#123: Bonus Episode! Wrapping up Your Dinner Dilemmas

Surprise! This week, we're giving you a bonus episode to finish up the final handful of dinner dilemmas. In this episode, we tackle dilemmas about juggling multiple eating preferences in one household, budgeting constraints, and preparing unique side dishes. 

Thank you for making us your trusted friends in meal planning and sending your questions, frustrations, and dilemmas! 

Happy New Year!

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Transcript

final 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 podcast. This is Super Sneaky Extra podcast for 2025. You thought we were done, but we're not.

Riley: We just wanted to record a little bonus episode for you guys. Happy New Year. If you're traveling to and from somewhere, now you have something to listen to. I love a bonus episode.

Roni: Love a bonus episode. We decided that we wanna just finish out our dinner dilemmas. We only have five left, and we just wanted to make a short little bonus episode where we answer these final dinner dilemmas so that they are all answered in 2025, and we will move on to 2026 with a fresh.

Riley: I mean, you guys know we have been working through this list [00:01:00] almost the entire year. And we, I just feel like we owe it to these last five people to like wrap them up because guys, they were. 86 dinner dilemmas and Roni and I have answered what, two to five per episode all year long.

Roni: Pretty much.

Riley: yeah, this is the perfect way to end out the year and get to these final questions and hopefully help you guys out with your dilemmas.

Roni: All right, here we go. Elizabeth from Bellevue, Washington says, we are a family of five. One kid eats almost anything. The other two are pickier. Everyone's tastes are different. We won't cook extra meals, but would love to come up with better meal plans that feel like we're all eating together. Also feels like we can't ever enjoy our favorite meals when three out of the five of the family won't eat it.

It's never the same three for each meal.

Riley: I am chuckling mostly because I can relate, like it is such a letdown when you make food for your family and they're like, nah, yeah, it's, yeah, it's fine. I don't wanna eat it. [00:02:00] So I understand the dilemma. One of the ideas that we often give to people, and I'll just say it again because I don't know if you've listened to the last episodes or anything like that, is including everyone in the meal planning process, um, including your kids in the cooking process.

And maybe coming up with like, maybe you have a little team meeting and you say, okay guys, let's talk about foods that we all enjoy and let's get a good list. And then that way. You know, like everyone's on the same page and I don't know how old your kids are. So if they're old enough, obviously if they're probably under four, this might not be the best thing.

But just having them be included in the process, included in the planning process and cooking, and coming up with kind of like, just like a family list of meals that everyone will eat. And having maybe, maybe one of those meals every single week, two of those meals every single week with slight variations as needed.

Um. Could maybe give you kind of an anchor point. I know we use the word anchor point a lot, but it at least, at least, you know, I'm assuming you're the mom of this [00:03:00] family and at least you know that there'll be one night of the week that everyone will be happy. And that can be, and if you had a hard day at work or parenting, you just need a, you need to win, so you need to have some win meals.

So let's, let's work on that win meal list first.

Roni: Right. Not to be a broken record. However, for these situations we do really like the build your own concept. So this could be a build your own taco or burrito, build your own noodle or rice bowl, a baked potato, build your own

Riley: or, oh yeah. Baked potato bar is a good idea.

Roni: Yeah. Or you could do things like dinners that are a little more versatile that. Probably require a little less preparation, but hopefully like satisfy the majority of people. I'm thinking like sheet pan meals, right? Where things can be kind of separated, but you can cook them all at the same time. Or like a stir fry where maybe you can keep things in separate pans. Um, if some people only like [00:04:00] some things and other people don't like others, uh, I think.

The main thing that I'm thinking here is this, like cook your things, cook your different components separately so that people can pick and choose the things that they like. And then another idea that I also had, and I don't know if we've talked a ton about this, but you know, keeping your flavoring really simple.

If part of the issue is different flavors, like as a kid, I didn't like onions and I didn't like anything spicy, you know? And so I think that there's a way for that is like if you keep everything. You know, just like really simply seasoned and then you can like make sauces or have condiments on hand that everybody likes or that different people in the family like, and they get to choose their own sauces or condiments.

That can be a great way to work around those types of differences in palate.

Riley: Yeah, that's a great idea. Another just kind of, just another idea that just came to me here is, we, we often make this, um. Like sheet pan meal on our [00:05:00] grill, like on our flat top, on our grill, and it is marinated vegetables, chicken and sausage.

