#132: Stop Avoiding Your Meal Plan: Simple Ways to Get Started

This week, we’re diving into why meal planning is so easy to procrastinate, even when we know it makes life easier. From busy schedules and mental load to perfectionism, habits, and not knowing where to start, we break down the real reasons meal planning gets pushed off. 

We also share practical ways to get unstuck, including starting small, lowering expectations, using templates, and building a system that actually works for your life. If meal planning has been sitting on your weekly to-do list longer than you’d like, this episode will help you move forward with less pressure and more clarity. 

Sign up for a free trial + get 20% off your first annual subscription: plantoeat.com/PTEPOD

Contact us: podcast@plantoeat.com

Connect with Plan to Eat online:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest

Transcript

why we procrastinate

[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, welcome back to the Plan to Eat podcast. Today we are talking about the idea that we sometimes procrastinate meal planning. So about a month ago we talked about why meal planning feels more exhausting than other chores. So if we're thinking along the same line of like it being a chore, something that we have to do on a weekly basis, it's something that we often can procrastinate and just like kind of put it off.

I think it's really easy to be like, I am avoiding the meal plan this week because I just don't wanna do it. So we're here to talk about why we might do that and how we can solve that problem when we're feeling like a procrastinator.

Riley: I like it. I mean, I don't like it 'cause I do this [00:01:00] too, you know, I, I feel like sometimes when I get overwhelmed with my day-to-day tasks or whatever I have going on, like I will put it off and it's the last task I should put off because, like we talked about with it being an exhausting chore, like you do this three times a day, you, you consume food most likely three times a day.

If you're cooking for other people, you at the minimum cook seven meals a week or, you know, give or take a few, right? And you need to be prepared for that. And you need to have a plan for it, and you need to have the ingredients for it. Otherwise, I'm actually adding more chores to my to-do list because suddenly, okay, I'm gonna run to the store for this, or we're gonna order takeout.

But then all the to-dos around meal planning, still have to be done for the next night.

Roni: yeah. I mean, we have talked before, so the reason that we call meal planning a favor to your future self is because. There is so much that there's so much stress involved in your life when you don't have a meal plan, right? Like I, at this [00:02:00] point, when I have procrastinated meal planning, I really dislike myself for it because then I get in the moment of needing to figure out what to eat for dinner and I'm like, I thought we were done with this.

Roni, I thought that we were on track, thought we were a meal planner,

Riley: Yeah. That version of me is gone.

Roni: that So there's just so much stress when I feel like when you don't have a meal plan. And so that's why procrastinate, that's why we don't wanna be a procrastinator with this, right?

Like we talked about with the other chores, like sometimes you can procrastinate, vacuuming, you can procrastinate, putting your laundry away. I know everybody has been there and left a giant pile of laundry on their couch for maybe four days too long.

Riley: Yeah. Yes.

Roni: That honestly is fine. Like, yeah, there's a little bit of stress I think involved with that. Just the, like, you seeing the laundry and being reminded like, Ugh, I really need to get that done. But meal planning just encompasses so much more, like we talked about in that last episode, like there's just like a, there's like a value aspect [00:03:00] to it, like a personal value aspect to it.

There's a, you're feeding other people, like you have other people's needs to consider. And like you said, Riley like, we're doing this multiple times a day. So having to plan for it, it just really eliminates a lot of that mental load.

Riley: Yeah. One more thing on the, just like it being a chore is just like I'm I, I try to vacuum my house at least once a week,

Roni: Oh yeah.

Riley: and so once I vacuum it, I am good for seven business days, seven business days, seven days, right? Or whatever, however often you vacuum, but like this is not that kind of task. You do have to do it every day.

You know? I think there's a lot of reasons why meal planning gets procrastinated and like I already mentioned, one of them is because life feels busy and it feels like the thing that I can put off. And I say, oh, I don't have time for that right now. It's like I already am spending time thinking about what I'm gonna have for lunch when lunchtime rolls around and I'm gonna think about dinner, like I might as well just sit down and do it, and then it's over instead of having [00:04:00] to reconsider it over and over again during the week.

Roni: Well, and when you don't have a meal plan and your life is busy, your life's gonna feel a lot more busy. Not having a meal plan. Right? Because then it is just those extra things tumbling around in your head. Extra decisions you have to make a grocery list that you're trying to keep track of and it just compiles on top of itself.

Riley: Yeah. And like, because I mean, prefer me personally. Like if I, if I didn't use Plan to eat, I'd have probably like two or three running lists, maybe one on a notes app, one on the fridge of like things I need to buy, and then I'm adding to it every day. But I'm not just going and getting it done, you know, or I'm looking in the pantry and I'm like, well, I guess it's frozen pizza tonight, because that's didn't have a plan otherwise.

Yeah, I just feel like it's just more complicated, more trips to the store. I know people who go to the grocery store several times a week for ingredients for like that night and the next night. And for me, that's impossible. I live way too far from the grocery store for that. [00:05:00] But also I am the worst at going to the grocery store for like the two things I need to make dinner and then buying seven other things.

So then my budget goes crazy

Roni: $14 turns into $40. Real

Riley: yes, and that is not, not gonna work. Not in this day and age.

Roni: it's interesting, this is maybe a little bit of a non sequitur, but I'm thinking about like before I used Plan to Eat and I was doing this process of like coming up with an idea for dinner and then going to the grocery store. 'cause that was me for a really long time, was like I was at the grocery store every other day picking up random things.

I also had a really boring. Dinner plan all the time, you know, because I wasn't like researching recipes to make, I was just thinking like, well, what can we make tonight? Okay, let's have this like sausage and rice thing or whatever. Whatever felt easy. And so like now that I use plan to eat and I'm like [00:06:00] doing the meal plan on a regular basis, we eat a lot more interesting food because that's not just like coming up with ideas out of nothing.

Right? Like I have a whole recipe book to pick from and I like that version of dinner a lot better for our family.

Riley: I am. I totally agree. And I would argue that it's a more interesting meal plan, and it's actually a simpler meal plan than, you know. I mean, yeah, maybe the ideas that I had before, or the ideas that you had before were, were easy or, you know, simple things, you know, how to make. But now my meal plan is very interesting, has a lot of variety in it, and it doesn't feel more complicated at all. It's just more exciting. But if I were to have told myself that this is what we're gonna eat, I'd be like, oh my gosh, how do you even make that?

Roni: Exactly.

Riley: That sounds so scary. I was like, well, it's not, it's

Roni: Yeah. I've definitely become a better cook.

Riley: Oh, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's totally, exactly the idea. Yeah.

