It’s no secret that, when it comes to routines, I am a Very Structured Person. I like a routine, I like knowing what the day will bring, and to that end, I like having a Weekly Dinner Plan. This Weekly Dinner Plan consists of pretty much the same meals in rotation week after week, although there are some variations within the plan. I wrote about this in February and March of 2019 – four years ago! – but I had the idea to write about it again after reading a post by Engie (HI ENGIE) about the daily decisions we all make. Most of the commenters said their most loathed daily decision was the answer to the question what should we have for dinner, and I realized that is a decision I do not make. Or rather, I have made the decision once, and now I just don’t even think about it.
This isn’t something that would work for everyone – it’s not the most exciting way to eat – but for our family, knowing what dish will show up on which evening is a source of comfort and stability. Monday is Pasta Night! Tuesday we have stir-fry! I’ve been sticking to this schedule for so long that when I change it – having wraps on a Tuesday, for example – everyone is a bit disoriented. Is it Tuesday? Or is it Thursday? NO ONE KNOWS.
One thing to note: when it comes to recipes, I don’t really use any. Or if I do, I use them as a very rough outline, and just add or subtract anything that comes to mind. Even with baking, I generally change the original recipe, sometimes so much that it’s almost unrecognizable.
I think when a household contains more than one person, there is always going to be some compromising on flavours or ingredients in any dinner. I am, of course, plant-based, but the guys are not. I do prepare meat, but almost all of the meals are plant-based, with meat as a side, as opposed to the meals I grew up with, which were mostly centred around meat. Did you know that for four years I had a whole job based on this concept, of plant-based and meat-eaters living in harmony? If you don’t know, now you know.
This is an outline of all the dinners, baking, and desserts that I made in a week, and this is a pretty typical week. Everyone is on their own for breakfasts and lunches, although I do often pull together a lunch for my younger son to take to school, depending on his scholastic and wrestling schedule.
A Week In Nicole’s Kitchen
Monday
As I mentioned, Monday is Pasta Night, and typically we have some kind of whole-wheat pasta with sundried tomato sauce. Occasionally I will make a creamy sauce from roasted garlic, cashews, and tofu, as my younger son does not like tomatoes, and I feel a bit bad that he resorts to butter and parmesan on his pasta on tomato-based nights. Also, I love creamy non-dairy sauces. This week, though, I made a penne alla vodka, using cashews for creaminess.
I don’t think that pasta alone is filling enough, so I roast vegetables to go along with it, usually two or three cauliflower, depending on their size. One of those pans is JUST for me. What can I say, I can really pack away the cauliflower. I am extremely price-inelastic when it comes to cauliflower; my mother-in-law was absolutely horrified when I told her that in January I have been known to pay $10/ head of cauliflower. When it is not available, I resort to zucchini.
The guys get meatballs, baked in the oven, with this dish, except when I make the above-mentioned cream sauce. On those evenings, I serve peas, as well as cauliflower.
I like a lot of sauce! I need the excess sauce to dip my cauliflower into.
Tuesday
This Tuesday was a busy one, kitchen-wise. I baked banana mini-muffins, which are based on a recipe from the Lutheran Ladies’ Family Favourites, a cookbook my mom gave me when I moved out which features lovely baked goods but truly disturbing main dish recipes.
I always made mini-muffins when the boys were little, and now for this recipe, a riot ensues if I try to make regular sized muffins. All other muffins are regular sized but these? MINI ONLY. I make banana bread and muffins frequently, so I always have containers of overripe bananas in the freezer, usually in groups of three, which is what my recipes tend to call for. I just thaw the bananas and voila! They look disgusting but work wonders.
I had some extra time so I made the boys’ favourite ice cream, mint with fudge swirl.
For dinner we had stir-fry; Wednesdays are Grocery Days, and so I like to use up all the produce on Tuesday, in a stir-fry format. I have many different stir-fry iterations; on this night I made some teriyaki sauce roughly based on Vegan Richa’s recipe, and served the veggies with basmati rice and pan-fried tofu, sprinkling cashews on top for extra protein.
