197 | The One Thing I Did that Eliminated the Dinner Meal Struggles

Busy weekday it’s called for a simplified meals and a really a simple plan or out of figuring out what sort of dinner. Years and years ago, I figured out what works for my family. And I have been using this technique and teaching it to others ever since then. And what it does is it allows us to get a home cooked meal on the table almost every weeknight ever since i implemented this plan

 It’s Tuesday. If you are a longtime listener, you know that on Tuesdays, I take your questions and answer them. On this episode. if you have a question for me that you would like to have answered on a future episode, then go to intentional, edit.com and click on the little record. Now button that pops up, and then you can leave the question that you want me to answer, and I will put it in to the list and it will be answered on a future episode if future Tuesday episode so that you can get more of a lengthy answer, then just, if you would simply message me on Instagram. Graham and get a quicker response. That way I will spend the whole podcast episode focused on what your question is and how we can solve that problem. Or what’s your action. You can go in and to really simplify and make life easier pertaining to your specific question. The question that came in today. Is surrounding mealtime. And this is a great question for me to answer because I have done something. [00:02:00] I figured something out years and years and years ago that has simplified mule planning and made it possible for us to have dinners. Together and actually get a homemade meal on the table most nights of the week. So the question is what do you do to make dinner and figure out the meal? When that time of day is constant commotion? I think I would have started using the constant commotion phrase because when things are cluttered and out of sorts and we don’t have routines, it can feel like it is constant commotion. But back to the referencing and this subject of how do you make dinner? How do you figure out what you are making for dinner without having this be a stressful time at a big issue and just an annoyance of another thing to get done in every single day. Well many years ago, I figured out a way to simplify the mealtime. And to be honest with you, I try to simplify absolutely every single thing that I can in life. If I can automate something. If I can make something easier than I take advantage and come up with a routine or some kind of a system that allows me to make anything easier that I possibly can. So I simplify everything, the easier I can make things. The more that things can run on autopilot. And the less that I have to remember and think about, I have all four of those solutions and my hope in my life, the weekly RNR or the weekly refresh and restock that I talk about. That was something I created out of necessity because I needed something that was going to save time and it was going to make sure that our to-do list and our tasks were done and also keep us on task and make sure that the family was up to date on what was coming up. And we were prepared for what was coming up and weren’t having to run last minute or be late or make excuses or any of that. It was just a simple way to solve the problems and the issues that we were [00:04:00] having. So it’s a solution that makes it as easy as possible to be prepared for the coming week to be stocked up on everything that we need to have all of our supplies to be mentally ready with as little effort as possible. It really with minimal effort. I have made it. A routine for us every single week. And because I’ve done it over and over and over and over again, that is now a habit. I don’t even think about it. It’s just something I do on the weekend to prepare for the next week. That is the goal with all routines, any routine you’re setting up, you want to make them intentional to solve problems and complete the tasks and the two dues with the ideas that eventually they become a habit.

It’s just simply the way that you do something and you don’t have to think. About getting these things done, they get done because it is your new habit. And that’s why we create routines. If you want that weekly reset and re fresh that I do, Go grab it. It’s the weekly RNR. There is a link to it in the podcast description. You can get it. It’s a download it’s completely free. So you can grab that if you’re interested on that, but in terms of what’s for dinner, That question. I have eliminated in my house for men. Well, many years ago, and I sat on another episode or maybe it was an interview or something. I was like, I really needed to go back and see, when did I start the first. Meal planning the two week meal planning that I do now, because it was, I mean, I know it was more than five years ago. I think it was more than seven years ago. I it’s just become the normal way that we do things. And because it simplified everything so much. We do it over and over again. So it has been years. I don’t know the exact timeframe. At some point, oh, I’ll try to figure that out and then I’ll have that true answer, but it has been a long time. It’s worked over and over again. It works for my family. And I know that it works for other people because I’ve coached on this and I’ve taught programs on this. where I’ve been asked to [00:06:00] present and be part of. Easy solutions that parents are busy, people can implement. this is one thing that works. And the feedback is if you put it in the work, you make the plan and you continue to use it, it truly simplifies your dinner time. It makes it possible for you to have all of this, the resources that you need in one place to reuse this plan over and over again.

So it really has eliminated the struggle around. What is for dinner, what meal we’re actually having, what recipe that I’m going to use. If I’m referring to a recipe, it simplifies the grocery shopping and has that has saved time and saved the money because I’m not constantly at the grocery store. And. Anything pertaining to meal planning. Really? All of it. Has been made easier because of this. Meal plan that I created. I tried a lot of different things before I figured out my own meal planning method. But those things were not working and there was always something that made it so that it did not work for my family. And I would give it a good effort. And then I was like, nah, I don’t like this one. This is too much work. This is taking too much time. I followed the other plans. I did all kinds of things, trying to come up with a solution to something that I dreaded. And I really didn’t like having that stress of coming up with a new dinner idea and figuring that out and preparing a dinner that was more complicated than it needed to be every single night of the week.

