When I meal plan, I really have the very best of intentions. I do. But I feel like it’s pretty rare that I end up making everything on my list for a given week. Sometimes we have leftovers, sometimes a dinner that sounded fabulous in concept seems less appealing when I’m facing a pile of ingredients, sometimes I am in no mood to cook, sometimes my husband is all, “let’s just scrounge” and I am all “YES.” You know how it is.
This week, I am aiming to revisit some of the meals I wanted to make over the past few weeks, but did not, for whatever reason, make. And by “past few weeks” apparently I mean “past two weeks” because the number of meals I didn’t make in just that time period fills in an entire week of dinners. Sigh.
Dinners for the Week of July 14-20
- Air Fryer Chicken and Waffles: Not sure at all why we didn’t make this. Let’s try it again.
- Lemon Butter Ricotta and Zucchini Pasta: So, first of all, I put this on the meal plan and then got intimidated by an ingredient (shredded gouda or fontina; I don’t like gouda and I don’t know anything about fontina) and made a game-time (i.e. in the grocery store) decision to make this melted zucchini baked ziti instead. Even though it required buying, like, an obscene amount of cheese. Have you seen how expensive cheese is these days? It is so expensive. And then, after switching gears, my husband said it sounded a) not good and b) like a side dish instead of a main course. So now I have three giant zucchini and a metric ton of mozzarella and ricotta and I’m not quite sure what to do with any of it.
- Salsa Verde Chicken Tacos: I cannot remember WHY we didn’t make these. Was it because I couldn’t find a salsa verde with low-enough sodium? I have no recollection of even looking for salsa verde, so perhaps this fell off my radar even before I went grocery shopping.
- Vegetarian Chopped Power Salad with Creamy Cilantro Dressing: This was on the meal plan two weeks running because I didn’t make it the first week. And then I didn’t make it the second week, either. Is the third time a charm????? What is it about this dinner that isn’t elevating it from “this sounds great” to the actual dinner table?
- Pizza: I am also craving pizza, so that’s what I’m making for dinner tonight. I think. Unless I run out of time to make the dough.
I’m not the only one whose intentions turn into a stash of Very Specific Ingredients rather than a real meal, right?
Ooooh chopped salad. I can’t make that particular one because the people I live with are NOT cilantro fans! I know. How did that happen? But maybe I’ll make it while they are gone to Scotland (!!) in a couple of weeks!
I was listening to a podcast about “quick and easy” recipes and how it’s all lies, like 15-minutes-to-dinner lies. It was a fun thing to listen to, and the takeaway was to master a handful of dishes that, with enough practice, take little time to make because you’ve made them so many times.
What Nicole said about quick and easy! It’s only quick and easy if you plan your life to the minute and get every duck in a row. I can only speak for myself, but I am not living at that level right now.
Mozzie and ricotta is screaming to be made into a lasagna, but it’s not really lasagna making weather is it? Maybe a stovetop lasagna kind of deal? I keep seeing ricotta toast on IG but that’s not going to use up a metric ton. I make a baked ziti that includes zucchini but that would only knock out one zucc and some mozzie. Sigh, I’ve only got partial ideas for how to use your windfall.
You are NOT alone in this. I think I do it every week. Last week the menu item that didn’t get made was smoked sausage as the main, and a classic pasta salad. I love these two things! Why didn’t I make them? Who knows. But the good news is, now I have a ton of elbow mac in my pantry, ready and waiting.
You are soooooo not alone in this. Be has really stepped up because he is in love with his new grill, but I really am feeding everyone trash on my dinner nights.
So what do you do when the meal plan doesn’t go? Do you have go to easy meals? Does everyone just eat scrambled eggs? We meal plan and then follow it to the letter because we don’t have a deep enough pantry for substitutions. I want to know how other people handle this!
If neither of us feel like making whatever planned meal is on hand, we usually just have a ‘scrounge’ night. Basically means that each of us will eat whatever sounds good- for me that’s usually eggs and toast, or onion rice, for my husband it’s usually frozen pizza or mac and cheese. We have a couple of go-to easy meals that usually always sound good- chicken wraps or dutch babies mainly- but usually it’s everyone fend for themselves night. We’ll still eat together, just not the same thing…
We have been having this issue this summer too! We typically plan 5 meals, then one night is pizza and one night is leftovers. But kids are in and out and schedules are weird and it seems like I keep freezing meat I bought to cook instead of cooking it. I blame the heat too, who wants to cook when you can just eat crackers and alouette?
Boy have you nailed our current dilemma. I/we buy ingredients for a particular meal then get all *meh* about making it then feel guilty about buying the special ingredients and not using them. It’s a lousy circle of good intentions followed by laziness.
