.
I am a combination of a Saturday afternoon/ Monday evening leisure batch cook but I also like the competitiveness of getting a meal on the table in 30 minutes or less. I love variety (more on this later) so I like a combination of mixing up some freezer meals with one or two freshly cooked meals too.
The great thing is I know I’m never ever going to like cooking complicated meals so if I glance over a recipe, see that it’s complicated, I can swipe through with wild abandon. No, not for me.
What is your meal planning style? Have you accepted it yet?
I’m actually going through slight boredom with my meals at the moment. Any quick and easy winter meals that you recommend? I would love to hear because I’m tired of chilli con carne, curries and bolognaise. And if you have some tried and tested, easy chicken recipes, I would love those too.
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