#114: How to Stick to Your Meal Plan (Even When Life Gets Busy)

Welcome to our new Meal Plan Like a Pro Series! Whether you’re brand new to meal planning or a seasoned pro, we’re going to help you become a better planner and take a deep dive into meal planning in the next several episodes. Today, the topic is sticking to your plan!

In our recent listener survey, staying consistent with planning came up as one of the biggest challenges, so we're here to help you tackle it. 

In this episode, we cover: 

- Why your plan might be failing (and how to fix it).

- The power of flexible planning.

- The importance of back-up meals.

- And when to intentionally go off plan. 

We also answer a few of your dinner dilemmas, so stick around to the end for all our good advice! :)

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Transcript

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[00:00:00] I'm Riley and I'm Roni. And this is the plan to eat podcast, where we have conversations about meal planning, food, and wellness. To help you answer the question what's for dinner. 

Roni: Hello and welcome back to the Plan Eat podcast. Riley and I are here today. We are gonna talk about consistency in meal planning. Uh, this is the start of a new series that we have named Meal Plan like a Pro. So whether you're brand new to meal planning or a seasoned meal planner, we're hoping to help you become an even better meal planner with, uh, deep dives into some meal planning topics over the next several episodes.

Riley: So today, the grand topic for today is sticking to your plan, how to stick to your meal plan even when life gets busy.

Roni: Based off of our recent listener survey, one of the main pain points that came up from, from you guys, from you, from our listeners [00:01:00] is, staying consistent with meal planning. And so we just thought that since that was one of the biggest challenges, we should tackle that first. And I know we've all been in the place where we've made a meal plan and we've told ourselves, I'm gonna be so prepared this week only to find ourselves ordering pizza by Wednesday night instead of cooking what you had planned.

And that's okay. 'cause life happens, you know?

Riley: Yes. And honestly, sometimes that is what you need to do. Um, but if you are a meal planner and you are trying to stick to your meal plan, especially for all the wonderful benefits that meal planning brings to your life, like not wasting food to, for one, like if you order pizza instead of cooking your food, then like are you wasting ingredients that you already purchased?

But also saving money, uh, saving time, and. Eating healthier, which are all benefits of meal planning, whether you meal plan with plant, eat, or any other. Any other option? I.

Roni: Yeah. I think the worst part about not sticking to your meal plan is the wasting the food and then feeling like you totally [00:02:00] wasted your money when you have to throw that food away. Right. It was all perishable stuff That feels the worst.

Riley: Yeah. Also, sometimes I just feel like I personally failed, like I'll take it on, like, it makes me a little more stressed when I'm like, when I like give in to, okay, let's just order pizza. 'cause that feels easier. But then on the back end of that, I'm over here like, Ugh, why did we do that? I could have just cooked it.

It would've been fine. Even though like, I don't know, it's just like kind like a stress ball, like, it's like a stress snowball. It's just compounding on itself.

Roni: Yeah, it's like a juxta juxtaposition of feelings throughout the week, right? Like you start your week and you're like, I'm a rock star. I'm doing amazing by making my meal plan. And then three days later you're like, I suck at this. What am I doing with my life?

Riley: Life's so hard, uh, but like we talk about all the time, meal planning is not about perfection. It's really just about making your life easier. So a lot of things we're gonna talk about today. Are really just to help you get into a system of consistency, [00:03:00] and not getting super stressed out when it doesn't go the way you want it to, but just like allowing your meal plan to work for you and with you instead of against you.

Roni: I love it. All right, so let's talk about why your meal plan might be failing and how you can fix it.

Riley: So the first one is, I would say you planned. Way too rigidly with no room for change or flexibility. And maybe you planned every single night of your week out. So like I would, I would put planning every single night into the two rigid category.

Roni: Right. Me too. Yeah. I rarely ever plan seven nights a week.

Riley: Yeah. I honestly usually plan only four nights. And one is leftovers and then I've got like easy nights or like I know we're gonna figure it those nights out or something comes up. But like four to five nights of being of everything planned is kind of the max that I'll do.

Roni: I, I think I do similarly. Maybe [00:04:00] even sometimes, maybe even less, three nights a week because a lot of the stuff that I make, I make larger portions of specifically for having leftovers. So, and it really stinks when you get to the end of the week and the leftovers are the thing that you're throwing away.

'cause then that's a meal that you worked on.

Riley: Yeah, totally. Yeah. I have made, even this past week, I have made some severe adjustments to our meal plan because something that I made. Made way more than I expected. And then my kids ate less than I expected, and so it was just like massive quantities of leftovers. And so I'm like, okay, well I'm not going to put in the effort to cook another night, like, we're just gonna have to eat this again because, and I honestly, we have a third round of it, like that's how much is left.

And so I've had to make some, some, some extreme adjustments to our meal plan this week because something I made just like I'd never made it before. And so I wasn't sure and it just made a ton.

Roni: We often talk about the idea of like putting some meat in the crockpot. And then having like pulled pork or pulled chicken [00:05:00] or pulled beef, shredded beef, I guess is what we call it. And I feel like that's such a good plan because then I can use that in multiple recipes throughout the week, but it always makes way more than I'm expecting.

Even if I follow a recipe that says like, buy two pounds of chicken breasts or whatever. And then I'm like, by the fourth day I'm like, oh my gosh, when are we gonna finish these leftovers?

Riley: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Another, reason why your meal plan might be failing is because you forget to schedule in changes, like changes that might occur during your week. Scheduling, or fatigue, right? Like that is so real.

Roni: That is so real. I think that's really relatable is like maybe Wednesday night. The reason why you're ordering pizza is 'cause you're like, Wednesday night's the busiest night of the week. And like, I didn't, I I, when I was making my meal plan, I forgot that like every Wednesday night I'm exhausted when I get home and just don't feel like cooking.

