#137: The Most Common Meal Planning Mistakes (and How Fix Them)

Sometimes, the meal plan doesn't make it to the end of the week, but in this episode, we're getting into the reasons why and what you can do about it so your whole week doesn't go off the rails.

We walk through six of the most common reasons meal plans fail, from not planning at all to planning so rigidly that there's no room to breathe when life gets in the way. We talk about why looking at your schedule matters so much, how to include your family in the process, and why somebody else's meal plan from Instagram probably isn't going to work for your household. Plus, we share some practical ways we've pivoted our own plans midweek. 

Enjoy!

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meal plan fails

[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. 

Hello, and welcome to the Plant Eat podcast. Uh, today Roni and I are talking about, oh, something I don't really like to talk about, but that happens to me all the time, uh, why your meal plan fails and what you can do about it. I hate when my meal plan fails. I really hate it, but it happens. It happens to all of us.

There's many reasons why this is gonna... like why, why this might happen to you. I know why it happens to me. Sometimes it's flat up, flat up, sometimes it's straight up energy, right? Like, I'm just like, "Ugh, I don't even wanna make it. Can we just get pizza?"

Yeah

And you know, that's not always a fail, but sometimes in my opinion, at my house, it is a fail because I did the thing I didn't wanna do, which was double buy dinner, 'cause I've already paid for those ingredients, and then [00:01:00] here I am buying dinner.

Well, I think whether you're a consistent meal planner or an inconsistent meal planner, you've had your meal plan fail before.

Yeah

So yeah, today we just wanna talk about the reasons why, but we also wanna give you solutions so that if one of these is specifically, very specifically your problem is, like, number three, then we're gonna give you solutions to try and resolve why your meal plan is failing

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So problem number one might be too obvious, but problem number one is if you do not plan,

Yeah

that is why your meal plan fails.

Yeah, as w- we talk about all the time, not planning is also technically a form of meal planning because you still gotta get food on the table for people, so you're thinking about it in the moment. You're still planning, you're just doing it in the moment rather than ahead of time, and winging it is so stressful.

That is a very stressful form of planning. It's a big reason why you might feel like you're [00:02:00] not a good meal planner

Mm-hmm. And winging it can look like going in the grocery store and just, like, hoping that it speaks to you and tells you what to make, and it might. You might see something that's on sale or an, an ingredient that you like, but chances are you're gonna forget an ingredient, unless you're buying a pre-cooked meal or a freezer...

something frozen in the freez- freezer section. I, I can't tell you how many times I go into the grocery store where I've been like, "Oh, I'm gonna make that," and then I buy three-fourths of the ingredients. I'm like, "How did I forget? The name of the recipe is chicken and beans, and I forgot the beans?"

Right.

um, yeah.

Or maybe you think you have it at home, and you have this expectation that you've already got that ingredient. I mean, winging it is bad on many fronts, but it can just lead to frustration, uh, and just make the meal planning process even more non-enjoyable,

Absolutely, yeah

'cause it feels like you're kind of planning, but then you're not, and it just is frustrating

[00:03:00] I would say this happens to me when my meal plan has, like, run out, you know? A meal plan for five, for five days... Well, okay, talked about this before. I meal plan for a s- a seven-day week, but I might only plan four or five meals, and if those meals run out before the seven days is up and I have to wing it before the next time I'm gonna go to the grocery store, that feels bad.

It can feel bad, yeah. It can feel like you're not, Like you're almost like you're failing. Like, "Oh, what am I gonna cook these people?" Or, and, and probably you're the only one that cares. Like, we've talked about this recently, but just, like, there's a lot of pressure that you put on yourself when you're the person who feeds everyone.

And I really want everyone to be very happy with their meals. And when they're not, it's a real letdown.

and I want people to have, like, a well-rounded meal. My husband would be happy with frozen pizza, but I feel like, don't we need something else?

Mm-hmm. Yes, where is the vegetable?

Where's the, where's the fiber? We not got no fiber here.[00:04:00]

Exactly. On the polar opposite end from problem number one, which is no plan, is over-planning. Maybe you... So problem number two is you planned too rigidly and you have no flexibility in your meal plan. Uh, this is why one of our, our most i- our most utilized tip, the tip that you and I share so often is start small.

Do not plan three meals a day for seven days and lock yourself in. That does not allow for flexibility. It doesn't allow for things to come up in your week and make you pivot, and with flexibility and freedom you cannot pivot in that way. And so you need to make sure you're making a meal plan where there's room for low energy nights, room for cravings, room for leftovers, room for just a total change of plans.

