#119: When Nothing Sounds Good for Dinner

This week, we're diving into dinner dilemmas that hit close to home because even meal planning pros get stuck in ruts!

Ever meal plan for "fantasy you" only to realize real you has karate, dance class, and zero energy? We've all been there. In this episode, we're tackling picky eaters and food sensitivities, breaking free from the same-five-recipes cycle, and making meal planning work with tiny kitchens and limited storage.

Plus, we share our go-to hacks for when nothing sounds good.

You'll walk away with practical strategies to keep dinner interesting without spending hours in the kitchen or breaking your budget. Because meal planning should make life easier, not harder.

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Transcript

Fall Dinner Dilemmas
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[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 gonna dive into more of your dinner dilemmas 'cause we're trying to finish these up before the end of the year. I don't know if we're gonna make it, but we're trying our hardest to get through the rest of them. 

Riley: yeah, so we had 86 submissions 

Roni: 22 of them left.

Yeah. 

Riley: and we are on number 64. Yeah. Okay.

Roni: So we're getting there. I don't know that we're gonna get through 'em in the next like four episodes, but we will continue to answer them until we get all of your questions answered.

Riley: I mean, the response here was pretty impressive. I'm

Roni: it really was. Yeah, and a lot of like really thoughtful questions I feel like we've gotten.

Riley: Absolutely.

Roni: Yeah. Um, before we get into that though, I need to rant about a recipe.

Riley: Rant. [00:01:00] Rant away.

Roni: I feel like I need a little taglines like Roni rants. 'I rant about recipes a lot, I think.

Riley: What are those called? Like little intro songs?

Roni: I thought it was like called a tag.

Riley: I don't know what it's called. Maybe it is called a tag. 

Roni: A 

Riley: Yeah, you need that? Yeah.

Roni: Is that what it's

Riley: I have no idea. Okay. Let's stop talking about things we don't know about, and you talk about the thing you do know

Roni: Okay, cool. Yeah. So I was making this recipe the other night. It's supposed to be like one of those easy meal prep recipes you make. Basically make like a taco bowl, burrito bowl situation, chicken, vegetables, rice, that sort of a thing. I found it on Instagram from somebody who like, that's their shtick is they do like meal prepable recipes.

When I think of something like meal prep, I'm thinking like, cool, how can we get all of the meal prep done with like the least amount of dishes, the least amount of preparing and cooking and whatever, like I just wanna get my big batches of food done quickly. [00:02:00] There was chicken. I put the chicken on the smoker, there was rice and then there was sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

So it said to chop up the sweet potatoes and put 'em onto a sheet pan and roast them in the oven. And then you were supposed to cut up the Brussels sprouts and put them on the stove like you were supposed to saute the Brussels sprouts. And I was like, I don't understand why we're doing these two vegetables separately when they're both like hardier vegetables and they can definitely cook in the oven at the exact same time.

So that's what I did. I broke the recipe rules, but it was like really annoying to me for some reason when I was reading the recipe to be like, put the thi, put these on the sheet pan, put 'em in the oven, and then do these other ones on the stove, and I'm like, why would I dirty extra things? Why would I do two things separately when I could do two things at the same time?

Riley: Yeah. I think the thing that annoys me about it is that we tell people all the time to like go find recipe creators who. Make these like 15 minute dinners, sheet pan dinners, one pot [00:03:00] meals, because like that's a solution to dinner taking forever. And when you say that, I'm like, oh, but that took longer than it should have if you followed the recipe.

And I almost am like, don't follow my advice. Like it almost like breaks that credibility for cur creators on the internet, like when they do something like that. But I think also it also shows that writing recipe instructions is actually really difficult.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: And it is a skillset, you know, like to tell people exactly all the things you did.

And I think for me as somebody who just like doesn't follow a ton of recipes, I think I just like wing it so much that like, I wouldn't even notice that in the recipe instructions. I would've just like done it how I wanted to, because I just take so much liberty. But, but for people who do follow instructions, like you have to be pretty.

On top of it when you're writing instructions for someone, especially someone who doesn't know how to cook.

Roni: Yeah. Well, and I honestly didn't fully read the [00:04:00] recipe before I put it on my meal plan because it, I was like, well, it's super simple. And you know, I think I had watched the video on Instagram a couple weeks prior, so I wasn't remembering exactly what the person did in the video, but I was just, you know, looking at the picture and thinking, okay, we've got Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.

We're gonna roast those in the oven, we're gonna cook the other things. And so then when I actually was reading through the recipe as I was cooking, I was like, this is not how I would do this recipe at all.

Riley: Yeah, well maybe that's where the recipe needed, like a note, like you can cook these here or here. Maybe the recipe creator just prefers them in a skillet. Except I, I mean, I personally don't because it does take so long to cook Brussels sprouts that the oven is just a leave it and forget it, that it, and forget it kind of situation.

Roni: Well that's what, yeah, it was said like saute them for eight minutes and I was like, there's no way the Brussels sprouts would be soft in eight minutes. They're still gonna be rock hard. Yeah. 

Riley: But

then that's a whole nother step,

right? 

Roni: it was, yeah, and [00:05:00] I'm, yeah, I'm sure the reason to put 'em in a skillet was so that they were like crispier or something.

