How making a weekly menu for my family boosted my happiness 100%!
I am a doctor and a mother of two. I work full time- leaving home by 7 am and coming back at 6 pm. I work on many weekends. When my kids were younger, I relied a lot on nannies to take care of them while I was at work.
Even with the hired help, managing the food situation at home was always my second job and it stressed me out! Even though I enjoy cooking I always felt like I was just “flying by the seat of my pants”. Here is how my food management usually went- I would go grocery shopping over the weekend. Buy a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, frozen foods, fresh ingredients thinking of all the amazing recipes I would make this week. I would buy things on an impulse thinking “Wow, we can eat this for dessert” or “This would be perfect for a snack”. I would come back and put the groceries away in the pantry, freezer, and refrigerator.
Come Monday, I would get back home at 6 pm from work- tired, hungry, kids clamoring for my attention. I wanted dinner, I wanted it fast and I could not think of what to cook for dinner. So I would fall back on the quick and boring staples (pizza, pasta, or khichdi) or get take-out which would invariably end up falling way short of expectations and cost way more. By Wednesday or Thursday, I would be wondering what is the point of earning well when our quality of life sucks! By Saturday, I would throw away a lot of spoilt fruits and vegetables and “discover” foods we meant to eat but never remembered to during the week.
I felt unhappy. I liked being a professional but having a good dinner with my family every day felt like the “true success” that eluded me. I wanted it all! I did not want to stop working but I wanted my home life to be less chaotic.
One obvious often recommended solution was to hire a cook. That is easier said than done. Having someone to come in and cook food that suits your taste even once a week is NOT that easy. Even when I found an Indian cook through word of mouth recommendations, I still had to get all the shopping done and all the ingredients ready for her before she came. Tell her what I wanted to be cooked for the week. Pay her a lot of money (it came to almost 40$ per dish she made!) and still not everything tasted just the way we like. Also, let’s face facts- most of us cannot afford to hire a personal chef on a regular basis.
Years later, frustrated with the same cycle repeating every week I finally put some thought into my problem. I like to cook! So why was it always so hard to do it. The answer was obvious- the mental roadblock for me was deciding “what to eat” when it was 6 pm after a full day of work and I was hungry and tired. When I am hungry, my brain just cannot function well enough to decide what to cook for dinner. One day, looking for solutions online, I came across this cute magnetic menu board on Amazon. It comes with erasable chalkboard markers. It changed my life.
Here is what I do now! On Friday night, I make a wish list of what I and my family would like to eat for next week. This is a great time to poll the kids and husband- get them to have their input. I write down the ideas on our menu. I have a section for dinner but also on the side for snacks, lunch, and even dessert. I open the fridge and see what we already have- so I can include in our menu recipes that will make use of those ingredients. I open the freezer- see what we already have and add that to the list of foods we can eat for next week. Then, I make my grocery shopping list based on what I need.
I do invariably end up buying a lot of impulse items at the grocery store. When I come back home, as I am putting things away I add those “extra” items to my menu as well. On Saturday I look at my menu and prep or cook ahead of time whatever can be cooked. Surprisingly, I realized a lot of my recipes (Indian) have the same onion-ginger-garlic-tomato base that can be made in a batch ahead of time.
The best part however is I do not have to THINK every evening “What shall we eat for dinner?”. I look at my Menu hanging on the wall. It reminds me of what I already have in the fridge or freezer waiting for dinner. When the kids ask me what snacks do we have- all I have to do is point at the menu. All their snack options we have in the house are listed right there.
My brain can finally rest. Such a small change but I feel 100% happier. Try it! It might work for you too.
