I am possibly, slightly obsessive about planning meals. I am alternately completely reactive and impulsive about meals. Here's the deal, as the divorced mother of three and part-time stand in mom to two of my partner's children I have to come up with clever ideas to feed either 1, 2, 4, 5 or 7 people...daily.
Holidays and birthdays are a big deal for me because I remember the traditions and breaks from tradition of my own childhood. I want to be sure that these kids know how important they are to me and that they are eating well every day. So I vowed to pack lunches for my kids for as long as they will take them to school. Even on the most hectic, screwed-up-plans kind of morning I make a point of covering all the basics in their Little Lunches and send them off knowing that when they open it up later in the day a part of home and mom is in that box.
Today my best friend and I sat across from each other at her dinner table for three hours while she mapped out her family's exact meals for the next two weeks. I had been feeling pretty good that with a well stocked pantry and a general plan - chicken on Wednesdays and Saturdays, pizza on Thursdays, pork on Tuesday, pasta on Mondays, left overs on Fridays and football food on Sunday I had my month planned out. There is something very reassuring about having some structure to the family table when our day in and day out life feels like a constant patchwork of juggling priorities and schedules.
What do you do to plan your family's meals?
Holidays and birthdays are a big deal for me because I remember the traditions and breaks from tradition of my own childhood. I want to be sure that these kids know how important they are to me and that they are eating well every day. So I vowed to pack lunches for my kids for as long as they will take them to school. Even on the most hectic, screwed-up-plans kind of morning I make a point of covering all the basics in their Little Lunches and send them off knowing that when they open it up later in the day a part of home and mom is in that box.
Today my best friend and I sat across from each other at her dinner table for three hours while she mapped out her family's exact meals for the next two weeks. I had been feeling pretty good that with a well stocked pantry and a general plan - chicken on Wednesdays and Saturdays, pizza on Thursdays, pork on Tuesday, pasta on Mondays, left overs on Fridays and football food on Sunday I had my month planned out. There is something very reassuring about having some structure to the family table when our day in and day out life feels like a constant patchwork of juggling priorities and schedules.
What do you do to plan your family's meals?