Wednesday
Wednesday is typically Pizza Night; I use pitas for the crust, and everyone can have whatever they want on theirs. I make a couple of extras for the boys’ lunches the next day; cold pizza is a favourite of theirs. I like a pesto pizza with tons of mushrooms and tomato.
Pizza by itself isn’t very filling, in my opinion, so I make a big veggie plate to go with it.
Thursday
My meals get much less elaborate as the week goes on, and I get tired. Thursdays are usually wraps, with the occasional Taco Night. This week I did serve wraps; the guys get sautéed chicken, I get an avocado, and then I slice up peppers and tomatoes to go with.
Ah, a perfectly ripe avocado! A thing of beauty.
Friday
Friday is my favourite day of the week; everything about Friday feels celebratory.
All of the muffins disappeared, so I baked a pumpkin loaf using the sweetest homemade pumpkin puree, gifted to me by my lovely dear friend Taryn (HI TARYN).
As I mentioned earlier this week, my Number One Favourite Meal is Greek salad with hummus and pita, and so I like to make it for my Number One Favourite Day. In the spirit of full disclosure, I want to note that I also put chicken breasts in the air fryer for the guys, and I make a coleslaw – using a prepackaged salad mix and bottled dressing – for my tomato-hating son. Both the chicken and coleslaw are pretty much zero effort, and are greatly appreciated.
I add 1/5 of a block of tofu (I freeze tofu in 1/5 blocks for this exact purpose) to add creaminess.
This photo makes me happy. I love a Glass Or More of wine on Friday nights too; this was a gorgeous Zinfadel. I had a couple of glasses and then my son, who has a fancy cocktail recipe book, fixed me a lovely drink. In passing the next day, he casually mentioned that the drink he had made was a triple, which really explains why I fell asleep on the couch watching Bullet Train with the guys. Who am I kidding, I would have fallen asleep regardless, alcohol or no alcohol.
Saturday
Saturday is Wild Card Night! I have a wide variety of standbys, but also, if I am going to try a new dish, it will likely be on Saturday. I figure out a meal based on what we have in the house; this week I went with an old favourite, Buddha bowl. The brilliance of a Buddha bowl is that you can add any kind of vegetables or grains. Literally anything goes. I roasted up broccoli, peppers, sweet potatoes, and cauliflower.
I also roasted chickpeas and lentils for crunch and protein.
I added this to quinoa and edamame, plus a vinaigrette based on an Oh She Glows recipe.
Sunday
Sunday dinner is the only meal that is centred around meat: during the winter, I make a roast with gravy on Sundays. Don’t cry for me, Argentina, my side dish game is very strong! I made crispy roasted potatoes with garlic and dried chives from my garden, roasted kalettes (THEY ARE STILL IN THE STORE! THEY ARE STILL IN THE STORE! HALLELUJAH!), a kale Caesar using a dressing recipe from Cheap Lazy Vegan (shout-out to Birchy for the recommendation, HI BIRCHY), and a roasted broccoli dish that ENDS all roasted broccoli dishes. All other roasted broccoli dishes can just GO HOME. The broccoli is roasted and then tossed in a lemony Caesar-inspired dressing, and sprinkled with toasted breadcrumbs, and it is incredible.
No Sunday dinner is complete without dessert, and this week I took a break from cake baking to make a triple berry crisp.
So there it is, a week of meals that we all love. Every single thing was made with this guy at my feet:
He has a really uncanny knowledge of exactly where I need to be in the kitchen, and then lies down there. Luckily, I’m flexible.
I should probably note that cooking for a houseful of hungry guys, particularly teen boys who work out a lot, is incredibly gratifying. Every meal I make is The Best Meal Ever, This Dinner Is So Good, Mom, Thanks For Dinner, Nicole. As Ma Ingalls always said modestly, Hunger is the best sauce, which, true, but also, I think all these meals are really delicious. And they also have lots of literal sauce, which is my favourite part of a meal.