Maybe somebody invited you to a potluck. So planning too rigidly can be another problem, just like not planning at all

Absolutely. Part of also planning too rigidly is this, you lock [00:05:00] yourself in with all these recipes and something changes, an event gets added to your week, and the meal that y- the, all of the meals that you have planned are hour-long dinners.

Takes you an hour to cook them before they get on the table. And so also including some quicker meals, including a 15-minute dinner or something that can go in the air fryer really quickly. Uh, every week needs a little bit of those low-effort recipes. Even if you're somebody who loves to cook and you love being in the kitchen, like sprinkling in some low-effort recipes adds to that flexibility because then you don't have to be like, "Okay, well, it is frozen pizza because we have no other options this week for switching recipes around."

Mm-hmm. And it might not be that your schedule even causes you to have an issue. It might just be that you need to give yourself a break.

Absolutely

I, I made a meal a couple of weeks ago that it literally I could have made it with one hand. I mentioned it on the podcast, and I, [00:06:00] I said you dump everything into the pan and you put it into the oven.

And like that, .. i, I just needed that. I just needed a really simple dinner that I made that included all the things I wanted it to include, like fiber and greens and all those kinds of things, protein, and but it didn't take any time at all, and I still put a meal on the table I was proud of.

And so it's not that, It might not even be that your life gets crazy. It might just be that you just need to give yourself a break as the person who cooks, as the primary cook

Absolutely. Yep. problem number three is you didn't look at your schedule when you made your meal plan, so you didn't plan around the events that you have going on every week. This is a really important one. This, I think that this is the basis for most people when they get started meal planning.

However, it can get lost in translation sometimes because if you're not planning around your real schedule, and you're planning around, like, "I really hope this week, you know, I'll have time to make this [00:07:00] fancy Beef Wellington," as we always reference.

We do, we do. Have we ever made one? I've never made one.

No, I've been served one at a friend's house, but I've never made it myself.

So, so there's just an aspect of, like, even when you're looking at your schedule, sometimes it's easy to still plan for, like, kind of an ideal version of your week rather than what your real week looks like, and this includes things like knowing the nights that you're gonna have low energy because you have crazy, a, a crazy amount of things going on that day.

Or just, like, you know you're gonna be getting off of work late. You know your kid's practice is gonna get done late, whatever the things are. Um, and just, like, just being realistic about it and, and we talk about this a lot of the time, too, working backwards from things. So if you think, "Well, the kids are gonna get done with their practice at 7:00.

Do we wanna be eating at 8:30?"

Mm-hmm.

Probably not. So, like, how can I work backwards from that to make sure that we can, like, get home and immediately eat [00:08:00] dinner or eat dinner before practice? Whatever it works out to be for your family, but looking at your real schedule I think is actually key to this

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I, this one's such a big one because this is why your meal plan will fail, and it's a pretty painful fail if you don't do this. So maybe you are new to meal planning and you you don't create your meal plan around your real schedule. It's gonna feel like meal planning was the problem.

Hmm. Mm-hmm

You know? It's gonna feel like, oh, well maybe meal planning really isn't the key to making this easier. It is, but there are these big things that you can do to make it easier, and one of them is this one, is just you've gotta look at your schedule. What types of events consistently derail your dinner?

You know? Like, okay, um, my kids all lose their mind at 5:00 PM when I'm making dinner. Okay, what can we do instead? Or what can we make faster? Or, do we need to buy pre-chopped vegetables or, you know, or do we need to make dinner earlier in the day and just put it in the oven, you know, at that time? What is [00:09:00] constantly derailing your dinner, and then work backwards from that too.

Yeah, I like that. What constantly r- derails dinner at your house, Riley? Or maybe not constantly, but what is a something that might derail dinner at your house?

Well, it, mine, the thing that derails dinner at my house, because I do plan around our schedule, is typically not, an event, but more that people at my house aren't really interested in eating something. Like, "Oh, we're gonna have that tonight? Could we not? Could we have this?" Yeah, sure. Okay. So we derail.

We switch the meal plan around a little bit. Um, sometimes because we live a really long way from town, sometimes the thing that derails dinner is a delay in town, and we're not gonna get home in time to make dinner, and so we end up picking something up or pivoting to a faster meal. So it's, m- it's not really a, it's not, it's not, that's not a consistent derail.

