This is Part 1 of a collection of posts used to help write my book The Famiy Dinner Solution
I was talking to my friend’s mom about how she did dinner when her kids were little. She mentioned how every parent needs “the 5 meals” to rotate — a fish dinner, vegetarian meal, meat dish, etc. I realized after our talk that maybe family dinners happened more frequently back then because meals and planning were simpler.
In 2014 I worked to revamp my kitchen and have had some successes. But recently I have been more serious about simplifying. I realized there are just too many distractions around. So I stopped my subscription to a cooking magazine and have given away the cookbooks I don’t use. I have been focusing on the meals that work for us and what I want to see on my table in 2015.
We live in an era where “tips for a better life” are everywhere. For example, I recently read a headline recommending 50 ways to simplify your life. 50! Just reading that made my life more complicated. I think we have made things more difficult than they need to be and that includes meals.
I’ve been reading a lot about “decision fatigue,” something that happens when our brains get overloaded with decision-making. It’s like when you feel exhausted after a not-so-busy day but your mind was getting a workout. Consider the sheer amount of products you have to choose from and outfits to wear and play dates to plan and grocery stores to shop at and…
This article explains how very successful people, like the President, avoid decision fatigue by removing small decisions, like what to wear:
This is all related to the concept of decision fatigue. This is a real psychological condition in which a person’s productivity suffers as a result of becoming mentally exhausted from making so many irrelevant decisions.
Simply put, by stressing over things like what to eat or wear every day, people become less efficient at work.
In order to simplify, I want to master a set amount of meals and put them in a continual rotation. After looking at my meals and considering what I want to make the magic number seems to be right around 30. Of course, I will make changes periodically based on the season and new meals. I have worked my way up to about a dozen of these “go-to” meals but I want to more than double that. And the best part? I am done with traditional meal planning.
Although meal planning has served me well it has never brought me what I truly want — a kitchen that runs smoothly without the crushing effects of decision fatigue. There’s still the last-minute runs to the grocery store or nights when I think, “that was a bad choice.” And more often than not, I turn to the go-to meals I feel the most comfortable making.
This is why I’ve stopped posting meals plans. I felt like I was contributing to the meal distraction ever-present on the internet because I believed it was my job to give you more and more ideas. But now I realize this is not the type of contribution I want to make. In a nutshell: I’ve come to believe that less really is more.
Here are benefits of prioritizing, simplifying and rotating meals:
- Assign jobs for kids to help prepare since meal prep becomes so familiar.
- Discover kid-friendly sides that work for different meal themes.
- Ensure a good variety of food from each of the food groups.
- Prep ahead of time such as freezing sides or main meals.
- Rotate food items often enough so they become familiar to children increasing food acceptance.
So for the month of January, I’m kicking my cooking into gear. I will post 30 meals by the month’s end (some days I might post 3 meals, other days 1). I will let you in on my thinking behind each meal choice and hopefully inspire you to come up with your own masterful meals. This means I will be posting more than usual but this will only be for the month of January. Come February, I will be back to one or two postings per week.
Are you up for the 30 meals in 30 days challenge?
Posts Included in the Series:
1. 30 Meals in 30 Days Challenge
2. 30 Meals in 30 Days: The Plan [Next]
3. 7 Dinner Rules That Will Transform Your Family’s Mealtime
4. The Side Strategy that Saved My Family’s Mealtime
5. If I Had to Start From Scratch Feeding My Kids, This is What I’d do
6. 6 Kitchen Shortcuts That Really Work (And Why)
7. The Family Dinner Solution Launch Party
Want to see the final product with all the recipes and strategies? Check out Maryann’s book The Famly Dinner Solution: How to Create a Rotation of Dinner Meals Your Family Will Love
love this idea!!! I will be following you. I may need to go through my recipe binder and purge the ones I don’t ever cook and fill it with ones that are true “hits.” thanks for the idea!!!
Great!!
This post is spot on for us. My husband and I have been having the same sort of discussion over the past year … too many decisions to be made and too much stress for everyone. We started by making the decision to homeschool our 3 kids … I can’t even begin to explain here how much that one thing has made all of us so much more happy.
But our New Year goal will be working on our meals. All the different meal ideas are not working for us … the reality is that our family is fine with more limited variety and (like you said) a little routine helps the kids be more involved with meal prep.
