topic Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals. in Kitchen

I Don't Like Planning Meals.

CrazyKittyLvr2 — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 17:57:21 GMT

I have shelves of cookbooks and the internet (basically the whole world) at my fingertips and am stumped for meals lately.

Not a dang thing sounds good right now. DD is not big on beef except for a steak now and then. We eat a lot of chicken. We just had pork chops last week and I did a small pork roast 2 weeks ago. We've had breakfast for dinner. We've had had big salads with grilled chicken. Spaghetti with and without meat. Chili, check. You get the idea.

I have watched You Tube for ideas until my eyeballs glaze over.

What do you do if you hit a meal plannning wall?

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

kaydee50 — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:02:43 GMT

Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice. Have them a couple of times a week. Alternatively, a reservation at a local restaurant--LOL!!! I hate cooking. Fortunately, DH doesn't mind and does the majority of it.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

ScrapHappy — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:07:30 GMT

I'm in the same boat right now. I am waiting for my washing machine to finish and head to the grocery store for tonight's dinner. I dread meal planning. My husband likes beef, my daughter and I will eat is occassionally. I end up making 2 different meals a night. I try to look for new recipes on line and on YouTube. It has to be easy and not a lot of ingredients, especially hard to find ingredients, and lately the recipes I've been finding are just too much stuff and complicated. Sigh!

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

drizzellla — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:15:23 GMT

I can NOT STAND when the question is asked - What's for dinner?

I am so tired of trying to figure something out. We each have our own different quirks. And I am tired of working around them.

Then when I do spend hours making lasagna. They didn't like the susage so all 9 pounds of it went in the trash.

I made shredded chicken breast, bowtie pasta and cheese casserole. They didn't like it - too much cheese. My husband said next time add spinach and mushrooms. My son does not eat mushrooms.

So now when I am asked - What's for dinner? My reply is - freezer surprise. Some how we have take out for dinner.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

SoCal Bred — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 20:19:28 GMT

I make alot of casserole dishes a favorite is chicken enchiladas, instead of rolling the corn tortillas I lay them flat and layer shredded chicken, chopped onions, shredded cheese, sliced olives and continue with the layering. Lasts us several nights. My hubby likes tuna noodle casserole that I make from time to time.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

Icegoddess — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:20:23 GMT

I don't like cooking or planning either. I only have a handful of things I rotate through. Luckily, I only really have to cook once a week which is tomorrow night. This week I'm thinking salmon. But then I need to come up with what veggie to pair with it. I'm not a big veggie eater. He rarely ever eats the leftovers, so those are left to me.

One of MY favorites is Zatarain's Red Beans & Rice w/grilled Kielbasa and cornbread. I'm happy to eat all those leftovers.

I really wish the stores would get Marie Callendar's Pub-style Chicken Pot Pies back in. I hope they haven't discontinued them, but that whole section of pot pies in both Publix and Kroger have been decimated for weeks. If they don't come back I guess I'll have to go back to KFC pot pies since I don't care for the other ones in the freezer section.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

PA Mom-mom — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:22:12 GMT

@CrazyKittyLvr2 I signed up for Allrecipes emails and receive at least two emails per day with meal suggestions. I keep them handy for when my DD calls me to say she needs ideas for supper. They are often quite good, and I have made several suggested dinners. The other thing I've been doing lately is going back to my much older cookbooks and revisiting recipes I have not made in years.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

deb5555 — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:23:29 GMT

I make 5 lbs taco meat and measure out 1 pound each into a ziploc freezer bag, pull a bag out for tacos, taco salads, tostadas, bean burrittos, what ever you like.

It's nice to do batch cooking and always have something to grab when you need it from the freezer, it thaws out by dinner time.

If your familly likes soup, it freezes good too.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

Icegoddess — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:24:14 GMT

@drizzellla wrote:
I can NOT STAND when the question is asked - What's for dinner?

I am so tired of trying to figure something out. We each have our own different quirks. And I am tired of working around them.

Then when I do spend hours making lasagna. They didn't like the susage so all 9 pounds of it went in the trash.

I made shredded chicken breast, bowtie pasta and cheese casserole. They didn't like it - too much cheese. My husband said next time add spinach and mushrooms. My son does not eat mushrooms.

So now when I am asked - What's for dinner? My reply is - freezer surprise. Some how we have take out for dinner.