What did you have for dinner this week? Anything outstanding? Anything delicious? Tell me everything. xo
Wow that all looks so good and healthy! Do your men eat tofu? Do they eat the Saturday dinner without complaint that it contains no meat? I wish I had gotten my kids used to this way of eating, we are definitely more of a plan around the meat type of family 🙁
They do eat and enjoy tofu, and they also enjoy the 2-3 pure meatless meals I make per week – no complaining, ever. In fact, they know how I feel about meat so they are maybe extra grateful when I cook it for them.
These pictures made me hungry. I also have a loose schedule and innovate within it. Also, I bought cauliflower for over $8/head this weekend, but I cannot quit it.
Well, it’s this time of the year for expensive cauliflower! Mind you, it seems like most produce is expensive these days. Oh well, what are you going to do.
I love the peak inside a week in the life! I am in a different stage of life as the kids are ridiculously selective… so we generally do not all eat the same thing. And even when we do, there is some variation. I made a veggie-packed ragu with pasta sauce. Phil and boys have glutenous pasta, I eat the sauce on zoodles. We tried serving a boy of pasta with sauce on top to the boys. Both threw a fit for different reasons. Paul wanted a separate bowl of sauce so he could dunk his noodles in the sauce. Will didn’t want the noodles – he just wanted to eat the sauce with a spoon. Do you know the “Jack Sprat Could Eat No Fat” poem? That is my children in terms of pasta. But I can’t really explain the amount of yelling and crying and whining it took to get to a place where everyone was happy with what was on their plate/tray…
We only make 3 recipes/week generally since the boys rarely eat what I make for Phil and me. And then we get by with leftovers for the other nights. So this week I made a 3-bean turkey chili on Sunday and ground beef tacos yesterday – neither of which the boys would eat. Le sigh. Tomorrow we will get take and bake pizza. Phil buys lunch every day but barely spends any money since he’s happy with a sandwich. I treat myself to a fancy salad once/week and bring a salad from home the other days. I VERY RARELY make a meal without a recipe! I don’t even like it when a recipe says “salt and pepper to taste” – just tell me how much to add, people! Can you tell I am a rigid rule follower???
I would love to be a guest at your home for these meals, though. It seems like most if not all is gluten free, except the pasta of course! Which tends to be the case when you are mostly eating whole foods/not processed foods. Not that I am above processed foods. My kids eat a lot of veggie-fortified dino chicken and cauliflower tots…
Lisa, JUST YOU WAIT! Wait until the boys are teens and OMG. It is awesome. I mean, it’s expensive because teen boys, in my experience, hoover down anything that’s edible, but it is SO gratifying to cook for them. Selective eating just seems to disappear! At least, I hope this is your experience because it is really fun.
I would love for you to be a guest! Most recipes are gluten-free or could be made as such – like with GF soy sauce, or pasta, or what have you.
This is an excellent method for menu planning. I need to organize mine better. I used to menu plan when my daughters were younger, but now I’m less organized. I think it’s because I have a picky family with differing tastes. 😒
I love your ripened bananas idea!
Kari, it works so well – when bananas go black I just pop them into the freezer and then thaw when the urge to bake banana-related goods hits me!
My grandma was like that, in that Monday was this for dinner, Tuesday was that, etc. I’ve never been that way, I get bored and want to make what I want to make. I work from home and feel cooped up sometimes, so it works for me to go to the store almost every day and get ingredients for that evening’s dinner. What did we have this week? Hmmm.
Monday was curried kidney beans, which I served with Indian spiced roasted cauliflower.
Tuesday was pulled chicken sandwiches, 3 ways. My daughter is vegetarian, so I cooked some fake chicken in bbq sauce for her, and she ate it on a bun. My husband is low carb, so I cooked chicken thighs in the toaster oven in bbq sauce (sugar free), then shredded it, and served it over spaghetti squash. Mine was chicken on a bun. I served it with a truly mediocre cole slaw, I was trying a sugar free dressing recipe and it was blah.
