Bane of my existence. Can we get meals on wheels for millennials?
When you cook a meal you like, record the recipe. If you do this enough, you’ll have your own cookbook of favorite meals before long. Once you have 2-3 weeks worth, print it and put it in a binder. When I plan meals, I grab my binder, make an ingredients list of what I need for the week, then cook the meals I want.
It will take a bit to get going, but you’ll have a much easier time picking instead of guessing :)
My wife and I find it easier to plan a menu every week. Makes shopping easier and dinner less of a guessing game. Also, when in doubt, buns and a salad kit. Never fails. The buns can be anything. Burgers? Cool! Regular or mushroom Swiss? How about chicken patties/chicken burgers? Meatball Marinara sandwiches? Whatever you want, brother.
I’m honestly surprised that more people don’t come up with a weekday menu over the weekend. It can be simple, like you mentioned buns plus whatever. Simple meat, grain, veg is easy (frozen fish or fried tofu, rice/quinoa, and some broccoli or Brussels).
When all else fails… Breakfast tacos for dinner will do. Prefer egg and sausage, but I’ll settle for egg and avocado with some hot sauce.
I guess Im at a loss on how else to do it? Like I only go grocery shopping ~once a week so i have to plan everything.
Keep a notepad in the kitchen, make it your recipe book. Fill it with things you cooked once and would cook again. If you can’t dde ide what to make, flip through it and pick one.
Before cookbooks were 87% of all Christmas presents, they were just kitchen cookbooks that nonna handwrote for this purpose.
I try, I really try… but my cooking is sporadic since we both work and have 2 kids and I’m the only one who knows how to cook. The other problem is my wife really doesn’t seem to care for almost everything I make, plus the kids are even pickier eaters. I have no desire to cook anything since it’s super depressing spending a lot of time on something nobody enjoys having. The funniest part is I could care less what I eat yet I always get the question everyday of “so what’s for dinner?”. Sorry for the rant. I’m just feeling underappreciated these days.
Off the top of my head.
Next weekend give them the option of planning the meals for the week.
Unless they pick something ridiculous like Beef Wellington or Peiking Duck everyone will be happy.
That’s rough buddy, you should tell her
Yeah ive been there myself. Ended up cooking large amount of food so I had remains for several days. Its good to make soups, you get a lot of food and you can add sandwiches on the side also. Lasta for many days.
‘Me trying to come up with new ways to make instant noodles taste different’
(Pro tip, crack an egg into it and mix after it is done. Sorry for any americans reading this)
(Pro tip, crack
Yeah that may work
Don’t worry, you don’t have to worry about any Americans reading
I got an egg guy (he has 3-4 chickens and more eggs than his family knows what to do with). As long as bird flu doesn’t get him.
But I also already make egg drop soup on occasion. Polenta bowls with a fried egg on top are really tasty too. Some sprouts and roasted potatoes and… now I know what we’re having for dinner.
Eggs are $5 a dozen here in New York state. Okay, that’s a bit much, but I still consider it affordable given that’s a main course/protein source for me for 6 meals. Like, what other protein is less than $1 a serving? Tofu I guess, I do buy that as well.
I can buy a KG of pork for less than that. £3.79/KG at Aldi.
what other protein is less than $1 a serving.
Chickpeas, beans, lentils
Big fan of beans, yeah!
Roadkill
Seafood, if you catch it yourself.
Just need a boat and some diesel fuel
Or just catch it from the shore. If you really want to go out a bit you can fish from a kayak too.
Here in Minnesota we just wait until winter, walk out onto the lake and drill a hole.
Are you saying crack an egg into it, then cook it, then stir it? Or cook it, then crack an egg in and stir?
Wait till its done, crack the egg and mix! You can keep the fire on if you are worried it wont cook thoroughly
Hell with it; I like runny egg. I just wanted to make sure it went in at the proper time.
Neat, tell me how it goes!
