Why oh why is meal planning so difficult for me? Please tell me I’m not alone in this struggle.
Really…
tell me…
pretty please…
*sigh* Okay, maybe I am alone after all. At least that’s how it feels. In my head, I know that it’s as simple as picking something out and buying the items you need to make it. I mean, I see people (online) do it all the time. They even do a month at a time! A month! I don’t even know what I want to eat on Tuesday. How do I know what I’ll be in the mood for three Tuesdays from now.
Let’s just tell it like it is. In reality, I over think this whole meal planning thing to D.E.A.T.H. Like, chop it’s head off, bake it, grill it, sauté it, then run it over with my car. It’s my inability to make a decision that causes this over thinking. I tell my husband that it’s a good thing I got married when I was young and carefree because they way I over think something as simple as meal planning, I don’t think I’d ever be able to decide who/when to get married!
If knowing what the problem is, is half the battle, then why the heck isn’t it any easier?! I know that I just need to make a decision, but I find something wrong with every recipe. It’s too fatty…next…the kids won’t like it…next…too complex…next…too simple…next…yuck, I don’t like mushrooms, peppers, carrots, etc….next, next, next!!!!
However, the flip side of not being able to meal plan is that it causes us to eat out or scrape together meals at home that are quite possibly worse than if I would have just made a decision and prepared a meal in the first place!
It’s a vicious cycle.
So, I am trying my hand at meal planning again. And when I say trying my hand, I actually mean, I spent hours searching for the perfect print your own meal planning sheet, but couldn’t find one. Then I decided to make one.
Open Photoshop…spend an hour creating a so-so meal plan sheet…print it out…now it’s time to actually eat so I have to stop meal planning and figure out what we’re going to eat.
vicious.cycle.
K, so I’ve got my meal plan sheet. I WILL plan some meals. Maybe only 2 or 3, but a girls gotta start somewhere, right?
Here’s my weekly meal plan I made. I’m sure I’ll hate it in a week or so. Heck, there’s stuff I would change about it now. But sometimes I have to stop myself from over thinking and just leave it be.
Click this link to download the PDF
Just to make a point of how insane I make myself, a FB friend said she just planned a month of dinners using her iPad and iPhone with the menu-planner app.
I immediately downloaded it.
Head – meet – desk. O_o
What was I thinking?!
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