Wednesday was fake sausage for my daughter, chicken sausage for my husband and me. Served with mashed sweet potatoes for them, and leftover mashed potatoes for me (I wish I liked sweet potatoes, but I don’t), and peas.
Tonight I am making a garlicky chickpea and spinach soup, new recipe for us. My daughter and I will have it with rolls, my husband will likely put some leftover chicken in his, because without the rolls, he will still be hungry. I’ll tell you, he misses carbs. Getting older is no fun sometimes.
Fridays we do take out. We started this in 2020 to help our local restaurants, and we’ve stuck with it, mostly because by Friday, I am out of ideas. My husband cooks on the weekends.
Oooh that soup sounds really nice! I hope it works out great!
I admire you for being so interesting with your food! I don’t think I could shop daily for each dinner, I think that is fabulous that you do – so European!
I confess I am jealous of your appreciative family! I am cooking for four picky girls aged 2-6 (one of whom literally lives on peanut butter honey toast) and one husband who sometimes remembers to say thank you but at least does always eat what I make.
Well, that might change with age! Fingers crossed!!
All of your dishes look awesome – but the best part of all is the photo of Rex “helping” you in the kitchen!
He is SO HELPFUL!!! Especially when he lies against the cupboard I need to open!
This looks amazing! I love all the colours and veggies. I used to have a very similar structure. I’d make a soup/stew on Sunday for Monday + Tuesday dinner; Wednesday was a from scratch meat/potato/veggie meal; Thursday was something from the freezer (I regularly freeze leftovers); Friday was homemade oat waffles – so filling. And then Saturday and Sunday were fly-by-the-seat-of-our pants.
I am NOT a rigid recipe follower, but lately I think I’ve gone too far in the other direction. I plan day of, mostly now, and have gotten out of the habit of making soup on Sunday which was such a nice way to start the week. My husband is back to frequent work travel and we eat SO differently when I’m the only adult in the house (if I made a pot of soup we’d be eating it forever with just the kids and I), so I need to reevaluate and get back to this sort of rhythm but I do find it “comforting” in a way to follow a generalized pattern to weekly meals. The one thing that is currently very consistent is that we have wraps for Sunday lunch. Either scrambled eggs or a rotisserie chicken. Such a hit for everyone and I love knowing exactly what we’re going to eat every Sunday.
Yes, I find it very comforting to follow a routine – it’s nice to know what we are going to eat!
My maternal grandmother had a similar system, like J said above. Because of this, my mom will not eat a pork chop to this day! Ha! (In my mom’s defense, I had my grandmother’s pork chops, too, and I do not know how my mom made it through her childhood eating that once a week.)
We generally only cook 3-4 dinners every week and rely on leftovers for the rest. We also only have a handful of recipes that work for our limitations, so there’s a lot of recycling. *sigh* I wish I were able to just cook on the seat of my pants without following a recipe, but I find most of the stuff I make is flavorless or gets burned. I need more guidance than you do, clearly!
I wouldn’t be mad if that gorgeous guy were hanging out in the kitchen with me while I cooked.
Oh boy, you have so many limitations for your cooking. I think that sounds so difficult. We only have one and it’s hardly a limitation – my son is allergic to cranberries. As far as allergies go, it’s pretty easy.
The only set meal with have is pizza on Fridays. It’s takeout and homemade on alternate weeks. I like to vary meals, so when North asked me to make tofu sticks (they’re breaded and baked and a family favorite) I hesitated because I’ve made them sometime in the past month. I asked Beth if it was too soon to repeat them and she said no quite emphatically, so I guess I’m making them next week. With homemade applesauce if North gets their way.
Mmmm those tofu sticks sound delicious. I would love to be in your house for dinner – it sounds like you always have such delicious and creative things!
