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What makes you think other people are not being honest?
I said that b/c we all aspire to making lists and checking them twice, cooking in bulk, buying only what is on sale, etc. But sometimes you do stand in the middle of the kitchen with your hands on your hips at 5:30 saying "OMG what is there to fix tonight". Even Bree Van deCamp probably did that once in awhile. But at least she was in heels with a freshly starched apron.
I said that b/c we all aspire to making lists and checking them twice, cooking in bulk, buying only what is on sale, etc. But sometimes you do stand in the middle of the kitchen with your hands on your hips at 5:30 saying "OMG what is there to fix tonight". Even Bree Van deCamp probably did that once in awhile. But at least she was in heels with a freshly starched apron.
So you feel badly that sometimes your planning falls short of your expectation? So you deflect your bad feelings by calling others liars? Am I really reading this right?
FlyLady.net might be for you. It is about how not to do yourself in by being a perfectionist.
I do a weekly meal plan but have been known to chuck it all for a frozen pizza
My kids go to bed early though, we eat at 6:15pm every night. I do cook mostly from scratch so I really need to have everything before hand. I really never run to the grocery store at the last minute...hence the occasional pizza.
For me it depends on the weather, and what's going on. Every day of the week might be different. (I've tried the menu planning thing... doesn't work for us.)
If it's cold outside, we'll want something more hearty and substantial, so I often start thinking about dinner as soon as I wake up in the morning. I either get the slow cooker started or I go to the store to get whatever odds and ends I need for a special dish if I'm doing something special.
If it's hot outside, we often just throw together a quick salad or sandwiches or throw something on the grill when hubby gets home. (We don't have air conditioning, but we live in Oregon so it doesn't get unbearably hot too often... but still using the oven/stove isn't something we like to do even on warm days.)
If the kids have a lot going on after school that day, I also think ahead and will usually put something together in the slow cooker earlier in the day.
Today... is a super lazy day. Hubby is out of town, the kids don't have anything going on after school, and I feel lazy today. So... I think we'll order a pizza for the kids and a salad for me! There! I thought about dinner.
"The first thing you should think about when you wake up every day is what you are going to fix for supper"
i almost laughed in her face. I used to stand around in the kitchen about 5:30 pm madly dashing thru cupboards, freezer, fridge muttering "What to fix. What to fix" This was when I was running kids around to after school activities and I worked.
Now even though I am much older, I still have kids at home but rarely do I have the 5:30 dash. I am using my crock pot almost 4 nights a week so I get it started right after the kids leave for school.
So when do you start preparing for supper in your mind?
And do you make a weekly menu?
I shop weekly with meals in mind but not exactly a menu except during holidays and when we have company.
Flylady!!
Not only do we have weekly menus, each person is assigned specific days to cook based on who is doing what. We usually do like a sort of family meeting on Saturday but no later than Sunday AM. It also serves to remind us what each person has going on the upcoming week. Oh, and the menus are only Sunday-Thursday. After that you have to fend for yourself meal wise.
Honestly, though by thursday we frequently give up and order a pizza.
If I'm going to chop an onion or celery I chop 2 or 3 at a time and either freeze leftovers of put in baggie for later in the week. If I'm going to go to the trouble to make chili or a complicated casserole I usually double the recipe. freezer is full. Makes perfect sense to me b/c of all the prep, and especially the big mess I make in the kitchen. Sometimes I like to cook all day on Sunday for the week.
I really don't know how our mothers did without microwave and huge freezers we have now. I don't like to cook "boxed" meals and haven't ever used hamburger helper (lord the sodium!) or mac and cheese or worse those dehydrated potatoes. I try to cook fresh every night but sometimes I just throw my hands up about 5 and say to DH "Order a pizza or pick up chinese if you want to eat tonight" He is very obliging.
I love the occasional blue box mac n cheese lunch.
I said that b/c we all aspire to making lists and checking them twice, cooking in bulk, buying only what is on sale, etc. But sometimes you do stand in the middle of the kitchen with your hands on your hips at 5:30 saying "OMG what is there to fix tonight". Even Bree Van deCamp probably did that once in awhile. But at least she was in heels with a freshly starched apron.
Only on Friday and Saturday do we do the stand around and wonder thing.
I am so abysmally unorganized that if I do not do the list thing, and stick to it, all hell breaks lose. I wouldn't know what to buy let alone what to make. Hell, half of our meals require us to use left overs from the night before. Like Monday we had grilled chicken, rice and salad. But the bf grilled another 2 lbs of chicken breast. Monday my daughter used the grilled chicken to make fajitas. Tomorrow I am using the last of it for chicken salad. We have to do the list, too many cooks.
Oh and it really throws me off because then I have no left overs for lunch the next day.
I suspect kudzu, that you are very naturally organized because if you were naturally not, like I am, no planning would snowball into mayhem quickly.
I used to work at home, so I planned early in the day what I wanted to make that night, and planned my afternoon accordingly...the more complicated the better.
Now, I work outside and get home at about 5 pm. I shop for meals that can be prepared in under an hour, and shop according to what's on special about once every two weeks.
Most of the time, we have steak or chops, potatoes and a vegetable or salad. Almost everything is grillable. We have chili or burgers or hotdogs and beans, too.
I keep a few things for the really lazy nights, like frozen PF Chang's entrees or Take and Bake Pizza. Even lazier than that are various carry out menus.
Basically, I'm saying that some things I formerly made I do not make anymore, like stuffed roast chicken, pot roast, scratch spaghetti sauce, or other things with lengthy preparation. Sometimes I use my crockpot, but I'm not real comfortable leaving it going while I'm not at home, and we also do not really like a constant mish mosh of stuff cooked together very much.
My sister raised three children to adulthood, and I swear that every day she went to the store to figure out what to fix for dinner. I could not believe that she operated that way, as if it came as a complete surprise to her that she would need to fix dinner that day.
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