I have mentioned at length how much I cook; until we went to Mexico, I had cooked dinner every single night from October through January. We rarely eat out, and although everyone in the house CAN cook, and when it comes to other meals they DO cook, but I am the only one who makes dinners. There are reasons for this, I’m sure, but I can’t think of what those reasons are right now.
It’s not the cooking per se that is exhausting, it’s the planning and the ingredient list-making and the grocery shopping, am I right? I am a person who makes a meal plan for the week and then sticks to that meal plan; I have done this for many, many years as the thought of deciding what to make for dinner at five o’clock fills me with dread and anxiety. I’m just not a Go With The Flow, What Do We Feel Like Eating sort of person. I need A Plan.
I have talked about my Weekly Meal Plan before, but it’s changed a little since we have moved. For one thing, I have had a bit more time during the day, and I don’t have to think about how to incorporate things into school lunches. I’ve gotten a bit more experimental in general, although I think I could get a little more lively. Birchy (HI BIRCHY) had mentioned that she has a goal of ten new recipes for 2024, and while I don’t have that exact goal, I am trying to add new things to my arsenal of tried-and-true regulars. I will take any and all suggestions you may have!
I’m not unique, I don’t think. It feels like collectively we are all constantly fatigued when it comes to meal planning and the actual creation of those meals. I thought I’d share with you what I made for dinner last week, and approximately how long it took to make those meals. I don’t include cleanup time – one or two of the guys always clean up after dinner, but I am also a clean-as-you-go person who cannot abide having piles of bowls and pans while I cook, so I do wash dishes frequently throughout the day. I also wanted to distinguish between active cooking time and passive cooking time; I don’t really count the latter because I can read or do something else while vegetables are roasting. Also, I don’t know what your tastes are – personally, I roast vegetables until they are charred and crispy, but I stir-fry them just so that they are only slightly cooked. I’m an enigma when it comes to vegetables, what can I say, but the point is, we all like things done in different ways, so this is just a general peek into my methodology. At the same time, it is a source of irritation for me when a recipe says that it takes only twenty minutes, but those twenty minutes don’t include vegetable chopping, sauce making, or other vital processes to the meal. I guess I could have left the preparation time out altogether and saved us all this long and boring explanation.
For those of you who are new (HI NEW FRIENDS!) I eat plant-based – vegan mostly, with some small amounts of dairy – and the guys eat meat. I don’t make separate meals and I never have; instead, I make a plant-based meal and then sometimes cook meat to be served on the side. Sometimes the meal is completely plant-based, and on one day – Sunday – I make a meal that is meat-based, and I eat only the side dishes. Sundays are also Dessert Days; I think they deserve a special sweet treat.
Monday
We arrived home from Mexico last Sunday night, to a clean house and an empty refrigerator, which called for a big grocery trip. Wednesday is usually Grocery Day around here, stemming from a habit I created back when I taught classes every morning but Wednesday, but obviously I had to make an exception this week, unless we wanted to eat nothing but peanut butter for two days. Grocery Day is a great day to make a variation of Suzanne’s Fall Salad (HI SUZANNE), which I have made many times, somehow differently each time. This time I roasted chickpeas and sweet potatoes, added crispy quinoa, candied pecans, dried blueberries, and chevre crumbles, with a maple dijon dressing. While the quinoa was cooking, I peeled and chopped the sweet potatoes, tossed them and the chickpeas in olive oil and sprinkled them with salt and pepper, which took about 15 minutes. It took another 5 minutes to make the dressing and another 5 to spread out the quinoa on a baking sheet to crisp in the oven; candied pecans take about 15 minutes, and then it takes another 5 to put it all together. That’s 45 minutes JUST for the salad, not including roasting time and also the hours that I leave the rinsed and drained chickpeas on a tea towel to dry out before roasting them; this is an easy trick to get nice crunchy chickpeas. In other words, this is a good meal to make if you have some time and are home for a few hours, otherwise, maybe not. I also put some chicken thighs in the air fryer for the guys and sliced up a baguette, both of which took maybe 5 minutes total. Total active time: let’s call it 50 minutes. Add in roasting time for the chickpeas, quinoa, and sweet potatoes, which is another 50-60 minutes total.