Love the structure and the reliance on whole foods… I guess I didn’t know you were vegan, Nicole! That would be difficult for us as the kids are allergic to nuts. We rely on eggs for protein a whole lot. I make everyone (human and canine kids) eggs for breakfast, everyone is on their own for lunch, and then I like to make a nice dinner when I get off work. It’s my creative relaxation. Pulling together stuff from the fridge, pantry, and freezer and making something colorful to sit and eat with the people I love is kinda my favorite!
Also that banana tip is gold!! And Rex looks like the perfect taster/sous chef.
Well, I’m not strictly vegan – I do have a small amount of dairy, and if someone offered me a piece of cake I would not grill them as to the ingredients. But no meat, of course. I think it would be very difficult if I had a nut allergy – I eat a lot of nuts!
I love the image of you creatively pulling together a meal! I so admire that!
I admire the not strictness even more, Nicole :). I eat a lot of nuts too (especially now that my kids are old enough to know better) and will use them as a topping for protein if the main protein is not veggie. I really do love making stuff! But a lot of the time I take so many short cuts–yesterday’s protein was a can of black beans, the day before that was “veggie crab cakes” from the supermarket freezer. So basically all I made both days was a colorful salad to go with those things.
I clicked back to the disturbing truly disturbing main dish recipes. Let’s hear it for weiner pie! I know what we’re having for dinner tonight!!!!
On to today’s post! You know I’m all about seeing what other people eat and this was fascinating. I like the idea of pasta Monday, stir fry Tuesday, etc. And I’m your twin in storing ripe bananas in the freezer for my banana bread fiends. All banana bread in this house is required by law to be made as muffins. If we had a mini muffin pan, I’m sure the guys would only accept mini muffin banana bread.
BRB off to make another batch of the Caesar dressing…
OMG Birchy, I am so glad you clicked on that post. I mean. African Chow Main. What even. VERA’S WEINER PIE. My friend Jen and I laugh about that constantly – we often host dinner parties for our families and Vera’s Weiner Pie comes up always. That book is gold.
I recently made that pumpkin loaf into pumpkin muffins, and that almost started a revolution!
This is super interesting and informative. I would not complain if you invited me over for dinner. I wish I was better at cooking or steaming or preparing -that’s the word, vegetables like you are. I grew up eating veggies from a can. I’ve come a long, LONG way baby, but I could use some lessons from a plant-based person like yourself. I now have an air fryer too. I’ve made brussel sprouts in there several times. I love brussel sprouts. I need to come back when it isn’t so close to my bedtime to look closer at that salad with the quinoa and toasted chickpeas. That looks amazing.
I hosted another pasta party tonight. I treated myself to a GF frozen pizza as a late afternoon snack and it made my day. I didn’t mind dishing out all that awesome pasta to the basketball team kids. I am doing a roast in the crock pot tomorrow. I usually do that several times a winter, but haven’t done one yet. I was avoiding red meat, but I’m going to indulge. We also had sloppy joe’s last week. I do the same as Engie – cook a few times a week and then we enjoy the leftovers.
Aw, Rex. So cute.
I think you’d love dinners at my house – a lot of them can easily be made gluten free! I recently made mushroom fajitas in the air fryer and they were so good! I haven’t tried brussels sprouts but I bet they would be delicious.
I love this! I also have a rubric for meals but still manage to stress about it when I sit down to meal plan? ours is usually: Monday: some sort of tofu (usually Asian flavors); Tuesday: Mexican food (usually tacos); Wednesdays: Mediterranean type of food; Thursday: leftovers; Friday: pizza; Saturday: fish/rice/veggie; Sunday: either something SUPER simple or SUPER hard, depending on my energy level. It helps to think of “categories” of food to keep things somewhat varied and interesting.
Oh Katie, we are TWINSIES! I love it! We had tacos last night, which is always kind of fun!