Roni: Yeah. Like I've become a better cook because I've like cooked recipes outside of what my like original comfort zone

Riley: Yes, because you made it easy for [00:07:00] yourself, because you made a plan. You put those ingredients on your grocery list, you bought those ingredients, and then you followed the recipe. Check, check, check. Done.

Roni: done.

Riley: What are other reasons why meal planning gets procrastinated?

Roni: Well, I think for a lot of people it's the idea that they don't really know where to start. And maybe this isn't as much of an issue for like super seasoned meal planners who are just feeling like, kind of lethargic about meal planning, but if you're newer to meal planning or just an, an inconsistent meal planner, I do think that there's a barrier of like, well, where do I even get started?

What does a quote unquote good meal plan look like for my family? And then, you know, the ever present question, which I think everybody has, which is like, what recipes do I even put on the meal plan? So yeah, I think that there is just kind of a, it's sometimes it's hard to just get started and a lot of times that it's like inertia, right?

Like what? Stay an object at rest stays at rest. And so it's like getting started I think is often the thing that keeps [00:08:00] people, that holds people back, right? Because like, getting started feels harder than anything else.

Riley: and sometimes what you, I mean sometimes, not just in meal planning, but sometimes what people need is permission, like permission to, well, I'm thinking about this. I, let me, let me explain. I'm thinking about this idea of what does a good meal plan look like? But I wanna say to you, a good meal plan looks like what you want it to look like.

Like what do you like to eat? What nights do you wanna cook this week? Do you want it to take 20 minutes or do you want it to take, do you have two hours to make homemade pasta and do the whole shebang? Right? Like there like this, like permission idea of like a good meal plan is a meal plan that you like

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: and that works for you.

But I think in life, in a lot of areas, people just need permission

Roni: Mm-hmm.

Riley: to like do something differently or, like, oh, I think we think that we have to do it the right way instead of the way that we wanna do it. But the right way for this in particular is the way you wanna do it.

Roni: Yeah. There's also, I think, a permission to do it wrong. It's okay to, it's [00:09:00] okay to create a meal plan and it's not an amazing meal plan and it doesn't work out super great because we talked about this at the very beginning of the year, like we have, there's this like learn and adapt cycle, you know, like you get it wrong, you learn from it, and you adapt the following week and luck.

I mean, honestly, it's really lucky that meal plan is something that we can do every single week because like that learn and adapt cycle happens really quickly.

Riley: Yeah. What's, what is the phrase? Like, fail forward.

Roni: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Riley: Yeah. Another thing that people say is that they're just not planners. And this is not talking about just planning meals, but it is in their entire life. They're not a planner. They don't own a planner. They hate the calendar, whatever. You know,

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: I know plenty of people who are not like me and who do not like to write everything down and schedule out their life.

Now maybe it is, uh, simpler for someone who identifies as being a planner to do something that has the word planning in it, meal [00:10:00] planning. But it's an identity issue. It's not really a skills issue. Like, it's like saying like, well, I'm a terrible runner, or I'm not a runner. It's like, okay, but like you could start.

Roni: Yeah,

Riley: You'd have no reason to stop. You have no reason to not start. If you wanna run, but you think you're a terrible runner, just start running like, you know, have some like self-worth, self-belief, you know?

Roni: Well, I think the worst is when somebody is like, I'm not a runner. And yet they still run three times a week and it's like, well, you run, therefore you are a runner.

Riley: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's funny because I think we've talked about this before, but people who don't meal plan, that's actually also meal planning.

Roni: Oh yeah. Mm-hmm.

Riley: You know, like I, oh, I don't meal plan. Okay. Then what do you eat for dinner? Oh, I just like threw some stuff together that we had, or I ordered takeout or Caesar salad sounded good, so I went and grabbed some stuff to make that, it's like, that is a meal plan.

Roni: Yep.

Riley: You just didn't write it down ahead of time. You did it in a complicated [00:11:00] way. You probably spent more money on it than you should have or whatever, you know? Kinda like reframing it and saying like, planning is just making fewer decisions later on. You just made 'em in advance instead of making them, you know, like making them in the moment.

You made them in advance. But I think everyone actually is a meal planner. It's just kind of embracing that that's what you're doing

Roni: yeah.

Riley: and then finding a better way to do it.

Roni: Yeah, I do think that this, this identity idea is really interesting because similar with the example of running and like I gave the example of like, well, you run three times a week, why wouldn't you call yourself a runner? 'cause I think we're often very hard on ourselves, and we think that in order to identify as something else, we have to be like an elite version of it.

You know? Like in order to call myself a writer, I have to have published a book already in order to call myself a runner, I have to be able to run a six minute mile or whatever the like quantifier is. And so I think there's this element, and like this connects with what you're saying too, is like, well, [00:12:00] you're already a meal planner.

Even if you're not sitting down once a week and planning out all of your meals, you're still a meal planner because you're planning every single night and every single, you know, afternoon, when however many times you're eating during the day, like you're still planning, therefore you are a meal planner. And so and so, it's like, it doesn't have to be this like idealized version of what a meal planner is. And it also doesn't have to be that meal planning is negative because I think that's like the two sides of it, right? Like you have the one that's like the idealized, like, well, I'm not a planner. I'm really bad at that kind of stuff.

Like I've never been good at it. And then there's the other person who's like, I'm spontaneous, I'm a free spirit. Don't lock me down with plans.

Riley: And to add to that, I feel like some people look at planners as like rigid type, a super detail oriented and like, yeah. I mean a lot of planners are like that, but that doesn't mean that that's how you have to be as a planner.

Roni: right?

Riley: Yeah. I actually think we could talk a lot about this identity thing for [00:13:00] a long time because I got called out recently in a meeting with a personal trainer and I said I wasn't an athlete.

And he's like, you have a body, you're an athlete. And I was like, I was like, okay, well okay, I hear you. I was like, I'm sure I turned red. Like I just kind of felt embarrassed about even saying it. 'cause I was just being, you know, like negative self-talk kind of thing, you know? And I was like, I've never like, but the more I think about it, I'm like, yeah, I actually.

Like work out. I work pretty hard. I try to take care of myself. Like I've never considered myself an athlete because when I have been in athletics, I've not been very good at them. But it doesn't mean that I'm not working on that, like in becoming a more athletic version of myself, you know? I don't know.

Roni: Oh yeah. 'cause I think that we view somebody like an athlete is like, you went to the Olympics, you're an Olympic athlete. You know, rather than like, okay, I went to my home gym and worked out for an hour. I'm a home gym athlete.

Riley: Heck yeah. Heck yeah. I'm

Roni: [00:14:00] Yeah.