It's just things that kinda come up sometimes.

Yeah

What about you?

I, I think mine's that second one mostly is like if we don't, if I don't get home from something in [00:10:00] time, then we're eating dinner at like 8:30.

Yeah.

Which is fine because it's just the two of us. Like, I'm not, right, like I'm not feeding kids who like need to be in bed at a certain time. But it's still not ideal.

Like, I don't wanna be eating and then going to bed a half an hour later.

Mm-hmm. I was gonna say the same thing. I... Yeah, the kids, the kids make a difference, but I also would not like to eat at that time. I'd be too hungry and too late, and yeah

Yeah. At sometimes my husband will, like, work late, and so that's something that can derail dinner. Like, I won't realize that he's working late or, like, he'll say he's working late and I'm thinking, like, he's gonna be a half an hour late, and then he's, like, an hour and a half late. And so, like, dinner is then sitting there, like, ready to eat, but I'm waiting.

Yeah

So yeah, sometimes that gets a little tricky

problem number four is you did not include your family in the process, which is a little bit of what I just touched on when I said that sometimes it's the thing that derails us is that people aren't really interested in what I'm cooking that night. Now, what [00:11:00] I don't...

I, I do not, like, delete that meal from the meal plan, but I'd say, "Okay, we can have this tonight, and we'll have that tomorrow." But if I didn't include them in the process to begin with, then they might, you know, might be some frustrations. But w- we love polling the family audience. We think this is a big tip.

Ask people. It came up so often when we did the d- dinner dilemmas earlier this year, that there were so many people with so many preferences and so many needs, and they were... The person who was the primary cook and the planner was feeling so overwhelmed. Um, and over and over again, you and I consistently said you've got to ask other people.

You have to bring them into the process. With adult family members, it's helpful because then they have some buy-in. Like, "Oh, well, I suggested this meal." Maybe that means they help cook it. Maybe that's the meal they cook all together that night. And with littles, it can also create some buy-in on the food in general.

Um, okay, uh, I'm trying to think of what my kids would suggest. My kids actually love Brussels sprouts, which is a big surprise, but they do love them, and if they suggest eating them for dinner, [00:12:00] then I'm definitely gonna add that to the meal plan. But it, it... They like to see it. Like, they like to be heard.

You know, like, "Oh, I wanted this," and we're having this. Um, now my daughter suggests smash burger tacos every single week, and we do not do that. But when we have them, it makes her so excited. And I... It's just a ni- it's just nice when there's no pushback, less complaints, um, and everyone's a part of the menu

Right. But I think that that's an important thing to circle back on is that you said your daughter always wants a specific thing, but you don't always put it on the meal plan. So while it is really important to include your family in the process, I think particularly when you are still in a, a phase of having smaller children in your household, just because they have suggestions doesn't mean that they have to be the ones, like, in control of the menu, right?

Uh, you're still the adult, and you get to decide, like, "I don't wanna eat smash burger tacos every single night."

Yeah, 'cause I don't.

Yeah.

But although I will say you have given me some ideas, like the [00:13:00] chicken Caesar one. Um, that's something I'll always eat, right? Okay. So I could add it to the meal plan. It just won't be exactly with the way she wanted it.

I think that I've seen enough versions of the smash burger at this point that you could probably have a different one every night of the week.

Yeah

I saw one the other day that was like bao bun ins- inspired, and so it was like, yeah

I saw that one. I think I saw that one. It was like a Asian-inspired one for

I- yeah, yeah, exactly,

pork instead of chicken or beef, and then like an Asian slaw.

Looked great. 

It did look good.

But I like those kind of flavors, so

Yeah, I do too. All right, problem number f- problem.

Pablum

Problem. Problem number five is that you're trying to use a meal plan that was made by somebody else, but doesn't really work for your family's needs. So this is if you follow people on social media, whether they're an influencer or a blogger, any of those things, and they have meal plans.

This is a really common thing for recipe authors to do, is they're [00:14:00] like, "Here's your five-day meal plan," which I think is great on the one hand, like inspiring people to create meal plans, and obviously, like, they're trying to inspire people to make the recipes that they've created. However, that doesn't mean that that meal plan is gonna work for your family situation for the entire week, you know?

Like, you could take some inspiration from their meal plan, but I don't think you need to make it your own meal pl- your whole meal plan.