Roni: Oh.

Riley: don't know what the pickiness, I don't know what the picky preferences are here.

But when we make that, I will let my children tell me like, do you want sausage or do you want chicken? Do you want broccoli and peppers? Or do you just want broccoli? And then like, because even though it's like all marinated together and i'll cooked on the grill, it's a really simple marinade. It's not like you can make your own marinade.

Like it doesn't have to be, it could be salad dressing, you know, like it, it could be whatever your family preference is on flavor. But. Then I let them tell me and like it's all cooked as one, but there's like multiple options within, which is what you were totally trying to say with like the sheet pan meal.

But the grill might be another good option. Like we're grilling hamburgers. This kid doesn't like beef. Okay, well like. Do we have chicken patties frozen in the freezer that we could just like put him one on a Turkey patty, a mushroom burger if they're a vegetarian, you know, like, but you're grilling, you're [00:06:00] grilling once you can grill three different things.

And so just kinda like leaning into these, like build your own situations, but expanding them to sheet pan, expanding them to the grill and not feeling so locked in to like. Okay, well this is what we are having. We're having burrito bowls. You're gonna have a burrito bowl. Um, and just give, yeah, like you said, just giving some options.

Roni: Yeah, I like that.

Riley: Okay. The next one is from someone named Kitchen Raccoon. That's funny. I don't know what it means, but it's funny. My biggest dilemma is probably trying to find ways to make balanced meals throughout the week.

I cook for my family of six when I come home from school to let my parents focus on other things. And we have a fixed budget I can use each week for ingredients, but due to the large amount of food each dinner acquires, I run out of any ingredient pretty quickly. Example, making stuffed bell peppers on Monday equals no more ground beef or bell peppers the rest of the week.

So I can either try to skew the portions by adding cheaper carbs like putting, putting in a layer of rice at the bottom. Or making smaller servings like a [00:07:00] fourth of a bell pepper to try to conserve some more valuable ingredients for later, or keep making the same recipes outta cheaper ingredients and suffer the complaints of my family when I make soup thirce a week.

Also two of my family members are gym rats, and if I don't include enough protein, they notice all caps.

Roni: I understand that I've been a gym rat for a long time, so I get that. Uh, okay, so I'm, it feels like the biggest issue here is budget related. They've got a lot of people that they're feeding. It sounds like maybe their parents live with them all in the same house, do childcare for them during the day, so they're feeding six people. So related to the idea that's already in here about skewing the portions by adding cheaper carbs, uh, the thing that I was thinking about as you were reading it is instead of using rice like instead of like, quote unquote carbs to cheapen things up, I think a. [00:08:00] Something that could be more beneficial here is things like beans.

Beans have a lot of fiber as well as would provide some protein for the meal. So, you know, gym rats might be a little more happy with it compared to the rice. When we talked to Hannah Van Arc on the podcast, this was one thing that she mentioned that she does in her household. Not necessarily to save money, but just simply to add more vegetables and fiber into their, into their meals.

And so I'm thinking there's an element here where you could say. We're gonna use 50% of the ground beef that we would normally use, and the other 50% we're gonna make up in beans in this meal. And beans are like literally the most cost effective thing at the grocery store, particularly if you have enough time to prepare your own beans to soak them and cook them yourself.

Uh, that's. Incredibly affordable. But also just canned beans are super affordable too. So that was a, a really big thing that jumped out at me here as a suggestion to this particular situation, it's really hard when you're on a budget [00:09:00] and everybody in your family is not happy with the way that the meals are turning out.

Riley: Mm-hmm. And I, I, I do wanna kind of like. Be in her corner a little bit on this. As someone who loves the gym, loves protein. Um, if you are not cooking it, and if you are not contributing to the financial aspect of it, meat is the most expensive. Protein is the most expensive aspect of most meals. Um, and so it feels like something that's really fresh, like really difficult to complain about when you're not contributing to the budget. 

Roni: Yeah. 

Riley: um, like this person is working with a budget that was set for them. It's not like a, it's not like she's not their private chef, you know, and they're like mad that they didn't put more protein in there, you know? Um, she's working with a fixed budget that was set for her by her family.