But I'm like, okay, just like put the broiler on in your oven for the last three minutes and they'll be crispy. It's fine.

Riley: Yeah. That's where I'm like, nah. Crispy or done at the same time as the other thing. Yeah. I'm gonna take done at the same time as the other thing.

Roni: So this is, your permission as a listener to sometimes do what you want. When you're cooking, you know, do the thing that feels the easiest and not necessarily what the recipe author says.

Riley: Well, and you might get it wrong, but we've talked about this on the show so many times. Like there's times where I've done stuff and I'm like, yeah, that maybe wasn't my best combo, but I did it. And I tried it and I learned. But yeah, I mean, just if you have a preference or if you're like, I can make this easier, do the thing.

Roni: Yeah. Another thing that I wanted to ask you about that I feel like. I feel like we're kind of in the season for switching up our meal plans. I you, So I was having a conversation with some friends a few weeks ago, and they, you know, kind of were asking for recipe [00:06:00] suggestions, what they should eat, because they were like, we, he's Italian and so they eat a lot of Italian food, a lot of pasta, and they're like, we pretty much only ever eat like Italian food or hamburgers.

And they're, they were like, we're super, like we just, we have no idea how to branch out, how, how to like add more recipes to our repertoire. And so I, it was an interesting thought to me because we often, you and I often talk about getting in recipe ruts of like specific recipes. We plan the same five recipes, week after week.

But I was wondering if you have any cuisines that you feel like you get stuck on or are just, these are my go-tos. When I'm feeling like I have no ideas, I always fall back on these specific cuisines because. They're easy. I know how to do 'em. We always have the extra condiments for these things.

Riley: A hundred percent it's Mexican food.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: That is the food that I fall back on. I mean, maybe [00:07:00] weekly. I have to kind of intentionally not make tacos or like in, you know, fajitas. Those are kind of like the two that two my, my two go-tos enchiladas every once in a while. But I feel like, yeah, Mexican food is my default cuisine that I'm just like, well, we haven't had that in five days.

Let's have that again.

Roni: Yeah, ours is the same. We, I default to either Mexican food or like Asian,

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: uh, like stir fries.

Riley: Yes. Okay. That was my second one

Roni: I will sometimes put two stir fries on the same week for a meal plan. Not realizing that they're both a stir fry. Not really that they're both like an Asian stir fry, like this one has broccoli and this one has like, cabbage and peas or whatever, you know.

And then my husband will be like, didn't we just eat this three days ago?

Riley: Here's Pad Tai and here's teriyaki.

This one did get made with noodles and that one did get made with rice and they do taste it a little different, but Same family. Yeah,

just, yeah. [00:08:00] Yeah. Same. That would be my second. I, we are actually not huge pasta eaters over here, so it's interesting to even think about someone just like eating a lot of Italian food.

Not that pasta is only Italian food 'cause it's not, but that's where we go to, right in our minds is like pasta and Italian food. 

Roni: Yeah. We don't eat a lot of pasta either.

Riley: yeah. Fascinating.

Roni: I made a carbonara for the first time a few weeks ago, and it was really good, but I felt out of my element because that is not something I would normally make.

Riley: yeah. Okay. I have a couple questions for you unless you have more questions for me.

Roni: Nope

Riley: Okay. I'll start with something funny. What is the best thing that you've seen on the internet this week?

Roni: Okay. There's this creator on Instagram, TikTok, all the things, and his handle is Marco's Funhouse, and I think he originally started his channel as like a, he's like a thrifter, like a vintage thrifter. And so he would like go into vintage stores and like find these cool fines.

And that was [00:09:00] his thing. And then at one point he found this vintage recipe. It was like a old 1950s recipe for this like disgusting. Jello jello pudding thing that had like tuna fish or something and it was like horrible. And so now he does this segment like every couple weeks where he comes out, he like makes another vintage recipe and he did one for Halloween and I was like rolling on the floor, laughing.

It was so funny. The part that's so funny is he always like, takes a bite at the end and he's almost always like, gagging because whatever it is is just like a horrible combination. It almost always includes like jello and bologna and mayonnaise, like, like whatever the people were doing in the 1950s, they didn't, they were not good at making recipes.

Riley: Well, I feel like we gotta give them some, we got, let's, let's make some excuses for them.

Like it's post World War II people, you know, like, it's like, people were like spending a lot of like new invention kind of things. Were like a, [00:10:00] like jello. I dunno what year that came out, but I feel like it came out around this.

Um, what, what else, what other kind of excuses can we make? Oh, it was like, budget, you know, it's like, well, what do you have? Well, we're gonna make this into dinner and you're gonna like it.

Roni: That's true. Yeah.

Riley: mean that's how my grandparents like, that's how there was certainly that like influence in their feeding of their grandchildren.

Sometimes you will eat this and or you won't, you will be hungry.

Roni: Anyways, everybody needs to go to Marco's Funhouse and watch his vintage recipes. So, so funny. So funny.

What's the best thing you saw on the internet?

Riley: yeah. Okay. My favorite thing, I wish I had their handle 'cause. I asked you these questions, but I, I didn't like write down my own. I just, this is the one that came to mind. I saw these girls and it's like two friends and they go and they go grocery shopping together. I think it was like once, twice a month maybe, that they would do this.

