Meal Planning

In our house, we take the "divide and conquer" approach to mundane household tasks. We've had to reexamine our duties a few times, especially with the arrival of Squirt, but it seems to be a pretty even divide. So I'm not complaining that I'm in charge of meal budgeting, planning, and execution, but it is a tedious exercise. And it doesn't seem to matter how many times I do it, they seem to want dinner every night!

This week we seriously went to Chick-fil-A (the ol' standby) not because we didn't have food in the house or because I didn't feel like cooking, but because I was simply too tired to decide WHAT to make. That's the worst part for me. The deciding.

So on our way to CFA we were playfully ribbing my husband (yes, the one I promised not to talk about in my blog) about how he would have a Sheldon Cooper-style meal plan if he could. (If you're not a fan of The Big Bang Theory, shame on you! Just kidding. The main character is either OCD or on the spectrum or both and always has the same food each week. Thai food on Monday, Cheesecake Factory on Tuesday, Pizza on Thursday, etc.) My hubby and Sheldon have a lot in common, and although he doesn't like to eat out much, he very much liked the idea of a routine.

Well, I'm more OCD than I care to admit as well, so when we got home we decided to nail down a schedule. After much discussion, here's what we decided to start with:

Monday- Italian
Tuesday- Comfort food
Wednesday- Freezer meal
Thursday- Mexican
Friday- Leftovers
Saturday- Pizza
Sunday- Husband's choice

There is some logic to the schedule. He eats mostly leftovers for lunch during the week, so Monday-Wednesday are theoretically meals that would make good leftovers. We try to have date night on Friday nights, so we often wouldn't need a meal that night anyway. On Sunday, he agreed to make dinner if we don't go out with our usual Sunday night crowd.

To further help me, the oh-so-indecisive one, I've made a Pinterest board for each night. Theoretically, all I have to do is scan that day's board for something that looks good and I have the ingredients to make, and meal planning will be MUCH simpler!

Let the playful ribbing commence....