“We’re taking control of our cooking time!”
“Let’s spend less time cooking and more time eating.”
“We have a plan and we’re sticking to it.”
Have you uttered these sentences before?
Have you been optimistic about increasing your cooking efficiency only to discover an hour later that you’re knee deep in an ambitious cooking project and dinner is still more than an hour away?
On The Status Quo
If you’re anything like us, we’ve been there so many times before. You can see from my time audit in 2017 that we were spending on average 2 hours and 42 minutes on food-related activities on weekdays.
At least half of that time was not on eating.
And you know that we’ve given up batch cooking for health and stress reasons. I’m not willing to go to urgent care again!
Even if food safety wasn’t a concern, Alex and I are both full-time employees.
We don’t have the strength or mental energy to batch cook a month’s worth of meals. Even if I could, Alex would revolt anyway. He cannot eat the same thing every day for more than 2 weeks.
Our Meal Planning System
As a result, we have developed our meal planning system that simplifies our cooking, reduces our stress in the kitchen, and preserves our mental energy.
There are 4 parts to our system.
Hear me out. You might think:
Argh, I already have so much work, and you’re presenting a 4-part system! Aren’t you supposed to simplify and help me reduce stress? Not give me more work?
Chances are that you already do these tasks. You are just not consciously doing them and therefore don’t optimize them. Which is fine.
But once you understand the meal planning system, you can choose how to tweak the framework to speed up each step.
To be sure, we’re not experts. Ho ho, far from it.
In fact, I may be the worst offender because I used to avoid plans altogether and shop for whatever looked tasty, knowing that I would figure out something to make later. Big mistake.
So, we’re sharing what we’re experimenting with, testing along the way, and hoping that you share your tips to help us optimize our own lives.
We hope everybody can benefit from each other’s tips and knowledge.
Really appreciated the breakdown in “Why Use A Meal Planning System?”, especially where you highlighted “Why Use A Meal Planning System?”. For readers also exploring tools for this, article archive tool is a great free browser-based option focused on Article access utility that routes paywalled URLs to archive, mirror, and reader-mode services from one page..
I’m looking for modern modern hindu baby boy names a to z because having options from every letter makes it easier to find a name that feels right for our family.
I tried a few prompt seen ideas recently, and some of the results turned out better than I expected. It’s fun to experiment with different styles.
The system works because it turns a vague goal into a sequence of manageable decisions. That structure makes it easier to adjust when circumstances change.
I like how this article highlights the value of planning meals without making it feel overwhelming. For some entertainment after getting everything organized, I like playing Stickman Hook —it’s a simple, fun game that’s a great way to relax for a few minutes.
Thank you so much for your kindness and support. I truly appreciate the time, effort, and care you shared.