It wasn’t something that I enjoyed, but we have to remember dinner is like laundry. It’s something that we have to do all the time. It is going to happen over. And over and over again, it doesn’t matter how much we do. That task is still going to happen. Just like laundry. We wear clothes, even if we are all caught up on the laundry that the clothes we wear are then dirty at the end of the day. So there’s always laundry to be done. Dinner is the same kind of thing. Those are [00:08:00] kinds of things that benefit the most. When we have quality routines, when we have set up intentional routines that solve that part of the problem that we struggle with. No. I started creating the reusable meal plan to solve the problem of what’s for dinner and to make it possible for me to get dinner on the table. Almost every night of the week, unless I intentionally wanted to pick up food or go out to eat. And the great part about this is it has a corresponding grocery list for those two weeks. So it really was saving me time and money because I wasn’t at the grocery store all the time. And once I had done this for quite a while, and I was having this success with this. I honestly couldn’t believe how much easier it was than every single thing else I tried. And I was kind of annoyed with myself that I had started this much earlier. So that’s when I began teaching other people how to create their own a two-week or usable meal plans that they could use for their family. And I think the key to having success is when you purchase a meal plan and it tells you exactly what foods you’re going to eat, or what recipes you are going to make for dinner, it’s not going to fit for your family.

You have to have a meal plan that lets you be in control. All of the recipes and what you’re cooking, because only you knows the things that your family eats and the things that they love to eat and will not complain about. If you want to remove the stress of the dinner time. Then having foods that have the nutrition and the also are things that your family eats without complaining. That is important. The key is that this is customized to what is reasonable for your family. Not only with the meals, but also with the nights, the number of nights each. Week that you will be cooking dinner because realistically, depending on the season of life you’re in and how much you are at home, if you are not at home for many, many [00:10:00] hours and don’t get home until 9:00 PM, there has to be an alternative to dinner. Whether that be picking up food somewhere. Uh, quick going out when you’re between activities or preparing something the day before and then having it for on the go that you made. But you were intentional about making the day before you have to make this meal plan be customized for your family, or you won’t have success with it. And that’s why there are so many options out there that just simply don’t work.

So if you’re interested and following the same meal plan that I use. click on the meal, planning link in the podcast description. It talks about the meal planning. There is a mini course that’s available. It is super inexpensive. And all you have to do is a follow the meal plan. We do a complete schedule audit. In there. So, you know, what is reasonable for your family? I teach you how to pick the dinners that you’re going to have and decide on the dinner recipes that you’re going to be making, and then how to make that corresponding grocery list and how to reuse this over and over and over again.

The cool thing about this meal plan is because it’s for two weeks, if you only create this one meal plan for the two weeks. If you are repeating it all the time, you are only repeating and eating the same dinner twice in a month. So this is not something that people are going to get sick of, that your family members are going to get sick of because they’re only getting it twice a month. You don’t have to repeat things all the time.

You can have a little bit of diversity with your. Meals that you’re choosing to make. And then you won’t get sick of them. So that’s a bonus. What I like to do is create more than one of these. Create one, use it for a couple months and then create a second one and add that one in. And then I alternate every other time so that we don’t even repeat one meal in the entire month. It keeps it simple. You don’t have to do it. You can have success if you just create one, but. You can create too, if you want to have even [00:12:00] more variety in what you’re eating for dinner. In the question that came in for her today, she said, The dinner time, hour, that time is a constant commotion. And I’d love that. When I look back at that question, I really do love the constant commotion comment. Because it’s such an accurate description. And we know the evenings have a lot of moving parts, having a reusable meal plan. Like what I created for the dinners. I know my family will eat these things. I know they like these things and there’s not going to be complaining involved. I also know that I am putting a meals on here that include ingredients that I am okay with.

That also include. Ingredients that are full of nutrition. this is not a time of commotion. We can eliminate the commotion and we can make it quality time, or at least a time where the kids and the family are getting the nutrition that they need so that you can feel good about what you’re serving for dinner. I have said this, but I’ll, we’ll recap with this seems to us time, money. Uh, he really a huge amount of time. Let’s go back to that a big, big amount of time because I’m not meal planning. I’m not thinking about what’s for dinner at all. It takes me seconds. To look at my meal plan for the two weeks. No, what is going to be made that night? And then if something is in the freezer, I can pull that out. That’s all I have to do because it is something that is reusable. It really reduced the need to constantly go to the grocery store. So that amount of time has been saved significantly. And in turn, it saves me from wasteful spending because I’m not going to the grocery store buying things I don’t need. As frequently as I was before. That once the plan is done, it’s done and you reuse it over and over and over again. So that was my solution to dinner time and getting food on the table that I feel good about serving. If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to me, but you can also check out everything on unintentional, edit.com under courses.

There is a [00:14:00] whole section on the meal planning mini course, where you can get more information and sign up and in just a little bit of time, you will Have Of your own customized two week reusable meal plan created for your family dress like i do and you will solve that issue for your home and your family just like i did with mine