They would buy all the ingredients and then they would prep food all day. Like they would prep all sorts of recipes, breakfast [00:11:00] burritos, breakfast sandwiches, breakfast casserole, lasagnas, enchiladas, like shepherd's pot, like whatever, freezer, kind of freezer meal kind of thing. And those were the, those were the recipes in the video.

And then they both had dinner. For like many nights and breakfast for many nights. So she was like, oh. She was like, it's been so good for our budget and been so good for our friendship. And I'm like, that sounds so fun.

Roni: That sounds awesome.

Riley: But they didn't do it because like they had to, you know, it wasn't like a season where like, I need freezer meals.

You know, like I've, I can look at seasons of my life and be like, I needed freezer meals. It was just like regular. Like regular life and I loved that.

Roni: I love that too. That's fun. Maybe we need to do that.

Riley: I mean, I think it sounds fun. I actually thought if anybody would do that with me, it would be you.

Roni: Yeah, I definitely would.

Riley: Okay. What is your favorite recipe that you cooked this last week?

Roni: I'm have to look at my meal plan. Hold please.

Well, earlier in the week it was kind of chilly, and so [00:12:00] I made some zippa Toscana. The recipe that I have in my, uh, my plant eat account is like a Olive Garden copycat recipe. It's so good. It's, yeah.

So, 

Riley: had it. You've made it for me. It's

Roni: yeah, and this is one of the soups that my husband can get on board with. He really likes this soup, so it's like, it's good as like a first soup of the season to be like, look, we like soup. 

Riley: Yeah. Remember we do. That's so funny. I that the problem though, like what I would do is that then I would cook it all the time and then they'd be like, my husband would be like, I think we're done now.

Roni: Yeah. Well, and so then I, a few days later, I made like a tortellini skillet and he was like, oh, this is good tortellini soup. And I was like, no, it's not soup. It's a tortellini skillet because I'm making tortellini soup tonight.

Riley: Yeah. That's awesome.

Roni: I had to like get his mind right, like it's not soup. This one was just a skillet recipe, not soup.

Riley: Nice.[00:13:00] 

Roni: What about you? What'd you, what's your fave that you made?

Riley: So I made, it was gonna be fajitas, but once it got around to it. By the time I got around to dinner, I was like, Ugh, doesn't really sound good. I don't need another tortilla. We'd had a couple of tortilla things in the last couple of days, like breakfast burritos, like, okay, I'm done with tortillas.

So I just turned it into like a rice bowl and so it was, I actually made the rice with bone broth, which I don't do all that often, but it was really good. And then pinto beans, steak, uh, we had avocado. Oh, I remember why this was even on my meal plan. The reason why I even planned this whole meal is because I wanted to make queso. Because I bought some queso from the store and it was disgusting. It was disgusting. Like I, I don't know if it was bad. Or if it was just really bad because we know what good queso tastes like. I dunno. So that went in the trash and I was like, I gotta redeem the queso situation. And so I just made some, so I was like, well, I gotta make something to go with [00:14:00] this.

I don't, it's not gonna make queso for no reason. And so made the queso, it went on there. And then sour cream, I think we had cilantro limes, chips if you wanted that. Oh, and my husband made this like Chipotle sauce he makes, which is. So good. I could put it on everything. Uh, and so yeah, it was great.

It was really yummy.

Roni: Okay, so tell me about your case. So do you use velveeta, or just regular cheese?

Riley: sorry. That reaction was very strong. If you, I know no one can see my face, but I was like, no, no, um, no. I used, um, like milk and, what is that? Oh, pepper jack cheese,

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: some seasonings, jalapeno. Green chilies, that kind of

Roni: Okay. So you just thin it out with milk. Okay.

Riley: yeah, cornstarch sometimes if you need it to, like I've, I've used recipes before where you call, where it calls for cornstarch.

I didn't use any last night.

You can use multiple cheeses.

Roni: Sure. Yeah. I don't know if I've ever made my or homemade [00:15:00] queso.

Riley: Yeah, you can do it with white American, which is not really that far off from Velv Vita.

Roni: Oh, okay,

Riley: Right? I mean, kind of

similar. 

Roni: both. Not real cheese, cheese.

Riley: Yeah, it was really good.

All right, last last question for you. All right. What has been your biggest meal planning struggle in the last week?

Roni: Oh. Yeah, well I just created next week's meal plan. I did that yesterday and I was actually feeling pretty uninspired by the things that I have been planning recently. So I think that was probably my biggest struggle is just like feeling uninspired and not wanting to eat the same things over 

Riley: Mm-hmm. 

Roni: because I kind of did like a meal plan reset a couple months ago.

I'm already kind of tired of the things that I think they're all just like two similar flavors. So I actually went, I normally meal plan from my phone, but I decided to meal plan from my computer so that I could like [00:16:00] jump back in time a lot easier. And so I went to like 2024 or 2023 and like looked at like what was I planning?

Riley: It's a great idea.

Roni: During that, like November, December, January time, just to like get some better ideas. Because I went back last year and was like, oh, we were eating really similar things. No wonder I'm tired of these 

Riley: Yeah, yeah. Haven't been that.

Roni: Yeah. , So yeah, that was really helpful.

