RIP

Our meals have been pretty sad lately, but I am accepting that this might just be a season. Whether it was motherhood or the pandemic that led to the death of finding joy in preparing food, I won't ever know. At this point, the best thing I can do is accept the reality, hope that it's just for a season, and create room in my life for other more satisfying creative outlets.

Not only does the New Lisa tolerate Tupperware, she also actually scrubs toilets and has been known to swipe at a baseboard with a rag every once in a while

I share this here in case any of you are struggling with boring dinner rotations or lack of novelty around the dinner table. You're not alone.

Without further ado, here is our ultra-boring dinner schedule we followed surprisingly religiously for about a couple months this winter. 

Perhaps a more fun way to think of this is as a capsule meal plan. Like, we haven't given up entirely on life.

Saturday: take-out (usually Mexican or Vietnamese) -- this is a new addition, and it's been super nice (albeit counter intuitive) to pair grocery shopping day with take-out
Sunday: sheet pan chicken OR pork chops and kale

Monday: tacos OR spaghetti (we got 1/4 cow last fall and it helps to just have one day a week I need to remember to defrost meat)

Tuesday: leftovers

Wednesday: xuxu soup OR cheater hainanese chicken

Thursday: leftovers -- pre-pandemic we rarely had leftovers night; now it's twice a week and I'm pleasantly surprised to find out I haven't (actually) died from this.

Friday: spam and egg w/ rice and cauliflower

(The overall concept of a fixed meal plan is a marriage of Kendra Adachi's "Decide Once" principle to reduce decision fatigue, and Zombie Mode, which is a schedule that the Alive version of yourself writes for yourself on the days you feel dead.)

In the past couple weeks I've definitely started to feel a slight desire to cook other things (er, more precisely, to eat other things). But instead of switching up the whole schedule--because the schedule has helped create more sanity for me--I'm slowly introducing the option to try something different on a Wednesday night (e.g., cast-iron roasted chicken). This seems to strike the right balance between routine and novelty for me in this season.

I'm thinking that when it's actually spring, I will have a mostly different meal plan (capsule?) for the week, and possibly with more free choice days. In the meantime, this has been serving us decently well.

P.S. Shockingly, we have been following our nmemonic breakfast schedule for five years (!!!), with only one change. On Tuesdays we have tater tots and scrambled eggs.