Mm-hmm. One of the reasons for me why I don't like that is because I very rarely plan a meal plan that includes a bunch of new recipes.

Totally

And this is actually another reason why meal plans fail. If you are planning five recipes you've never made before, I don't care if it says it's 30 minutes. I don't care...

I, I don't re- the... When you make a new recipe, it almost always takes you longer the first time. And so when you're using someone else's meal plan with recipes you've never made, it can just, like, create more stress and tension around the meal plan, [00:15:00] because you're like, "Okay, hold on. What does the recipe say?

Oh, I've gotta do that first. I should've been boiling water this entire time?" Like, then you... You know, like, whatever it is. Overly complicated, maybe it's ingredients you don't normally purchase, so it could be more expensive, a more expensive meal plan. Um, or maybe your family has a dietary need and you're having to pivot the entire thing every time, which is doable, but also just, like, maybe just do something different.

Do something that already works for you. I like what you said, use it for inspiration, and maybe a piece of it is a building block for your own meal plan. Um, but using somebody else's meal plans usually don't work for your life, 'cause it's not in- it's not bringing in your schedule, your needs, and it might be planning for an ideal version of your life, but not really the life you're living that week.

Absolutely. I mean, I don't mean to call anybody out by name, but I'm gonna do it anyways. I love Half Baked Harvest recipes. She, uh, makes beautiful [00:16:00] recipes. Like, she does a great, great job. They're so beautiful. The f- the recipes that I've made from her, they do taste really good. Like, I think she's a really good recipe creator.

However, all of her recipes have, like, 27 different ingredients in them, and she's one of those people who's like, "Here's my meal, here's a meal plan for the week," or whatever, and each recipe is, like, a different flavor profile, so each one has, like, 20 different seasonings that you need for the recipe. And so I just, it...

To me, when I look at it, I'm like, "That's so unrealistic for the average person to make all of these recipes that are all so different during the week," and maybe total- like, maybe totally different ingredients that they just don't have as, like, staples in their house to make all of these different flavors. So sorry to call Teigan out, but we don't know her, so

Yeah, I would say for people who are very new to meal planning, this can be a [00:17:00] springboard, right?

Mm-hmm

okay, I'm... Okay. Okay, we've got all these recipes. I'm gonna try this. I think the, the deeper you get into meal planning, the less you need the crutch of a, like, meal plan for some- like, somebody else's meal plan.

But Roni and I also... Just scrolling social media for ideas is also a really great way to get some building block recipes. A- and when I say building block, I'm thinking, like, I'm scrolling through Instagram and I see this, uh, that Boursin, Boursin orzo chicken bake. I referenced it a couple of weeks ago.

And wow, I was like, "Wow, that looks really good, really simple." I added it to my meal plan and then I made it, and now it will be a repeater because it was so easy. Um, but you could build your entire meal plan based on social media, and it doesn't have to be that you're actually using the exact recipe.

It's just a, "Oh, wow, that person's fish tacos look great. We like fish tacos. I'll add my fish taco recipe to my meal plan." And so you're kind of picking and choosing the inspiration versus the actual [00:18:00] recipe, like using somebody else's recipe. Um, it can be really helpful, but, but somebody else's meal plan almost always is not gonna work exactly the way you want it to.

Right. Yeah, the thing that I do really appreciate, uh, about it is just even talking about meal plans in the first place, because I do think that there are a lot of people who look at, you know, food on Instagram, food on TikTok and stuff, and they're not even realizing that meal planning is a thing that people do, right?

I was in a stage of my life where I didn't even realize that meal planning was a thing that people did. And so I do love, right, like here's a meal plan for the week so that people are like, "Oh, a meal plan? Oh, people do that?"

Yeah, yeah, yeah

But that doesn't mean that it has to be your meal plan

Yes. This is that thing we've talked about before. It's like take some, take ownership, like take, um, like authority. Like sometimes people just need permission, like to make something their own, and I, I know that there have been [00:19:00] many times in my life where I just needed permission to do something, 'cause I didn't know I could just do it.

I needed to be told I could do it. But you don't have to use somebody else's meal plan. You can make your own, and you can make it exactly what you want it to be with whatever things you want it to be.

So true. All right, problem number six is that you don't have a recovery plan for your meal plan, which is what I'm considering, like, backup meals, right? So if your, if you, if you create a meal plan and things go sideways, it is really important to have a backup plan, some pantry staple meals, stuff that we've talked about in previous podcasts.

