Another Monday, another expectation to provide meals for my family. 

Let’s not pretend that I do much of anything to provide breakfast for these people. I make sure we have enough cereal / bagels / toast / fruit / peanut butter / milk / yogurt / Nutella / eggs for everyone to come up with something nourishing-adjacent. The noontime meals are likewise pretty simple: my husband packs his lunch; my kid presumably gets lunch at school; I drink a smoothie or eat leftovers. And it’s not even like I’m cooking every single night. We often throw in the towel at some point and end up scrounging for food in the freezer and pantry, or ordering takeout, or some combination. 

Nonetheless, even coming up with, let’s say, a mere four or five meals a week feels so Sisyphean that I am ready to prostrate myself on the ground and allow the metaphorical boulder of meal planning to flatten me like a Looney Tunes villain. 

Dinners for the Week of October 6-12

• Sheet Pan Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, and Broccoli: This sounds easy and nutritious. 
• Slow Cooker Chili: I don’t know that I’ve ever willingly diverted from my family’s traditional chili recipe. But this recipe makes me want to try. It also seems like it will produce a lot of leftovers, which can only reduce the number of meals I’m responsible for planning. 
• Sheet Pan Veggie Shawarma: It’s been a minute since we’ve had this and I am in the mood for some cauliflower and chickpeas.
• Apple Pecan Salad with Creamy Lemon Dressing: I can pair this autumnal-sounding salad with a roasted chicken breast for my husband and a salmon filet for myself and my kid.
• Sheet Pan Cuban Chicken Fajitas: Another sheet pan favorite that we haven’t eaten in awhile. Let’s do it.

I did not make the pumpkin cream cheese muffins last week as planned, by the way. But the oven is pre-heating and the eggs and cream cheese are coming up to room temperature as I type. What better reward for doing the work of meal planning than a delicious fall flavored baked good?! I am very excited to eat these muffins so I hope they turn out well. Honestly, I kind of wish I had a jumbo muffin tin so I could make them jumbo size. But I suppose a regular size muffin is better than no muffin at all.

What’s your most Sisyphean household task? Besides meal planning, I’d have to say laundry. It never stops.