Tuesday
Tuesday night is typically stir-fry night, mostly because I always like to use up all the veggies before Grocery Day. Even though I’d already bought groceries, I still felt like having a stir-fry; I made a teriyaki sauce based on a recipe from Vegan Richa‘s Everyday Vegan cookbook, and served it with basmati rice and pan-fried tofu, adding cashews on top. The veggies took about 15 minutes to chop, the rice takes a few minutes to rinse before cooking, and the sauce itself requires cooking to thicken and takes close to 25 minutes to make. The veggies and tofu do need active hands, and they take about 15 minutes, which I do while the rice cooks. Total active time: 55-60 minutes. Again, a good meal to make if you have a bit of time.
Wednesday
Pasta night! The thing I love about pasta night is the sauce, and to maximize my sauce consumption I roast a cauliflower to eat along with the pasta. This was an easy meal because I had sauce in the freezer from a batch I had made a few weeks back. I also had some meatballs in the freezer for the guys, which I just bake in the oven. It takes about 10 minutes for me to chop up a cauliflower, and probably about 5 minutes total to toss the pieces in olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put it in the oven alongside the meatballs. I’m going to say that heating up the sauce and boiling the water for pasta takes maybe another 5 minutes, and so total active time for this meal – thanks to Past Nicole, who put things in the freezer – is only about 20 minutes, plus cauliflower roasting time.
Thursday
This is by far the easiest and fastest weeknight meal in my arsenal: tortilla wraps. I cut up veggies and avocado, I put a couple of chicken breasts in the air fryer for the guys to slice up and add to their wraps, and I put out shredded cheese and salsa for those who wanted it. The total active time for this is maybe 10 minutes. It’s perfect for a Thursday night when it feels like the week has been busy and tiring and is it Friday yet? No? Okay, tortilla wraps it shall be.
Friday
My favourite night of the week! I could eat this meal every single day for the rest of my life, happily. Greek salad with hummus and pita, and, of course, Friday night wine. I also put some chicken in the air fryer, and for those of you who are wondering, I have a double air fryer in which one side is reserved for meat only, and the other side for vegetables. I get a lot of use out of it; it is an easy way to cook meat without having to actively cook meat. In any case, this week I made hummus, which takes probably 15 minutes, most of which are me gathering the ingredients before putting everything in the food processor. The salad itself takes 10 minutes, between chopping the veggies and making the dressing. Usually I buy mini pitas, but they didn’t have them this week, so I sliced up regular-sized ones, which took a few minutes. Total active time: 30 minutes.
Saturday
What can I say, I was missing guacamole, and I had bought a bag of avocados on Monday that ripened perfectly for this week – two were ripe on Thursday, and four on Saturday. I consider that a sign from the universe. I roasted sweet potatoes and red peppers, sauteed black beans with some cumin, coriander, chili powder, and lime, and then whipped up a batch of guacamole. It makes a perfect burrito! Total active time is about 35 minutes: 10 minutes for the guac (not including sampling it with chips), 10 minutes to chop the vegetables, and 15 minutes to rinse and drain the beans, and then sauté them. Somewhat fun story: we call these enchiladas in our house even though they are not enchiladas. Years ago I had made them into actual enchiladas, with cheese and sauce, for a friend who was going through cancer treatment at the time, and I made them for our family without the cheese and sauce, and without baking them. Still we call them enchiladas.
Sunday
This is the only day that I make a meat-centric meal, which this week was a roast pork with gravy, the active time of which is about 20 minutes. I also make an amazing roasted broccoli dish, which I long ago adapted from a recipe on The Kitchn website, a Caesar salad, and crispy roasted potatoes. Chopping time for the lettuce and veggies is about 20 minutes total; the dressings for the broccoli and salad take another 20 minutes, plus 5 minutes for toasted breadcrumbs. Assembling all of the dishes is another 5 minutes, which is a total of 70 minutes of active time, plus a lot of waiting-for-everything-to-cook time.
But wait! There’s more!
I came across this sweet little product around Christmastime but never used it until last weekend. Friends, let me tell you about strawberry daiquiri pie, a dessert that actually does take only ten minutes to make, albeit it needs a couple of hours to set. I make a graham cracker crust with coconut oil – just stir 1/4 cup melted coconut oil into 1 1/4 cups graham crumbs and squish the mixture into a pie pan – and then I whirred 3 cups thawed frozen strawberries and a can of this sweetened condensed coconut milk in my food processor, poured it into the crust, froze it for a couple of hours, and added a quick chocolate sauce for serving. YES.
