Meal Planning 101

I remember writing a post about a year ago soliciting ideas from all of you about meal planning. I received some great suggestions about planning a week of meals ahead of time and shopping for specific ingredients I can use in a variety of meals. They were some great ideas and overall, I've tried to make these ideas work for our life. But if I had to find one area of my marriage where I feel the most inadequate, it's here. Meal Planning 101.

It can't be that hard to conquer and believe me, I've tried. I order groceries from a grocery delivery service about every 10 days or so. I spend hours researching meal ideas online and carefully selecting all the ingredients I'll need. But the same thing happens every week: our life gets busy; Andi works late or one of us are traveling for work. Ultimately, I end up making 1 of the 4 or 5 meals I've planned. I realize that even if Andi is working late I can still make a meal for myself but I find something about that so depressing. Getting out all the dishes, making the meal, eating it alone and cleaning it all up all by myself. I can never bring myself to do it. 

So this week I'm going to try something new. I bought a list of ingredients and I'm going to try to pre-plan and prepare meals in advance. Things that freeze well that I'll split into individual portions. Other meals that can be separated and measured out ahead of time, so all I have to do is throw everything together. This week I'm planning to make Morning Glory Muffins, Chicken Parmesan, Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, and Pizza Burgers. I'm hoping my new plan of attack works!