I am obsessed with these meal plan and grocery aids! They are AMAZING!
Most weeks, I try to shop on the weekend so we’re ready to roll by Monday. This weekend was full of all sorts of coming-out-of-Covid-back-into-normal-life events, so the groceries didn’t happen. Not only were there still no groceries by Monday night, there was also little bandwidth.
Do you have those days? Where you are able to look ahead and tell it’s going to be a low-bandwidth type of week?
I’ve come to realize that’s not a bad thing. There’s no shame in recognizing not every week will be the same and that we will have more energy to throw at some weeks than others. The trick is to see it in advance and work with it, not against it. I also recognize that my eating choices are far more often shaped by my pre-planning than by my motivation. If I have a plan, I will work it. Without one, I may find myself driving through Cook-out and wondering what happened.
So Monday night with my kids’ help (and to get buy-in from them) I scratched out a low-bandwidth meal plan and raced to the store to get it over with. This was my criteria:
Extremely low preparation and cooking times
At least a couple fruits and vegetables (even if I just peeled an orange or sliced a cucumber)
Quick-prep but at least moderate-quality protein
Meals that were more than just carbs
Some meals met my criteria better than others. Here’s my meal plan for this week:
MONDAY: Soup and sandwiches / with sliced cucumbers, oranges, peach, sliced red peppers
TUESDAY: Rotisserie chicken and caesar salad kit / with sliced fruit & veggies
WEDNESDAY: Salmon and broccoli / with simple salad (YES, salmon is easy enough to make on a low-bandwidth week! Cooking salmon requires ALMOST NO WORK! Let me know if you want the recipe.)
THURSDAY: Tortellini, green beans, sliced ham / with other fruit and veggies
FRIDAY: Make-you-own flatbread pizza / with sliced fruit & veggies
SATURDAY: Leftovers, maybe fish sticks if there’s not enough
SUNDAY: Breakfast for dinner: sliced ham, eggs, 1/2 English muffin / with sliced fruit and veggies
If I work this meal plan, it means I can also make lunch salads very easily with the salmon, rotisserie chicken or the ham. And our fridge is full of easy-to-grab fruit (like grapes, blueberries, bananas, carrots, etc) and pre-washed veggies in bags that literally only take three minutes to steam in the microwave.
Voila!
Next time you are having a low-bandwidth week, don’t just try to power through or feel shame about it - work with where you are and give yourself the gift of a plan (so you don’t have to think about it later)!