Riley: That's such a good hack for like getting some inspiration. I also feel like it's such a millennial urge to like look at something on the big screen,

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: like, you know, like I also like to go to my computer to meal plan and just like see everything big. 

Roni: Sometimes, yeah, sometimes I just wanna be able to do it on my computer. Well, and like with work, I spend a lot of time on my computer anyways, so like my husband doesn't gravitate towards the computer. He gravitates towards his phone because he doesn't work on the computer. But I'm like, well, I'm already at my computer at four 30.

When I'm done with work, you know, I should just make my [00:17:00] meal plan. I'm right here.

Riley: Yeah, for working for a technology like a company that's based in technology, I feel like I'm a slow adopter to things like, and that's a whole nother conversation for another time. It's good that I'm married to somebody who does like to adopt new technology. 'cause otherwise I'd be like in the stone age.

Roni: Oh. What was your meal planning? Struggle.

Riley: not wanting to eat anything. Like, well, like, just like, not, like nothing. Sounds good.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: So that's really difficult when like dinner happens every night

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: and I'm cooking for other people who like rely on me to have thought about it. And so I guess my solution has been to, if someone makes a suggestion, I am immediately write it down.

Like, my daughter was like, we should have biscuits and gravy. And I'm like, well. We, we actually eat that for dinner. We don't eat that for breakfast, so it's like breakfast for dinner. And we haven't had it in maybe 10 months, like a long, long time. It's a very rare, it's a very rare thing we eat anyway.

It's kind of like a thing we eat for the holidays. I know that [00:18:00] sounds weird, but like we'll have breakfast for dinner like Christmas Eve, and sometimes that's what we have. It's b biscuits and gravy. And so I was like, you know what? If you want it, let's make it. 'cause I just, I'm uninspired, so I'm trying to like take inspiration from when other people tell me.

And then. Also just like looking at what I have and being like, okay, I'm just gonna cook what I have because it doesn't sound good anyway. Like, nothing like inspiring me, like, oh, this sounds amazing. I can't wait to make this, and I don't have that at all right now. And so I'm like, okay, well we've got this, these ingredients, I'm just gonna make it so,

Roni: Yeah, it's interesting that we were both kinda like struggling with the same thing. I wonder if that's the like, I don't know. We are still in the changing of the seasons here in Colorado, and so I wonder if that's part of that or if it's this, like we are on the precipice of the holidays and so there's like this little bit of like. Sometimes it's easier to just think about like, what am I gonna plan for Thanksgiving and not think about what I'm gonna plan for this week?

Riley: Well, and this is where, I mean, I dunno if people listen, watch our social [00:19:00] media, but I also made a post about this yesterday. Like, here's what I'm doing now to prepare for the holidays. And one of those things was creating menus that I can use for the week of Thanksgiving and probably the week of Christmas too.

It's really simple. Maybe stuff from my freezer or or freezer meals that I make to eat that week. And I feel like they're really gonna be really simple. There're not gonna be a ton of prep work, that kind of thing. And like that, the menu that I'm making for that week of Thanksgiving, I should just like make for right now.

'cause like, it's like, man, I just need it to be easy and like just needs to be food. People just need to be fed, you know?

Like, Yeah.

Roni: Well, should we dive into some other dinner dilemmas?

Riley: we should,

Roni: Okay.

Riley: I just, I think it's good like that we have dinner dilemmas because we're real people.

Roni: We are real

Riley: And we meal planning. We have to do it all the time. And we do this for a job and it still sometimes says struggle.

Roni: and still sometimes we feel uninspired. Well, I think I was telling you this the other day, I have fallen into that trap of like, I have too [00:20:00] many recipes in my plan to eat 

account. There's like, it's like overwhelming to look at all of the recipes that I have and think like. Well, there's obviously a lot of recipes in there that I've never made before, and so it's like, well, I don't wanna plan a whole week of recipes I've never made before.

Right. Like that would switch things up. Of course, but that's like not, the goal is to like totally just upend dinner every night.

Riley: No, no, that's, that's dangerous. Yeah. Alright, I'll jump in with our first one here from Diane. Picky eaters and food sensitivities. I can't find one meal that will make everyone happy. One child has allergies and food texture issues and the other hates rice and most starches.

So when I see a great meal, my first thought is, but only half will eat it. So then why bother? Current solution is things like cook pasta, make the fun sauce separate, put it together, people want or have plain noodles, but now all casserole are out. It's boring and makes meal planning more challenging.[00:21:00] 

Roni: That's interesting. I don't gravitate towards casseroles. So, which I, but I understand that a lot of people do gravitate towards casseroles because it is like an easy one pan solution. I mean, my thing that I was thinking about as you're reading this is the idea, kind of the idea that she's already doing is like, do the, make your own plate kind of a meal that we've talked about before, build a bowl situation, You know, be able to like, have everything separate so that people who can't have foods, don't have to have them. People who don't want these foods have other options. I'm not sure what, what do you got for this one?

Riley: A couple of thoughts are rolling around in my head. One of them is. I feel like when I've experienced this in my life, it's been when I had a kid who couldn't eat everything and, and like, because they like, what are we eating? We're having steak and they have two teeth, you know, like that. And so you do kind of have to create a, a, create a plate that works [00:22:00] for everybody, but like, doesn't, like, doesn't, what am I trying to say?

