What do you do about meal planning when NOTHING sounds good?

[becoming]

I'm going grocery shopping and to the farmer's market tomorrow, and I have been searching recipes and looking at cookbooks since Saturday. I have not found one single thing that sounds at all good to me. I think it's because it's so hot (106 here yesterday) that I just don't feel like eating. But I have to feed my children, and I'm still basically EBFing my 12-month-old, so I have to eat, too! What do you do about meal planning when everything sounds disgusting? (Maybe I'm pregnant. )

[Port Orchard CBE]

Those are the nights I simply put out a platter of cheeses, breads/crackers, cut veggies and fruits and some sorts of dips like hummus or yogurt or whatever I have.

Just get those food groups represented and have at it. Sometimes grazing you end up getting more of a balance and satisfaction.

or I order pizza.

Kendra in WA

[Klynne]

this sounds like me the last weeks! Of course I am pg, but still, we need to eat! I peruse my cookbooks, look online for inspiration and come up empty handed.... I'll be taking notes

[kdabbler]

I hand the phone to dh and say, "It's your turn."




Hmmm. Maybe ask the kids what they want?

[Alyantavid]

I ask dh or the kids what they want (to which my 2 year old unfailingly says "hot dogs!" even though he won't touch one), or my best bet, wait until I'm really hungry and read one of the meal planning or what's for dinner threads.

[wife&mommy]

Seriously I started a thread just like this before. It's so hard! I go through this every now and then. I'll see if I can find my old thread to see if there were any good suggestions in it.

[wife&mommy]

Here it is Lindsay. Funny, I even put nothing in all caps like you did! LOL And yes, I was pg! Maybe you are?

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=751402

[becoming]

How funny! If I'm pregnant, though, I'll die. :

I did finally get my meal planning done for this week, just in time for grocery shopping in the morning. Whew. Hopefully this yucky phase will be over next week!

[audsma]

I usually eat melon in this situation. Or, pull out an old standby from my family-- popcorn and fruit!

[sanguine_speed]

I just revert to intellect rather than desire. So I think what the family would like, based on what they've liked in the past, and write it down, whether or not it sounds good right now.

[Minerva]

I ask the rest of the family what they'd like to eat this week. If no one has any ideas, it's a week of pancakes and omelets for dinner.

It's amazing how fast they come with ideas after that. The husband hates eating the same thing every night!

[mean_jeannie]

I keep all my previous meal-planning menus in a file and go through them to see if anything sticks out. If not (which this happened recently, not a dang thing sounded good) then I just buy and assortment of poultry and fish, a variety of frozen veggies, and make sure I have rices and pastas and potatoes on hand and then I wing it for the week.

The downside is that it is much more expensive this way. I'm glad it doesn't happen too often.

[textbookcase]

We'll just do a random refrigerator smorgasboard and eat the plan the next night!

[its_our_family]

This is us this week too. Since nothing sounds good we have been forcing down the things we find in the depths of the freezer that we would like to forget about but it feels too wasteful to pitch!!

[courtenay_e]

Hah! this is exactly WHY I meal plan!! It always sounds better to me if I don't have to think up something on the spot, 'cause it's already PLANNED! I honestly, just go down the list. I plan six mondays. If I am not feeling creative, I use the family standbys. Then I plan six tuesdays. They're soup, so six favorite soups are easy. You get the gist. Honestly, one of the reasons I started planning (besides the "oh crap, we have no money, how can we save every single penny possible!" line of thought, of course) was that night after night, on my husband's way home from work, I'd stand in front of the fridge staring into it as if something would jump out at me already made, asking my husband for suggestions...and saying, "Nah, that just doesn't sound good tonight..."

So I started putting it on paper, and making it, pretty much no matter what. Amazing how good it sounds when it is on the table on time and everybody's belly is full of good food!



Of course, in that kind of heat I would be making stuff like french veggie sandwiches, egg salad, noodle/veggie salad, GRILLED foods (I mean OUTDOOR grilling), etc--the less heat involved in meal prep the better!

[mamadelbosque]

I try not to put my quick, easy, and good meals on my meal plan (tacos, spaghetti, spagghetti squash, veggie stir fry), so that when something comes up or I just don't really feel like doing something fancy I can fill in with one of them and still not be repeating too much. Or we order pizza... though even that requires a bit of forethought as theres only one place that'll deliver and their just OK.