WEBVTT - Meal planning made simple 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.360 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio. 0:00:09.480 --> 0:00:13.920 Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.680 Today's tip is about how to reduce the mental effort 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:21.960 of answering the question what's for dinner. As the school 0:00:22.040 --> 0:00:25.959 year starts, lots of families find themselves with very full schedules. 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:29.200 No one likes coming home from work or school and 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:32.440 standing in front of a fridge of mismatched ingredients and 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:36.880 making a decision when hungry about what to eat. While 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:39.479 the easiest solution might be to get take out or 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:42.440 delivery every night, I know a lot of families value 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:45.360 home cooked meals, either because they tend to be healthier 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.839 or because they tend to be cheaper. If it's the 0:00:48.880 --> 0:00:51.519 case that it's a family value, then I'm going to 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:53.880 get up on my soapbox here and state that it 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:59.080 should not be any one family members responsibility. Making dinner 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.320 is a task that can be shared among any family 0:01:02.320 --> 0:01:06.520 members who are older than about twelve. That said, there 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.440 are situations where the planning, prepping, and cooking fall to 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:13.119 one family member. Today's episode is about how one family 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:16.080 in such a situation reduced the mental load on the 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:20.280 family cook our listener writes that the before Breakfast episode 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:24.399 on Taco Tuesday, which first aired in April nineteen, caught 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:27.600 her attention. I've been doing something similar for almost two 0:01:27.640 --> 0:01:30.440 years now, our listener rights, but with a twist, I 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:33.960 call it the eight day rotation. The eight day rotation 0:01:34.080 --> 0:01:36.600 came to be because her husband is in the military 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.560 and was deployed a few weeks after their fourth child 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:42.959 was born. Neighbors and friends delivered meals for a while, 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.600 but sadly meal trains don't continue forever. I needed a 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.280 way to make the task seems smaller, more manageable, less daunting, 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:54.880 our listener rights. Then she thought, I can think up 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.120 four meals that's not so bad, and I'll make double 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.320 so we can repeat them all that four nights. That's 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.600 more than a week done. Her eight day plan tends 0:02:04.640 --> 0:02:08.840 to be a rotating journey of fish, chicken, beef for pork, 0:02:09.200 --> 0:02:12.480 and vegetarian. At the beginning of the month, she lays 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:15.919 out the eight day rotation. She builds in off days 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.320 to order pizza, have breakfast for dinner, or get carry 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:22.760 out because life is happening and grocery shopping or cooking 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.960 are not, she says. She tries to plan out leftover 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.080 meals on the days she won't have time to cook, 0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:30.800 and cooking on the days when she does have extra time. 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:33.840 Knowing what's for dinner, and that she only has to 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.880 cook four out of every nine or ten days means 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.360 my mental space is so much freer, she says. I 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:42.600 think this could definitely work for a lot of families, 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:46.080 particularly if each category in the eight day rotation is 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:49.320 fairly set. You don't have to hunt through a library 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:52.880 of chicken recipes. You only have to figure out two. 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.640 Given the addition of takeout nights, this means that after 0:02:56.680 --> 0:02:59.040 eating the chicken recipe two nights in a row, you 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:02.040 wouldn't see it again for about twenty days. That seems 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.760 quite reasonable. While our listener says she sometimes cooks all 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.679 four meals simultaneously and then freezes the parts she won't 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:11.480 use until later in the rotation, I think people need 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.320 to figure out in their individual situations if this is 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:17.440 the best way to handle meal prep. I personally don't 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:19.120 like the idea of giving up a chunk of my 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.959 Sunday to cook for the week. However, if you've got 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:24.520 four small children underfoot and your partners on the other 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:26.920 side of the world for six months. Maybe it's more 0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:28.840 appealing to send them over to a neighbors for an 0:03:28.880 --> 0:03:31.160 hour or two and knock out everything you can at 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:34.040 one time, rather than cooking with them around on any 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.280 busy weeknight. Finally, I just add a note that I 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:40.560 think we can be flexible about what's considered home cooking. 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:45.360 Food doesn't have to be elaborate. A supermarket rotisserie chicken, 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.040 a bagged salad, and a microwave in the bag package 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.920 of green beans is totally meal and it can be 0:03:51.960 --> 0:03:53.760 on the table in less time than it takes to 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.200 enter a delivery order on one of those apps. Angel 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.920 hair pasta cooks in just a few minutes, which means 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.240 adding a jar of sauce and one of those brilliant 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:05.360 bagged salads also gets you dinner and under fifteen minutes, 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:07.760 including the time it takes your water to come to 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.840 a boil. Pre chopped veggies, cooked and eggs is dinner 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:14.520 in about ten minutes to or go with pre cooked 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.680 shrimp in a dipping sauce in a microwavable bag of veggies. 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:22.919 Convenient food is still food for most of us. The 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.599 point is to eat together rather than to channel Julia Child. 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:30.960 In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening and 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:39.719 here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody, 0:04:39.920 --> 0:04:42.039 I'd love to hear from you. You can send me 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.719 your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:50.160 me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:55.160 that's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D. 0:04:56.040 --> 0:04:58.880 You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.520 podcast at heart media dot com. That Before Breakfast is 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.320 spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:13.440 look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.680 production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:20.599 heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:22.760 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.