Obviously this one person can't even eat this. So it's not necessarily a preference issue, but more of like a can't. That's another place where I've done this, is like, I'm a gluten-free, but no one else in my house is gluten-free. So while I do cook predominantly glu gluten-free food, sometimes I will make a side dish that I can't eat because I know everyone will like

that and it doesn't bother me to not eat it.

It's just like, okay, like a loaf of like loaf of bread's. A simple example, like I might make a loaf of bread that I can't eat. But I don't mind that everyone else is enjoying it. And so I think, like you said, like building bowls is a great idea. Going back to like some basics, in my opinion, like a protein with two sides. Maybe one kid eats both sides. One kid eats one side and one kid eats the other side. You know, in a little bit more of a mix and match kind of plate, you're still just kind of like cooking one dinner. You're not like going to this [00:23:00] effort of like making more than one dinner. And I know she didn't necessarily say that, but.

It does, it does eliminate the why bother? I I think it eliminates the why bother? 'cause you're still creating a healthy, healthy plate. You know, sometimes I'll add fruit to a dinner I wouldn't add fruit to, because my kids really like it and I'm like, well, I know they really like this. And so, you know, if we had,

chicken thighs and Brussels sprouts and squash. Like, well one of my kids just has a hard time eating, bro, eating Brussels sprouts. 'cause they're like a lot, you know? Did you, well, okay, well I'll add some fruit to her plate. I think maybe taking a bit of a different approach altogether and just kind of like not making things that are all mixed together, like casserole or pasta dishes, but kind of going with like a protein in two sides and the two sides solve the problems, you know, and like everyone eats the protein.

Something along those lines. I mean, it is hard. I mean, I hate that this is what she's having to navigate. And you know, I think a lot about Katie Kimball and just like continuing to put the things out there. [00:24:00] Um, while that can be exhausting, it can help, um, you and your children push through the picky, just because they have more and more experience with it.

And also maybe instead of trying to keep doing the same thing, that's not going well, like mixing everything together. Separate everything. You can still do something like what you were just talking about earlier in this episode. A sheet pan thing, you grilled chicken and then on a sheet pan you had Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes.

And so it wasn't like it was still kind of a one pan. I think you'd serve that with rice and something else, like it's a part that didn't take a ton of extra time to cook. You can eat 'em all together if you want, or you can have three separate piles. And so kind of taking a whole new approach to dinner might make you feel less frustrated.

Roni: Yeah, I was gonna say, what you were saying is that like that exposure piece can be really helpful. Multiple of the peoples that we've talked to on the podcast related to picky eating. have talked about how exposure is really helpful because hopefully this is only a season of your [00:25:00] life, Diane, hopefully, hopefully this is something that you're able to get out of.

Maybe not the food allergies or sensitivities, but potentially the, my one kid hates the rice and starches, and also the other kid has food texture issues. Like I think both of those things can potentially be worked through. Maybe not super fast, but it could mean that this is only a season of your life.

Riley: Yeah. Well, and it's interesting, the, the food texture issue is interesting too, because so many foods, and I, this is not a thing I've navigated. So, Diane, please, like di not trying to precision myself as an expert on food texture, but I am thinking how a lot of foods can be given a different texture. Like, I mean an, an example that comes to mind is okra.

We just talked about this at work the other day by itself, is kind of gooey. Not a pleasant texture, but fried. It's way different. But I'm also thinking like squash and zucchini can be very gooey when you saute them unless you've cooked them really, you know, like, like a little bit more of like a, like fried, [00:26:00] not like fried, like deep fried, I mean like fried in a skillet.

But, and they can, unless you cook 'em till they're crispy, they can be kind of soft. So just like throwing that cooking method out for right now and saying, okay, I'm going to air fry my zucchini. So it's like a crispy fry, like a zucchini fry. And taking like a, like how can I make this texture? How can I change the texture if they don't, like, I just keep thinking soft and mushy.

Um, but that might not be the texture they don't like. They might not like the texture of like rice or grains in their mouth, like all those little pieces. I'm thinking like, how can you take those and turn them into something different

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: and like make the texture different?

Roni: That's a good point. And

I'm, yeah, and that might just be something that you have to do with trial and error,

Riley: Totally. Yeah.

Roni: so.

Riley: Yeah. Oh, we don't like scrambled eggs, so let's try to boiled egg. That that is a bit of a different texture.

Roni: All right, Cindy Cindy's our gal over here. She says, keeping the menu [00:27:00] fresh and not defaulting to the same quick and easy meals over and over.

Riley: Are you us? Are you me?

Roni: Did you read our mind for today? We didn't look at this before we ranted about

Riley: No, we don't, we never read 'em ahead of time. 'cause we try to like give these, uh, you know, like suggestions and ideas on the fly. . Well I think, Roni, your suggestion earlier is so good, like going back and looking at meal plan ideas from before.

Trying, uh, one new recipe a week to add it into your rotation, trying something you saw on Instagram. Asking other people like what might be good or taking an ingredient you use all the time, like ground beef or like ground Turkey or ground chicken. Pick a ground meat. We eat this the same way every time.

Google, what can I make with this and make something different.