Oh I’m actually deathly allergic to noodles, so I’m not gonna be around after to tell you.
(Lying, of course. I’ll update you)
Its been 10hours, who’s gonna tell their family?
Hey guys I’m good, just no noodles atm, thx
Add peanut butter
This is why some high functioning people eat the same thing or things all the time. Just to remove the necessity of thinking about it.
Wouldn’t call me high functioning, but eating the same things every day took so much mental load off of me and it also helps me keeping track of my calorie intake.
Chili, soups, rice, pasta based meals all are great for making a lot of food at once.
Wife and I have started cooking and refrigerating a few cups of rice and picking a costco chicken on the weekend. With a few spices and sauces there’s a crapton of variety you can get from chicken and rice with very little work to prepare and it’s dirt cheap. Meals for the work week sorted.
I’m “lucky” to be perpetually single in that respect. Grilled chicken and salad in a wrap 4 times a week is not a problem lol sometimes I get fancy and have grilled chicken and salad not in a wrap as well!
I had a good, solid, vegetarian recipe book for a long time.
Then my spouse became lactose intolerant and my doc said to consider avoiding gluten so as to not trigger the celiac’s I’m susceptible to developing from my genes.
Know how hard it is to find easy-to-make, accessible, gluten-free, near-vegan recipes that aren’t just stir fries and soups? HARD.
The ‘specialty’ diets are what throws everything out of whack. Everyone who talks about getting enough protein from a vegan diet hasn’t ever had to deal with a diabetic. That whole lentil/bean thing really cuts into the limited carbs aspect, and (while it is a symptom of the fucked US healthcare system) makes rationing insulin a near impossibility.
Woof. Yeah I forgot to mention I’m also trying to cut back on added sugars just to play it safe after reading The Case Against Sugar and having two diabetics in the family.
The only gluten-free, dairy free, sugar-free thing I can reliably make is a tofu scramble; and the only cereal-like thing that comes close is “Scottish Oatmeal” or just gluten-free oatmeal. What to eat when I’m in a rush and headed out the door? Still working on that one.
Eighty years later…
Look at this optimist, living 13 years longer than the average American now.
I wonder if that average includes outliers, like the 1% that can actually afford to eat healthily.
If you don’t have a good sized freezer, get one. It takes as long to prepare 6 portions as it does one. Lasagna, chili, soups, whatever. Now you have the option of cooking when you get home or microwaving something you know you’ll like.
Yeah and you don’t have to eat them all in a row. Make 6 portions today, and have one a week. Tomorrow, 8 portions of something else.
Also,meal prep doesn’t nessecarily mean making completed meals. If you have to chop one carrot for this meal,peel and chop 5 of them, freeze some,save some for salads, and save some for dipping or whatever.
Similar. If you have half a carrot left, put it in a quart sized container and freeze it. Add excess veggies until the container is full, and then use that to make a soup/stew.
When we still had kids at home I had a 2-week meal plan. Just rotated thru it every 2 weeks. So much easier. After they grew up and moved out I got into more ‘gourmet’ cooking but now that we are retired I’m seriously thinking of going back to the 2-week meal plan. We just need to eat simpler & less.
Just often enough until you find some dishes you like making and then some more time until you’re bored with those dishes and then you’ll actually like trying to come up with new things to cook
This right here.
You only need the ability to make 5 or 6 different meals. Here’s some simple rules.
A meal is 3 things:
- a serving of protein
- a serving of starch
- a serving of vegetables
How big is a serving?
- About the size of your fist
If you have 5 or 6 different proteins you know how to cook, you can mix it up with the 5 or 6 starches, and 5 or 6 vegetables. Grocery shopping is easy too. Buy larger quantities of just the ingredients for your 5 or 6 meals. Stock up when certain ingredients are on sale.
There, you’ve got your basic nutrition covered. Mix in other meal ideas as you go. Welcome to adulting.
Very nice simple plan, thank you.