I love your idea with beans because it does really fill in, um, another idea that I thought of, and I know we're kind of sticking on this, like best stuff bell pepper thing, but if that's something that you guys like and you're a family of [00:10:00] six. One thing that you could do with meals like this is instead of making a stuffed bell pepper is make a stuffed bell pepper casserole.

So everyone is not getting their own bell pepper. You're chopping a bell pepper up, you're chopping the all the other veggies. Maybe you are adding rice, you're adding beans, you're adding ground beef. You could literally use half the bell peppers. To make the casserole and it's going to be as filling, it's going to be as large of a dish, you know, like, um, but kind of changing the transportation method, may be a really helpful way to stretch those ingredients.

And you could do that with a lot of things. Um, and if you're using tortillas and you're making like an enchilada casserole, instead of rolling up every tortilla individually, layer it. You're gonna use less tortillas, but the people are gonna still feel full. And it's going to, you're gonna get a good serving, but you're gonna use less ingredients by layering than you are by filling a tortilla by itself.

Or if you're doing something like, like a [00:11:00] taco bar instead of a taco bar where everyone can take how much they want. You do something like a casserole or like a, like, it's pre-mixed because then everyone gets. Like I'm, I'm thinking like, you know, when you go through a buffet line and somebody takes like 50% of the meat that's there for like 10 people, that's kind of the idea I could see happening in this situation.

And it might be helpful to kinda like, mix it all up so that everyone, like, you can't really, not that you can't see it, I'm not trying to hide it. What I'm trying to suggest is to stretch it, doing things that stretch the food, stretch those in, in expensive ingredients. Like the beans is a stretching idea.

Um, and, but also like changing the method in which you serve it is also a stretching way, you know, to kind of go about meals if people are serving themselves. Like sometimes it can get tricky, like, are we gonna have enough? Do I need to make more? Um, but kind of making it where it's like a, I don't know, a casserole, something like that is gonna help stretch it.

Does that [00:12:00] make sense?

Roni: Yeah, no, I think that's a really, really good idea and it made me kind of, it made me think of. Our, somebody that we recommend all the time, which is budget bites. So potentially our kitchen raccoon, if you're not familiar with budget bites, I would go check out that website because they do break it down on that website about like how much it cost per serving.

And oftentimes they are choosing swaps for their recipes that do provide a little bit more of a budget friendly option for it. And one of the things that they do a lot is. Casseroles. Because I, I do think, to your point, Riley it's a really good way to make sure that there is a large enough quantity of food.

It, I mean, it's really similar, honestly, to soup, which this person mentioned their family kind of gets tired of soup. So, but it's, it's kind of that idea where it's like you're mixing everything together already and that it's just, it's just creating a larger quantity of food for, for what you're making, you know.[00:13:00] 

Riley: Yeah. It's like pre-mixed up so everyone can get the amount that they want, but it, yeah, it's, yeah, you're not like single serving everything, which can make things not go as far.

Roni: Absolutely. Yep.

Riley: Hopefully that helps. Another thing that budget bites might help with another thing that the plan to eat AI feature of like the, uh, ingredient recommendations or ingredient substitutions could really help with, is things like instead of using ground beef, which is incredibly expensive, beef is incredibly expensive for now is using ground chicken or ground Turkey, which I feel like at our grocery store where you and I

Roni: Mm-hmm.

Riley: is often buy one, get one free.

Roni: Yeah, the ground Turkey can be really inexpensive.

Riley: It is very inexpensive, or it's on sale, or it's buy one, get one free. And so like making that kind of swap, especially in something like a stuffed bell pepper casserole or stuffed bell peppers, as long as you're seasoning it up to par, like it's gonna taste great. It's not, it's not gonna be like really stealing anything, but it's gonna save your budget a bit.

Roni: Absolutely. Yeah. Now this might be a little far [00:14:00] out, but this is something that I do. I know not everybody has time for things like this, but maybe since you have some, some childcare, maybe this is just an option, something you could do in like a batch on the weekends. But I have a KitchenAid mixer and there's a bunch of different attachments for KitchenAid mixers, including a meat grinder.

Riley: Oh.

Roni: And so when we have, so the reason that I do this is because when we get wild game meat from the processor, a lot of times there are certain cuts of steak that I, they're just not my favorite or I don't really know how to cook them very well, or I have like one recipe for them, but they give us like 27 pounds of this one type of steak.