Riley: A hundred percent. Yep. [00:06:00] The way I meal plan is just that I look at our calendar and say, okay. What's going on? Like, if we are going to be, like I've said so many times on the podcast, I live a long way from town and if we are going to be in town until six o'clock, like I'm not gonna get home at seven and then cook dinner and eat at eight.

Like that just is not gonna work. So that's a night that we're gonna have takeout. And so like, that's on my meal plan. Or if it's a night where we have somewhere to be. Uh, maybe after dinner I'll just plan a fast dinner or I'll plan, I'll like pull something outta my freezer, and thaw it out and then just heat it up.

'cause I've already done the work. It's just low effort to heat it up. Um, but looking at your schedule as you make your meal plan is honestly, I don't know that there's a different way to meal plan. I think you have to do that.

Roni: Yeah, I totally agree. And so we have actually been moving. I live really close to Riley now, which is

Riley: Woo-hoo.

Roni: And so we've been moving this past week and. That is one of those times when the fatigue really sets in because you spend a whole day [00:07:00] moving things, reorganizing, going from one house to the other house.

And since it is a decent drive, like some nights we haven't been getting home until eight or even nine o'clock at night, and. Last night we just ate some random leftovers for dinner. And, my husband, I was like, look, we either have this like cold pasta salad that has like one serving of leftover, or like, we have this other stuff that could be made into a burrito.

And he was like, cool, I have the burrito. And I, I brought him the burrito over and he was like, so what's in this?

Riley: Don't ask

Roni: And I was like, I just like told him the things and he was like, okay. He was like, it's not bad, but I can tell that this wasn't a planned recipe.

Riley: That's awesome.

Roni: So, you know, make sure you're accounting for things like that.

Riley: And some weeks, like we all know, they just are. Harder mentally, physically, scheduling gets wacky. Someone pops over when you weren't expecting it. Whatever [00:08:00] the reason. And like your fatigue of moving is, like that could just be like a regular week even when you're not moving. I know everyone's probably like getting their kids back to school.

That's exhausting. New jobs just like literally having a busy week at work. You get home and then you've got. To make dinner, it's, it's exhausting. So you gotta plan for that. And honestly, even if every single week you plan one night, that's a 15 minute dinner or something that you have put in your freezer, like that is a perfectly acceptable way to meal plan

Roni: Yep. Totally.

Riley: and super duper helpful.

Roni: Super duper helpful. All right, A couple other reasons that your meal plan might not be working is that you didn't include your family in the meal planning process, whether it's just consulting them or, you know, tagging your recipes with which ones are your family's favorites, so you remember, uh, that can lead to some resistance from either your partner, significant other, or your kids just being like, [00:09:00] dinner's not hittin tonight, mom or dad.

Riley: Yes, absolutely. Uh, it happened with that gigantic meal that I made. It was not my children's favorite. Now, I liked it, but I don't like it. 37 meals worth, you know, like at some point you gotta stop. Um, but that could be a super helpful if you are. If you're failing every week and you're like, what is going on?

Just start asking the people around you what would they like to eat and start there. Um, when everyone around you is enjoying what they're eating, it certainly can motivate you towards sticking to the plan you created.

Roni: And so I think a final reason, one of the, our final reasons that we have for why your meal plan isn't working is that you might be using somebody else's program. Or, you know, like templates that you got off of the internet for somebody that's like, here's the greatest meal plan in the entire world.

And so you're making their meal plan instead of making a meal plan that's unique and customized to you and your own family. Feel like it's really easy to, you know, find things. You wanna like automate the system, right? And so you find somebody else who [00:10:00] you think they know what they're doing and they know what they're doing for them, but they probably don't know what's.

What to do for you because your life is different. Just for all these same things that we've already talked about, your schedule and your fatigue and your family and all the things, they don't know that, and their plan doesn't reflect that.

Riley: Yeah, absolutely. So how do we fix this? Back to our reason why you might be failing. Your meal plan was too rigid. So what we're gonna do to fix that plan around your real week, look at your meal, look at your calendar as your meal planning. Factor in sports. Late night meetings, really busy days at work.

Days you don't get home until really late. And what can you do in your meal plan to work within your real life? So busy days, you put something in the crockpot, you thaw something from the freezer, um, you plan 15 minute dinners, those kinds of things.

Roni: Yeah, and I think this is really easy to do if you use Plan to eat to, you know, open up your calendar app next to plan to eat. Your computer, you can open 'em up side by side, or you could have one [00:11:00] open up on your computer and the other one on your phone, and you can just really quickly like glance at both and say like, okay, look at all these things that we have going on during the week and I'm gonna plan around them.

Or you can even make notes on days in your plan to eat calendar. Where you say like, tonight's a late night. Tonight we have soccer practice. Whatever your random things are, so that way when you go to make your meal plan, you're remembering to plan around those things.

Riley: Absolutely. And then we already mentioned this briefly, but I'll say it again, is if you are meal planning for every single meal and every single night of the week, scale it back and start with three to four dinners per week instead of seven. Um, this can really help and then it allows you. Obviously if you plan four meals, there's three nights that aren't planned, so things can get shuffled around within that week.

It allows for takeout, it allows for eating at a friend's house or in, you know, at a restaurant. It allows for throwing in breakfast for dinner if that's what you need to do, and then move around those complicated meals, move [00:12:00] around those planned meals. You won't waste those ingredients and that's can be an incredibly helpful tool.

Roni: Another idea is to use what you already have on hand before you go through and pick unique recipes. So we like to talk a lot about the like shopping at home idea before you go to the grocery store to make sure you're not double buying things. But you can definitely use that same idea when you're creating your meal plan.