Two things have become obvious here: a) I really like roasted vegetables, and b) I don’t mind cooking meat too much as long as I can use virtually hands-off processes. I know a lot of vegan friends won’t allow meat into their homes, but I’m pretty easygoing about the whole thing. We are all on our own journeys, people, and the guys in my house, well, their journeys include meat. I do have separate pans and serving utensils for meats, though, I can only be so easy-breezy.
I guess one more thing is obvious, and that is that I love dessert. It’s February, after all, and pink desserts are de rigeur. I hope you are having a delicious day! xo
Well now I’m hungry.
Cooking takes so much time. But it’s the prep – planning, shopping, putting things away, pulling things out, chopping, washing – that is where the real time sink comes in to play.
I’m trying to see cooking as a gift not a burden; having access to ingredients, being able to afford food, have flexible time to cook…but it can be a real drag sometimes.
Tonight we’re celebrating my mom’s birthday and I’m making roast beef FOR PERHAPS THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE (why would I try something new on a special occasion? Because I’m crazy/stupid?), Yorkshire puddings (for the FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE), and a carrot cake (I’ve made this many times so I’m quite confident in that). We’ll have slow roasted carrots and onions, whipped potatoes, and coleslaw on the side. I hope it’s all delicious and that there are many leftovers so I don’t have to cook tomorrow.
I am loving the Curried Chickpea Salad I posted today (from Birchie). It is knock-your-socks-off delicious. Yesterday I made it in the food processor – just pulsing things – and it was a fraction of the work and just so darn delicious.
Oh, good luck! I have made roast beef lots of times, but never yorkshires. My mom makes them and they are so good, but I have never learned. I probably should! Happy birthday to your mom!
I’m impressed that you cook EVERY SINGLE DAY. You never eat out! Fridays are takeout nights for us, so at least I get a break once a week. Your meals all look delicious (I’m drooling over that stir fry!)
I have tried to get my husband to cook a little, but for various reasons it doesn’t really work out. As a result, I can be a little cranky about mealtimes. Yesterday I decided to cook a huge batch of chili, which it turned out my husband wasn’t super enthusiastic about. He asked if he could add a Beyond Sausage to his, and I was like “You can do anything you want. You can cook yourself a whole separate dinner and it won’t hurt my feelings. But if you’re eating what I cook, it’s chili. And we’ll be having it tomorrow and the next day as well.” I know. I’m a jerk. But I’m over it!
Wow, that strawberry pie!!! I’ve seen the plant-based condensed milks but didn’t know what to do with them- now I know!
I don’t think you’re a jerk at all. I have a problem when people do not appreciate other people’s culinary efforts, which I should hasten to say isn’t a thing that happens in this house, the guys are all very grateful (AND THEY SHOULD BE, JENNY, I AM COOKING MEAT OVER HERE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD). If you’re not cooking, you don’t get to complain, I say.
The strawberry pie could not be easier!
I freaked poor Oldest out when he was probably around 5 (not certain but I know Youngest wasn’t born yet). I don’t really enjoy cooking but due to logistics at the time I had to make dinner almost every night for months and I was so tired of it. Anyway, we’d been working with Oldest on politely saying he perhaps preferred other dinners, but it wasn’t sticking. That night he said something like this is gross or disgusting or I don’t know what. I just couldn’t take it. I stormed out, got in the car, and left. I just drove aimlessly for like 30 minutes. After that Oldest (and eventually Youngest) were much kinder about things they perhaps didn’t prefer. I’m fine if folks don’t love whatever I’ve made, but unless they want to make dinner for everyone themselves, they need to not be a PITA about it.
Maggie, same! You can state preferences for sure – but don’t be a dick about it!
Everyone in my house cooks dinner, but I am still the main cook. I cook 4-5 dinners a week. I appreciate the breaks on the days I don’t, but it still seems like a lot sometimes. I also do most of the menu planning and all the dishes. But Beth is the main grocery shopper. She does the big Sunday shop and if we run out of things mid-week, she and I are about equally likely to run to the store, or occasionally one of the kids will go.