And I'm like, okay, well I dunno how to use this. So I use the, the. Meat grinder extension for my KitchenAid, and I just grind those steaks into ground meat because I know how to use that better. And for me, it's a lot more versatile. So that's something [00:15:00] that if you find maybe chicken breasts or chicken thighs or you know, around the holidays, a lot of times you can get Turkey on really good, cheap sales.

Like maybe you can find meat. On a really cheap sale, and then you're able to turn it into ground yourself. Like I said, that might be unattainable for some people. Not everybody has the time for that, but it's honestly not very time consuming, I don't think

Riley: Yeah, that's a great idea. I mean, when you are working with a fixed budget, there are things that you do differently.

Roni: That's right. Yeah.

Riley: like to make the budget work. I mean, I, one of my favorite interviews is we interviewed, I can't remember her name. I never remember, but you, Aaron? No. Is it? No, it's not Aaron. Um. I'm talking about the lady who got her G she got, they got paid once a month.

Roni: Oh, that's Amy Lee. Mm-hmm.

Riley: Amy Lee. She, I knew you always remember her name and I can't ever remember. Amy Lee, it's one of our very early on episodes, but she would get her, they got paid once a month, so she shopped once a month for [00:16:00] the entire month. And sometimes that meant by the end of the month they were having rice and beans.

But that is because they were not shopping again. And so there are things sometimes that you do when you are on a set budget, like a super tight fixed budget that you do not do when you have wiggle room. And so if that means getting a meat grinder and grinding something up, I think that's a great tip.

If it means, you know, like, turning things into casseroles because you need to save half the ground beef for the next meal, then do that.

Roni: Right. Yep.

Riley: And I, and I think when, as far as like the gym rats and the protein thing come in, like, uh, like there's a lot of ways to get an extra protein, especially if you're not cooking for yourself. Cottage cheese is a great one. Protein powders is a great one. Like there are other, there are other ways we can kind of sneak those things in. And it doesn't just have to be dinner.

Roni: Absolutely. Yep. All right, Allie says, planning and cooking for entirely opposite meal needs and food preferences. My [00:17:00] husband is gluten-free, low sugar, and low carb. He also dislikes olives, mushrooms, blue cheese, salmon, and most pork. Our 13-year-old daughter is mostly dairy free for digestive issues and needs to eat lots of carbs and grains to help her catch up with weight gain and growth, but she won't eat lamb and a few vegetables.

I'm trying to eat somewhat gluten-free and low carb when possible so that I don't gain weight and I'm the one planning and cooking with all of these conflicting needs. I feel like this is a dilemma that we've answered multiple times. Unfortunately, there's quite a few families out there who are struggling with opposing needs, dietary preferences.

Riley: You know, I, I actually am going to, I'm gonna say that I actually don't think that the dislikes are not the problem. The dislikes are not the problem. And I would even say like those dislikes are easy over to overcome, like. I grew up in a house where [00:18:00] I don't think I ate and all lived till I was 20, no mushrooms.

'cause my, there's some people in my family who are anti mushrooms and I don't like blue cheese. Now I did grow up eating a lot of salmon and pork. But I'm just thinking like, there are a lot of meals where you do not have to plan around these things, or lamb and vegetables, a few vegetables. You know, I feel like, let's put those dislikes aside because sometimes when you lighten the burden, things can just feel a little better.

So let's put all those dislikes aside. We, we know we don't like those things. And just plan with what we have to plan for, which is the dietary needs and like the, the personal needs. Right? 

Roni: It sounds like a common thread here is gluten free.

Riley: yep. Low carb. Yep.

Roni: Gluten-free, low carb while, but the, the daughter does eat carbs, which honestly to me that seems totally okay because as we've talked about with a lot of these, build your own situations. I'm not saying that's always the solution, but it's really easy to just make rice.

It's a side dish that your daughter is the only one who eats, or it's really easy to make buttered [00:19:00] noodles as a side, and your daughter's the only one who eats that, and you could literally make it once for the week and probably it would be enough for her to eat throughout the entire week. That feels like that feels fairly easy to navigate.

