Sticking to Your Dinner Plans

Last night was a weird one. It seemed much later than it really was for most of the evening - and the pups thought so too, as they were asking to go out for a walk about two hours earlier than normal.
I had managed to forget to clean the bathroom until 2pm (even though it was in my planner!), and I had to make an emergency store run for light bulbs, as the last bulb (1 of 4) in our ceiling fan finally died.
I could not for the life of me get my head on straight, it seemed.

So when it came time to start dinner, I tried to convince the dogs to do it (of course they can't, but wouldn't that be amazing?!). I just didn't have it in me.
Sure it was something easy, and sure it was mostly a matter of throwing a few things in a a dish and into the oven, but it just seemed like so much work.

This is the horrible part - it was really just about the easiest thing to make. Tator Tots from the freezer in an oven dish, with a can of chili on top. Put in oven for however long the tator tots need to be cooked. When its close to done, put cheese and ketchup on top. And that's dinner. It may sound weird, but it's amazingly delicious.
But that is all the effort I needed to put forth. No real pans, no stirring or watching or anything and it just did not sound like an activity I wanted to partake in.

Then the Husband asked if I wanted dinner to come here.
I almost said "yes please!" and then realized that it would mean spending 20$ on pizza.
I love pizza, it's delicious. But it costs too much, especially when I have frozen pizzas in my freezer. So, I got up and cooked dinner. And it was delicious, and it didn't cost us no 20$ extra.

That image at the top, with all the different food crossed off? That's actually what my dinner plans for tonight look like.

I planned my dinners for this week last Friday.
And also decided to make shortbread cookies Friday night (which turned into shortbread cake, but that's another story). The shortbread, however, used all the butter I had left. And since it was an unplanned baking adventure, there was no "oh I just forgot to get some", but was an "oh yeah I have enough butter, right?"...and I was wrong, as the recipe called for a CUP of butter - and it was delicious, but goodness that's a lot!

So, I had to change my plans.
Except for the part about how I had to go get light bulbs yesterday, so I picked up some butter, too. And now, we're back to Pasta Roni for dinner  - we've come full circle.

What I'm trying to say, is meal planning is important.
We used to go to the store every couple of days and just picked up things that sounded good. And it would cost at least 30$ every time. And because we were buying mostly snack food, we would have to go get burgers or something similar for actual food. Which costs at least 8$ each time. Some days we weren't even eating a real dinner, just a snack food amount equal in which to a dinner (I never claimed we were healthy people!).
With grocery shopping on a weekly basis, and planning my meals, I'm not having to go to the store for snack foods every couple of days. It saves time, it saves gas, and it saves grocery money.

And with meal planning, there is no need to leave our home once we're "in for the night". Food is here. Food can be made. It may not be amazing, but it will be ours. I am planning it out a week in advance, and if something comes up so that a day has to change, that's fine, but there is none of that dreaded "what's for dinner?" or "when is it going to get here?" or "we'll lose our parking spot if we wait much longer to go get food!".

Yeah, I really would have loved for dinner to be delivered last night. But, in the end, not worth it.
And tonight? I could have just said "oh well, plans fell through, let's have Doritos for dinner". But that's not the best idea. Instead, it will all work out, and we are having delicious noodles. And come time to plan for next week, I'll know when the last time we had delicious noodles was - which is helpful, as I would schedule them for every day if I could.

When was the last time you had a "yes, please, deliver my dinner" moment? Do your menu plans change often, or are you good at guessing the week out ahead of time?

~Havok