All of your meals look delicious and I love that they are so veggie heavy! I often resort to frozen veggies when I am not feeling like shopping, or produce is to expensive etc. I will admit to just eating a bowl of veggies for dinner many a night! I have been helping a friend of mine with the kids and they do the same thing, taco night, pasta night etc. My night is Thursday and I do change it up but often it is a rice bowl with tofu and veggies, which the girls love. Yesterday they gave my air fryer turmeric tofu an 8 out of 10. 🙂
Ooooh air fryer turmeric tofu sounds divine! I like using some frozen veggies too – Superstore here has such great variety! I especially like using frozen edamame and peas.
Loved every word of this (and all the yummy photos and cute Rex pics) and really wish you would invite me over for dinner more often 😉 The Buddha bowl looks delicious! And I am very intrigued by your roasted broccoli. I looooove a roasted broccoli. You are also a saucer after my own heart. A bowl should be mostly sauce, in my opinion. Veggies and grains are just a vehicle for carrying sauce.
Oh Suzanne, that’s 100% it! Sauce sauce sauce. My husband likes to eat his rice plain, with all the veg on the side, and I don’t understand it at all. Why would you not pour all the sauce all over everything?
These all look awesome! I need to peel the bananas before I freeze them. Why haven’t I done this before?? I have a weird question. Does your tummy get upset from all the vegetables? Did you have to work up to that many vegetables all in one sitting? I want to start eating even more plant based but do find I have trouble digesting it all. Also, I totally remember that post from 4 years ago and tried out the weekly plan for sometime. Time to try it again!
Hmmm…no, I don’t get tummy upset but I have been eating this way for so long that maybe I’m used to it? Probably I did work up to eating that much but I honestly can’t remember. Dinners are by far my biggest meal of the day but I don’t get any indigestion or upset. Not to be TMI but all those veggies make a person very, um, regular?
My mouth is watering. Meals have been a bit ho-hum here…I think I may steal some inspiration from you. Also, I spy the kalamatas in your salad. But, if that were my salad, I’d have about 10x more feta.
I thought of you yesterday when I made salad and scooped out some kalamatas!!
I love all the pic and recipes & meal ideas in this post! I kind of want the world-ending roasted broccoli recipe….
I have never down a weekly rotation of meals but think it’s a great idea. When my fam was home I’d plan meals in my head during my Sunday long run, then shop and do some prep that day. It really helped to know what was on the menu each night.
And OH MY GOD those recipes. Ewww Weiner pie, and all the jellied salads- yuck. Never liked them and don’t think I’m going to start now!
I know, so gross!!!
I will try to write down the broccoli recipe; I had printed it off from The Kitchn, but I have made so many changes to it…I’ll write down what I do!
We could not be more alike about what we cook, but totally opposite about planning it. I’m fairly unstructured about what the next meal will be. I make a list of ideas about what we might eat in the next few days, buy the ingredients when I wander over to the grocery, then if/when the mood strikes I/we make the meal; if not, we make something else. Love the veggies with basmati rice and pan-fried tofu sprinkled with cashews recipe. Will add that to my list.
I so admire that way of doing things! It’s so light and breezy, as opposed to my iron-clad schedule. The stir-fry night is a huge favourite around here. Sometimes I vary the rice or noodles or sauce, but we all love a good stir-fry!
The bananas photo reminded me of a time a few months ago when I took some frozen marinated chicken breasts out to grill up for balsamic chicken pasta. Only to discover upon thawing that the marinated chicken was, in fact, old bananas.
Ha ha omg, this would be me. You always think you’ll remember what things are as they go in the freezer, and then they’re all frozen and opaque and who the hell knows.
Hahahaha oops!!!
Crawling out today for the first time this year to comment on my favorite blogs.
Your meal plan inspire me to explore more of the roasted vegetables for dinner. I have been quite unmotivated in the kitchen. I am now craving a good Greek salad so I Googled a recipe. I tend to look at salads as summer meals, but if you, in Canada, would eat a salad in the winter, why can’t I in San Diego? LOL
Ahhh…Rex. Our neighbors have a new dog that is the medium size of Rex. Sooo cute! I told my husband that this will be our next dog (not the Rex size but more of the medium size).
