I have been thinking about the meal plans, and why they didn't work in the past.
1. I planned a week ahead, and by the end of the week I was not as energetic, was more energetic or there had been some normal family change of plans that had thrown it out of kilter.
2. I planned without reference to the things that I already had in.
3. When darling father brought in, eg a large leg of lamb I didn't dare freeze then once again I would be thrown out of kilter, or stuff would be wasted because of an unscheduled stop to MacDonalds or someone not eating and it not worth doing a big meal for two rather than three.
4. In a crisis I went to the takeaway. Often encouraged by darling father.
5. I forget to take stuff out of the freezer or get distracted by little bear so eg potatoes don't get peeled, things do not go on the stove in time. Then I will panic and we will end up with another takeaway.
Current thinking is:
1. I only plan a day or two ahead.
2. I make a list of all that is in the cupboards, fridge and freezer and keep it updated
3. If there is a danger of too much stuff getting wasted then I work out how to store it, freeze it or donate it to next door's dogs. It is less likely to happen if I don't plan too far ahead, so I can be aware of what is going on. If an unexpected food parcel appears then I IMMEDIATELY google recipes etc and work out how to use it.
4. I keep an emergency meal or two in the freezer for days when walking is a challenge - stuff that can be cooked from frozen. Also I keep in the cupboard some stuff that won't take long to throw together and be tasty. This also works for dealing with number five above. If I have forgotten to take the sausages out of the freezer then I can do corned beef with mash, or corned beef hash, if I have a tin of corned beef in.
I also need to be a bit more flexible with recipes, and I need to develop some lunch recipes.
Tomorrow is bacon butties for lunch, the turkey from the freezer in a jar of curry sauce with rice for dinner, Sunday is the pork roast which cooks from frozen for dinner, lunch is eggs. I will worry about Monday tomorrow - after checking the cupboards!
1 comment:
ophoSounds to me like you need to do flexible meal planning i.e. make a list of one or two weeks meals but dont assign them days and then each day you can pick a meal from the list according to what you fancy that day and you have the benefit of knowing you have the items needed to make the meals and also you dont need to beat yourself up if you have a takeaway or have an unplanned meal as its all flexible according to needs or desires
Lesleyxx
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