Please share your daily/weekly routines! page

[eastcoastal]

Specifically (but not exclusively) food routines?

I am finding out that I am not good at planning at all, and this style of eating seems to require quite a bit of it. An author of an msn article mentioned that she eats similar things daily and it allows her to better plan (financially) and be out of the food store in 30 min. More importantly, she is not standing in the kitchen wondering what to prep for next meal.

I realize that we can debate whether this sort of meal planning would include sufficient amounts of nutrients or not, but if you do have routines, please share. One extra difficulty for me is that I am allergic to eggs, pork, and to a lesser extent beef and dairy. Oh, and I don’t feel all too well eating most nuts.


How do you shop, when do you cook, what do you freeze, when do you go to bed and wake up, when do you work out? Please share with a beginner before I get totally overwhelmed.

Thank you.

[FlyNavyWife]

Our grocery store is closed Sun-Mon, so we shop on Tuesdays typically.


I've been planning 3 dinners a week (different kinds of meat and veggies) and making sure to get ingredients for those. The other nights we may have leftovers, go out to eat, or just make something light and easy. I also get ingredients for lunch salads, and lots of eggs, and some fruit.


A bit ago I made a huge batch of breakfast sausage because having something ready-made helps me make sure to get enough protein in the morning (put half in the freezer so that it wouldn't go bad while we ate the first half). When this runs out I'll make a big batch of mini-breakfast-quiches (crustless) for the same reason.


I also wrote out a list of possible breakfasts, lunches, dinners that I tend to look at while I'm writing out my grocery list. It's helpful to me since I'm just starting but I imagine that later I won't need that as much.


Aaaaand... I keep frozen veggies in my freezer in case I run out of fresh ones, since I only like to go grocery shopping once a week.


Not much of a system but it has been working... sorry about all of your allergies! That would make it much more difficult, I'd think.

[Conan]

I go shopping on Sunday and on Sunday night I cook my lunches for Mon. - Thurs. and store them in tupperware. Lunch can be really simple, for instance I might cook a giant salmon filet and then all I have to do is throw some raw broccoli in the container with it and when I heat it up, the salmon and broccoli are cooked together.


Every night I spend about 10 minutes packing my lunch. Throw some nuts in a plastic bag, some strawberries and blueberries in another, half of an avocado in another, etc. I cook my eggs in the morning while I'm getting ready. I just throw them in a pan and let them cook while I'm getting dressed. Then I grab them on the way out the door.


I highly recommend getting a cooler to take your lunch and snacks in. They have adult looking coolers now, so don't worry you won't have to take a scooby doo lunch pail into work with you.

[Diana Renata]

I tend not to plan really. At least not very much. I usually think "Hmm... what sounds good to eat the next couple of days?" Then I go buy it. I keep some staples in the freezer- meats, frozen veggies and fruits- just in case I don't make it to the store. Then I sorta forage for what's in my kitchen and invent meals around that.


Generally I cook a week's worth of lunches on Sunday. I don't mind eating the same thing every day for the week. Pull some meat out of the freezer, find a veggie, and throw it in the crock pot. Ok, it's a little more complicated than that, but not much. I pulled out some chicken and some broccoli & cauliflower florets, so that's lunch this week. If it doesn't last all week, I just do the same thing again around wednesday or thursday.


For my dinners I look in the freezer in the morning to see what meat sounds good and let it thaw while I'm at work. At work I decide what veggie I want and if I don't have it in the house I stop at the store and buy it. Leftovers are a given. If I'm in the mood for dessert I'll grab a piece of fruit at the store.


This may not work for a lot of people. I love food, and I love hanging out at the grocery store, so I don't mind stopping there every single night after work if I have to.


Then there are the farmer's markets- sometimes I end up with a lot of something. When that happens I just throw together a bunch of meals that incorporate that food. I currently have a gigantic head of chinese cabbage to use up, so I'll be eating that all week.

[eastcoastal]

Thank you, everyone, for your generous replies!

As a former foodie, I find it hard to eat the same things (or similar things) day in and day out, but I really REALLY do not want to spend any more time in the kitchen than what is absolutely nessesary. Must start looking at food as sustenance! Thank you for taking the time to write!

[grandma]

For me, I do salad with some sort of protein for lunch, so I buy enough greens and other salad items to last a few days and then I use protein from the previous day's dinner. Salad greens end up being the "bread" of every meal, I make sure there are enough in the house. In that way I don't think it really takes much more planning than it did to make sure there was bread in the house. I also stock up on canned fish when I see it for a good price. I use that for protein if the previous night's meal was too good for left overs. The what's for dinner question is pretty much the same. Your allergies do make it a little harder; eggs and nuts are the pasta of my diet, if there is nothing else in the house I snack on nuts or make a meal of eggs. In the same sort of way spaghetti was the default nothing-in-the-house-to-eat meal before.

[sammylou]

i always have meat in the freezer, and like grandma i love my big a$$ salads so every week i buy a big tub of greens or baby spinach.


i usually have my fave staple veggies that i buy every week for my salads and then about 3 or 4 nights worth of dinner veggies. then i just take meat or fish out of the freezer the night before or the morning of.


i def have many of the same foods from week to week but at least once a month i try to buy something new and i try to prepare in diff ways or match up differently with my meats. i always make twice what we need so there are leftovers in the fridge just about every day. and if i make stew, soup, etc. i always make the biggest pot i can and freeze individual portions.