And you can look in your pantry and your freezer in your refrigerator and just say like, what do we have right now that we could already make a meal with? That we don't actually need to buy anything at the grocery store or maybe just not buy much with at the grocery store. Um, so that way, you know, you're saving money, you're gonna hopefully save yourself from wasting that food.

But then it also kind of, I feel like it kinda like sparks some of that creativity that can then help you stick with your meal plan.

Riley: That's exactly what I was gonna say about this, is that. It can be really fun to do this too if you, if you, if you're into that kind of thing. But just like that, it's a game. You know, you look in your pantry and you're like, okay, I've [00:13:00] got coconut milk and chickpeas, a bag of rice and I don't know, some lentils.

You're like, what am I, what in the world am I gonna make? Oh, I've got curry powder. I can make curry like super. And those, that was really specific. But you know, just like throwing those things together to make a quick curry like. Can be really creative and a way to use the things up that you've just been kind of holding on to in your pantry that are not gonna go bad for a really long time.

Roni: Yeah, I actually have a box of lasagna noodles. So the last time I made lasagna, I bought two boxes because I feel like every time I make lasagna, which I don't make lasagna that often, however, I've been making, I talked about it last time on the podcast. I think I've been making these lasagna roll-ups that are super good.

Sometimes I feel like when I make the recipe, the like one package of lasagna noodles makes the right amount. And then the next time I'm like, wait, I need like three more noodles. So I don't know exactly what's going on. Clearly my measurements [00:14:00] of my, uh, insides is all little off anyways, so I have an extra box of lasagna noodles right now.

And I'm even thinking like. You don't have to use lasagna noodles for lasagna. Like you could like break up the noodles and boil them as like smaller noodles and make a different kind of pasta out of it. And that could be just something where you're like, oh, we want a pasta dish, but all we have is lasagna noodles.

How can we reinvent lasagna noodles into something else?

Riley: Totally. We have mentioned this one already, but building in quick wins is another hugely helpful fix. I mentioned this just a minute ago, but 15 minute meals. Planning for leftovers. So if you double something or if something you make often makes a lot of servings, then adding it to your calendar on your calendar as your meal planning.

Okay, we're gonna have, let's just use hamburgers. We're gonna have hamburgers and instead of having hamburgers the next night, we're gonna have hamburgers as leftovers, like, you know, like 48 hours later. So it kind of gives you some space, but it's pre-planned, you know, what it's for. That can be really helpful having something like breakfast for dinner, [00:15:00] um, or if you're someone who.

If you make a lasagna like Roni and you throw it in your freezer, you know you've got that on hand and you can have that for dinner one night. Just need a thought it out.

Roni: Yep. So something we're gonna talk about a little bit later in more detail, is also just to have a, have a backup or a pantry meal on hand. This is kind of similar to the idea of using what you already have on hand. But if you have a very specific, you know, kind of like backup meal that's super easy, that only takes pantry staples or just, you know, like a bag of frozen vegetables plus.

Some other stuff. Clearly I've got a lot of good ideas right in this moment. But you know, just things that you can keep on hand so that way on nights when maybe you don't feel like following the meal, your meal plan for that night, you're not left ordering pizza or getting takeout. And so instead you're still able to make a homemade meal and you're saving money and maybe you can just move the meal one day over in your meal plan.

But I think having a, a backup meal. Is an important part of [00:16:00] trying to stick to your meal plan because we, I feel like we all tend to get in this mindset sometimes in our life. Some people more than others, I think, but. It's kinda like the all or nothing where you're like, you fall off the wagon and you're like, well, I'm done.

I'm off the wagon. We're gone. The wagon went away without me. Bye. And then you just do your own thing for a while. And I feel like when you have a backup meal, it kind of helps you stick with the wagon train a little bit easier because you're not just like, well, we totally gave up, but now we're just gonna go out to eat the next seven nights in a row.

Riley: Yeah, I mean I've had those weeks where I'm like, oh, I didn't meal plan. I don't know what we're eating. I don't really want a meal plan. And then the week just like gets away from you and then you're out of the habit. But yeah, so having that thing where like, okay, I'm gonna meal plan. I'll go grocery shopping tomorrow, we're gonna have this backup meal for dinner. So then you don't fall quite so far off said wagon.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: And last but not least is check in with your meal plan regularly. If you [00:17:00] are someone who needs a visual reminder, um, you could print it and put it on your, on your fridge. You could, uh, we know customers who have iPads in their kitchen as like a family calendar, and they have it always open to plan to eat.

So it's like they're. Visible, easy to access. The recipes are easy to access, like something along those lines can help you check in with your meal plan. But this is gonna be hugely helpful when it comes to thawing food out that you need for that night's dinner. If, if it's a crockpot day, but you're, it's noon and you're already at work, you can't get that food in the crockpot.

So having it where you can check in with it, see what you need to do. Incredibly re it's just a huge, hugely helpful in sticking to your plan. And maybe you're sitting here listening and you're like, well, duh, of course you have to check in with your meal plan, but I've been there, I know Roni's been there.

You don't, and then the day gets away from you and suddenly it's dinner. And dinner takes an hour to make 'cause it was something fancy, you decided to make that night and you have no gas in the tank or the chicken's not thawed. And, and so checking in with your plate [00:18:00] meal plan allows you to pivot. Um, but it also allows you to stick to it.

By doing the things you need to do in advance.

Roni: Honestly, this sounds a little, maybe a little dramatic, but this is like one of the most important parts of my day is checking in with my meal plan. And I know Riley, we've talked about this before the, the amazing thing about creating a meal plan is I no longer stress about what's for dinner because I know I already made a plan.

