“What’s for dinner?”
Three innocuous words have the power to send me into panic mode.
We love to eat (!), and we value sitting down to share an evening meal.  So, I have learned that I need to plan for and shop for dinners in advance to manage my stress around dinner.
I may have birthed a fiddling culinary goddess (my daughter is The Hungry Musician), but cooking is more of a means to an end for me during the workweek. I just want something yummy, uncomplicated to make, mostly nutritious, and I don’t want to worry about it every damn day!
When my children were young and living at home, I planned dinners a week in advance and posted the schedule on the refrigerator so everyone could see “What’s for dinner.” I even planned take-out meals as needed, such as when one of us had an evening commitment, and take-out went on the schedule as well.
Now that we are (mostly) empty nesters, my husband and I still plan dinners for the coming week, and we do the grocery shopping together. We use the AnyList app, and it has been a game-changer! I wrote about AnyList a few years ago in a previous email, and like most apps, AnyList has evolved and become even more helpful.
The weekly meal planning and shopping we do enables us to come home from work and truly unwind and relax because dinner is planned and everything we need is already here. There are occasions when we swing by the store on the way home from work to buy something fresh like fish, but that is the exception and not the rule. By the way, we still enjoy having take-out meals, and those are figured into our weekly plan as well as leftovers.
There are many different ways to approach meal planning. My nephew, a busy TV producer and a father of three young children prepares the week’s dinners on Sunday afternoons. I have several friends who swear by subscription home delivery meal kits, of which there is a plethora to choose from! Check out this article to learn about the many choices available.
So, my friends, when it comes to meal planning, there are many ways to skin a cat (no, I won’t eat that for dinner and where does that expression come from anyway?) Find what works for you and try it. If you need help getting to the bottom of what could work for you, let’s have a few coaching sessions, and we will figure it out together.
Photo by Ruyan Ayten on Unsplash

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Email: Jocelyn@Kenner.org
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