Today was a normal sort of day for me. We were out the door by 7:40 though, which put a crimp in my plan to eat Grape-nuts instead of Carnation Instant breakfast, but that's okay. Then work without the kiddos since Kim has been taking them (which is so nice for all of us! Except maybe Kim...)
Breakfast: Carnation Instant Breakfast and a banana.
Snack: Red Bull
Lunch: Beef tamale and some BBQ Lays, Diet Mt. Dew
Snack: 1 Nature Valley Granola Thin with Dark Chocolate and a glass of water.
Dinner: Breakfast burrito with a medium flour tortilla, potato with seasoned salt, scrambled eggs, bacon, shredded cheese and salsa. Glass of milk.
Snack: Cherries and a glass of water. But I'm pretty hungry so I'm also going to have a slice of wheat bread with Country Crock Spread on it to help fill me up.
For me it seems to be meal planning that is getting me. We did go grocery shopping Tuesday but it was a total spur of the moment thing and I didn't have a menu planned out. I end up eating junk for lunches and snacks because I'm not prepared. And since I'm not at home I have to eat from the limited selection of whatever I've managed to bring in to work or I eat out. How do you menu plan? Do you do it weekly? Are you very strict? How do you get around the "We planned on having this for dinner, but it really doesn't sound good today" question?
I'm stuck on the "But that doesn't sound good" issue as well. And I need to plan a menu. I've been trying to find enough crock pot meals and stuff to grill to keep me out of the kitchen for the summer but I never get it together.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should do that together some evening, like on a game night since its summer and the kids can be out later.
I might not quite be your target audience, since I don't have to feed kids, but I'll say this: I suck at menu planning.
ReplyDeleteI think my hangup (for dinners, at least, lunch and breakfast are a whole 'nother issue) is that our schedule changes so much. I'm good at looking at the grocery store ads and figuring out what I can make with what I have + what's on sale, but when it comes down to actually cooking the meal we get sidetracked. Pete will have a meeting that runs late at the university so I'll go pick him up and then we wind up going to a restaurant with some of the people he was meeting with. Or I'll get caught up in errands after work and not get home until 8pm and if I would cook the dinner we had planned we wouldn't eat until 9 (or later) so I'll wind up picking up some takeout while I'm running around.
The only time I've ever been successful at it has been when I've just gotten super-strict and made our whole lives revolve around the schedule. Errands get ran according to schedule. Every last hour that we're not working is planned out. We pass on last-minute invitations and defer to going home and eating what we planned on cooking. If one evening gets thrown off the whole thing goes out of whack and it fails. But, that kind of planning and scheduling is just not for me and even if I can manage to stick with it for a few weeks eventually I get so burned out that I just quit.
Well you two weren't all that helpful. Empathy doesn't help me! ;) Chelle, we are a lot like you. It seems like if we're out past 6:15 we just eat out. Sometimes it is so frustrating. But I too get burned out with a menu. And I never know how much time I'll have to fix dinner. When will I get off work? It's always a crap-shoot. Will I have 10 minutes to fix dinner or 2 hours? It seriously just depends on the day. How can I possibly plan a menu around that?
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