However, that also means that I completely forget about, what. The heck I was going to eat for dinner tonight. And so I just think that this is one of the most important pieces of my day is in the morning, checking in with plan to eat, looking at what's on the schedule, making sure there's nothing I need to take out of the freezer specifically.

So that way I'm totally prepared when dinner comes around and it's time to start cooking. All right, so those were some tactics that you could use for maybe specific situations or. Kind of just [00:19:00] in general to help you stick with your meal plan. But now Riley and I wanna pivot a little bit to talk about specific meal planning structures that might help you stick to your meal plan a little bit more, and also make the, the process of meal planning easier so that if, maybe part of your inconsistency with meal planning is the fact that just meal planning itself feels like a challenge.

So. Riley and I, as we talked about already, we're both really big fans of having a lot of flexibility in your meal plan, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't have any structure to it. So one of the, one of the things that we like to implement, and I think Riley did you start doing this this summer, was creating a theme night for your dinners?

Yeah.

Riley: I did. Mm-hmm.

Roni: So creating a theme night. So this is things like meatless Monday, taco Tuesday, pasta Friday or Fishy Friday. I always like the, I like fishy Friday. I like an alliteration.

Riley: Yeah. Who doesn't? Yeah.

Roni: And, and so then you, you basically [00:20:00] assign different nights of the week, these different themes, and then it makes it much easier to actually plan recipes because all you're thinking about is like, okay, I just need a taco recipe.

Or even, not even a taco recipe, but just like, what's the protein we're gonna have on our tacos this week?

Riley: A hundred percent. Yeah, I did that. I did this this summer, um, kind of as a test because we, I know a lot of our customers do this. And I really did like it. It really did help me, especially in the weeks where I just had, like, I just couldn't think about it. I just didn't have time to think about what we were eating.

But I still wanted a meal plan. Again, the benefits outweigh that, like decision fatigue thing. And so I did this and used, like I had a little template that I made for me that works for our family. Uh, I think a freezer Friday sandwich night. Yeah. All, all of mine were not alliterations, but it did help.

It just allows you to just, instead of being like, I could eat anything in the whole world, it's like, okay, well what do I have in my freezer? Well, [00:21:00] not a lot, but we got chicken nuggets and how about a Caesar salad wrap with these chicken nuggets? Okay. Like, that's a meal plan, you know? And so it did help it, it did help this summer.

Roni: I feel like my husband would really like a sandwich night in our week.

Riley: It was, I mean, we like sandwiches around here. Um, it did, it, we were very creative with our sandwich nights, you know, like Rubens and grinders and,, grilled cheese or like. Some kind of like club sandwich. Like we've had, we had a lot of varieties. And oh, I think, what else did we have? Like a Philly cheese steak sandwich, like with some left, something else like it, it was not boring.

Sandwich tonight doesn't mean like bologna on a, you know, some white bread. Like we got pretty creative, so

Roni: It sounds awesome. We've talked about the. Before, like a hot sandwich is such an elevated experience compared to just like a cold sandwich that you would get in your lunchbox.

Riley: Yeah.

So another one, that can help you create like some flexible structure is planning in three day chunks. We just [00:22:00] talked about this, but plan three dinners and then shop for those three dinners. And if you get there and you're like, we're rolling, let's do it again. Repeat it midweek if you need, if you need to.

But doing this, like planning in these smaller bite sized chunks allows you to have a lot of flexibility because if you eat Monday, Tuesday and you're going, great, but Wednesday something comes up, move Wednesday's meal plan to Thursday, do Wednesday different and keep rolling. And nothing, nothing gets hindered because of that.

Roni: So Riley and I often, as we've already talked about in this podcast, we often talk about, you know, planning only three or four meals in a week. But I remember when we talked to the, uh, the budgeting expert, rose Marie, and she was one of the people who I remember talked about, like, she would recommend to her clients to start meal planning just three days at a time.

Because for a lot of people, even just looking at the whole week ahead in the next seven days feels pretty overwhelming. But a lot of people dunno exactly what their schedule is every [00:23:00] week. And I think there are a lot of people who have. A struggle with meal planning in that they say, well, when I'm meal planning on Sunday, I have no idea what I'm gonna wanna eat on Thursday.

And so it feels, so that feels like a blocker for even just creating a meal plan. And so just starting with like, I'm gonna plan Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and we're gonna get that done. And like you said, if something pops up, then you're not really wasting food because usually something can withstand being pushed out for a night or two.

And so it, it's just one of those things of you start to get the reps in and you start to have the experience of like, cool, I can do this. I can make a meal plan. We can follow it. I think that's really helpful to just start small.

Riley: I often forget about that pushback about meal planning, which is, I don't know what I'm gonna want to eat. I don't know if that's just not a struggle or if I just don't care because I'm like, you know what? I meal plans this. This is what we're having. But the way that I do overcome that with people in my family who are [00:24:00] like, oh, I don't want to eat that for dinner, is like.

We can swap it. You know, like if you don't want this for dinner, but we're having this tomorrow night, let's switch 'em. We'll have this tonight and that tomorrow night. And something with like the plan to eat like drag and drop system allows you to really reschedule that super easily and smoothly.

And oftentimes I don't move things around because I know what I cooked and what I'm eating. 'cause I am kind of the one here who does that. It's just my family role, right? And so. I don't necessarily have to move things around to like, keep myself on track. Uh, but it is a, a fantastic option within Plan D because it's so simple within the app or on the desktop site to move things around.

Can be super helpful if you are looking at like switching Monday and Friday, you know, like, okay. Let's move those on the calendar so we know what's going on. But if other, especially if other people are looking at your calendar and working with you, or maybe like somebody else takes a night to cook, like moving things around is super helpful.