Riley: Yeah, I, I mean something like a big batch of like a quinoa salad. I, I don't know if you're a 13-year-old would eat this, but I love quinoa. I like it cold. I make it and then I refrigerate it. And so doing something like that, like early on in the week for her, you plan primarily for the gluten-free and low carb.

And then the quinoa or the roasted potatoes or the roasted sweet potatoes or the rice, the batch of rice or the, the noodle dish, whatever, whatever that other thing is that you prepped. That is just, it comes out with every dinner and how, I mean, and it changes every week or maybe it changes every three or four days.

Like whatever is maintainable and is sustainable for your family. Or if your 13-year-old is like, oh, I love this. I'll eat this every day for two weeks. Cool. Make two big batches of it, you know. Great. Awesome. You know, I referenced Trader [00:20:00] Joe's, but Trader Joe's has like this amazing microwaveable Jasmine Rice that is like maybe two and a half serving three servings of rice.

It's a great option. You micro it for three minutes and it is excellent. That might be a thing where like you made something that you and your husband are going to eat that's gluten-free and low carb, and then she tosses in her rice, you know, and like she makes it just so you make it that night. But looking for like simple additions, but focusing on the main things, which it, I would say, like you said, it's the gluten-free and the low carb.

And with dinner, low sugar's fairly easy. I have family members who eat this way, and they often have a, it's often like a, it's often like a, a main protein. Main side, whether that is spaghetti squash or it's a big zucchini something, or a huge salad or, you know, like roasted veggies of some kind. And then there's a third part, which is a carb of some kind.

And for the members [00:21:00] of that family who are low carbon, gluten-free, and low sugar, they just don't eat that thing. Um, and so just like, I think for just building in that third side for her and you guys focusing on other things, I think it's gonna be great.

Roni: I agree. I am thinking that Allie, if you haven't ever done a whole 30, I would recommend a whole 30 because that's going to be gluten-free, it's gonna be dairy free and mostly low carb. And certainly you can do like what we just suggested, an add a carb on the side really easily.

Riley: Yeah, and since you're low carb when possible, like maybe it's a side you like too, and sometimes you have it and sometimes you don't.

Roni: Well, I'm thinking about like, uh, sweet potatoes are in a whole 30, right? That wouldn't be considered low carb necessarily, but it's a really nutritious vegetable

that like if you were, you know, semi low carb, I think most people would eat a sweet potato.

Riley: Yeah, I mean, I'm, I just will say like most of my meal plans do not include salmon and lamb. Like I love salmon and I still don't [00:22:00] eat it all that often. And we also eat pork. The most rare, like I would say, well, salmon is the most rare, but pork would be right above salmon. We just don't eat a ton of pork.

And so I, I, I really just do think moving away all those dislikes and feeling unburdened by those dislikes, like will really help. 'cause I feel like it got really simple when we looked at it for that.

Roni: Yeah. And I, I don't think that the dislikes are, unless you're just somebody who really loves salmon, as a person, right? Or you really love lamb. To me, these dislikes all kind of feel like if you found a recipe that included olives or it included mushrooms or included blue cheese, like you could probably nix it from the recipe and it's not going to change the recipe dramatically. It's, uh, you know, when we've had the, the previous dinner dilemmas where people can't have like garlic or onions, that's a little more challenging because that feels like fundamental flavors of, [00:23:00] of a lot of recipes.

Riley: Yeah. A, as for the dairy free aspect of this, most vegetables and most like proteins that I cook, I don't use dairy products on them. And since butter is fine, you can use butter if it's, if you want, instead of oil. Yeah. I, I really do. I hope that she feels that we feel this is simple and that that helps her have like a breath of fresh air of like, oh, okay, this, this is, this can be okay.

Roni: Yeah, it's doable.

Riley: Yeah. Next up, Susan in San Diego, that sounds like a nice place to be. I always seem to plan for more than I'm actually able to do. I plan, I shop, and then I don't have time to cook. Then I toss these fresh, then I have to toss those fresh ingredients.

Roni: All right. Well, we're gonna go back to the standard advice that we've talked about for a lot of these dilemmas, and we've talked about a lot in the last year, which is. Planning less. Both Riley and I [00:24:00] find that our meal plans are more successful when we plan less during the week. And related to that is planning around your schedule.

Riley: Yes.