Today is Thursday, which is North’s cooking night. I think they’re making tortellini.
This is what I made last night, served with fake Italian sausage for the 3 out of 4 people who like it, buttered rice with parsley for the kids, and similarly dressed cauliflower rice for the parents.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/recipes/crispy-parmesan-smashed-broccoli/
Oooh tortellini! I can’t see the recipe because it’s paywalled BUT it sounds really delicious! I wonder if it is similar to my recipe.
I used to do all the dishes, or the boys did when they didn’t have homework (rare) but now that R is retired and J is not in school, they do all the cleanup. M also, on the occasions that he is home. I think the meal planning is the most tiring of all the things, though.
It’s pretty simple. You just steam some broccoli florets, put them on top of little piles of parmesan, smash them flat, brush with oil, pepper, and garlic powder, and roast.
Oooooh I am totally going to try that.
p.s. That pie looks great!
Have you never heard of pizza Fridays? Haha just kidding, I am impressed. I would love your version of the roasted broccoli recipe, looks so good. We tend to do Mexican food one night, a salad with grilled chicken one night, a pasta dish one night, a rice dish one night (usually Asian or Indian inspired) and then pizza. Saturdays are for leftovers or something kid friendly and easy as it’s our date night, and Sunday I also usually make a good meat-centric meal. I haven’t been great about making desserts lately, but I do bake muffins most weekends 🙂
Ha! No one is too into pizza around here, to be honest – the guys would eat it, and I can’t really tolerate mozzarella so I would have to find a place with vegan cheese, or omit it all together – but no one LOVES it, if you can believe it.
Those meals look amazing! 😋
Planning meals, shopping for ingredients and cooking is part of what I do as a career, so I don’t mind it. I actually enjoy most of it, except when I can’t seem to balance the spices for a future recipe (biryani), so I test it every week for the past 4 weeks. And my family has to eat it 3 times every week (I make a big batch each time). 🙈 But I am not giving up until I get it right.
And then a recipe like paleo brownies turns out delicious in one try. It had to be a dessert, of course, that works out right away.
I am too bothered by recipes that don’t give the real prep and cooking time. This is why I try to give the exact time in all my recipes.
I use the same coconut milk to make homemade Rafaello. Only 3 ingredients and so delicious!
I keep trying to comment on your paleo brownies and for some reason the site won’t let me! I think it must be a mistake on my end because I have commented before. But what I wanted to say was I AM GOING TO TRY THOSE. Maybe with less eggs though, that’s more than I like to use. I’ll report back!
Oh, it drives me CRAZY when a recipe says that it is “ready in 10 minutes” when there is no universe in which it could possibly be ready in that amount of time.
I checked everything on my end and it looks like there should be no issues commenting.
If you make the brownies with less (or no) eggs, I would try flax eggs instead. I haven’t tested this option, so I’m not sure if it will work. But this would be my first choice in replacing the eggs.
I shall try again! It wouldn’t let me log in for some reason, but I shall persist! I love your site and you have the yummiest things on it.
Because of boring reasons, my husband has been in charge of dinner twice this week (by in charge I mean he reheated leftovers one day and was in charge of putting squash in the oven another day) and he has been acting like I have asked him to do the most onerous task in the world and I’m over here like I do this every day, yo. Anyway, back to NGS in charge now, I guess. In his defense, he is almost entirely in charge of dishes and cleaning up my messes in the kitchen, so…
Honestly, I don’t know how people with small children do it. By the time I get home, walk the dog, and exercise, it is time to make and eat dinner. How do people fit in parenting time and the like? I don’t understand how time works.
Engie, I feel you. I remember back when I injured my hip, the boys clubbed together and made dinner, and they were like “wow, it’s so much work!” YES IT IS. That was the first time I think they really realized it? But also – the PLANNING is so much for me.
When my kids were small, well, I didn’t work at all so that’s how I did it! That’s not exactly a feasible solution though.
Well fiddlesticks, this post wasn’t in my Feedly either, I only found it because I came to read your responses to the comments I made on the last 2 posts. Feedly seems very temperamental. But your posts seems to show up within 1-2 days so it seems less of a problem compared to what San experienced (I’d get big batches of her posts all at work, sometimes many days after she had posted). Anywho…
I would like to come and live in your house. You boys are so very lucky! All of your meals look and sounds delicious – and so wholesome, too! I used to do all of the meal planning, grocery shopping, and cooking but since having kids, Phil and I meal plan together (and lately he has done the bulk of the meal planning), he grocery shops, and I cook. The meal planning was causing me such mental fatigue so just getting suggestions from him makes a huge difference!