But, um, yeah, this three planning in three day chunks allows you to plan around your actual, just like spontaneous [00:25:00] desire to eat something thing.

Roni: Yeah. All right. So a final potential structure that you could use is to rotate your family favorite meals every, you know, every week or every two weeks, maybe you have 10 family favorite meals that you know your family loves, you know how to cook. You could cook 'em on autopilot, and then maybe once a week or once every other week, you mix in a new recipe for some variety.

I am super guilty of wanting more variety in my meal plan than we actually need, you know, like my husband doesn't notice if he wouldn't notice if we ate tacos three times a week. Granted, he loves tacos, but, but you know, like there's this element of it that's, that's like it, it's not until I've made a recipe probably.

Multiple times over multiple months that my husband would be like, okay, I think it's time to switch up this recipe. But also at that point in time, like the seasons are cha changing. So we're also kind of switching how we're eating anyways, right? Like I'm not really [00:26:00] making pasta salad once it starts getting cool outside, that's like a summer thing.

So by the time we're like done with pasta salad, we can move on to something else. So, but I really like this idea of like, if part of your problem is, like we said earlier. If you're having a hard time with getting buy-in from your family.

For the recipes that you're planning, it can be helpful to just be like, look, we're just doing the fam favorites. And every once in a while I'm gonna throw in something new to add a little variety. But like, these are the things that I know people are consistently going to eat. And I, like I said, I can make 'em on autopilot.

We know if they make leftovers or not. It just is a really streamlined system.

Riley: So with the flexible structure, there are several benefits that come along with this. One is if you're only planning in three day chunks or if you're planning around theme nights, or if you're eating family favorites, like honestly, these all qualify. It allows for easier grocery shopping because you kind of know like we, are we having [00:27:00] hard shell tacos or soft shell tacos?

Are we having chicken or beef? What are the toppings we like? Okay, I know how to make this, I know exactly everything I need to make for this family favorite. That was my grandmother's recipe that my mom made. Now I make everybody knows, we know we buy 'em. And then with three day chunks also, you're actually.

Going to be purchasing less ingredients from the grocery store because you're just looking at three days at a time. And so it just can be a simpler, faster trip to the store. And then you are gonna go twice, but your trips are gonna be very brief.

Roni: Right, and you're go, even if you go to the grocery store multiple times, you know, two times in one week because you make two separate meal plans for one week, you're still going to the grocery store with a purpose. It's different than going to the grocery store two or three times a week, and you're like.

Wandering aimlessly being like, should we have chicken or should we have pork? And maybe I should get tortillas, and we'll see what happens with them. You know? Uh, there, it's, there's a different feeling and a different price point when you go to the grocery store with a plan versus not having a plan.

[00:28:00] Mm-hmm.

Riley: Yep, absolutely. Another thing that this can do for you is create a lower or like a less stressful mental load. Um, just in general, just lowering that mental load is a benefit of plan to eat that is hard to quantify. But I think our stats are, like 86% of our customers said they reported a decrease in stress around food.

So again, hard to quantify, but when you are creating this flexible meal plan, when you're working within your family's desires and needs around a meal plan, it just is a lot simpler.

Roni: Hard to quantify, but you know it when you feel it.

Riley: Yeah. Yes. I would say that one of my favorite parts of meal planning is the creativity of it. I love to cook. I like to meal plan. 'cause meal planning feels like part of cooking. 'cause it's like picking out the ingredients and what am I gonna cook and how do I make this, I've never made this before.

How, how's the process? What does this food need? It's lacking something. Those kinds of things. But when you are [00:29:00] meal planning, it allows for this creativity, but you're not overwhelmed anymore because when you're at the grocery store, you know exactly what you're buying and you know that this is for a crockpot meal.

And even though that day is crazy, you're gonna put it in the crockpot at 7:00 AM and it's ready when you get home. And, those pieces, uh, it really feeds into that lower mental stress.

Roni: Yeah, absolutely.

So we wanna touch more on this backup meals idea and also talk to you about when you could intentionally go off your meal plan. So we've, we've already mentioned this a little bit, but there are times when maybe you don't need to stick to your meal plan, and that's why we build in flexibility and we're not so rigid.

Riley: This is one that I feel hesitant to even talk about because I think we've gotten a little bit of pushback on it. Backup meals are something that I utilize a lot, maybe even classifying them closer to regular meals than backup meals.

But this is something like, I mean, I'll use this example again because it's a simple one, but something you've pre frozen, like lasagna, [00:30:00] enchiladas breakfast, casseroles, breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, tamales, freeze really well, um, like soup freeze really freezes super well. What else do I freeze?

Like shredded chicken, shredded pork, shredded beef, something along those lines. Those, I freeze these things knowing that they are going to become a backup meal, like I said, a regular meal. But this is a backup meal at my house. Okay? I don't have the margins to cook. I don't really wanna spend any more money on a meal plan or I don't wanna eat out or, we, whatever.

I'm like, okay, we're gonna find something in the freezer and we're gonna eat that with the salad and the leftover cucumbers that we've got in our fridge or a can of green beans, and how often that becomes dinner at our house. Is probably twice or three times a month. But it is amazingly helpful and like we have said so often on this podcast, I, I have done something that my future self is gonna thank me for.

And it works every time. I'm just so grateful to have those things pre-done. Another one that's [00:31:00] a pretty common one at our house that I've already just mentioned is breakfast for dinner. Not just frozen things, but spontaneous pancakes or waffles and eggs and uh, sausage or whatever I happen to have.

These are super helpful and things that we have all the time.