Roni: Mm-hmm. I do that a lot because we've often had like beef shares, shares of a beef, and so you do end up with a lot of ground beef in your freezer, and so you have to come up with some more creative ways of using [00:28:00] ground beef. And a lot of times I've used ground beef and recipes. Where I would normally use like a steak or something.

So like when I make stir fry, I pretty much exclusively now make stir fry with ground beef, whereas I think most people think of like a flank steak or something is what you would use for stir fry. But I found a recipe a long time ago for stir fry with ground beef and like that's how I make it now. Or like I have this new favorite recipe right now, which is a ramen bowl with ground beef.

And like it's uh, the way that he seasons in the broth is a little bit different, like compliments ground beef better than if it was steak or pork or something. So there's lots of options out there.

Riley: Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we talk about ideas here a lot. Sorry, go ahead.

Roni: oh, I was just gonna jump in with Mary's, which is the next one. 'cause it's like the exact same question

Riley: Oh yeah. Let's read

Roni: just so we can hear hers too. So Mary says, I get bored with protein options. We cycle chicken, beef, and pork for the most part, which means we would eat each of those twice a [00:29:00] week.

We don't love Turkey, and fish is fine, but feels more daunting to prepare. I understand that one. Overall, we're bored. We both work full-time and need 30 minute meals. It also feels like we use familiar flavor profiles often Latin, mexican ish Italian or plain slash grilled,

so she is like talking the exact same thing that we talked 

Riley: Okay, so these people were listening to us. I get it. I think that the best way to take on, take this on is like, I'm thinking if you normally eat Mexican and Italian or plain, like pick a different profile like Greek or. Like, I'm thinking like a euro, you know, something like that could really change any one of those proteins.

And it's still a pretty simple thing to prepare. I'm thinking like even a rice bowl that is Greek flavored. Oh, so good. I love that. Um, olives and tomatoes and cucumbers and avocado and like, just all those fresh kind of flavors, or wrapped up [00:30:00] in a. Non, you know, something like that. But it, I think that the thing with both of these is that you just have to be a pretty intentional, otherwise you will stay in the rut.

You know, like being intentional to look back on a meal plan from several months ago or from a year ago, asking friends for ideas. Um, just saying, okay, what can I make? What is a unique recipe that I can make with chicken that everyone likes? You know, like, you can ask Google that. Or, what's a 30 minute meal?

With chicken or something like with, with grill, with ground pork, grilled pork, whatever your thing is. It's about making an intentional choice to just like stop the perpetual motion forward of doing it all the same way and say, okay, hold on, let's do something different.

I mean, switching up and saying, like, I just was saying, like breakfast for dinner. Like, okay, let's just take a take a minute. We're gonna have breakfast for dinner, we're gonna have a night with no protein at all. Like, you know, not like just without a meat product. Like, let's just have a night that's. Vegetarian night and just try to give yourself a break or make a really intentional [00:31:00] shift.

Roni: Yeah, I mean, I've talked about it a few times already on the podcast, but one recipe that I think has been really fun to do different flavors with is the smash tacos.

Because you can use any of these different kinds of ground meats. And then, you know, you could, you can make a, a Mexican taco, you can make an Italian taco, you can make a Greek taco.

Like my, one of my favorites right now is ground chicken and then just putting Caesar salad on the taco. It's like so simple. It's less than a 30 minute meal. I think it's a 15 minute meal. And so, so good and super satisfying. So you could also go the route of. I mean, kind of like what you were saying with the bowl is like pick the preparation method and then pick the cuisine.

Like go backwards of maybe what you would, how you would normally pick a recipe.

Riley: Yeah. I'm thinking also, for both of these people, like adding in a crockpot thing, like we're, we're bored. We work full [00:32:00] time and need 30 minute meals. Okay, so put something in the crockpot before you go to work. And there is a million trillion options for what that is.

Roni: Yeah, crockpots, not just pot roast.

Riley: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so just like, it, it just, you don't have to prepare it, it's done for you when you, I mean, obviously it puts it in a crockpot, but, does get you ready when you're home and then sometimes just a little bit of a break or relief from the grind helps.

Roni: Yeah, I think so too.

Riley: Alright, so the next one is from someone who has called themselves, oops, I did it again. Which I feel like potentially we can all relate to it. Well, we'll see what our question is. I have a couple. First, I have a small pantry, so I don't think, I don't keep a lot of things in stock in my kitchen all the time.

Occasionally, I'll grab extras of things when there is a sale, but mostly every time my meal plan, I need to buy every ingredient to every meal. I often open a recipe, and if it has six plus ingredients, I'll just close it and look for another. It just takes so much time to shop, and where do I put all the ingredients while I'm waiting for its turn [00:33:00] to be made into food? Then, since I'm often buying every ingredient, every time. Those few times I actually have it on hand already. I don't remember that. I do have it because it's crammed in every nook and cranny in my small pantry, so that I can't see that it's there. Let's start with that question and then I'll read the next one.

Oh, okay. Yeah, so she summarizes it here. I have a few problems. Small storage in my grocery spending is huge, and then I also feel like I'm making the same meals over and over because they're cheap and easy. Okay, so that kind of summarizes the first question.

