The Power of Ten Minutes
When making dinner every night feels overwhelming, remember how much you can do in ten minutes.
OK, ok, you can’t cook your week’s dinners in those minutes, but you can make your life remarkably easier for the next five days.
If you’re like me, when it’s 4pm and my teenager asks, “what’s for dinner?” I’m often consumed by a sinking, awful feeling, followed quickly by dread, confusion and possibly screaming into the void.
That happens UNLESS I have spent ten minutes earlier in the week doing this simple ritual. When I’ve done it, there’s no screaming into the void (well, not about dinner, at least).
This isn’t meal planning (certainly not in the old-fashioned, colour-coded, structured way I used to think of meal planning). It’s more like taking stock, or doing a vibe check on what’s in the kitchen now and what’s on your calendar for the next few days.
STEP-BY-STEP KITCHEN VIBE CHECK:
Look in the fridge for what needs to be eaten asap
Check the freezer for stuff you could thaw and eat in the week
Glance at the pantry to make sure you’ve got essentials for a “back pocket dinner”
Take a peek at your family’s calendar for the week (soccer on Tuesday, choir on Thursday, work function on Wednesday?)
With all this intel, now think of three meals you could have this week.* You don’t even have to write them down (although feel free to write it on a piece of paper and stick it on the fridge so Wednesday You remembers there’s a club pack of chicken thighs in the freezer.) Now add a few things to your grocery list that will facilitate these dinners.
If it’s a quiet week, feel free to try a new recipe; if it’s a chaotic week, then please, please Lean. On. What’s. Already. Working.
It’s not meal planning the way we’ve seen it before, it’s knowing what you’ve already got in the house, and what kind of a week you’re heading into. And I’m telling you, these simple steps will make you feel so much more prepared for the week ahead.
It’s always helpful, when feeling overwhelmed or stuck by anything, to remember that you can play a role in your own life! You can (and should) take control of the little things that can derail a day.
*One more thing that makes this whole process even easier is keeping a list of your family’s current favourite meals. This is another solution that’s so simple, you’d laugh at it if it wasn’t saving your life 😜.