Uh, I think this is really important to being able to be like, "I'm still a successful meal planner."

I, I love this one. Well, I don't love that it's a problem, but you and I love the backup meal. You can... We've called this a lot of things. I think recovery meal is gonna be the thing that sticks, though. I love 

I like, recovery meal. Yeah

Yeah. [00:20:00] Um, I typically call it a pantry meal.

Yeah

So if you've heard us talking about this before, that's what we're talking about.

If you're not familiar, this is where you've got all the ingredients at your disposal. They just are there, and they wait. They live in your pantry. They might get used for something else. They... You know, like, you... It might be that you have to pull something out of your freezer to go with it. Maybe it's a freezer meal that you literally froze for a rainy day.

But it's just there. It's ready. It's very simple. It's something you know how to make. It's just a... Uh, for me, white chicken chili is one that I always have the ingredients for. Now that it's summertime, it's not the ideal meal. But all winter long, I have all the ingredients to make white chicken chili, and if I have a day where I'm like, "Shoo, I don't know what we're gonna do.

This day's crazy," I'll throw it on the Crockpot in the morning, and then I don't have to think about it at all.

Mm-hmm

So that's what a recovery meal is or a backup meal, something. Whatever you wanna call it, that's what that is.

Yeah, I mean, a really simple example that you give a lot, Riley, is, like, just [00:21:00] having breakfast for dinner, because we almost always have breakfast staples at home, so it is easy to be like, "Look, we're just having, like, some eggs and avocado toast," or, you know, whatever you like to have for breakfast, and just have that as your dinner plan when your, you know, schedule changes and all the other things.

So you mentioned white chicken chili. I think one of my fallback meals is... Well, I've talked about it before on the podcast quite a bit. It's like a beans on toast recipe. We always have cans of beans at home, and we'll always have bread, you know? So it's just, like, a really easy meal that comes together

What, like when do you use that? Like, give somebody an example for when you use a backup meal at your house

I mean, tonight's probably a night that I'm gonna use a backup meal.

Love it

Everybody has heard us talk about the way that we meal plan. So, uh, I plan, you know, in week increments, but I don't plan every single night of the week. And [00:22:00] if we don't have any additional events that come up during the week, or if none of the recipes that we make have leftovers, there's at least one night of the week that I'm like, "We gotta figure out what to do tonight," because I don't have another recipe on the meal plan, and I'm not going to the grocery store today.

So, tonight is kind of one of those nights where I'm like, we have one serving of leftovers from a different recipe. Like, it's not enough for both of us. And so I, I think I'm doing a backup meal tonight because I'm not going to the grocery store after work today.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, sometimes if I do for- forget to thaw meat, that this'll be a reason.

Absolutely that too, 

yeah

I think I'll use a backup meal exactly the same way as you. Okay, I haven't gotten to the grocery store yet, or sometimes it's just that whatever I've planned is c- too complicated for my energy level.

It's nothing that... Nothing really came up, but just like the day got crazy, or I worked too late, or had a late meeting, or whatever the thing is, and [00:23:00] I just need to put something together fast that I don't have to think that hard about. I think that's a key about the backup meal is like, don't overcomplicate that.

Like, make that the simplest meal. Everyone will enjoy it, everyone will eat it, but it is just very basic.

Yeah

Yeah. Don't have to... You don't have to, like, look at the recipe 65 times to make it. Doesn't have 30, doesn't have 30 spices in it.

The, okay, so some additional solutions. These are not necessarily problem with a solution related to it, but just, like, solutions that you could be, thinking about if you feel like your meal plans are consistently failing. And I think a big one is to check in with your plan on a regular basis.

I'm thinking of this as what I'm calling meal plan maintenance,

I like that

which is, like, meal planning doesn't have to be a set it and forget it task, right? When you, when you do your meal plan at the beginning of the week, I hope that during the week you're checking [00:24:00] in with your meal plan and you're saying, "Does the recipe that we have planned tonight even sound good?

Did something come up and we need to move something around in the meal plan? Did

What do I need to thaw?

What do I need to thaw? Did somebody eat all the avocados and now we can't have guacamole?"

Mm-hmm.

Or, like, d- did the last two meals make a ton of leftovers and we need to, like, move our leftovers night up 'cause otherwise we're gonna- our fridge is gonna be way too full of food. That happens at our house quite a bit,

It happens at our house too. We- where I'm like, "Oh man, I made... There was too much of this. We've gotta eat it as leftovers. I'm not cooking again. We've gotta eat this before it goes bad."

