Food.
I wrote that one of the things on my list of stuff that overwhelms me was cooking. My stepsister had a similar comment about making dinner that everyone will eat being an overwhelming thing.
So, I thought about it. And it overwhelmed me. Surprise, surprise.
I have multiple issues with food. I am a picky eater, like a really picky eater. You probably don't want to invite me to dinner, and I completely understand. I don't want my kids to be picky and I could write a whole other blog post on how I'm trying to accomplish that, but I probably won't. I'd call it Inside the Picky Eaters Head.
I don't particularly enjoy cooking meals. It's a lot of prep, focus and clean up and I could be playing a game on my phone or reading a book instead. It's kind of thankless, and not like thankless but worth it, like cleaning your shower is. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could have got the job done quicker and with less mess, sort of thankless. And finally, there's the whole meal planning, grocery shopping and healthy aspects. It's like, enough already, we get it. Food is exhausting.
I don't particularly enjoy cooking meals. It's a lot of prep, focus and clean up and I could be playing a game on my phone or reading a book instead. It's kind of thankless, and not like thankless but worth it, like cleaning your shower is. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich could have got the job done quicker and with less mess, sort of thankless. And finally, there's the whole meal planning, grocery shopping and healthy aspects. It's like, enough already, we get it. Food is exhausting.
To all of you foodies out there, I applaud you, and I'm officially jealous. Also, hats off to the cooking network (is that what it's called?) because that sometimes manages to inspire me. Other times it shames me. To people who love food and all that it involves, this post is not for you.
Let's break this down into the parts that overwhelm me and how I'm overcoming it.
Step One: Meal Planning
I have figured this one out! I am a genius!! Seriously, it's been like over a year now of being able to make meals that people eat. I'll hold for the applause.
Here's part one of my secret: the list.
It has been an incredibly simple, yet effective, tool. I sat my family down, and we didn't get back up, until everyone had thought of at least two meals that they really liked. We talked about the suggestions, and any meals that were liked by more than half the family made it on the list. This served us well for over a year and then I introduced the Better and Homes and Garden cookbook as well. Any child looking to get creative or wanting to try something new has been welcome to find a recipe to follow in here.
We are a large family so we ended up with a lot of ideas, smaller families may need to think of more things that they each like to make this plan work. My husband, and sometimes me too, tries to eat keto, so most of our dinners have at least a version of them that can be keto. We used to just follow this and I would have a basic grocery list each week and just look at this list on the side of our fridge for inspiration as to what to cook.
As you can see, my adorable days of the week menu has been very useful as a list maker, not so much as a weekly planner. Plans for that are in the works. I suck at updating stuff on the regular though. I'm a one and done sort of planner it would seem.
Part two of my secret: the people.Nowadays, everyone has a day to cook in our house except for me. Because A. I don't want to and B. I have to help almost everyone else. It's been this way for months, and my husband only realized that I don't have a day assigned to cook this past week. It was a fun moment. I smiled. I don't actually hate cooking, but I don't love it, and my health has made me wildly unpredictable and unreliable, so my personal chef plan was born.
Every two weeks we sit down and I make everyone tell me two meals they'll be cooking. We look at the calendar to see if anyone is getting a free pass due to scheduled activities etc... and the kids eat leftovers, or make your own dinners, on my husband and my date night once a week. And so, a plan is made and people are fed.
Step Two: Grocery Shopping
Shout out to my best friend and her wife for finally getting me to try the whole online grocery ordering thing! As they think of things during the week, they put them in their Walmart Grocery App cart and then on the weekend they go and pick up the order without ever having to go in the store. It's a real time saver for them. Inspiring right? So organized and so simple.
But... I love the store. I love most any kind of shopping. I have been against trying the online ordering because then I wouldn't go in the store. I'm glad I caved. For me it's a huge money saver when I am not wandering through and finding other items that I'm sure I "need." That being said, I've only used the online pickup thingamajig once. But I did love it. I should do it more. Be like my best friend on this one. Trust me.
Meanwhile at our house, my family tells our Echo Dot to put items on the list as we run out of them. Ain't technology grand? My entire family cooks now, so I consult the meal plan that I make them sit down and creat and then I hunt through our kitchen to ascertain what items will be needed and also consult Alexa for the staples that we may need. Next, I should type the items into the grocery store app and schedule a pickup and go to Costco for the rest because I'm too cheap to pay them to deliver. Instead, I usually end up going to three stores, on different days, to get everything and end up buying a lot of extra things along the way. I'm obviously still a work in progress in this area. I need to get out more so that grocery shopping stops seeming so appealing. Food for thought.
Step Three: Cooking
This is my favorite, because I don't do it. Sort of. I have a 6 and a 7 year old as two of my personal chefs, so they rely heavily on me as their sous chef. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but my kids have all really leaned in to the cooking requirement, and even seem to take pride in what they come up with. Sometimes I take pictures of it because I'm so gall darned proud that I've found a way to not be the cook.
My husband does Sundays, it's our big family dinner night and he does his own shopping and planning. Baby has Mondays, New Girl has Tuesdays, Wednesday is date night, Moe has Thursdays, Curly has Fridays and Larry has Saturdays. Everyone has a night of the week when they don't have a lot else going on so that it doesn't feel overwhelming.
Obviously this system doesn't work if your kids are in a million activities or if you love to cook and this would kill your greatest joy, but everyone needs to find their own stride. Making my kids participate has made them aware of how to cook, how to plan, to think of others, and it ensures that everyone likes dinner at least once a week (although sometimes it's not the one they cooked!)
