I know you’ve seen it…the meme that says, “Who knew the hardest part of being an adult was figuring out what to cook for dinner every night for the rest of your life before you die!” That is SO spot on it’s not even funny. It is SUPER hard to constantly figure out what to cook for dinner…I’ve definitely felt this struggle.
I do have a great blessing in that whatever I cook, my husband will almost always eat (except he doesn’t like vinegary things and I sometimes forget). But when I was tired of choosing the recipes every week and would ask, “Hey, what do you want for dinner this week?” I’d get, “Whatever.” And the decisions were right back in my lap.
It’s a big responsibility to make dinner…like the meme says, “every night for the rest of your life.” Just the cooking is hard enough, but the planning and shopping get added to that as well. What can you do to lighten the load of all those decisions?
Menu plans
There are a gazillion menu plans (with shopping lists) out there for purchase or even free (like Erin Chase’s $5 Meal Plan or iheartumami.com’s free Paleo/Whole30/Low Carb meal plan). There are also cookbooks arranged like menu plans (like Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely – this is a paid link).
There’s only one problem with these plans for me. I get one and end up not liking half the recipes. Which means then the shopping list doesn’t help me because all the ingredients from the recipes I don’t want to make are still on the list.
The answer: your own menu plans
Everyone has their own recipes they like to make…family favorites that you know you like to have periodically. Put 7 together with an eye for variety, and you’ve got a menu plan.
If you can pull together several menu plans and make the shopping lists to go along with them, you can just re-use those (with an occasional new recipe now and then). There’s no law that says it’s got to be a completely new menu plan every week for the rest of your life. So make it easier on yourself!
“Rinse and repeat”
Now that I have 6 menu plans, I can go for a while before having to make any hard choices. I actually have 12 plans but 6 include easier, faster shortcut recipes which really helps. But this week, I felt like using an old favorite that includes some things that take a little more work. My choice…but all I had to do was print off the shopping list and go. No more being paralyzed with indecision!
How do you deal with this kind of decision fatigue? Share in the comments below!
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- Want more depth on menu planning? Get details here.