All right. Well, I think a little related to this, uh, just on the identity side of things, not being, I. Not feeling like you're not a planner, but I think people who are planners often struggle with that like idea of perfectionism and doesn't say that that other, you know, personality types can't also struggle with perfectionism.

I just know that as a planner personality, I struggle with perfectionism and wanting to do something, you know, quote unquote the right way, as we talked about earlier. And sometimes we get into this mentality of like all or nothing. Like, I'm either gonna do it the right way or I'm not gonna do it at all. And that's a dangerous mindset to be in.

Riley: I feel like we keep using these like quippy phrases in this, uh, podcast, but like, how you do this is how you do it, how you handle this is how you handle everything kind of ideas. It's like, well, I'm just gonna not do it. But that's, that's the phrase that came to mind when you said that. Yeah. I mean, that's how most people start new things, right?

Is like, like my daughter's learning to play the [00:15:00] piano and she doesn't wanna practice. She just wants to be great at

Roni: right.

Riley: And I'm like, if you wanna be great at it, you have to practice. But then she's like, I don't wanna practice 'cause I'm not great at it. And like this, like, it's like this endless loop that you get stuck in instead of just like, like I feel like I've, I've been meal playing group probably like, what, 12 years now?

And I still am trying to Well, because your life changes too, right? Like, it's not, like you're not a static being, it's like meal planning doesn't just like stay the same, but like every time, like, I've got this new scenario in life, okay, okay. How am I gonna meal plan in this phase of life? Oh, my kid's going to school.

How do I meal plan in that phase of life? I'm gonna, I'm gonna have people live with me for a little while. How am I gonna meal plan for that? Okay. Or, and I'm dairy free. How do I like, you know, you have to like, keep pivoting. And so it doesn't, it isn't like a stagnant process. But I, you know, 12 years as a meal planner, I feel like.

I still feel this way of like, okay, but how am I gonna do this? Like, what's the new again? How am I gonna adjust my meal plan for this? And, but you [00:16:00] do, you can feel very, you can feel very, I like, um, paralyzing. I think when you hit those new seasons, 'cause you wanna do it right? Or I remember when I had to go dairy free, I was like, well, I'm just going to eat nothing.

What do I eat? There's nothing to eat. Like, and you do kind of feel that like paralyzation. But I think once you work through that, like if you can just be like, okay, I'm gonna get it wrong. Sometimes it's not gonna always go great and I'm gonna have to keep pivoting because my life keeps pivoting. I think you can kinda like, I dunno if you can, if you can get past that, like perfectionism, I think you can do it.

I think anybody can do it.

Roni: Another quippy phrase, paralysis by analysis.

Riley: Oh, I like it. Oh, people are gonna be cringing this whole episode. What are they talking about?

Roni: No, but I think it's really true that, uh, it's there. You know, I really admire the personality type that is comfortable being a beginner.

Riley: Yes.

Roni: am terrible at a, being a beginner with anything. I don't like not knowing what to [00:17:00] do. I don't like feeling stupid because I don't know the things, you know, I'm thinking about your daughter and I'm thinking like, if I was trying to learn how to play the piano, I would also not wanna practice because I would be like, I feel dumb when I do this.

I just wanna be good at it. All of a sudden

Riley: Yes. We, but you have to work through that hard.

Roni: you do. Yeah. Just like with anything. I mean, what you have to do with meal planning, you have to do with learning the piano. You have to with learn how to drive a car.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: it's a, it's a humbling experience to be a beginner, which I think is, that's why I think that's, it's really hard humble pie to swallow.

Riley: Yeah. I mean, and I personally, like I, I'll, I'll do something wrong when I'm learning something new and feel very embarrassed by it. I could even be by myself and feel embarrassed by it. Like, that's talking about some sensitivity to embarrassment, right? Like, you know, and I, but it's even worse, right?

When somebody critiques it and you're like, oh, ouch. Yeah, it did not deadlift right. Or whatever. But, you know, like that. [00:18:00] But just being willing to accept that that's part of the learning process is like getting it wrong and not feeling the, like, there is no emotional weight to getting it wrong. Just fail forward.

Right. Just try again next time. It doesn't affect your worth or your value.

Roni: No, just getting started, as we said earlier, just getting started is the hardest part, and I think that the, yep. The perfectionism is also part of that barrier of getting started is like you overthink it and then you don't wanna do it 'cause you think you're gonna be bad at it.

Riley: yes, and that's a perfect segue into the next reason meal planning gets, uh, procrastinated is mental load. Because if your mental load is already high, and then you're over analyzing, okay, but I've gotta start this new thing, but how do I start this new thing? Where do I even start? What meals do I put on this meal plan?

How do, how many days do I meal plan for then? Then that paralysis hits in again. Right? You're just like, I'm too tired of thinking about this because my other thoughts are too consuming. Plus all those thoughts, it gets pushed aside and it gets pushed [00:19:00] to the worst time of day. Usually, like I think about.

Why meal? My plant eat was started. And it's because, you know, the, the person who created it, his wife would just like sit down at five o'clock and be like, oh my word. I don't know what I'm cooking. I have all these children, I have all these recipe books, I have all these ingredients and I don't know what to do with them.

5:00 PM is not the time to be figuring it out. If you're tired, hungry, decision fatigue is at an all time high for a day. And then what? You avoid it or you push it off, or you just say, I'll try again tomorrow. Uh, and you never really get past that point. Mental load is actually a big deal. We, I mean, we just talked about that in the chores episode too.

Roni: It is a really big deal. This is something that I, I talk about with my husband quite a bit actually, not necessarily related to meal planning, but just about life in general because we all have like thousands of questions that we have to answer during the day, whether you realize that you're answering a question or not, right?

[00:20:00] But's, just simple things of like. I mean, if we keep it on food, like what am I eating for breakfast? Even if you eat really similar things every day, like, am I gonna have yogurt this morning or am I gonna eggs this morning? And maybe related to that question is like, if you're somebody who exercises, like, okay, well when am I gonna work out and how should I time my breakfast in relation to when I'm going to work out?

And I don't know, it's just like there's, I feel like there's always like a cascade of questions that comes with like every single decision that we have. And so, yeah, like by the time you get around to when you need to be making dinner, and at that point you're deciding what to make to dinner in the moment, it is way too late.

You have used up all of your answers to all of your questions by that point.

Riley: Dude. Yeah.

Roni: Like your brain is just like, don't, don't gimme another question. I don't, I don't wanna decide. And dinner feels like so big because there are so many options and so many potential complications of like, do we have all of the ingredients?