These all sound really good! I find myself in a dilemma of buying ingredients and then not making the meal because I’m missing one ingredient, or I’m not feeling it. Or…
I’m still rooting for Carla’s chicken and waffles.
Saaaaame. It’s a very real thing, to have super specific ingredients and then be like “well … that doesn’t actually sound like something that needs to happen” 😂 We will be eating a lot of pasta permutations this week, because the tomatoes are coming in gangbusters – and even after canning 6 quarts, they’re everywhere (which is like, a good problem?). Now that we’ve got the canning underway, I’m going to indulge in a big juicy delicious tomato sandwich!
Salmon and/or rotisserie chicken are an easy answer to the meals your husband doesn’t want alone – so easy to just throw in the oven and heat up and serve alongside for the extra-protein people 🙂 I personally think that zucchini dish sounds awesome (but would love it alongside a protein too!)
I love salads this time of year but they can be labor intensive and I’m lazy. Cooking for one isn’t very motivating. I love pasta with cheese!
I make so few meals each week (3, fewer if I am traveling) that we have to make and eat what I planned because there will not be enough to feed us otherwise as Phil isn’t keen to eat cereal multiple times/week (don’t blame him). But everything I make is a tried and true recipe that we like and I rarely add new things to the rotation. I want to add new things but then I get nervous we won’t like them and will have to eat something we don’t like for multiple meals.
I’m traveling this week (again) so I made a big batch of enchiladas with green enchilada sauce. I used some leftover chipotle chicken that Phil brought home weeks ago (I froze it for later use) when their admin ordered way too much for a company lunch. So Phil will live on that while I’m away plus they’ll either order pizza or maybe go to Chick Fil A (problematic company, I know, but the kids love their chicken nuggets and Phil loves their spicy chicken sandwich).
Right? Except in my case I might end up with the very specific ingredients and be wholly unable to remember what the recipe even WAS. Right now is a struggle to meal plan and cook because it is summer and hot as balls, our schedule is wacky and all over the place and Matt is still traveling a ton. A lot of scrounging is happening, and if I cook, we eat it for three days at a minimum.
I agree, meal planning is a great idea but sometime life gets in the way. I try to have 2 easy meals (either crockpot or leftovers) as my husband and I golf twice a week and get home at 6 or 7 pm. I love checking out all your recipes but often have very simple meals. Like chicken thighs, roasted potatoes & salad. I understand why you get overwhelmed with these many ingredient meals. Here’s a really delicious salad that can be made into a main by adding shrimp or chicken
Get kale. Chop. Massage olive oil into it.
Add thinly sliced red onion
Add Avacado,
Blueberries or strawberries
Feta, Chopped nuts ( almonds or walnuts).
Then do couple spins of red wine vinegar and maple syrup then taste – add more depending
yummy!
oops spelled avocado wrong & I hate seeing spelling errors
As we know, I don’t cook so take this suggestion with a huge grain of salt (if you will); for the metric ton of mozzarella and ricotta – how about either vegetarian stuffed shells or lasagna? I suppose you could also throw some meat in there as well, if the veggie option doesn’t appeal.
Metric yard of cheese. Bah ha ha. I don’t do very specific meal plans, but I do tend to consider things like, Coach will probably grill that night. I keep chicken in the freezer – the individually wrapped boneless breasts, so we can thaw and roll with whatever works. If I do have a plan, Coach sometimes points out that I need to hold off because there’s leftovers in the fridge. I have a hard time with holding off, because I make dinner on the nights when I have time. I’m always like THERE WILL BE ANOTHER NIGHT TO EAT THE LEFTOVERS.
My solution to the menu planning dilemma is to not do it. What this means for me is that I go to the grocery store every single day. What’s bad is that I go to the store every day. What’s good is that I don’t generally buy things that then don’t get eaten. I kid myself that I’m living like a European. I like it, it gets me out of the house (I work from home).
Your title made me chuckle! I used to experiment more and I’d buy and waste ingredients. Turns out, my husband just likes the basics, as do I, and I don’t need to try so hard. It’s great!
This won’t solve the ricotta overstock issue, but may I suggest a way to use the zucchini and cheese? A fav recipe in our family is to sauté an onion in more butter than you’d might expect, add in coins of zucchini and cook until soft, then sprinkle a generous portion of cheese on there, and let it melt. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Delicious and easy side dish. (And I know it probably sounds underwhelming but it is really rather moreish!)
Does anyone follow a meal plan perfectly each week? I sure hope not! Look at you, being human again. 😉
I see a few meals on your list that I’d like to try, but the odds aren’t great that it will happen as I’m terrible at planning meals.