Roni: Yeah, I think, I mean, there's also the idea of. Of pantry meals, right? Most people I think keep, you know, beans and rice in their pantry and there's a lot of things that you can make with beans and rice, especially if you've got a few extra things to add to it. You know, like you could make like a, a jambalaya situation if you've got some random vegetables hanging out in your refrigerator.

You know, you could even just do like rice bowls and saute some, some veggies or saute some frozen veggies to go into it. There's lots of things that you can do and it is important to know what. Your backup meal is going to be and not just be in this situation, right? Like right now I'm kind of guessing at what your backup meal right.

Might be. But I think it's really important to know what your backup meal is. Like you talk all the time, Riley [00:32:00] about your, white chicken chili. That's always, that's always in your cupboards. And it's like, you know that that's the thing that you're gonna fall back on if everything else doesn't work out.

And so I think. Just knowing that you have backup meals takes a lot of stress off of it for either those nights when things don't work out, or like Riley mentioned earlier, when you've forgotten to make your meal plan and instead of totally falling off the rails, you just say, no big deal. We've got a backup meal and I'm gonna make the meal plan right now.

Riley: Yeah, I have a summer backup meal too, which is like you. Usually some kind of frozen smoked sausage, frozen broccoli pasta. Rotel tomatoes and like some kind of seasonings. It ultimately becomes like a pasta salad dish if you have Parmesan. Awesome. Some, it's great on there. But it's like I have these like seasonal backup meals.

Usually we eat them before, like it changes to the next season, but it, they're just incredibly helpful to have on hand and figuring what out, [00:33:00] what those are for your family is really helpful. I know my family loves those things and they're not disappointed when that's the backup meal or when that's dinner, right?

Um, but if your family's a huge, uh, spaghetti and meatballs, people have that on hand. Have frozen meatballs ready to go if that's something that your family really likes. I, I had that. We reviewed that cookbook, the a New York Times cooking, what is it? What was it called? Um, no res. Yeah, no recipe Cooking.

And in that she did talk about this idea of like, what do you have on hand? What can you make with it? And like she made like a rice bowl, like a Mexican themed rice bowl with like bacon and black beans, and. Super simple and it sounded amazing and I don't think I would've gone that direction with it.

But, so looking into a book like that, looking into just figuring out like how you could take something that you normally wake make with fresh ingredients and using frozen or canned to have it as a backup meal can just be a super helpful way to do this.

Roni: [00:34:00] Yeah, and I think an important part of having backup meals is it can take away some of that guilt that you might feel when your plans have changed or you didn't plan very well in advance to just know like, cool, we still got stuff covered. It's not a big deal.

Riley: And why would there be guilt there? Because you made a meal plan you didn't stick to Sure. But also maybe because you're sticking, trying to stick to a budget really rigidly and suddenly you're in the drive through and you're like, oh, I wasn't supposed to be spending money on this or have goals, or we, we have goals like, this eliminates that because you already got it on hand.

Roni: Yeah, so I think times when you can go off your meal plan intentionally are things that we've mentioned already, which is like maybe a different dinner or meal opportunity comes up. Some friends invite you to go out.

Maybe it's a special occasion that you didn't realize and you're like, nevermind. We don't wanna cook tonight. We would, we would, we should go out. And celebrate instead. Or maybe somebody comes over to your house and you're like, oh, shoot. Like either they stayed like we stayed up way too [00:35:00] late, hanging out and talking with that person, and now it's eight 30 and I didn't make dinner.

Or maybe ri and I have done that before. Or, or, you know, just like random things like that. Or maybe there was a. All of a sudden soccer practice, right? Like kids are going to a championship game. They added an extra practice this week and we were not prepared for that. It's like there's always stuff that is gonna happen in your life that's gonna make it so that you can feel like you can't stick to your meal plan.

Riley: I mean, literally last weekend. We got stuck in Denver traffic coming back from a birthday party and life changed, you know, and it was just long time. just like any habit you start. You have to learn a way to know that there's going to be obstacles you have to overcome without feeling like pivoting is you failing, right? Like. Uh, whatever the hap maybe it's the gym may, like you could apply meal. This meal planning thing [00:36:00] is exactly like coming up with a new fitness thing, routine, whatever.

A new, maybe you're like, have health goals and it's like an eating change. Maybe you are trying to be a journaler, like it doesn't really matter what the habit is. It's literally the same as all of those. Like there are going to be days you don't get to journal. There are going to be days where you don't stick to the meal plan.

And instead of feeling like, like we talked about earlier, falling off the wagon, you ultimately are a total failure and you're never gonna do it again. Like so many habits, right? This is why things ramp up in January and they fall flat on their face in February. We have to figure out how to pivot without just feeling like another failure.

So looking at this as like, tomorrow's a new day. I'm gonna get back on track with a meal plan. This is why I planned a backup meal, or this is why I didn't plan every night this week. It, it's perfectly acceptable to go off plan. It's just about picking it back up the next day and doing it again over and over and over again until it feels comfortable and natural.

Roni: Yeah, not letting, not letting the wagon train. Just keep going down the road [00:37:00] without you making sure you hop back on it.

Riley: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Roni: Alright, well I think that we have covered a lot of things. About staying more consistent with your meal plan, sticking to your meal plan a little bit better. So should we answer a couple, a, a, a couple dinner dilemma

Riley: Let's, let's do it.

Roni: if I could get the words out? Dinner dilemmas. All right. Here we go.

All right. OAP says like British food and am a single person on a limited income.

Riley: Okay, let's talk about this. Let's break this down. You're on a limited income, . a single person. Okay. So using something like Plan to Eat is gonna be super helpful because it allows you to change the serving size of every recipe that you add into plant to eat. So if you are looking at, maybe you cook once and you eat all week, that is a whole strategy that some people take.