Yay for Greek salad and dogs! I do love a salad any time of the year – even in the cold Canadian winters! xo
I should do this. Why don’t I do this? I don’t require more variety in my food than this. I always end up phoning it in in the kitchen in January, being exhausted from baking a million cookies and cooking stuff in December, but I’m starting to feel ready to step it up again. I should have a routine.
That’s the thing – I don’t require a huge amount of variety, so it works great!
YUM! This all sounds delicious, and looks delicious as well. I think this is a great idea, and really most people don’t require more variety than this. Why would you? Your family is lucky!
My meals are hit or miss (SO MAYBE I SHOULD TRY YOUR SYSTEM AND ONLY MAKE THINGS THAT I KNOW WILL BE GOOD) but last night I made a curry from Minimalist Baker. It was a yellow curry with mango, and I added tofu and broccoli to her recipe. It was really good, and even my daughter liked it.
Oh, maybe I should try that! I haven’t had much luck with Minimalist Baker, but maybe I’ve tried the wrong things!
I started meal planning when my daughter was a toddler and it changed my life! Seriously, I never knew how much stress trying to come up with dinner ideas at 3pm were until I took it out of my life. We have tacos on Tuesdays, homemade pizza on Fridays. The rest of the days are planned out each week on Thursday before I go grocery shopping. I usually try to add in one crock pot meal (scheduled for a busy night) and a soup (winter) or salad (summer). We usually eat out 1x per week too. People think I’m crazy to plan but I don’t care! It’s a total game changer-for my mental health, our food budget, and our health. I also have a list of super quick meal ideas that I always keep ingredients on hand for, for the nights when I’m too tired to cook or stick to the plan. I usually bake bread once a week and a sweet on Fridays. When they are gone, that’s it, no more until next week. It keeps us from overindulging too much!
You and I are so much on the same page! I feel anxious just THINKING about not knowing what dinner would be at 3pm. So stressful! I cannot work in those conditions! I should bake bread more; there is nothing so good as homemade bread!
I love that you constantly make the same (at least type) of dishes each day of the week and they love them all! How satisfying to feed happy people! I’m not that consistent with my days, but I make about 10 things pretty consistently and I also get “thanks” at each meal, which makes it gratifying. I’m Team ‘Meat As A Side Dish’ and it’s hard to ‘hide’ that from the Carnivore in the house.
So, no Vera’s Weiner pie this week? :0
Vera’s Weiner pie NEXT week for sure *dies*
I will say that my husband is like your Coach, in that he LOVES grilling! And of course, all the grilling is meat. Although he will do veggies for me, during the summer he loves making things like brisket or pulled pork for himself and the boys!
I only cook for myself, and I think that makes cooking just annoying in general because most recipes make SO many leftovers when it’s just me. My new strategy is to make one big meal on Sundays that I can have as leftovers for lunch throughout the week, and then do 2 chicken dishes on Monday/Tuesday, breakfast for dinner on Wednesday, and then pizza on Thursdays. Chicken dishes are easy for me because I can portion out the chicken and then just make whatever the recipe calls for with just the one chicken breast. I like variety in my meals but I do like your idea for having a specific “theme” for every day. That would definitely help with my decision fatigue when it comes to dinner!
Cooking for one person is very hard! So many recipes are huge!
I love your routine, Nicole. We rotate the same “type” of meals every week as well (right now, there’s at least 2-3 soups in rotation every week) and I do not mind the meal planning at all. We’re not picky eaters and can tweak our recipes pretty easily. We do a lot of pan sheet roasting (like you) because it’s just so easy and convenient (and also, healthy, because it really only requires the vegetable and some spices).
Pan sheet meals are so great! I am going to be roasting a ton of asparagus tonight in just that way!