What ingredients do we have that are [00:21:00] going bad, that need to get used in? But I don't use them. I just waste my money and like, there's so much,

Riley: Yes. And I'm thinking about, I'm thinking about every female ever who's been asked by their spouse on the way to dinner, where do you want to eat? And they're like, oh, I have no idea. My husband hates to ask me that, but he makes me choose because I'll put it on him. And he doesn't wanna choose either. Then we are like, he's like, you better decide.

'cause we're almost there. Like, we're almost somewhere. Right? But it's easier. It is actually easier to decide than to avoid, but it feels easier to avoid than to decide.

Roni: it really does. No, that's a perfect, yeah, that's a perfect example too, because somebody has to make the decision at some point, but you're both avoiding making the decision. My favorite is when my, if, when my husband says, what do you, where do you wanna go to eat tonight? And I'm like, I don't know. And then he suggests the place and I'm like, no, not there.

Riley: not there anywhere but there.

Roni: Like, like I, I can make the negative. I can, I can, I can make the negative answer of like, not [00:22:00] that place anywhere, but that place. Uh, but I can't make the like definitive like affirmative choice of like, yes, this place.

Riley: Yeah. My husband has tried the, like toddler route with me and he's like, okay, you can have this or this. 

Roni: So he gives you the choice of like, taco, do you wanna have tacos or do you wanna have hamburgers? Riley

Riley: Yeah, yeah. It's exactly, that's, if that's, if he gets to a point where he's so annoyed with me that he's like. Okay. You, you seriously can't come up with anything. I'm like, nothing sounds good. And he's like, what about this or this? And I'm like, neither one of those. 

Roni: okay. So I think another aspect of procrastination is what we're kind of defining as like a systems rut. So like we've talked about like getting into a rut with meal planning, but just as Riley mentioned earlier, like not planning is also a system for meal planning, right?

And so you kind of get into this rut of like. The thing that I'm doing has always worked for me. And so you don't really understand that like the alternative is so much better. You know? Like I [00:23:00] think there's like a Riley and I used to listen to a lot of like biohacking podcasts. Now I don't really listen to those podcasts a whole lot anymore.

You don't either.

Riley: don't, I don't.

Roni: But, but I remember very distinctly, like there was one podcast, I don't even remember who it was, but like the person was saying that they had like made whatever these, like physical changes were, like whether it was like their diet or exercise or they started taking some supplements or whatever the thing was, and they said like, I didn't realize how sick I was until I felt good.

And then I, and you know, and then I realized like, oh, I felt really bad before because I feel so good now. And so like we, I feel like we get stuck in these ruts of I don't realize how bad my system is until you upgrade to a new system and then you're like, wow, that last system was terrible. Why was I doing it that way for so long?

Riley: Yeah. I really love that like idea in relation to meal planning because you get used to chaos

Roni: [00:24:00] you do.

Riley: and you get used to like when you, I. When you do it the hard way, like, I mean, my husband gets onto me for this so often. Like, I am definitely, I'll do something the hardest way. And he's like, don't you realize there's like a way easier way to do this? Like you're choosing the hardest way. And I'm like, yeah, but it's the way that I know.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: It's like the familiar way. But like with meal planning, like when you finally do start meal planning with the, with a tool, with a system like you, everything starts to feel easier.

But until you do, you have no idea what it's costing you or time, energy, money, none of those things.

Roni: You just get used to all, like basically all the things we've said before this, you get used to like that, like mental spiral and the like overload. And you just think that like that's how, that's what being an adult looks like, is like, well you're just, your brain is just full of stuff all the time and it's really stressful and uh, that you just have to deal with it.

Riley: Man, it's like, I'm, I'm so [00:25:00] used to, I don't know why this example just popped into my brain, but, very spoiled with a coffee pot that I set every night

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: to start in the morning. I get up and the, you know, the, the brain race doesn't start. I just go to the coffee pot. I get my coffee unless it didn't work.

Roni: Oh yeah.

Riley: And I'm like, what? It didn't start. And then I'm like, my whole day is not really, my whole day is not ruined. But it does just be like that sometimes. 'cause I have to wait 20 whole minutes for the coffee to brew. It's probably not even 20, it's probably like 10. Uh, but it's kinda this, it's like the opposite thing.

It's like you, when, especially like for me, like when I get into a system with meal planning, it's not really opposite. It's actually the same. And then I don't do it for a week. I'm like, what have I done?

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: I'm, oh, we are just wing it. No, I do not think so. I do not wanna wing it. I don't wanna feel this way again.

I want the coffee pot to start.

Roni: again, I don't like this version of myself. I thought we were done with this.

Riley: Yes, [00:26:00] exactly. Any system that you build for yourself does start to feel normal.

Roni: Yep.

Riley: Even if it's not working,

Roni: Yeah,

Riley: you may not know it doesn't work. 'cause you're like forcing it to work

Roni: that's true.

Riley: or it's like the, you know Yeah, go ahead.

Roni: well, I was gonna say, if this is you, this is your, this is your sign to start meal planning right now, and it's gonna be a really big improvement in your life.

Riley: Yes. My computer really hates our printer. It like, will not connect to our printer. So I email things to the printer to print and my husband gets onto me. He's like, this is literally the hardest way. And I'm like, yeah, but it, it doesn't work so often the right way that I just keep doing it the hardest way.

It's like, okay, we gotta work something else out. It's the same thing.

Roni: For all the advancements in technology, why do printers still suck?

Riley: I, I think particularly if you have multiple operating systems on the same network in one of them set up the printer, it's gonna prioritize that all the time. We don't need to talk about printers, but.[00:27:00]

Roni: I just had to mention it because like, look, we've got AI that can like do half of people's jobs for them, but I'm not, but my printer can't connect to my computer. Like, come on.

Riley: Yes. Printer is a special source of

Roni: It's

Riley: frustration in my house. Yeah,

Roni: Yeah. All right, moving on. Okay, so this is kind of an interesting idea. This next one is kind of an interesting idea, which, we have become a society of like instant gratification and like immediate rewards and meal planning is not necessarily an immediate reward task. So I think it's easier to procrastinate it because as we always say, it's a favor to your future self, but not necessarily your current self, right?

Like the favor to your current self is just like deciding in the moment, what are we gonna eat for dinner? But the favorite of your future self saves you from making all those other decisions down the line. So it's just like, sometimes it's less appealing because you're like, I don't need to worry about future me.

That's future me's problem. My husband says [00:28:00] that phrase semi often. That's future me problem.

Riley: Until it becomes present yous problem, and then it's a way bigger problem

Roni: it's a way bigger problem.

Riley: in the front. Yeah.