Roni: Because if you. I feel like you don't end up having time to cook after you plan these recipes, then maybe part of the solution is looking at your schedule ahead of time and realizing, oh, I need a 15 minute dinner, not a two hour dinner tonight. Or I need to just put something in the crockpot and then dinner is ready by the time I get home.

Yeah.

Riley: And if you're only planning like 15 to 30 minute dinners every night, like I'm never, never disappointed when dinner is fast. I made, I think I, I referenced this in another episode, but I made this like air fryer, salmon and rice dish that I found on INS Instagram, and it took probably 20 minutes to make.

And I was like, whoa, that was way faster than I thought it was gonna be. And I mean, I'm never bummed, like I'm never disappointed when dinner doesn't take very long. And so I [00:25:00] would just say even if you had a night where you did have time to cook, like a longer meal, look like Roni said, plan less, plan fast meals, um, things that come together really quickly.

And even if you did have like a ton of time to cook one night, I'm just never disappointed that I have extra time.

Roni: Yep. Couldn't agree more.

Riley: And also like maybe, you know, there's people who, like, I often say that I plan like a Maine in two sides and like, don't plan a main in one side, you know, or plan a plan a Maine that doesn't need a side. And just like that, those can be ways that you tweak your meal plan a little bit, without it feeling like you're just like cutting everything, you know, or like finding totally new recipes.

You know, I think I, another meal that we had, was hot dog or chili dogs. I didn't make a side to go with that, you know? But I mean, there's just things that you can make that are really fast, that don't need sides, and I always feel like there has to be a side. But [00:26:00] recipe, every recipe doesn't have to have a side dish.

It just doesn't. Especially if you've got protein, fat, and carbohydrates in one dish, then that's great. There you go.

Roni: Totally. I tend to err on the opposite side where I forget to put side dishes with things and then, you know, we end up only, we have like Rubens or something. Right. And we end up eating only the sandwich and we have nothing to go alongside,

Riley: That's okay

Roni: but it's also just fine. Yeah. There's still filling.

Riley: there is like, there is some beauty and simplicity and I think we overcomplicate everything.

Roni: Yes. Totally agreed.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: All right. Final dinner dilemma to wrap us up here. Pete says, I don't have too much of a what?

Riley: No, keep reading. I'm so sorry. This happens to us so often where we get the next, the next dilemma

Roni: Yeah. Is

Riley: like is what we just were talking about.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: Crazy.

Roni: Pete says, I don't have too much of a problem figuring out my main dish. My problem comes with trying to figure out side dishes. [00:27:00] I get overwhelmed looking at all my Pinterest choices. I do keep frozen vegetables, but I can never think of a way to cook them. That seems interesting. I usually just resort to a simple salad.

Riley: As a person who loves salad, nothing wrong with a salad.

Okay. I just said there's beauty and simplicity. I also get overwhelmed when I look at Pinterest.

Roni: Yeah.

Riley: It's too much. It's an onslaught, you know, like. So sometimes I actually choose to not look for recipes there, even though they look beautiful and the photos are all amazing. But I try to not look for recipes there because I think it can feel really overwhelming.

I would say that when you are making your meal plan is a great time to figure out the side dish and like. Even if you're, even if it's something like, uh, roasted broccoli, like it can be very, very simple roasted green beans. Air fryers are awesome for side dishes, especially vegetable side dishes.

So like looking up, maybe just like look up something specific [00:28:00] like air fried vegetable side dish and then see what comes up in Google. And usually they can be really simple. They don't need a ton of extra, they don't need to be a whole thing to make. Um, it can be as simple as a simple salad.

Roni: Yep. So this is reminding me of a audio message conversation that you and I had a couple years ago, and the only reason I remember is this, 'cause I ended up writing a blog post on plan to eat about it. After the fact. 

Riley: I remember. I know what you're talking

Roni: I thought it was a really interesting situation. So Riley had sent me an audio message because audio messages are definitely better than text messages, about feeling like she was burned out of all of the side dishes that she was making, like over and over again.

So she just asked me for some inspiration, which is I think my number one tip, which is ask somebody else what they're eating for their side dishes, because I think side dishes more than mains. Are very individual. The things that people eat alongside other meals will sometimes really surprise you because a lot of times I think it is based on like how you [00:29:00] grew up eating, like what your mom or your dad served alongside the food that you were eating.