And also like a cookbook it's called that you cook once, eat all week. So doing something along those lines is gonna be [00:38:00] pretty helpful because you could. Save yourself a lot of time by cooking one meal and then just splitting it up and eating it every night. As far as like British dishes go, I would say looking up like what recipes I can cook that have a British.

Flare to them on a budget, like, look that up. It's a super helpful way to do it. Some of the things that I found when I was trying to come up with a great answer for you here is bangers and mash, like sausages and potatoes. Those are very low cost items and something that you can get in a large quantity, for a pretty low cost.

So it could last you all week if that's something that you liked. Shepherd's Pie. Super helpful. Because again, you're using those potatoes from the bangers and mash. You use something like a ground meat of some kind and you, that's something you can make once any need it all week. Um, and just in general, like looking at this like you're a single person with a, with an income that you need to be very, paying a lot of attention to, cooking at home is going to naturally lower [00:39:00] your food costs. So doing something along those lines is super helpful.

Roni: And I think always doing things like shopping, sales, and I mean, when I think about, uh, being on a limited income when it comes to what you're purchasing at the grocery store, to me the most important part of that is starting with a budget and knowing how much you can afford to spend at the grocery store on a week to week or a month to month basis, because it's super easy to go to the grocery store and just spend.

Wildly, right? Like we, we can always find fun things to buy at the grocery store, new things, things that look really delicious. Extra cookies. And so starting with a budget and knowing like, yo, I gotta stick to this budget specifically. I think that really helps a lot. And I think actually when you say like, I have this super specific budget.

A lot of times when I do that, I come in under budget every month. When I, when I'm trying to do that, just simply because I get like a little paranoid and I'm at the grocery store, I'm like, Nope, we're not buying two of those right now. We're [00:40:00] sticking to a budget. We're only buying one.

Riley: A hundred percent. We had an episode with Erin from, you Need a Budget, YN if you've heard us talk about that. Um, and that's a great podcast episode to listen to because she is a single person who cooks for herself. She uses plan to eat, to meal plan, um, and is on a very strict, uh, budget. And so that would be a great episode to reference.

I would say like British food being your preference is not a dilemma. It's just a great way to like find new recipes. So look at that as an exciting, creative thing, and not as a limitation.

Roni: Totally. . 

Riley: Angelica says that she has a lack of enthusiasm.

Roni: Well, I think a lot of people might resonate. With that very simple dilemma, a lack of enthusiasm for planning in general. I don't think there, not as many people are excited about planning as you and I, as you, as you and I are Riley right? I don't, it seems crazy, but I don't think that everybody's as excited about planning.

The [00:41:00] advice that I have, which granted this is coming from somebody who enjoys planning, but I would say. If your problem is a lack of enthusiasm, find a way to make it a little more fun. Sit down with your favorite beverage, whether it's in the morning and it's coffee, it's at night and it's alcoholic.

And, you know, make meal planning a little more like ritualistic something that's maybe like a time for relaxation. Maybe listen to your favorite music while you do it. . I would say just making it a little bit more of a, like a, a, a moment to savor when you're creating your meal plan.

Riley: this is gonna kind of sound like a little bit. Tough love, but like I have a lot of things in my world that I do not have enthusiasm for. And I do 'em anyway. I usually am really glad that I did them on the other side. Like there are many days where I do not wanna go to the gym and I go anyway. And at the end I'm like so glad that I did it.

There are many days I don't feel like cleaning my house. And then [00:42:00] I'm so glad I did it at the end. 'cause I love the way it feels to have it done. I love the way it feels to have worked out. I love the way it feels to have, like a home cooked meal like that is really yummy. Like to eat that I feed my family at the end of, at the end of the cooking process.

And I think that that is going back to the thing we said earlier, like. It's like a, it all, like we don't always have enthusiasm for the habits that we have in our lives or the, like, honestly, like the chores, like this is a chore. Just It is. And sometimes it feels more like a chore than other times. But just like doing it anyway and kind of pushing through the, like, well, I don't feel like doing it, but knowing that the reward is greater than that

Roni: I love it. I think that's great advice. Yeah. I mean, we all feel better when the. Laundries put away and instead of sitting in a heap on the couch, you know,

Riley: Yeah. And talk about mental load. Like I, the stress that the pile of laundry brings me, even though the, like, I don't wanna do it, I don't wanna do it, I don't wanna do it. But then when I do it, I'm like, oh, I'm so glad that's [00:43:00] done.

Roni: yeah, actually like fighting that resistance and just doing the thing is the thing that gives you the most relief and the most peace. You know, when I go to cook dinner and the. The dishwasher isn't unloaded yet. It's like, ugh. I do not wanna unload the dishwasher right now. I really just wanna get started cooking.

But I know that if I do, all of the dishes are gonna start piling up in the kitchen, and I'm gonna be even more stressed by the time dinner is finished cooking, because I can't just put stuff in the dishwasher, you know?

I think that's great advice. Riley rose says we are gluten and dairy free. My husband can't eat garlic or tomatoes and only an occasion, an onion if added to a stew or soup. I tend to make the same dinners over and over, even though I have a ton of recipes in plan to eat.

I guess I'm just too tired to be creative during the week. I need inspiration. So the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about some of these. Food allergies, [00:44:00] not being able to have garlic or tomatoes or onions and your gluten and dairy free. I'm thinking like there's a lot of Asian style recipes that I feel like could be, uh, suitable for this. You might have to take out the,

garlic from them, of course, and then use like coconut aminos instead of soy sauce. But like Asian food I think works really well as far as like there's rarely ever tomatoes, sometimes only like green onion. A lot of times they're already gluten and dairy free, specifically if you use something like a rice noodle or rice paper or something.