Throwing out all the unused cookbooks is going to be done today … I think they are stressing me out :0)
Thank you for this post. It is further inspiration for me to make this change … I will be following along
Good to hear Merri Ann. I’m trying to simplify other things in our house too. Giving away lots of used toys etc. Thanks for following!
I really loved this post. I can relate to it in so many ways. I will be joining this challenge and look forward to seeing what you post. Thank you!!
Glad to hear Jessica!!
This sounds great! I’m up for the challenge!!
Welcome Lori!
I am in! I so need this right now! The whole too many decisions is really something that I have been looking at and trying to eliminate where it’s feasible. I also run in the mornings and by the time I get back home and shower, I don’t have time to run around trying to put outfits together. I tackled my toddlers outfits for the week by laying out all of his outfits for the week on Sunday when I do the laundry. I put “packets” together for each day. Pants, shirt, undershirt, underwear, and socks. So all I have to do is grab a packet in the morning to get him dressed. I don’t have to go looking for anything and I don’t have to decide which shirt or pants I want him to wear for the day. It’s all put together and picked out. I have done the same with my outfits too. I line a whole weeks worth of outfits up in my closet for the week. I put the shirt with it and necklace, earnings, bracelets, everything. I just have to grab a hanger in the morning and my outfit is right there. This has helped me so much in the mornings!
Reynaul,
I need to do that with clothes. I’m lucky my kids wear a uniform to school I just need to make sure they are clean. I too am trying to simplify what I wear everyday. I hope I can give you some ideas on simplifying food!
I think it’s a great idea. I’d say I do somewhat of a hybrid. I definitely have a short-ish list of go-to meals. I also do meal plans. But my meal plans usually consist of mostly my go-to meals, with slight variations. I usually try to do 1 new thing each week, although in very busy weeks I just stick with tried and true favorites. So even though I’m mostly working from a somewhat fixed set of meals, I still like to give myself a weekly plan so that I know which of my favorite meals are on the menu for that week, and so I know what specific groceries I need.
That makes sense Lisa. I used to do that but the new recipes I tried rarely turned into keepers so now I’m making more of an effort. I will have to check out your site!
Thanks for posting this Maryann – like others have mentioned I can relate to this in so many ways! It is stressful to not have plans for meals, but at the same time I get overwhelmed when I go overboard with meal planning. Some small changes and tips have stayed with me, but making things too complicated or unrealistic just doesn’t work long-term. Looking forward to reading about your 30-meal challenge!
@Reynaul – I do this as well with my daughter’s clothes – it has shocked me how much just that tiny bit of planning makes the morning run more smoothly!
Thanks Suzanne. I always seem to make things too complicated often resulting in food going bad. Glad to hear I’m not the only one ; )
Love this idea! I will look forward to seeing what your “tried and true” recipes are and if I can incorporate them into my family’s rotation. I love trying new meals but rarely find that they are a big hit and something that simplifies my week of cooking, so would be open to creating a simpler rotation of favorites so I don’t have to spend so much time each week meal planning.
I have also been reading about decision fatigue and am seeking to simplify my wardrobe and kitchen in particular. Here’s to a simpler 2015 for all of us!
Yes…I’m focusing on simplifying everything. Lots of trips to Good Will letting go of stuff we no longer need!
Maryann, as usual, you are bang on! I keep all of my recipes in an app called Evernote. Right now there are 388 recipes in there, in addition to two binders with the recipes I’ve been meaning to scan in! Tonight I went through and looked for recipes that met the criteria of being very healthy, ready in less than 30 minutes and that I have made at least three times. (These are tags I use, so it was easy to do.) Only 6 met that criteria! After that I did my meal plan up to the end of next week. Took me well over an hour! I am ready for the challenge. Bring it on. 🙂
Sounds great Cheryl! I’m making my lost of meals today and will posting tomorrow.
Really looking forward to this series! I agree that it can feel overwhelming, especially with Pinterest! I once made a list of all the meals I made that most of us liked and kept it in the kitchen drawer; then when I was stumped over what to make I could look at it as a quick reminder.
Thanks Sally! Yes, it can be overwhelming with the need to not “miss out” on something to cook.