Yeah. Yeah

Yeah, checking in with your meal plan regularly is something that I do a lot. I, I tend to be a Sunday night meal planner.

I've had to pivot that a little bit. I've been planning on Wednesday nights, now shopping on Thursdays, but, I do love a, a Sunday... Like I'm a Sunday sit down, look at the week kind of gal. And I honestly look at my calendar every morning. Okay, what's got... What's the day, [00:25:00] um, I put my meal plan on my paper calendar.

So like I've got it in Plan to Eat, but I've got it on a paper calendar, and I just write the title, like, oh, what's dinner? And that helps me quite a bit with the freezer situation bec- like if there's something that needs to thaw, I'll remember. And it helps me also say like, "Do we want this? Is this like almost exactly the same thing as what we're having tomorrow night?

Okay, what can we do to pivot this?" I don't know if you've ever done that, but I've planned things that have really similar flavors as the next night, and that's kind of annoying

Yeah

when I do that. Um, sometimes it's because of suggestions, and I just take the suggestions, and I don't realize that it's back to back very similar.

Maybe it's like burritos and then fajitas, you know, something like that. But so it's just like I have a morning check-in every day, and a Sunday check-in where I actually meal plan, or so Wednesday night meal plan. And so that can be... That's a really helpful thing that I do

Yeah. I find that I double plan, like, tomato-based dishes often. You know? Like, I'm like, "Ooh, I love this tortellini skillet," and then we'll do something like beans on toast, and they both are, like, [00:26:00] tomato-based sauces. And my husband will be like, "So we just had tomatoes with tortellini and tomatoes with beans."

Yeah, that's funny

So the important thing to remember, though, is if your plan starts to fall apart, you know, after Tuesday or midweek, you don't have to, like, throw out the whole plan and just decide we're gonna get takeout the rest of the week. Like, it's best to try and rework the meal plan that you have to make it fit whatever is happening the rest of the week.

But it's not like a, the cause is lost at the, you know, come Wednesday just because we haven't stuck to the meal plan so far. So if you need to swap meals around, make sure you're doing that. If you need to look at your recipes and think, like, "We just need things to be simpler," you know, just simplify some recipes.

Don't put in 30 spices.

Yeah, so ways that, like, we've practically done this, let's give some examples, 'cause I think that'd be really helpful for people. I have pivoted on meal plans before by actually just [00:27:00] making the entire meal when I had time and freezing it, if it's a freezer-appropriate meal. If I'm realizing that, like, my ingredients are going bad, like, oh, shoot, the lettuce that I bought is very wilty, we're having that tonight instead.

Um, this helps you reduce that waste, which is totally why a meal plan would fall apart, because we can't eat this, it's bad. Okay, we gotta do something different. And so kinda keeping an eye on ingredients or reworking it by saying, "We're gonna have this tonight and that tomorrow night," or instead of having tacos, we're gonna have taco salad, because we weren't gonna make it, this lettuce won't make it past today, or whatever the, whatever the thing is that's failing your meal plan.

Can you think of any other ways that, like, your meal plan would fall apart where you can pivot quickly? Have you ever taken ingredients and turned it into a totally different recipe?

Yeah, I have actually done that, and I think the most recent time that it happened was, like, we had ramen planned, and then [00:28:00] it turned out to be, like, a 75-degree day, and I was like, "My husband is not gonna wanna eat ramen today," 'cause that's like soup, you know? And but so I have this other recipe for, like, a cold noodle salad that uses the same ramen noodles, and I, I was able to just basically, like, pivot it to be like, we're not doing warm noodles anymore.

We're doing cold noodles. Uh, so yeah, I've definitely done that. And, and I think another way that I will often, like, make a change in a meal plan midweek is, is by freezing things, and I'm specifically thinking of vegetables. Like, if I have vegetables that are starting to go bad, I will just, like, chop them or prep them, whatever, and put them in the freezer, because it feels better than throwing them away.

It probably means that the way that I use them next is not gonna be the same, but at least they're gonna get used. So, like, I've had this happen with asparagus before, where [00:29:00] I bought asparagus, and it was in the refrigerator, and you, like, pull it out, and you're like, ooh, a couple of these are starting to look slimy

and like, I th- you know, it's like maybe I was just gonna, like, put the asparagus in the air fryer, and we were gonna have asparagus as a side dish. And so instead it's like, okay, well, I'll, like, blanch it or something and then chop it up and put it in the freezer. And so, like, the next time I use it, it's gonna be in, like, a skillet or, like, something that's, like, s- cooked instead, but at least I didn't waste that ingredient completely.