Step Four: Clean Up
Someone who didn't cook is required to clean up each night, I pass the task out at random and based off if heavy dishes were used that could be broken by small people. Curly has been assigned to dishes for the year so he does those once everything is cleaned up from dinner. This is done as a bare minimum sort of chore by my kids so my kitchen is usually still a mess after dinner. I don't usually wipe down counters and thoroughly clean til the next morning, or at least once every few days. In this area I could really step up my game. I'm just now realizing as I type this. Light bulb.
And...that's it. Everyone is involved and invested. This minimizes the complaining by 1000% and hopefully gives my kids some skills they could use as adults. And again, it means I don't have to cook, so everyone is happy in the end, right? It works for us. And now you know, you Nosy Nellie.
Step One: Meal Planning
I have figured this one out! I am a genius!! Seriously, it's been like over a year now of being able to make meals that people eat. I'll hold for the applause.
 |
| The List |
It has been an incredibly simple, yet effective, tool. I sat my family down, and we didn't get back up, until everyone had thought of at least two meals that they really liked. We talked about the suggestions, and any meals that were liked by more than half the family made it on the list. This served us well for over a year and then I introduced the Better and Homes and Garden cookbook as well. Any child looking to get creative or wanting to try something new has been welcome to find a recipe to follow in here.
We are a large family so we ended up with a lot of ideas, smaller families may need to think of more things that they each like to make this plan work. My husband, and sometimes me too, tries to eat keto, so most of our dinners have at least a version of them that can be keto. We used to just follow this and I would have a basic grocery list each week and just look at this list on the side of our fridge for inspiration as to what to cook.
As you can see, my adorable days of the week menu has been very useful as a list maker, not so much as a weekly planner. Plans for that are in the works. I suck at updating stuff on the regular though. I'm a one and done sort of planner it would seem.
Part two of my secret: the people.Nowadays, everyone has a day to cook in our house except for me. Because A. I don't want to and B. I have to help almost everyone else. It's been this way for months, and my husband only realized that I don't have a day assigned to cook this past week. It was a fun moment. I smiled. I don't actually hate cooking, but I don't love it, and my health has made me wildly unpredictable and unreliable, so my personal chef plan was born.
Every two weeks we sit down and I make everyone tell me two meals they'll be cooking. We look at the calendar to see if anyone is getting a free pass due to scheduled activities etc... and the kids eat leftovers, or make your own dinners, on my husband and my date night once a week. And so, a plan is made and people are fed.
Step Two: Grocery Shopping
Shout out to my best friend and her wife for finally getting me to try the whole online grocery ordering thing! As they think of things during the week, they put them in their Walmart Grocery App cart and then on the weekend they go and pick up the order without ever having to go in the store. It's a real time saver for them. Inspiring right? So organized and so simple.
But... I love the store. I love most any kind of shopping. I have been against trying the online ordering because then I wouldn't go in the store. I'm glad I caved. For me it's a huge money saver when I am not wandering through and finding other items that I'm sure I "need." That being said, I've only used the online pickup thingamajig once. But I did love it. I should do it more. Be like my best friend on this one. Trust me.
Meanwhile at our house, my family tells our Echo Dot to put items on the list as we run out of them. Ain't technology grand? My entire family cooks now, so I consult the meal plan that I make them sit down and creat and then I hunt through our kitchen to ascertain what items will be needed and also consult Alexa for the staples that we may need. Next, I should type the items into the grocery store app and schedule a pickup and go to Costco for the rest because I'm too cheap to pay them to deliver. Instead, I usually end up going to three stores, on different days, to get everything and end up buying a lot of extra things along the way. I'm obviously still a work in progress in this area. I need to get out more so that grocery shopping stops seeming so appealing. Food for thought.
Step Three: Cooking
This is my favorite, because I don't do it. Sort of. I have a 6 and a 7 year old as two of my personal chefs, so they rely heavily on me as their sous chef. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but my kids have all really leaned in to the cooking requirement, and even seem to take pride in what they come up with. Sometimes I take pictures of it because I'm so gall darned proud that I've found a way to not be the cook.
My husband does Sundays, it's our big family dinner night and he does his own shopping and planning. Baby has Mondays, New Girl has Tuesdays, Wednesday is date night, Moe has Thursdays, Curly has Fridays and Larry has Saturdays. Everyone has a night of the week when they don't have a lot else going on so that it doesn't feel overwhelming.
Obviously this system doesn't work if your kids are in a million activities or if you love to cook and this would kill your greatest joy, but everyone needs to find their own stride. Making my kids participate has made them aware of how to cook, how to plan, to think of others, and it ensures that everyone likes dinner at least once a week (although sometimes it's not the one they cooked!)
Step Four: Clean Up
Someone who didn't cook is required to clean up each night, I pass the task out at random and based off if heavy dishes were used that could be broken by small people. Curly has been assigned to dishes for the year so he does those once everything is cleaned up from dinner. This is done as a bare minimum sort of chore by my kids so my kitchen is usually still a mess after dinner. I don't usually wipe down counters and thoroughly clean til the next morning, or at least once every few days. In this area I could really step up my game. I'm just now realizing as I type this. Light bulb.
And...that's it. Everyone is involved and invested. This minimizes the complaining by 1000% and hopefully gives my kids some skills they could use as adults. And again, it means I don't have to cook, so everyone is happy in the end, right? It works for us. And now you know, you Nosy Nellie.
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