Growing up can be very different depending on region or just family preferences, right? Like some people love asparagus, some people hate it. Some people love brussel sprouts, some people hate 'em. So finding some variety by asking other people I think is a really. Good way to start.

Riley: Yeah.

Roni: I, I was gonna just piggyback on what you said too Riley, which is finding a different preparation method for vegetables that you currently have.

So, like you mentioned, an air fryer. I love using the air fryer for vegetables. It really, like, once I got one, I was like, oh, this is a super game changer for making really good crispy veggies. But also you could steam things, you could grill things, you can roast things just like finding a different preparation method or even just a different seasoning method.

I really like all of my vegetables to be kind of spicy because I think it just tastes good. I don't know. I'm like thinking like we make like roasted carrots or something and I put chili [00:30:00] powder and red pepper flakes on 'em. And the. The carrots themselves are a little sweet, and so having the spicy seasoning on them is just so good.

I, I really like that combination, like that contrast of them. Also Pete, if you live with other people, just ask them for their input on what they would like to eat as a side dish. I think we talk about this a lot of getting input from your family and making sure that they're included in the meal planning process.

Yeah, those were my additions.

Riley: I love it. And like I just said, like 10 seconds ago, not every man needs a side. So give yourself some breathing room. Like Yeah, my, my husband, is a firefighter and he cooks at work a lot.. And they always joke that the side salad is like an ornamental table decoration, because they make it all the time, but they never eat it.

So they like make these pretty salads and it's like in the middle of a table. And so they just like joke that it's just like part of the [00:31:00] tablescape, it's the side salad. But yeah, not every, not every main needs a side. So give yourself a little breathing room sometimes.

Roni: Yeah, I mean these like build your own situations that we talk about. I would never make another side dish to go along with like a rice bowl, you know, the roasted vegetables or whatever. Just go in the, the rice bowl. But I do understand if you're making something like meatballs and then you're like, oh, what are we serving the meatballs with?

I have no idea.

Riley: Yeah. I love your idea of also like, he also keeps things like, you know, the freezer bag of vegetables or whatever, maybe some canned vegetables that can very easily be judged, you know, to like be a little more exciting than just a canned vegetable. But that can also add something without, like going to waste because it is something you can just keep on hand.

Roni: Yeah, and something we haven't talked about this in a while that I'm thinking about is if you go out to a restaurant and you eat a side dish that you really like, try to find a way to recreate it at home. I think that [00:32:00] that's always a really fun thing to do, and you're really good at doing that Riley like eating something at a restaurant and recreating it.

Riley: There's some things I can think of right now, but I'm like, I need to make that so good.

Roni: Well, I mean, and that could be something too where maybe you don't just try to recreate it on the fly, like you do a search and try to see if there's like a copycat type of a recipe or just like somebody else who has prepared it in the same way that we went out to eat a couple weeks ago and had these brussel sprouts that were so good.

Absolutely incredible.

They have bacon and walnuts and like dried cranberries. And then I think it was like a balsamic glaze or something. They were so good and the Brussels sprouts themselves were like kind of smashed. And I have yet to recreate it, but I have been thinking about it ever since we had it. Yeah.

Riley: Yum. That sound great. Well, I hope you enjoyed this little bonus episode just of dinner dilemmas. I hope that everyone that submitted a dinner dilemma has listened to these episodes and that you got your answer. It's been really fun to hear people's [00:33:00] problems and just like work through them because I mean, we always say, you know, phone a friend, right?

And that's essentially what this was, is that they did phone a friend. Um, we hopefully gave them some advice that was helpful. It at least sparked something, something in their mind that kind of gave them a new route to take. It's been really fun for me, so I hope it was fun for everyone else listening.

Roni: I was actually kinda surprised at how many people had such similar. Similar dilemmas. Like I really do think that there was several common threads here of issues that people are dealing with. You know, at times it felt like we were giving the same tips over and over again. But, uh, I thought it was just really interesting to me.

I kind of expected them to all be like, unique. But I hope that there's a little bit of a, like, you, you feel like you're not alone because like other people may be struggling with the exact same things that you're struggling with.

So. 

Riley: Yeah, absolutely. In all aspects of life, but including meal planning.

Roni: Thank you as always for listening, and [00:34:00] we will talk to you in 2026.