Yeah, absolutely. That's a great... Those are great examples. The ramen hot to cold was,

Yeah.

That's a really good one. Yeah, I'll do the same thing. I had a, I have a butter chicken recipe, and I was planning to cook it, but I don't have... I need to borrow an Instant Pot. I'm gonna make a big batch of it and freeze it, but I, um, I need to borrow an Instant Pot.

But I've already got the, like, m- the vegetables, so I'm just gonna f- cook. I'm just gonna chop them and freeze them 'cause it won't make a difference once it's in the air... It won't make a difference.

Not the air fryer.

No, no. [00:30:00] It won't make a difference once it's in the Instant Pot 'cause it'll all cook the same,

if your meal plan keeps failing, like, don't assume that you need more discipline to muscle through it harder.

You probably just need a better system. So take a real look and say, "Okay, what failed? What didn't work? Where are your problem areas?" And try to make a, make small changes that over time will make your system work so much better for you

Yeah. Hopefully some of our solutions today are helpful and help you think about maybe how you can adjust your plans, adjust your planning methods even, in order to continue to be successful with your meal plans.

'Cause, you know,

it's ended up being a pretty consistent theme so far this year unintentionally, but, you know, like, food waste is so disappointing, and I think that's one of the reasons why we hate it when our meal plans fail, is because w- it often means that we're wasting more food. So it's okay if things [00:31:00] don't always work out, but, like, just remember that it doesn't mean that, that all is lost

Yeah. I mean, yes, it doesn't surprise me that that has been a common theme because things are just expensive, and it makes it even more devastating. You know, like a 20 cent bunch of cilantro going in the trash is not as big of a deal as a $3 bunch of cilantro or, you know, whatever your example might be.

But I, this is an important thing. I think everyone's trying to cut costs, so these are ways that actually really do lean into that idea, too.

Totally

 All right, Riley, talk to us about your meal plan. Give us some inspo 

All right. 

Upcoming we're gonna do some teriyaki chicken and vegetables. Uh, this is a big family favorite at our house. It's pretty simple. Everybody likes it. It's very easy to make, so we're gonna do that. I'm gonna make white lasagna because I think I've said this before, but my family doesn't...

The red sauce, we got... My family got beef with red sauce. I don't know what it is. I don't have that same issue, but [00:32:00] they do. So, uh, I'm gonna make it. I'm trying to attempt a white lasagna and

an Alfredo?

Yeah, it's essentially Alfredo, yeah. Yeah, pretty similar to regular lasagna, just all tomatoes. I'm gonna make beef and broccoli, uh, which might be a little similar to that teriyaki, so we need to keep those a little separate. And I think I'm gonna make that avocado blueberry quinoa salad that you and I both love so much. It's such a great batch thing to keep in the fridge, eat all week if you want it for lunches. We'll have it for dinner, and I'll probably have it for leftovers because I love it, um, and probably serve it with some grilled chicken

I like it. Well, funnily enough, I'm also making lasagna.

You're making lasagna too? No way

Um, but I, I'm doing these like, maybe I've talked about it on the podcast before. I know, I know I've told you about it, but it's lasagna roll-ups. And so, yeah, and so, like, you make all the components, and then instead of making layers, you roll them all up in each lasagna noodle, which arguably takes longer.

Like, lasagna's already something that takes a long time, and this takes longer, so [00:33:00] it's kind of silly, but my husband likes it more than regular lasagna, so

we do what we have to do

we do what we do. I'm also gonna have beef and broccoli stir-fry. Um, and then we're gonna do, a Tuscan chicken recipe, which is, like, a consistent on the meal plan.

And my fave, free-form chicken and meatballs, or free-form chicken meatballs. It's not chicken and meatballs. Free-form chicken meatballs. You, um, you make them with roasted carrots and a, a lemony Greek yogurt sauce. I've been talking about that on the podcast for probably two years.

That sounds great

And well, that wraps us up for today. As always, we appreciate you being here with us and listening. And if you have any tips for failing meal plans, we would love to hear about it. Send us an email at podcast@plantoeat.com, and we will talk to you again in two weeks [00:34:00]