Roni: Yeah. But I do think it's a reason why we procrastinate is 'cause we're like, I don't really feel like doing it right now. Like it'll be a problem for me tomorrow.

Riley: The only time I really think about that is at like 10:30 PM I'm like, that'll be a problem for me tomorrow, but I'm already in bed.

Roni: Because I wanna be sleeping. Yeah.

Riley: Another reason is habits. Habits are a real barrier, which is honestly a lot of what we talked about already. If you already have a system, it's a habit. If you already have a bad system, it's just a bad habit. You just might not know it's a bad habit. I saw this, uh, Arthur Brooks quote, Arthur Brooks is social scientist, and he said, if something isn't working for you, you've gotta change your habits.

That's what it comes down to. The beautiful thing about it is that you can get new habits. I don't care how old you are, your brain is highly plastic. That's like the end of the quote, and I [00:29:00] loved it and I loved it in regards to meal planning because it really, that's what it comes down to. It just comes down to habits.

Roni: it really does.

Riley: If you are used to eating out five times a week, like that's gonna be the habit you like.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: It's easy, right? Easier. But meal planning isn't about motivation. I mean, you do have to have some motivation, but it isn't about rewiring your behavior because it is a habit just like anything else.

Roni: Yeah. It is.

Riley: like cleaning your house.

Roni: Exactly, just like cleaning your house, just like practicing your piano.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: These are all habits that Yeah, it's a habit that you just have to get in the practice of doing 

Riley: You're gonna love this. I've got another quippy quote, but my husband and I often say to each other, do Right. Not easy. Um, and the idea of like, okay, the right thing is for me to do this thing right now the right way, not the easy thing, which is like, I'd rather sit on the couch or whatever the answer is.

Whatever the situation is, it's gonna have different Right. And easies, but.

Roni: Yeah. 

Riley: On that note, [00:30:00] if procrastination isn't about laziness, 'cause we've never mentioned that in this entire podcast,

Roni: So true.

Riley: what actually works? What overcomes procrastination, whatever comes almost the hardship. The hardship of meal planning. Uh, yeah. Whatever comes it, but how do we get through it?

Roni: Well, something that we talk about. All the time, almost every single podcast, which is start small with your meal plan. Particularly if the thing that you're struggling with, with your pro procrastination is like, I don't know where to start. I don't even wanna get started. I think start small, kind of like lower the bar for yourself or like, and this, I guess this goes into pro uh, the perfectionism too is like lower your, the bar for your expectation of like what the meal plan for the week looks like.

And start with just planning like two to three meals through two to three dinners for your week. So that way you at least have something, right? Like you have like a jumping off point for your week. You have some nights of the week that are gonna feel a lot easier because you already figured out what you're going to eat for dinner, [00:31:00] but you didn't, you know, it didn't take you 45 minutes to make your meal plan.

It probably took you like eight minutes to make your meal plan to find, you know, two to three recipes. And so I think just like starting small and making it feel like not stressful to create your meal plan is a good place to start. Because also this is kind of a trick that. That, people use in the fitness world as well, which is like when you're procrastinating your workout, a lot of people will be like, okay, well just tell yourself I'm gonna work out for 10 minutes.

I'm gonna go for 10 minutes, and if I feel like trash after 10 minutes, I give myself permission to stop. But most of the time you get started and 10 minutes goes by and you're like, well, I'm already here doing it, so I'm just gonna keep going. It's like, it's kind of like that same idea he rep applies, is like, give yourself permission to like start really small plan, just a couple dinners.

And if you only plan a couple dinners and then you're like, nevermind, I really don't wanna do this, that's fine. At least you got started and you planned a little bit, but more than likely you're gonna be like, [00:32:00] fine, I'll just plan the rest of the week. I'm already here doing it yourself a bit.

Riley: I, I love that.

For me, sometimes new habits, like, or when I'm reworking my schedule or my life, like I really have to set a different tone. I have to sit down, okay, okay, at four o'clock today, this is what I'm doing and I like put it on my calendar, say I'm gonna do it. I mean, it's how, it's how I get into new workout routines.

I'm a very much like a, I mean, I'm highly motivated by Monday, which I know is not like ideal, but I'm like, okay, Monday, okay, it's Friday, Monday, here's what I'm doing, here's what I'm gonna do, here's the workout, whatever. But kinda the similar idea with Plan to Eat is like make yourself like a little.

Like date on your calendar. Say, I'm gonna sit down and I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna, I'm gonna allot myself 30 minutes to work on it. 15 minutes, whatever time you've got, and use the tool like plan to eat. Like maybe you download a new free trial or you open it for the first time in six months. And the nice thing about that is it will be blank.

So you've got this like blank canvas. Okay. [00:33:00] Okay. I'm gonna start here. To me, it always feels good to like open up a new app or get a new journal, you know, like, or like there's some like freedom in like a blank page sometimes that maybe not everyone feels. And that might make you more, I'm, I'm just giving an idea.

It might make you more of a procrastinator to see a blank page, but, print out a calendar, look at your schedule, like all these things that we tell people, but just like set it up, you know? So like, if you have something that's super motivating to you, maybe it's you go take a cooking class. Oh, I'm like, suddenly I'm, I'm, my, my excitement is sparked, you know?

Or if it's a blank journal page or if it's a brand new app to like, like plan to eat, to like create a new meal plan inside of, do something that like, gives you motivation to like start the whole process to build a new habit and then start with, okay, I'm gonna scale. I'm gonna plan for two days. Wow, that really wasn't that hard.

I'm gonna plan for four. So it's like going like one step backwards from what you said. I is just, I don't know, just set it up, set the scene, do the thing that motivates [00:34:00] you, get that like kick started in your brain. I don't know. Does that make sense?

Roni: I love it. I think that's great. I think that a lot of people's brains do work that way. Like you kinda, you know, you see advice for this kind of stuff all over the place. And like, I know we've talked about like exercise a lot here. It's just something that you and I both have lots of experience with. But like, you know, they're like, if you wanna start a new, you know, workout routine, like buy a new cute shirt to wear for your workout, right?

Like, 'cause then you're like, you're excited to wear the shirt to go to your workout class or whatever. So this is like that same idea of like, get a tool that you're excited about that makes you wanna get started with meal planning instead of just like dragging your feet and being like, I don't really feel like writing it down on a piece of paper.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: Well and this also goes back to the, like, you don't know your system's broken until you upgrade it. So like if you're procrastinating because you have a, the old system of pen and paper and you're just like, I don't want a meal plan 'cause it takes me a million years. Then download plan to eat and you can start meal planning.