Roni: Yeah, well, as somebody who formerly had very small kitchen, very limited space for things, I can totally relate. I think the thing that I did often in this situation. Actually very similar to this person. I did not choose recipes that had 27 ingredients. I was always looking for the recipes that were like, like she said, less than six, essentially. I think this is a situation where you [00:34:00] can try to be pretty intentional about like correlating your recipes with each other. So. I mean, it might mean that in one week you're eating three Asian recipes, or in one week you're eating three Mexican recipes. But I think if you just maybe say like, this is our Greek week and this week we're eating like Greek style recipes, and the next week it's gonna be Italian.

You could kind of center it around a cuisine so that way you don't have to be continually. She says, keeping all of the extra things around when you have a limited, limited amount of space. Like you could just have one jar of klamata olives that you use in three different recipes throughout the

Riley: Yeah. Another idea similar to that or like on the same, I'm trying to give another idea. Like instead of just like Greek week, but along the same lines as like rotisserie chicken.

Roni: yeah.

Riley: You buy one rotisserie chicken and it is like rotisserie chicken the first night or maybe on a wrap, and then the next night you turn it into chicken pop pie and then the next night, like if you know, I don't know how many people she's [00:35:00] feeding or this person is feeding, but then the next night it's chicken salad sandwiches.

Like it is like you just have this constant but very different meals. But you didn't even have to cook the chicken. But that's a pretty easy thing to put in the fridge. You won't forget it. You know that everything is centralized around that ingredient. I also think of mackenzie koppa. She told us one time about how she would get baskets and each basket had all the ingredients for the meals or like just like all in one spot.

Like she didn't take all of her canned beans and put them together. She said, I'm making white chicken chili and my every ingredient if for the chili is in this basket or this section of my fridge or pantry. And so she took a different approach to the pantry and so everything just didn't get shoved in.

It was, here's a meal, here's a meal, here's a meal, here's a meal. You know, obviously there's ingredients in the fridge or whatever, but, that could really help here too, because of the space. And just saying, look, everything is in this little section is a meal. Instead of cramming it in, like she said, like [00:36:00] cramming it all in and don't know that I even have it.

The meal's in a basket, and especially as somebody who is buying what she needs for the meals ahead of her, once it's used, it's gone. So that space has been freed up.

Roni: Yeah, that's a really good tip. I like that a lot.

Riley: I I mean, if it's McKenzie, I can't take

Roni: Well, yeah, sure. But it was good that you brought it up. I was also thinking about those sauce, like the sauce packets that you, like, the Kevin's sauce packets, that's, I think a packet of sauce is a lot easier to store than a jar of sauce or like a, a glass jar of sauce.

Riley: 45 ingredients to make One sauce.

Roni: Yeah, exactly. So I, I feel like there's a lot of those options. I mean, you can also get like the powdered ones that you just are supposed to add, like milk or sour cream or whatever to, but I think. That's a great way to make your food more interesting so that it doesn't feel like boring or you're eating the same thing over and over again, and those don't take up very much space at all.

Riley: Yeah. She's talking a lot about her pantry storage, but I'm also thinking like, is your fridge full but your [00:37:00] freezers open or vice or switch that is your fridge open, but your freezers full? You know, like, I don't know what her situation is with that. And we might get some more information on that in a minute, but.

I'm thinking like it is. Okay. I often for stir fries, unless I'm gonna do something where like, we had Asian, we had Mexican food, so I've got bell peppers, I've got jalapenos and I've got onion and mushrooms. We had that all with the fajitas. And then I'm gonna take that and I'm gonna make that into a stir fry.

Like all those ingredients duplicate, like literally I didn't buy any extra. It just also becomes the stir fry. That's a simple way to kind of over, like kinda you're talking about like planning around these ingredients, go for these meals and it's totally different. And you're, you're not buying like 60 different ingredients for five meals.

It's just like these ingredients go for all of these. I sometimes will just buy an Asian steam bag of veggies and keep it in my freezer. That's kind of a freezer. Like that's kind of, for me, that's like a. Oh, I have no idea what we're having for dinner, but I know I can make a stir fry kind of thing.

I've got rice, I've got these veggies. I can turn [00:38:00] this into something. So utilizing, it's also a, a saver is a budget thing too because, it's, it's pretty cheap. They're pretty inexpensive and that will feed my whole family multiple meals, like one big bag. And so just like having that in your freezer like that, that might utilize some different space.

Roni: I like that.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: All right, I'll read the second half of this question. Next meal planning dilemma. I meal plan for fantasy me.

Then real me has to make all the food. Sometimes I get really excited and plan days worth of fancy things that look yummy. Then I forget that on Mondays we have karate, then dance class and homework.

So most likely we will microwave corn dogs and I will not make that dinner that takes 45 minutes to cook. The other days I won't realize how much another dinner makes, so we'll have leftovers. The next day meals will get pushed back in my meal plan, and by the time we got onto something on my list, the celery is limp and won't work, or the tomatoes are squishy.

I planned so good, but it didn't go as planned.

Riley: Oh man, so many people listening and I can relate to this.

Roni: [00:39:00] Everybody's going, ding, ding, ding.

Riley: yeah, I mean, it happens. Yeah. I think that the fantasy, I think this is where you and I have often told people Plan one meal. That takes a lot of your time and everything else. Focus on things we like. Simple, you know, simple ingredients, simple prep time.

