Dana Decided

What’s for dinner? I hate this question because a lot of nights I just don’t know. On most average days I’m asked this question at least 3 times. My daughter usually asks to see if she even wants to eat it, she’s 19 and rarely home at meal time. My son asks as soon as he walks in the door from school. My husband asks as soon as he walks in the door from work. If I’m super organized, I’d write the week’s meals on the calendar so they can just look but let’s be honest, no one looked, they all just kept asking me.

I don’t know why we struggle with dinner because I literally do meal prep and freezer meals for other people. I should have a plethora of ideas and options at the tip of my fingers. Honestly, by time I’ve made those things though, I really don’t want to eat them myself. So I thought I’d share some tips with you on how I meal plan and get dinner on the table most night. Below I’ll explain some of my process and then show you how you can use those items in a menu.

Cook once, eat twice….and I don’t mean leftovers. At least once a week I make a protein that we can eat at least twice. For instance, on Monday, I will cook an entire InstaPot or crockpot full of frozen chicken breast. I usually pack the InstaPot full, add a cup of water, lots of salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook. Once done, I drain the liquid off and then shred the entire pot with the hand mixer. Literally the entire process is only about 10 minutes of my time and I’m left with lots of shredded chicken. I also do this in a skillet with lean ground beef sometimes.

Leftovers – we usually have one night towards the end of the week that everyone eats something different to clean out the fridge. This is usually done on a night that we are busier or going to be going in different directions. It could be leftover meat, soup, a bowl of cereal, whatever random thing you can find but on that night, we use up what needs to be eaten. I like to try and make leftovers into something better and my husband always checks to see what I’m gonna eat first incase if it’s better than his random pick. 🙂 He’s not a huge fan of leftovers so I try to change them into something else if possible. Usually whatever leftovers aren’t eaten on this night will sometimes be eaten for a weekend lunch or tossed.

Freezer meals – you should always have at least 2-3 frozen options ready to go in the freezer. These need to be items you can either pull out to thaw in the morning or throw in the crockpot before you leave the house. While this could be a shameless plug for my freezer meal biz, it doesn’t even have to be one of those! It can be anything from a frozen store bought lasagna to a leftover frozen meal you made (see next item). When you use this item, write it down on your grocery list so you know to restock it in the freezer.

Frozen meals – these are a must! You should be treating your freezer like your pantry. Believe it or not, it’s not just for ice cream and frozen fries. You should have ready made items in there too. The simplest way to do this is back up at item one. Cook once – eat twice. I grew up this way, thanks mom! She always did this and I learned from the best. If your family has any favorite things that are always on the meal rotations, make double. Making taco meat? Make double and freeze half. Making a lasagna? Make two and freeze one. Making pancakes? Make extra and freeze them. I am the freezer queen and even do this with baked goods! I feel like Martha Stewart when I can just go to my freezer and grab a family favorite that’s ready to go at dinner time. I can have a completely crappy, hectic day and still have a homemade meal with no fuss! It’s also great for unexpected guests or dropping off a meal to a loved one. Most items can be frozen for up to 6 months. Be sure to eat what’s in the freezer too. Nothing’s worse than finding that amazing meal pushed to the back with freezer burn!

Plan around what you already have on hand. I typically get groceries once a week. I like to kinda have an idea of what we are going to eat most nights based on our schedules. I will sometimes have to run to the store mid-week but 90% of the time that’s because I forgot something on my list. I always look at what’s in the freezer and the pantry first. Just pick two things: a protein and a side. It’s that easy. So I will pick a protein from our meat stash in the freezer and then a veggie. Done! We will sometimes add another side like salad, a potato, cottage cheese, etc. But for the most part, just pick two items and go from there! Back when we were eating more carbs, we’d always have pasta one night. So all I had to do was pick a pasta: spaghetti, ravs, lasagna, etc. Just keep it simple.

So here’s a sample of a week of cooking/dinners at our house:

Monday: Get groceries. When I come home, I try and prep/clean any fruits and veggies so they actually get eaten. Cook a 5 lb. bag of frozen chicken breast in the InstaPot. After chicken is shredded, remove half and store in the fridge. With the other half still in the InstaPot, add 1 c. salsa and 1/2 block of cream cheese. It should still be really hot so just put the lid on for a few minutes and stir to combine.

Tuesday: Tacos! When you brown the ground beef, make triple. Use 1/3 for tacos, put the other 2/3 in the fridge.

Wednesday: Use leftover chicken for something! We will either toss it in buffalo sauce, bbq sauce, etc. Throw it in a wrap or on a salad. You can also use the chicken plain for soups or sandwiches.

Thursday: Pasta! Use a jar of premade sauce and a bag of frozen ravs. 15 minutes and dinner is ready. If you are feeling fancy, you can use a little leftover beef in your sauce.

Friday: Leftover, frozen pizza, throw something like chicken strips in the air fryer. It’s the end of the week so use up whatever you have.

Saturday: sometimes this day is used for eating out or just something easy because usually we all aren’t home for dinner. If we are at Sam’s, I sometimes pick up a rotisserie chicken.

Sunday: Use leftover ground beef to make 2 lasagnas. You don’t even have to boil the noodles, just make sure you start with a layer of sauce. Since the meat is already cooked, you can have 2 assembled in under 20 minutes. Put one in the freezer and enjoy one for dinner. Usually on Sundays, we eat an early dinner. You can also use the beef for soups, sloppy Joes, chili, etc.

*Be sure that if you don’t use up your cooked proteins, you freeze them for later use.*

Does this help at all? Having a plan is key! There are many, many days we don’t have a plan so doing some of the things mentioned above helps with the dreaded dinner decision. Good luck!