@drizzellla those both sound wonderful. I like mild Italian sausage in my lasagna and also put it in my spaghetti sauce. I don't make lasagne anymore since it's just the 2 of us. Way too many leftovers even if you freeze them. I would want the mushrooms in the chicken casserole too, but sounds yummy. The spinach I could take or leave.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

CrazyKittyLvr2 — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:26:12 GMT

@SoCal Bred I made tuna noodle casserole on Saturday. It's okay every 2 or 3 months.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

QVCkitty1 — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:28:11 GMT

@Icegoddess wrote:
@drizzellla wrote:
I can NOT STAND when the question is asked - What's for dinner?

I am so tired of trying to figure something out. We each have our own different quirks. And I am tired of working around them.

Then when I do spend hours making lasagna. They didn't like the susage so all 9 pounds of it went in the trash.

I made shredded chicken breast, bowtie pasta and cheese casserole. They didn't like it - too much cheese. My husband said next time add spinach and mushrooms. My son does not eat mushrooms.

So now when I am asked - What's for dinner? My reply is - freezer surprise. Some how we have take out for dinner.

@drizzellla those both sound wonderful. I like mild Italian sausage in my lasagna and also put it in my spaghetti sauce. I don't make lasagne anymore since it's just the 2 of us. Way too many leftovers even if you freeze them. I would want the mushrooms in the chicken casserole too, but sounds yummy. The spinach I could take or leave.

@Icegoddess , I have a small family, and I make lasagne in a loaf pan. We get lasagna without the leftovers.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

Leeny — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 18:33:18 GMT

@CrazyKittyLvr2

I am right there with you!! I am so cooked out of ideas and nothing sounds good, even eating out doesn't even sound good and that is bad; at least for me. So I guess I am at the wall too.

@CrazyKittyLvr2 wrote:
I have shelves of cookbooks and the internet (basically the whole world) at my fingertips and am stumped for meals lately.

Not a dang thing sounds good right now. DD is not big on beef except for a steak now and then. We eat a lot of chicken. We just had pork chops last week and I did a small pork roast 2 weeks ago. We've had breakfast for dinner. We've had had big salads with grilled chicken. Spaghetti with and without meat. Chili, check. You get the idea.

I have watched You Tube for ideas until my eyeballs glaze over.

What do you do if you hit a meal plannning wall?

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

ECBG — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 20:53:57 GMT

I totally agree that meal planning is like climbing a mountain of sand!

I have found the easiest way for me is to plan for the week and use the grocery store sale flier as my base for the "meat for the day" or protein.

On one side of the paper I write the days of the week. on the other side, what I need from the store.

At home, the list goes on the side of the refrigerator. If I changed anything, our sons went nuts! They were "set" for a certain dish and it was on the list!

Now that it's just us, and we grill more (back then more light sauces and gravy), I'll make double of something when I cook and freeze it. Right now, I have pepper steak, chili, and as of yesterday, loads of spaghetti with burgundy wine.

I also like to substitue cooked chicken in place of the steak in pepper steak and add oregano, it's similar to Chicken Caccitori but the chicken isn't fried.

I do 1-2 chicken dishes a week, 2 beef dishes, 1 pork, 2-3 fish.

I roast a lot of vegetables, he prefers frozen mixed vegetables; we cook a lot of turnip greens with the diced turnips. He will have a baked potato or corn, I defer to salads and the roasted vegetable (I don't ever steam anymore).

I grill onions, mushrooms, and peppers and put them over anything grilled, love that.

I'll pat my meatloaf mix into patties and lightly cook in he frying pan to cut down on time. I often do a sauce out of mushroom soup.

Sometimes, I'll throw a frozen turkey breast in the crock pot.

We also like barbcue chicken with round slices of onion which I do in a pot.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

JeanLouiseFinch — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 19:03:05 GMT

I'm the odd one in the bunch. I plan all of my foods in advance and am never out of options or variety. If I make a casserole type dish, it's usually 4 servings, sometimes 6, so we're eating leftovers with very little work required. Meals don't have to be fancy or involved in order to be satisfying. Keep it simple - a protein and a vegetable or two. I also keep ready to grab foods available - yogurt, granola, hard boiled eggs, already cleaned celery (put some cream cheese or peanut butter on it), salami, assorted cheeses, olives,

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

ThinkingOutLoud — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 19:10:16 GMT

I suggest the plan it once then be flexible method. Plan for 30 days and see what sales there are. Rinse, repeat. For example:

Mon - rice (stew over rice, hawaiian haystacks, hawaiian meatballs, etc)

Tues - pasta (spaghetti, chicken pesto pasta, pasta salad, tortellini, etc)

Wed - potato (baked potato w toppings, meat and potatoes, etc)

Thurs - tortilla (tacos, enchiladas, quesadillas, etc)

Fri - bread (hamburgers, creamed corn over toast, etc)

Sat - beans (chilli, hamburger casserole, etc)

Sun - vegetables (big chef salad, grilled veges, veg soup, etc)

Or do it by meat:

Mon - chicken, Tues - beef, Wed - fish, Thurs - turkey, Fri - pork, etc.

