This is our groove six days out of seven:
- Breakfast: granola with yogurt (and sometimes fresh berries)
- Lunch: leftovers if we’ve got ‘em, or a salad if we don’t
- Dinner: home-cooked, mostly whole foods, and heavy on the veggies
Start with dinner
Dinner is the meal families are most likely to share together during the week. Dinner is the meal that is most often shared with friends and neighbors. Dinner is the only meal that isn’t immediately followed by hurrying away to the next thing. Dinner can linger. Doesn’t that seem like a good place to put your energy?
Unfortunately, dinner also happens at the end of the day when your energy might be getting low. Your decision-making capabilities may be flagging. If you’ve been working all day, you’ve probably used up most of your good decisions. If you don’t already have a proactive plan in place, you’re left with nothing but impulses and poor choices. I know this because … um. Well, I just do. You’ll have to trust me..
A big part of winning at cooking real meals most nights of the week, is good planning. It’s about figuring out the foods you like that give you energy, and how you can prepare them on an ongoing basis. They are not going to magically appear on the table each night, so the plan needs to cover:
- What you want to make
- What ingredients you need to make what you want to make
- Where you can get what you need and how much of it you need
- And, how to actually make it
- AND THEN, doing it again the next day.
- That seems like a lot. Let’s break it down.
Plan your meals.
So, for now, think about 6 dinners you like, that don’t seem too difficult to make. If that’s already too much, shoot for 3. If you’re ordering take-out or eating frozen dinners 7 nights a week, then eating 3 home-cooked meals is a huge improvement. (Also, if you pick out 6 dinners but only made 2… you still made 2 dinners! Yay you!)
I want to encourage you to consider inviting people over for a meal sometime during the week. Choose something simple to make that won’t stress you out too much. Remember to ask your guests to bring something like a salad, a nice loaf of crusty bread, or a dessert. This is how it’s been done for millennia. Share your resources and build some community.
Find your recipes.
I usually start with a 2-minute tour of my fridge and pantry. What ingredients do I have leftover from last week that I need to use up? A chunk of good parmesan? Guess I’m making a Homemade Pasta dish. Half a bag of frozen chicken tenderloins? Coconut Curry Soup. A bunch of greens from a friend’s garden? Spiced Lemon Lentil Soup. This is a skill that takes time to develop. You have to have made these recipes before to recall them on the fly. But once you start cooking, it doesn’t take too many weeks to have a few dishes top of mind for your consideration. Until then, google search “easy recipes with _______”.
Please, please, please remember that cooking is NOT an exact science (also, remember that baking IS an exact science, but that’s another blog post). If you’ve promised to make grilled cheese sandwiches and find you’re out of cheddar cheese, but you do have a chunk of mozzarella and some leftover feta… give it a try! Think about what other foods usually go with those Mediterranean cheeses and makeup something new. Try adding a little marinara or pesto on the side for dipping sauce! Keep in mind, the more you cook, the more aware you’ll become of what works and what won’t. Cooking is a lot like learning to play an instrument or speaking another language – you learn by doing.
Once you have your dinners in mind, if you don’t have the recipes already, find them. Ask friends who cook what their favorite recipes are or google your favorite foods. Make sure to include the word “easy” in your search… like, “easy chicken tacos”. You’re less likely to find a recipe that calls for 5,000 ingredients if it’s “easy”.
You may also want to try to find recipes that share some ingredients. For instance, if you have to buy cilantro for tacos, you could make something like Tofu Peanut Cabbage Wraps which also calls for cilantro. If you can get more than one meal out of any ingredient you need to buy, you’ll save money and waste less food.
[This is where I throw in a shameless plug about my How to Plan, Shop, and Cook For Life downloadable pdf book. It includes this plan as well as 12 super easy recipes broken down for the beginner to understand.]
Prepare your shopping list.
Now, with your recipes on hand, you can get your shopping list ready. If you’re using a printed grocery list (like my Shopping Highlights list), you can highlight the foods you’ll need to make each meal. If you’ve had the list printed out and stuck to your fridge all week, you’ve also added other items you need. Having a master shopping list printed out and posted in your kitchen helps you get organized. It also minimizes the number of trips to the store you’ll have to make each week.
Make meals with fresh ingredients first.
If you’re planning on having any salads for dinner (like Spinach Bacon Salad, or Salad with Grilled Shrimp), plan to make those meals early in the week. Eat your greens before they get wilty and gross.
If you’re having seafood, either make it early in the week or get it in the freezer as soon as you bring it home. Chicken can last for several days in the fridge. Salmon, not so much.
Making Chili with Cornbread Topping? Make it at the end of the week. Those canned beans and cornmeal aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
Now that you have a plan for dinner, consider lunch.
When you start by planning dinners, you can adjust recipes to build in leftovers for lunch the next day (or the day after that if you like to mix it up). That means for every dinner you cook, you’re actually knocking down two meals.
This is the routine I love: make an exceptional meal for dinner, then enjoy it again the next day for lunch!
Make next week’s cooking easier by cooking more today.
If you have a little extra time on your weekend, consider making a meal that will make extra to freeze. That way, you’re all set for a night when you just can’t even. Having a couple extra meals in the freezer is like having a savings account at the bank. It just feels better.
Here are a few meals that freeze (and thaw) beautifully (found in my 20 Favorite Recipes pdf):
- Lasagna
- Moroccan Chicken
- Chicken Veggie Masala
- Root Beer Pulled Pork
- Chile Verde
- Baked Ziti
- Fried Rice
And finally: Why granola is the perfect breakfast
Yes, I do think my granola recipe (Sal’s Granal) is the best out there. Thanks for asking!
It’s also a free recipe, so you might as well download it. A cup of granola and a couple big spoonfuls of plain yogurt is our go-to, almost every morning. We’ve been doing this for several years, and have yet to get sick of it. I think it’s because it has that magical combination of sweet, salty, and “cronchy”. It has plenty of protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals, and mapley goodness. Also, the yogurt adds a daily source of probiotics, which I’m sure is good for something. That’s my granola pitch. The end.
Oh, remember to feed a few other people, too.
It’s fun, of course, to eat out with friends. But I’m starting to wonder if having people over for dinner is becoming sort of a lost art.
Most people think they are too busy to invite people, clean their home, then plan and prepare a meal. Our culture is so weird. Do we think we have to have beautiful furniture, matching plates, and gourmet foods and wines at the ready before we can have people over?
Tell everyone to show up in sweatpants and make a pot of spaghetti! Just have some people over! In fact, do a retro themed dinner… take all phones away from your guests! I’m guessing you might get a little pushback, but this is critical. Make eye contact while people are talking. Respond without a long pause while your brain drags itself away from the social scroll. Treat yourself and your people to a time of relaxed and focused conversation and food. There is nothing I can think of that nourishes body and soul better.
Enjoying food together is COMMUNION. It is a time of equality, support, and yes, nourishment.
Equality because everyone at the table is present, on the same level, passing food from one hand to the next around the table. There’s no up or down, just side by side.
Support because that’s what warm conversation leads to: sharing a story over scalloped potatoes while others respond with their own moments of joy, embarrassment, despair, or hilarity. Connections are made and solidarity happens.
And, nourishment. Vitamins, minerals, fiber, and good fats are only the start to what I mean when I use that word. Guests served at your table bring more than a bottle of wine with antioxidants. They bring themselves, and the hope of friendship and community. And, the meal you provide doesn’t have to be perfect or fancy.
Just serve up that nourishment with love and a smile.
Ready to make your nightly meals less of a hassle?
Learn how to Plan, Shop & Cook for Life with this Beginner's Strategy