Right now our kids eat something different from us 80% of the time. I feel like a failure for having to say that, but it is what it is. We get home from work around 5-5:15 and the boys are STARVING monsters so I try to get them fed asap so the benefit of our sanity. Then I will simultaneously make something for Phil and me, or we eat leftovers. I’m so glad I can WFH 2 days/week although on Mondays I take Paul to karate at 5 so I lose the time slot for cooking… which means i basically need to make dinners Fri-Sun and then we live on leftovers or super fast meals like tacos on weekdays. Life just feels like a giant jenga or tetris game these days w/ the kids at their ages but it’s probably only going to get more complicated as they get involved in sports and such!
I wish I knew more about Feedly and how to fix things! I’ll see if I can look into it.
Oh gosh, Lisa, you are so busy so I can really see how feeding them early is the only solution. Feeding young kids in general is kind of fraught no matter what. But remember – there will be a time after this! One day they will be teens and they will eat literally anything that is even remotely edible! It’s the most gratifying thing ever. My older son is home for dinner on Sundays and is always so grateful for the meal, after a week of dining hall choices.
Nom nom strawberry daiquiri pie!!!
Sigh, why does dinner have to be every damn day? I put up a good campaign to get the fellas to plan and cook meals, but I’ve pretty much given up on it. It does, for the most part fall on me. Oh well. It’s true that I’m trying to get some new foods in front of the fellas, but I’m also really leaning into simple meals and making sure that Past Me keeps the freezer stocked for Present Me.
Oh yes, I remember the guys were cooking a lot in your house! Simple is great. I love simple! You especially need simple with NEW DOGGO!!!
I love to cook and don’t mind how long it takes, but I hate having to decide what to make! Husband is no help in this department.
I also do dishes as I cook so there is barley any clean up after dinner.
Same, same for roasted vegetables crispy and stir fry veggies barley cooked.
I had know idea there was vegan condensed milk!
Hi Jo!!!!! I was SO excited to see your name pop up! We agree so much on the veggies! I’m not surprised. The vegan condensed milk I found at Superstore in the baking aisle, just with the regular condensed milk and I may have squealed when I saw it. GAME CHANGER!!!
I feel as though I cook everyday, but I don’t. Date night is Friday,so we either go out or I make a charcuterie board with frozen appetizers. Saturday night it’s a free for all and Sunday is Big Salad Sunday, where I do a different ‘big’ salad on rotation (Greek, Mexican, Chinese,etc.) I’m on Pinterest and usually try a new entree recipe twice a week. I hate having the same thing all the time for dinner because I feel limited my breakfast and lunch choices since I’m low carb, low sodium, low sugar. I’ve got issues🤣. My substitutes are I eat cauliflower rice in place of the brown rice I make the fam and zoodles in place of pasta. I’m all about the avocados and roasted veggies, too!
I need to branch out more for sure – I like what I make but I want some new things in the rotation! I like your style!
Where would we be without avocado? We’d be sad, that’s for sure.
Your meal offerings are amazing. I make meals in the sense that I cook things in a crockpot and I follow directions for casseroles and I never stray from the listed directions or ingredients. I think your cooking style rivals that of a restaurant. I’m impressed but not surprised. Half of the veggies or ingredients you speak of, I am unfamiliar with. We are a meat centric family, for sure. I do not like hummus. I would like to get better at stir fry. I’m not great at buying vegetables and mapping out when to eat them. I either forget, or switch plans and then they aren’t great. We eat a lot of frozen veggies with our meals. The dessert looks awesome. I love dessert. Fast and easy dessert is even better.
You’re so sweet to say that, thanks Ernie! Very kind.
I love hummus but my younger son doesn’t at all. It’s a huge staple for me, I love chickpeas!