It's gonna take [00:35:00] you 15 minutes.

Riley: Another way to do this is to like reverse engineer it. Like when do I normally grocery shop? Oh, seven days a week. Okay. When do I actually have time to grocery shop Fridays? Awesome. Then you know you need a meal plan like Thursday night.

Roni: Right?

Riley: When do I like to grocery shop? When do I have free time to grocery shop?

When, when do I have the margins to even think about dinner? Okay, Saturdays great. Then let's plan our first night, be Saturday night and our, our second night be Sunday night. Do that. And then build on it. But like, I dunno, knowing yourself, I think that's kind of what I was trying to say earlier is like what sparks that interest in you to like start something new, like reverse engineer that, this is what I know, I like, I'm gonna do this.

Okay. But then also reverse engineer the actual meal planning process and the grocery shopping process and the cooking process. If you literally hate cooking meat, then don't cook it.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: Like pick something else to cook or pick something pre-cooked for you. Build on that [00:36:00] and reverse engineer it in a way that works for you so that you can build a system that is actually unique to you, which is when you're gonna keep up with better.

Roni: Yeah. Yeah. And related to that, I think the idea of like, once you've reversed engineered it, particularly if you're doing it based off of like, when's the day that I have time to go grocery shopping? Okay. So if that's Friday and you need to then make your meal plan on Thursday so that it's set for your grocery shopping trip on Friday, like set a reminder in your phone or something.

Like give yourself a visual cue so that you actually do create the meal plan on Thursday. And it's not like Friday comes around and you're like, well, I was supposed to meal plan 'cause I'm going to the grocery store and now I'm just gonna the grocery store and winging it instead, continue to do yourself a favor by making, like, by reminding yourself and making it easier to actually do the meal plan.

Like set your planner out on the table if that's what you need to do. Or like I said, like put a reminder on your phone that says at 4:00 PM today's the day to create your meal plan. Do it right now.

Riley: yeah, yeah. I'm a, I'm a big, like, Sunday night, [00:37:00] sit down, look at my entire week, what is going on? What do I need to do, what do I need to buy? What does my kid have to take to school? Oh, she, we don't have tennis shoes that fit, you know, like my child, my child. I mean, what appointments do I have? I'm a big Sunday night, get my week organized kind of person.

But then I had to start pivoting to, I had to start doing my grocery shopping on Thursdays, and it doesn't work to meal plan on Monday. If I'm grocery shopping on Thursday, it doesn't work for me. So I had to pivot, but it doesn't, hasn't been the hardest pivot because I'm anchoring it to an existing routine.

Like I had to pivot because Thursdays is now when I grocery shop, it used to be Mondays, which is why Sunday night was such a nice night for meal planning and weekly planning and all that jazz. But because I am now anchoring it to an existing, okay. Thursdays is now the day and the time that I have.

Okay. So I've gotta start pivoting. My meal plans are now usually Wednesday to Wednesday, um, maybe Friday to Friday, because if I get groceries Thursday, sometimes I'll [00:38:00] already have Thursday planned. And I don't necessarily need those groceries, but that's when I've got the time to meal plan. So just another idea around scheduling it is like anchoring your planning and your shopping and your to an existing routine can sometimes also be a really helpful thing because you're not going out of your way.

You know, like you, you, it's like, it's like low hanging fruit, right? It's like, well, it was easy to do it now. Great. Making a habit easier is never bad unless you're not doing it right. Right.

Roni: Yeah, I'm thinking the Atomic Habits book, one of the, I, one of the ideas in there is like, uh, I don't remember exactly what the, what it's called, but it is like connecting a new habit to an existing habit that you have is kind of like that same idea, like you're talking a little bit more like schedule wise, but it could be like, okay, well I'm, I need to, like, I can grocery shop on Thursdays because where I'm at for work on Thursdays is [00:39:00] right next to the grocery store.

So it makes sense that I would go to the grocery store on Thursdays. And so yeah, like creating that like connection of like, I do this thing and then I do this other thing, just like helps reinforce the habit a lot of the time because you're already doing this one thing and then it like naturally leads into meal planning next, or grocery shopping next, I guess in that example. okay. So some of the other ideas that we have here are more for if you're already a meal planner and have done, and maybe just like you're feeling that, like you're feeling a little sluggish, a little lethargic, and that's why you're procrastinating doing your meal plan. I think having the, the idea of like using a meal planning template to like get started and also reduce your decision fatigue is really good.

So this is things like, you can use theme nights for your week. So you have like meatless Monday, taco Tuesday, the pasta on Wednesday. You know, you know

Riley: really wanted a W and you couldn't come up with [00:40:00] it.

Roni: Yeah, I want it to be cute alliterations the whole week and I can never come up with them anyways, so. Using ideas like a, like a template, but your template could also be, it doesn't have to be like these cute theme nights.

It could also just be you assign a different type of protein to a different night of the week to like to keep variety in your week or you give each night of the week a different cuisine or like flavor profile. Basically just something to lower the amount of decisions again that you have to make because you're like, okay, Monday we need to come up with a vegetarian recipe, or Monday I need to come up with a Mediterranean recipe and instead of just looking at Monday and it being that blank canvas, if you're not a blank canvas kind of a person.

I think the meal planning template is super helpful to get started.

Riley: Absolutely. I agree. Another one is having a meal planning accountability partner. This could be a friend, this could be a spouse. My [00:41:00] immediate thought on this topic is like, if I don't, people at my house will rebel. Right? Like, like it's kind of some built in accountability for cooking for other people. But I mean, I find it to be really helpful.

Ronnie texts me ideas for recipes. I text her ideas for recipes all the time. And I will often just add them to my meal plan. I certainly save them, but like, it does help. 'cause then we've got this like, shared load almost. I also definitely ask my family for ideas or inspiration. And now a couple of my family members, they say the same thing every week and we don't eat the same thing every week.

But my daughter always wants hamburgers every single week. I do not wanna eat hamburgers every week. But utilizing these people, I was actually thinking this when you were talking about templates. 'cause like you could even assign a day of the week to each person in your house and tell them to pick.

There's a lot of ways to get creative with it, but having an accountability partner or a meal planning like Buddy is another really helpful one.

Roni: yeah. There's also this interesting aspect. That happens for me. I don't know if it happens for other people, but [00:42:00] there's like an element of like, when you admit that you're struggling with something, all of a sudden it kind of makes it a lot easier, you know? So like if I text you and I'm like, riley, I'm really struggling with the meal plan this week for whatever reason, right?