Even Mediterranean food and not like. Italian Mediterranean food. Right. But like, when I think about like the Mediterranean diet and like eating like fish with like rice or quinoa or something like that.

Riley: I understand of get getting into that I fully understand getting into cooking the same thing all the time. Especially with. These, like, I'm gonna use the word limitations or, or like [00:45:00] exclusions, probably like an ex, like we're excluding these foods. But the low FODMAP diet, it also excludes all of these things.

And a IP autoimmune protocol also excludes those things. And so getting a new cookbook that is under one of those two diet types, um. Finding an Instagram account that cooks this way. I think Whole 30 might also be pretty close to this. I'm not sure about tomatoes on Whole 30 or not, but, like, but, but finding a cookbook in that.

Looking through it and seeing like, wow, that actually looks really good. I can make that. But basically giving yourself a resource that is, I can make everything in this cookbook. It, I don't have to worry, I don't have to be afraid that I'm gonna find something amazing, but suddenly it has garlic as an ingredient.

Like, doing something like that could really open up your excitement and feel like you have a lot more freedom within it. But kind of just putting a. Instead of saying, I can't have all of these things, if you say we can have all of these things, [00:46:00] it can help it feel differently inside of yourself. Um, and also just like knowing that the, this like eating style has a name can allow you to Google endless possibility.

Roni: Oh yeah. Yeah. That's great. Great advice because I think there are a lot of people out there, you know, you mentioned both AIP and low fodmap. There's a lot of people out there who are doing those who have. Tons and tons of recipes on blogs or they've made recipe books and yeah, stocking up on those things.

I think you're totally right, Riley that's gonna open up a lot of possibilities. 

Riley: This one is from Leanne and Leanne says, my dinner dilemma is losing the motivation to cook those meals on those days, like I know myself and get ingredients that can make two to three dinners for the week. But then I come home and start thinking, man, I don't think I want Salmon three bean chili or whatever else I had ingredients for.

I want insert craving. [00:47:00] I do know this is largely a discipline thing, I assume, but tips and tricks to help get, or sorry, tips and tricks to help keep the good faith and a good attitude towards sticking to the plan would be so helpful.

Roni: Well, Leanne, I hope that our whole podcast today would had some tips and tricks for you that were super helpful. I would say, I would say you're, she's already starting on the right track, right? Like only planning two to three dinners for the week. And even though the things that she made maybe aren't things that she's feeling like in the moment.

I, I think one of the things for this that, that I've come across with me and my husband is some of the times when we don't feel like eating, the meals that I planned are when I didn't really pay attention to what the weather was gonna be during the week. And so it's like I planned a salad on a night when it's like chilly.

Like chili outside and then, or I planned like curry on a day that's like 95 degrees outside and my husband is like, I don't wanna eat curry today. I wanna eat like a Popsicle.

Riley: Yeah.[00:48:00] 

Roni: So like that. Maybe there's like an element of that where like you're doing the right steps of like not planning too many recipes for your week, but potentially there's a little bit of a breakdown in like the recipes that you're choosing.

Riley: And every day is a new day. Like there in a, and especially with like the, I love her. I want insert craving, like especially with cravings, like this is the time when you. Maybe your backup meal is something you always enjoy. So eat that, come back to the meal plan the next day and say, okay, I do want salmon.

I just didn't want it yesterday. And this is something too, I'm, I'm thinking about the salmon and three being chili are very specific things, right? So if you had salmon and you were gonna cook it with lemon. Maybe make it with brown sugar and I don't know. I'm just thinking like if you Chili powder.

Yeah. Cayenne, like, yeah. Maybe find it or maybe make it teriyaki salmon instead [00:49:00] of salmon and rice. pilaf Maybe make it with a veggie side dish or like a cabbage slaw like. Change if you can do that. Because a lot of the things I just said are things you already have at home. So you're not changing salmon, you're changing the spices and other that you put on top of it.

So that might be a way to like go with the thing you always love to eat, eat that, switch up and go, okay, I made the meal plan. This is what we're going to eat. But I don't think I want it the way I planned. It's. Swap that up with something we already have at home. Three bean chili's, pretty specific.

You could probably pivot that one too, like a, what is it called? Cowboy caviar. instead of a hot three bean chili, you have a cold beans salad with like jalapenos and like, like lime juice and stuff like that. So like it, you're totally changing what you're doing with it, but you're not wasting the thing you bought.

Roni: totally. And I even had the thought while you were talking that, yeah, make your backup meal. You could also [00:50:00] make the meal that you had planned for that night and then like eat it for lunch the next day. I feel like I'm often less picky at lunchtime. As, as me, as an individual, like I'm less picky at, at lunchtime than I am at dinnertime.

Like dinnertime just feels like, oh, it's the end of the day and I just want what I want. Whereas like lunch is like, well, I packed this for lunch today. I guess I'm going to eat it

Riley: Yeah. Or like so often for me it's like I just need to eat something so I can get back. To the project or the work or the whatever. And so I feel the same way. I am just like, okay, just we're eating to like make, you know, like we're eating 'cause we're hungry and the day is going on. But dinner, I want that to be hit the spot.

Roni: All right. Well once again, Leanne, hopefully this whole episode helped you have some extra tips and tricks for, for your dinner dilemma, we will be back in two weeks to talk about more meal planning, tips and tricks.

Riley: If you don't already, follow us on Facebook and Instagram and if you have another, did you already say this about sending in dinner dilemmas?

Roni: No.

Riley: If you have a dinner dilemma, send it to us [00:51:00] podcast@plantoeat.com. Um, if you found this helpful, but you have when we haven't answered, send it to us, we'd love to answer it. And we're really excited to continue this new series, which is meal planning, like a Pro.

Roni: Love it. We will talk to you guys in two weeks.