Nicole,
I’m totally with you on all the planning, grocery lists, grocery buying, etc. before actually cooking! With that said, I always encourage family to cook or help me out in the kitchen. Both my kids enjoy cooking — and I enjoy it when I have music playing or an extra pair of hands and company to help out! I enjoy making soups, beans, chili and stew and try to keep recipes as simple as possible. I also enjoy making grilled sandwiches. All of your culinary efforts look delicious! Mona
Well that sounds really lovely, Mona! It’s nice to have company in the kitchen too.
100% the planning and making the list are the parts of dinner every damned night that really wear me down. Some of this is because Youngest has soccer 3 nights a week – she’s old enough to have long evening practices (1.5-2 hours) So we have to plan around these practices and us getting home from work so I have to have a few meals that are actually quick to make or enough leftovers – both of which require planning. Also none of the people in my house but me are ok with eating the same things week in, week out. This means variety is needed – more planning. To be fair, H does meal planning some weeks too but it’s just the mental load of figuring out all of the moving parts is tiring. 20 years of meal planning and I’m ready to be done.
Oh, that’s a lot of soccer to plan around! I forgot what it’s like to plan around sports! It is EXHAUSTING!
I’m down to cooking 3 days a week, my (adult) daughter cooks once, we get takeout 1 night, and my husband cooks on weekends. Even then, I hate having to come up with what to cook for my 3 nights.
Tonight is my daughter’s night. She’s making pasta with lots of veggies for the two of us. My husband is low carb, so she’ll make him spaghetti squash and top it with some turkey pasta sauce that was in the freezer.
Sunday is super bowl, which for some reason we will be watching, even though none of us like football. (Go Niners!) My husband is making guacamole, and that is all I care about. Yours looks delicious!
Did you roll your burrito up like a…burrito? If you ate it like the picture shows, it’s a taco. Someone commented on my blog recently that they had NEVER had enchiladas. I cannot imagine such a life.
Oh, yes, I did roll it like a burrito, I just wanted to photograph it so you could see inside! Enchiladas are excellent, alas, that much cheese is too much for me, and vegan cheese is just sad. So burritos it shall be.
Your pasta night sounds lovely!
I figured you knew what a burrito was, but after the no enchilada comment on my blog, I feel like I am questioning reality.
Lololol I understand!
Oh my goodness, you make the most amazing dishes and your family is so lucky – and it sounds like they know it, which makes it even better! I love that you eat in a way that works for you without passing judgment on others who choose differently.
I have to admit that I’m not adventurous with recipes, and I get an upset stomach from even smelling an onion or garlic! Luckily, my husband likes simple, bland food, so we get along great!
Your pie recipe has intrigued me! I may not be adventurous, but I know a good thing when I see it!
Michelle, I love garlic but I am with you on onion. Actually, I don’t mind onion flavour, like onion seasoning, but an actual onion makes me recoil. Biting into a raw onion gives me the heebs. However, all three guys love onion but my rule is that they keep that separate and they cut it for themselves!
It sounds like you and your husband are a perfect pair for eating! That’s wonderful!
This post did not show up in my reader! But I am so happy to see it (saw the link on FB and was like WHAT; must read). Dinner every darn day— it is SO MUCH. We also have a rhythm. Love the idea of a story fry night— this is usually a crowd pleaser and everyone here is happy with build your own anything, so rice bowls would be huge. Everything looks delish!
It sounds like feedly is mad at me! I don’t use it so I am not sure how to fix it.
I love build your own whatever night. We used to do little pita pizzas but haven’t in forever.
ack! Your post didn’t show up in Feedly yesterday! Boo!
Dinner is the worst. THE WORST. And you do it so much more frequently than I do, Nicole! You are a dinner superstar.
You and I are also veggie twins: Roasted should be blackened and crispy. Stir fry should be crisp as veggies fresh from the fridge… just heated through. YUM.
YES EXACTLY. A mushy vegetable is a wasted vegetable IMO!
These meals all look great! Can I come to your house for dinner? I will do all the grocery shopping, putting away, and the dishes!! I live alone so I often just eat the same thing over and over and that does not really bother me. Some standbys are chicken, rice, veggie, something curry with coconut and beans, bean stews (they keep so well in the freezer and just get better with age!), soups, salads. I know it’s boring but I can get chicken out and then make five different meals on Sunday and eat them for the rest of the week.