If you keep to the schedule and post it on the fridge, less figuring and people know what's for dinner.

Also, anything with lots of ingredients or time consuming is what you order at restaurants.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

kitcat51 — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 19:13:59 GMT

I don't plan anymore, I limit myself to 7 favorite easy to prepare-cleanup meals...that makes it simple to keep the pantry, fridge, freezer stocked & online grocery shopping-pickup is a breeze. My late husband was easy to please at mealtime, now they only have to please me & the cat.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

ALRATIBA — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 19:14:11 GMT

I'm on the email list for allrecipes dot com, eatingwell dot com, vegetariantimes dot com, and a couple of others.

Everyday - there are recipes / suggestions in my email.

I always find something new/interesting/delicious to make.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

rockygems123 — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 19:17:39 GMT

@CrazyKittyLvr2

If I hit a meal planning wall I will watch a cooking show. Also like @ECBG I'll look at the weekly grocery store flier for inspiration and deals.

The Kitchen is annoying with yelling over each other like a talk show so I will lower the volume or mute. For me it's worth the annoyance to get some tips and the recipes can be great. Several in my rotation are from Geoffrey Zacharian and Katie Lee, including Roast Chicken Breast with Polenta and Cherry Tomatoes, one dish meal from Katie and so good.

Stacey Stauffer did a sheet pan Shrimp Puttanesca essentially it's Ree Drummond's recipe, delicious and easy. I made it and when she had her own QVC cooking show she showed the pic I sent to her of my dish, it's a beautiful looking meal too.

I also watch Magnolia Table with Joanna Gaines. Same thing as the other show, lots of fluff but her recipes tend to be really easy and good. Last show was Chicken Curry Salad and Cauliflower Couscous (no couscous just looks like it). Both look delicious, will be trying those out soon.

Martha Stewart and Blue Jean Chef also have great recipes on their websites and they'll email recipes if you sign up, I find that helpful too.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

Carmie — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 19:41:44 GMT

Sometimes,I don't feel like planning or cooking. Other times I am in a cooking mood.

I have deep freezers and make extra while I am cooking. I can go to my freezer and take out and thaw meat loaf, soups, stews, casseroles, etc.

Last night I made a large pork roast and took a frozen sacalloped potato dish out of the freezer to thaw that and warm up.

I had plenty of pork left over, so I made pulled pork by mixing it with a BBQ sauce and put it in the freezer for another day and meal.

Other times, I make one fry pan meals....I sauté raw chicken breasts, beef or sausage with onions, peppers and whatever veggies I have on hand and spice it up. I add diced potatoes, cooked rice or cooked pasta to the pan, or sometimes serve it on top of rice or noodles. My husband is fond of these one pan meals.

Last week, I had some Philo sheets in the fridge. I layered ham, leftover chicken breast and cheese folded it closed and baked it...instant Chicken cordon blue.

I am gluten free and buy Milton Gluten free pizzas at Costco. They are so good, My DH will eat them. So, I serve pizza and salad.

I also keep steaks in the freezer wrapped up individually, They are easy to make in a hurry with a salad and nuked baked potato.

My DH does not like eating out, so we don't do resturants. When I need a break, I use the above shortcuts.

i use Wewalka brand dough found in my grocery store for shortcuts. I used the pizza and puff pastry. You can make meals or desserts with these doughs imported from Europe.

My grands like stromboli made with the pizza dough. There is a website with recipes. I recommend them for quicki easy meals and desserts.

Re: I Don't Like Planning Meals.

PinkyPetunia — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 19:43:47 GMT

I go with what needs to be used up and what I feel like having. For lunch I finished leftover casserole. For dinner I have some deli ham to use up so I can have a sandwich (ham and swiss) or ham and grilled cheese or ham and eggs. I will have a salad too.