After I send that text message, I get an idea for like three different recipes. There's just like some, there's like some weird like, like there's like this admission of I'm really struggling with this thing and I need some help. Like reaching out for help somehow, like unlocks something in me that all of a sudden I'm like, oh, I'm not quite as stressed about this anymore.

Like, I admitted that I'm struggling and now it's kind of better.

Riley: I mean, I feel like I, there's probably a lot of like psychological reasons for that. But sometimes it can feel like, like a shared load suddenly. Like, it's not just like me holding this all by myself. And that sounds really dramatic for meal planning. But like, if you ask me, I think I remember you texted me and you were like, what do I make with these ingredients?

And you're like, I have people coming over and I, this is what I've got. And I'm immediately like, [00:43:00] on fire with ideas for you. But I could have a hard time doing that for myself. Like, but something about just like including another person in your struggle is a really big deal.

Roni: Yeah. Yeah.

Riley: It feels like a shared load or, or like, I, I'm like happy to give you ideas even though I couldn't have come up with 'em for myself.

But I could do it for you. 'cause I don't know, I just got inspired by whatever you said, you know? I, I, it does feel like a big, it feels like a good thing to share.

Roni: Yeah. Yeah. The, the collaboration, whatever psychology happens with collaboration, I'm very interested in that.

Riley: Well, it just like works for me. Like I'm a big, I'm a big relational person. And, and like accountability really works for me. Like talking to people about stuff really works for like, it just like, I am not an introvert most of the time, but I just feel like the, uh, this is, this one like means a lot to me because I get a lot out of relationship.

Roni: Yeah. Yeah. 

Riley: Um, 

Roni: this idea is a little more like mindset [00:44:00] driven, but I thought about it because when we interviewed Hannah last time, she, she like, made mention of this idea, which is that, you know, sometimes having more discipline actually leads to freedom in your life and.

I really like this idea because this is how I feel, right? Like in incorporating like systems and structure into my life actually makes me feel more free. Because something like having a meal plan, right? Like all of the things we've talked about today, right? Like having a meal plan then frees up that brain space to be able to think about other things.

I'm not worrying about the meals, I'm not worrying about did I buy enough things at the grocery store. Like all of that stuff is already settled. So I know that this is like another one of those like quippy phrases right now. You know, like Jocko Willink is

Riley: I was literally about to say we can't not talk about Jocko, if you're gonna

Roni: I think he's the person who's making this really popular right now is like freedom, uh, discipline equals freedom.

I think it's like the name of one of his books. [00:45:00] Really it comes, I, I did a little research when I was thinking about this idea and it actually comes from the like philosopher, I don't know what decade, not decade. I don't know what century he was alive in the 18 hundreds. I don't know. Nietzsche Frederick Nietzche.

And his quote is, he who cannot obey himself will be commanded. So basically saying like, if you can't have discipline yourself, like outside forces are gonna come in and be the thing that commands your life. And so you can think about that with meal planning. And when you're procrastinating your meal plan, you can just think like, well I can make the decisions for about meals now, or like down the line, all of the other things in my life are just gonna like force a decision on me.

You know, whether it's like I have to go to the grocery store and buy more things or look, we're only eating beans and rice 'cause that's all we have at home. Like there's an interesting that ha there's, I feel like there's an interesting thing that happens there. We haven't really talked about in depth [00:46:00] yet, which is like when you are not the one who makes, actively, makes the decision, like sometimes other forces will make the decision for you.

And like

Riley: can, we have a whole side convo

Roni: we could have a super side convo about this one, right? But like, that's

Riley: to hold back.

Roni: right. Like, but like getting takeout. Getting takeout usually happens 'cause like you didn't do your future self a favor and so then you're going through the drive through line or you're getting takeout and so it's like that outside force then like made the decision of dinner for you.

Riley: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe even thinking about your rice and beans thing, and this is gonna, this like a Dave Ramsey sidetrack, right? But like, unless that's your choice, and then that's the discipline, right? Like, then you're having beans and rice because you're paying off your mortgage or you're paying down your debt from a Dave Ramsey thing came in, like, what does he say?

Live like no one

Roni: no one else. So you can live like no one else.

Riley: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, wow. We are in it with these quippy phrases today. That's the entire [00:47:00] podcast, guys. Um,

yeah. But thank you Jocko. Thank you Dave. Uh, I just called Dave Ray, Dave Ramsey, Dave, like we're friends. Um, we're friends. Uh, yeah. Yeah. I just Yes. To all of that. Yeah. It's just about discipline and it actually leads to you just having autonomy over your whole life.

Roni: I'm, and I don't think like, I am also a person who's like everything in moderation. You know, I don't think that, that this means that like you need to, that you do need to have like a rigid, super regimented life or that your meal plan needs to feel that way. But I really like, this is something that I feel in my life when I, when my life and my days have structure, I feel a lot more at peace.

Riley: And yes guys, we are still talking about meal planning. Um, ah, man. I just feel like this topic though, you and I are just like, love this kind of,

Roni: I love this

Riley: all these like ideas though. All these just like, why is this hard [00:48:00] procrastination? Like, it's like so much bigger than meal planning because it really does affect everyone's whole life in the way that they do everything.

Roni: absolutely. Yeah. But meal planning is a part of that, and we've talked about it before, that meal planning encapsulates a lot more than just meal planning. It's, it, it doesn't seem like that on the surface, but when you really look at meal planning, it is about your time. It's about your mental energy, it's about your budget, it's about your connections with your family.

It's about, it's about your health. Yeah. They're like, there's just so many things that meal planning touches, and so I feel like that's why you can have these broader conversations about discipline and life and procrastination, because meal planning is way more than just meal planning.

Riley: Yeah. This is how all of me and Roni's conversations go. If anybody was wondering, like everything is way more than the topic, the surface level at hand. Like there's so much deeper, there's so much beyond just like the surface level idea. But [00:49:00] I love it 'cause there's so, but there's so many other things we could be talking about besides meal planning.

But it really is such a, it's an umbrella, it's an umbrella topic of all these other things. Okay. Let's get back on track.

Roni: Back to the tactics.

Riley: Um, reusing that past, reusing past meal plans, there is no shame in that.

Roni: No,

Riley: No one's gonna even notice, just go back. Um, especially using a tool like Plan to Eat,

but like you can go back and look at what you had a month ago, six months ago. Six years ago, and you can move it to today. 

Roni: Yep. 

Riley: takes about 10 seconds. The moving process, maybe finding it might be harder because you, you know, you wanna scroll back for a long time. But it's up to you how long it actually takes and it is so fast to move it to this week.

And that is an awesome way to meal plan. There's no shame in that. If your family likes it, reuse it. Do it again.