I also go over to a friends house once a week to help her with the kids, and I am on dinner duty. I find it easiest to have a rotation of three or four meals, that way I never have to think too much about what I am making! The standbys here are lentils/rice/veggie, Japanese (i.e. miso soup, rice, veggie, salmon), taco bar, or if I am feeling motivated and we have time, make your own pizza (so easy and good for mixed palates!) I am also showing the kids how to make all of this stuff so that they will soon be making US dinner!
OMG YES you can come over for dinner, that would be so fun. I’ll expect you in, what…four days?
That’s such a nice thing to do for your friend! It sounds like it’s a big win for everyone!
Newish reader here, found you via Elisabeth’s lovely blog. I am also a girl in a boyhouse (although my boys are 4 and 7 so still in the very picky eater phase) and I don’t eat meat or fish, my husband does, but he doesn’t eat meat or dairy, so meal planning – fun times! Thanks for this post, love seeing the reality of another household’s meals for the week and the truth about how long all this cooking really takes!
Sorry, typo in the above, he does eat meat, he doesn’t eat gluten!
Hi Nina! So happy you’re here! Welcome! That does sound like a complicated food planning situation for sure. Let me give you the biggest ray of hope though, with boys that age – just wait a few years until they are in their hungry-all-the-time tween and teen phases, it is honestly so great. The picky eating days will be a thing of the past! I loved when my boys got older and suddenly they LOVED every single thing I make. My oldest is at university and when he comes home he raves about home cooked meals. It’s very gratifying!
I love roasted vegetables so much and my mind is blown at the thought of an air fryer that HAS TWO SIDES?!?!?! That would change my life (well, my lunches and dinners) in such an impactful way. I need to go consult Google, haha!
It is SO cool – it’s a Ninja, and having two sides is so convenient!
Nicole! ALL those meals look SO delicious! Nom-nom-nom. I’m the biggest eater in my house and tend to eat a lot–I could easily eat each of your veggie dishes all by myself! Weirdly, I like meal prep and cooking. Especially since I’m likely to cook whatever I find in the fridge+pantry and this takes the meal planning part out of it and also feels like a little culinary adventure. What in the world will I end up making 😀 ?
We do resort to what Suzanne has called “Ham Sandwich” (although we don’t eat ham) on days when I’m working too late to come home and cook though. It’s really not fair to you to have to go through months of being in charge of dinner without a single break!
(I started typing this yesterday and managed to finish it today. LOL Let’s see if the system will let me post it.)
It worked!
I would like to be more creative in my culinary adventures, but alas, I am not. I am not the biggest eater in the house – we are all pretty big eaters! – but I can definitely down an entire cauliflower on my own. I do that often actually!
I am also team roast-the-crap-out-of-the-veggies but barely stirfry them. I have also realized that I cannot cook a bunch of roasted vegetables and eat them as leftovers because *gag* mushy. I can cut them up and roast them the next day, though.
I am very cyclical when it comes to cooking. Sometimes I’m hugely into planning and prepping and cooking and sometimes Very Much Not. I can always just prepare several proteins to have in the fridge and make sure there are vegetables available though, and even when the kids are here they can work with that. Right now I can cook one thing and eat it for a week, especially when Matt’s away.
I know you’re a good cook and generally like cooking but that does seem like a LOT of nights cooking dinner.
IT IS A LOT OF NIGHTS COOKING DINNER.
I hate mushy vegetables, ugh. Although, I find I can eat roasted vegetables cold the next day, I don’t know exactly what that’s all about.
It all looks delicious. I don’t eat vegan but I adore all the ingredients you’ve used. How do you remember to take photos while you’re cooking? I get in the flow when I cook or bake, then after we’ve eaten while we’re cleaning up I say to myself: “oops, I could have slowed down enough to take some photos along the way” but I never do. Once in the zone I stay in the zone!
Ally, that is a good question. The answer is that I knew I was writing about it so I made a conscious effort to take pictures this week. However, I often forget which is why the Saturday photo is kind of crappy: I thought “oh no, I forgot to take a picture!” At that point I had already photos from M-F so I didn’t want to wreck the streak!
These meals look amazing! I love to cook but it’s a huge challenge in our home as my husband and I both work full time ++ hours and have relatively young kids. It’s so time consuming and I feel like when I do proper meal planning and prep on the weekend it takes up most of a day! So it’s a lot of weekday scrambles around here…. I am working on it.