And I can't stress enough that you have to plan around your planner. Like that is one of the things that I have to do. I have to look at my week ahead and see what I've got coming. We got piano lessons right before dinner. We've got, you know, school until this time like, and say, okay, I have to have a simple meal on Thursdays.

I have to have a simple meal on Mondays, or that's our night. We get pizza. You know, like, it's okay. It's a plan. And just say, okay, my planner, my planner looks like this. What does our dinner have to, like, what does dinner gonna look like? Um, and so kind of planning from the. The to-do list the schedule and saying, okay, here's what we're going to eat.

So they're kind of reversing instead of being like, I have so [00:40:00] many dreams of having, what's that? A beef wellington? You know, like, we're gonna make this for dinner. Okay. Yeah. I, I'm literally never gonna make that. 

I'll literally never make it. I don't have time. That's way too much effort. I mean, not me right now.

Fantasy me will make that in 10 years. . You obviously most likely use plan to eat because you contacted us with this dinner dilemma. So you using. The like servings sizes for things like, just like even just turning them on so that you can see how much, 'cause you can turn 'em on in your planner.

And see how many, how much something is making. You know, I feel like something like soup may say it serves six and you have soup for 80. It, it's a, that's tricky, right? Yeah. I told you guys about the queso that I made. I think queso has similar ratios to soup. You think you're making queso for four and you make it for 40.

So it's not a perfect thing, right? Because you, it doesn't know how much you, you and your family are going to consume, but at least can help. And if you don't want to eat it, can you freeze it? [00:41:00] Like looking at and saying like, oh, we have to have this for leftovers. Can I freeze this so we have it next week when I've got karate and we don't wanna have to cook, we don't have corn dogs.

I've got food already in the freezer.

Roni: Right. Yeah. And to me. I think part of this, the issue with this is this fantasy meal planning maybe this person is planning a bunch of recipes that they're unfamiliar with. Because I feel like once you've made a recipe one or two times, you know, does the written recipe make a bunch of food or does it make just the right amount of food?

And so yeah, going back to what you said earlier of only really planning one new, unique recipe in your week. Then try to stick with ones that you're familiar with, even if the last time you made 'em was six months ago, but at least you're familiar with it. And you know, like, okay, this tortellini skillet is definitely gonna give us leftovers.

And so I know how to plan around that, rather than being like, I have no idea how much this recipe's gonna make, and then you end up planning too many recipes in your week. This is also why [00:42:00] we consistently say plan less. I think most people benefit from planning less because of this idea of then your meals get pushed back because other 'cause life happens.

So maybe even, you could even just take a single recipe out of your weekly meal plan and it might help a lot.

Riley: This goes back to the previous dilemma, which was in her, her, her previous paragraph. This grocery spending is huge. Well, let's, let's remove a meal altogether. And, and, and not look at it like, I mean, you and I have talked about like sometimes meal planning a night where it is leftover night and then anything that was leftovers gets eaten that night.

It's not eaten for lunches. Or maybe it's like we got soup for days. Okay, well we are having leftover means. This left leftover night this week means soup for dinner. And it can help because obviously if your celery is limp and your tomatoes are squishy, you are throwing them away. You're not eating them unless you are repurposing them in soup.

Ironically. But just like saying, okay, well we threw that away. Our grocery spending is huge. That's waste. That's literally [00:43:00] just like money from the gro. I'm taking it from the grocery store and I'm putting it in the trash can. And so removing a meal we could potentially very much help, help her in this situation.

And like looking at the night and saying, okay, well I know that this tortellini skillet makes us two dinners when I make it one time. That's what we're gonna have on the microwave. Corn dog night instead. Then if you get to the end of the week and you still needed food, it sounds like you probably have microwave corn dogs.

You know, like if you get to the end of your meal plan, like this happens at my house, like I get to the end of the meal plan. Well, sorry about it. I'm not going grocery shopping till tomorrow. We ate everything. We're gonna have tuna. And now everybody at my house likes tuna. So that's not like a down, it's not like a negative, you know?

It's just saying, okay, we've got this in the pantry, this is what we're going to eat. So I don't have to meal plan until tomorrow. It saves us money. It uses what we already have already have paid for. And just gets me, like I, I, I'm a very routine meal planner. I was telling Roni this, that like, I meal plan once a week for seven, seven nights and I [00:44:00] don't plan seven nights.

I'm just for one week at a time. And if I get outside of that, my whole life gets thrown off. Like I meal planned for 10 days one time, which I liked it really li I liked it, but then the day that I went grocery shopping got different and then that my whole life got thrown off. But just make, making these little changes can really be beneficial.

Roni: I think so too. 

Riley: Yeah. 

Roni: All right. Well, I think it's time that we wrap up. We've been talking here for quite a while, gave you all of our, uh, conversation points that you didn't ask for. But we appreciate you listening to the podcast. And the best way that you can support us is by sharing an episode with a friend or a family member. And we only have a few more podcasts until the end of the year. So like I said, we're gonna try to get as many of these dinner dilemmas answered for you guys before the end of the year.

But don't worry, we'll continue into January if we don't get there. As always, thank you so much for listening. We will talk to you again in two [00:45:00] weeks.