Roni: Absolutely. You're you real like you double did your future self a favor.

Riley: Yeah, you double did it.

Lastly, is one that I do not implement enough, but should, [00:50:00] is meal planning once for the entire month. I mean, if you really hate meal planning, do it in bulk.

Roni: That's right. Yeah.

Why 

Riley: think I told you Yes. Go ahead.

Roni: why not just get it all done at once instead of being like, I have to do this every single week. Ugh. Like, just get it done once for the month. And then when each week comes around, it's like, oh, surprise. I already did it.

Riley: Yes. I think I told you I know somebody who did it for 12 months by hand, paper and pen on a calendar and well, one, like there's, there's better ways to do it if that's system that works for you. Okay. You might not know there are better systems, but, seriously, like it could, you could do that. You know, maybe you get a week off at Christmas, sit down plan the entire next year ahead and then Yeah.

Every little, every week. Just a little surprise.

Roni: Well, so I kind of implemented this, I did the thing that we always recommend people do, which was I created a menu in plan to eat, and all I did was I put [00:51:00] four recipes on each week for an entire month. I put 16 recipes on the meal plan and just basically was like 16 of our favorite recipes, right? Like they're recipes that I rotate around always. Anyway, and since most weeks I only plan like four to five recipes to begin with. And I'm really feeling the favor of my future self right now in this, because I go and open my meal plan and I'm like, ah, I already have recipes for this meal plan.

And like, it's amazing. It's been amazing. It's been so good. And I have changed things around a little bit, right? Like we're in the springtime, the weather's constantly changing. And so it's like, oh, well this week is warmer than maybe what these recipes are kind of calling for. Or maybe it's chillier and I wanna add something else on here instead of a salad.

But it's been really nice, like it's been super nice and okay, so this is something I'll, here we go. I'll be honest, this is something that like we recommend on the podcast all the time is like create menus, reuse menus, just plan for the fu [00:52:00] like plan further ahead in the future. And I've always procrastinated doing it and now that I've done it, I'm so happy about it.

It's a great way to meal plan.

Riley: I love it. Ah, I love it. I should do it too. I, I mean, I will say a lot of the ideas that we have are from experience ourselves, from customer experience, or from seasons like we talked about.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: Like in seasons, I've meal planned this way or that way. Um, and I think that using like planning for the entire month or planning for several months in advance is awesome.

If you're looking ahead to a season, you know, you need more things off your plate. And I'm not saying that's a season you're in, but I'm thinking about people who maybe, caring for a loved one who has surgery or if you, if you're having a baby, like dude, get that meal planning done,

Roni: Yeah,

Riley: get it done and get it looked at ahead.

And it might be the way you meal plan from now on, but sometimes the catalyst is something like a really need-based catalyst, you know?

Roni: yeah, [00:53:00] all right. I think that kind of wraps up all of our ideas related to why we procrastinate meal planning, and then also what you can do about it. As always, ri and I hope that you've taken something away from this podcast, that you enjoyed listening to our tangents and our philosophical comments, because we really want meal planning to feel easier for you.

And if you're feeling right now, like you have been procrastinating meal planning for a little bit, I hope that this episode helps boost your motivation a little bit so that you make a meal plan for the upcoming week. You got anything else? Riley

Riley: Do you wanna tell us your meal plan real quick for

Roni: Oh, yeah. Okay. Let's do it. This the meal plan that I made, uh, way ahead of time and now, and now I'm eating it this week. Yeah, that meal plan. On this week, we have a ground beef stir fry. That's a very typical recipe in our house. Then I have like a Tuscan chicken skillet situation I probably already talked about on the podcast before because we do [00:54:00] also eat that frequently. A ravioli Primavera. I think

Riley: I have been seeing the Primavera around a lot. It's a popular recipe right now on

Roni: that's, this was one of the swaps that I made was because I was like, I want kind of a springy recipe on the meal plan this week, and the primavera's have been coming up a lot, so. The recipes for a ravioli, primavera. I didn't buy ravioli. I just already had tortellini in the freezer. So I think I'm just gonna make a tortellini.

Primavera same, same basically. So I'm excited about that one. And that one's also part of the motivation for that one too, is we still have some frozen ham leftover from the holidays. And I'm like looking at it being like, it's April, we need to eat this ham. So,

Riley: Yeah. Yeah.

Roni: so I did a little digging into my freezer and was like, oh yeah, we should find something to use this up.

So, so we have that and then we just have a pretty standard, beans on toast recipe. So [00:55:00] those are my, those are my only four recipes. I'm probably gonna have to add something in this week. I don't know if any of these are really gonna give us leftovers.

Sometimes, like, sometimes the Tuscan chicken does and sometimes it doesn't. Kind of depends on how as hungry my husband is on the night that we eat it. So, but that's what we're looking at right now.

Riley: Love it. I have been trying really hard to not make food for 90 people. I have such a hard time not making just gigantic batches of things. So I've actually been, we've really been reigning in the leftovers department because I've been really trying to, like, this is, we don't need more than this. Like, I don't need to just, I don't want to eat it for seven days afterwards. And I think that that's the problem is that I was, I'm the leftover person at our house. Like I eat it for lunches, nobody else eats it for lunches. And so I'm like, you gotta reign this in, girl. I'm over it. And I'm usually all about the leftovers, but right now I'm like, no, thank you. Okay, so we had.

Some chicken [00:56:00] meatballs with like teriyaki sauce and rice. I've been in a rice bowl kick and we've had about every flavor of rice bowl that one can imagine. I'm into it. Um, there's, they've been so easy, like last night, this is what we had last night. I roasted bruel sprouts, broccoli, and green beans all on one sheet pan.

The meatballs that I bought were like a pre-cooked meatball. It's like frozen and they're really good, by the way. They're the adele's teriyaki and pineapple

Roni: Ooh, yum.

Riley: really good. And so at the last minute I just like threw those on the sheet pan and then doused it in this delicious teriyaki sauce. We like served on a rice bowl with mango and almonds.

It was so good. It took me like it was very low effort for how good it was. We are also, we also had breakfast for dinner. We are having smashburger tacos, hot wings, and then one night we're having, uh, dinner at a friend's house and then one night just leftovers. So.

Roni: Nice.

Riley: Very, very simple meal plan this week.

Roni: I like it. Sounds yummy. All right. That [00:57:00] wraps us up for this week. If you wanna support the Plan to Eat podcast, share this episode or any other episode with a friend or family member, it's the best way to support us. You can also leave us a review on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Audible.

You can always send us an email at podcast@plantoeat.com. Thanks again and we'll talk to you again in two weeks.