Can you share where you bought the sweetened condensed coconut milk in kelowna? This looks like a perfect valentines dessert!
It is SO time consuming, not to mention working full time PLUS young kids! Whew.
I found this at the Superstore! It was in the baking aisle beside the regular evaporated milk. This is the Superstore on…Harvey? I can’t remember the street exactly, but it’s near the Costco and Orchard Park.
Thank you so much for this weekly meal overview.. I loved seeing what you make and how long it takes you to prepare. We also meal plan (have for years now and it seems so “easy” to me now) and have almost ZERO food waste (other than the occasional tomato or fruit or something like that), which I love the most about having a plan.
Jon and I like a lot of the same things, so we don’t really have to compromise a lot (although I eat a little less meat than he does). I think it’s great that you found a way to cook for different “food journeys” without making separate meals. I think that’s the way to go.
Yes, I think food planning is the key to zero food waste! I am the same – I like to use up what I have. Mind you, there is almost always a mini cucumber in the pack that goes mushy before I can use it…but other than that, I don’t throw out anything. I love that you and Jon have the same tastes! It makes dinner so much simpler.
You’re truly inspiring. I used to cook meals most days, but I fell out of the habit after Anna moved out. I think it is mainly due to the fact that the three of us have very different tastes and schedules. I prepared a large meal last week, and the next night I looked at my husband and daughter, like, WHAT? I just cooked last night. 🤣
Hahaha! Three schedules is a lot to manage!
Re: Feedly. I was having the same problem and reached out to Feedly about it. Apparently, there was some Google glitch that happened a week or so ago, which caused some delays. My post today went up as usual, so I’m hoping it’s all fixed! My Wednesday post didn’t show up until Friday afternoon – so annoying!
Anyway, I am just astounded that you cook every single day. I can barely be bothered to do it 2-3 times a week. I just don’t find it very enjoyable and much prefer takeout. I really struggle with cooking for myself on the weekends! That’s what I want to get better about.
THANK YOU for telling me about Feedly! I’m so glad I’m not the only blog!
Cooking for one is so very different than cooking for a family, and a family with such a diverse set of preferences. I really admire your ability to balance everyone’s needs, wants, preferences, etc. Also? Your meals are AMAZING. Goals, for sure. Question on the crispy quinoa – does that, well, last? I assume if I refrigerate it, then it un-crisps?? And, did you put something in your hummus? I thought it might be olives, or some other veggie? Anyway, thanks so much for sharing. I am here for the vegan recipes. 🙂
Thanks Anne! I have only kept the crispy quinoa for a day or two but it does last, amazingly enough, in an airtight container in the fridge. And yes, those are olives! I just pulse in a few at the end and it really ups the game for me.
Way behind on my reading, so not sure if you will see this comment, but I am the cook in my house and also a vegetarian in a home of meat-eaters, and my normal approaches are 1) meat free meals or 2) meat free meals but add prepared meat product for those who want it (precooked bacon, chicken tenders in air fryer, frozen meatballs microwaved, etc.) I am curious about your chicken in the air fryer method. What do you do to it/how long does it take/etc. I am so squeamish about raw meat. Also, do you have a recipe for your roasted broccoli dish? Thank you!
Hi Kim! Thanks so much for asking! First, the chicken. If it’s breasts, I put them in the air fryer for 12 minutes, flip, and then set it for another 12 minutes. I drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. If it’s thighs, then I generally cook them slightly longer because the packages are bigger and the air fryer is more full. It’s more like 13 and 13, and I melt butter and mix it with 1/2 tsp each paprika (smoked or regular), garlic powder, onion powder. I also add salt and pepper. The guys love both of these. I hear you about the raw meat thing. This has REALLY helped me because I just use a fork to pop them in, and then tongs to flip them.
Roasted broccoli: so I toss it in olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast at 400 for about 20 minutes. I add toasted breadcrumbs (1/4 cup browned in a little olive oil) and a dressing made by mixing together 1 tsp Dijon, 4 tsp lemon, 1 tbsp mayo (I use vegan mayo), 1/4 cup olive oil, 2 tbsp parm (if you eat parm), 1 clove garlic minced, 1/2 tsp each balsamic and soy sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Hope that helps!
Thank you! I am going to try these!!