I regularly experience tension concerning meal planning. I love it, and at the same time, I hate it. As I grow older and receive more grace to accept paradoxes, I’ve been able to allow this tension to exist. However, it’s taken me years to learn how to dance in the tension and even longer to come to appreciate it.
Hopefully I’ve hooked you by using the word ‘paradox’ and you are ready to have your mind changed about meal planning. The truth is that no one wants to read or think about meal planning because it’s really boring. Its necessary repetition makes it tedious. It can often stunt creativity in the kitchen. On the other hand, meal planning can be liberating. Meal planning can free up mental thought, physical energy, money, and time. It can prevent burnout in the kitchen. It can ensure diversity and nutrition in the meals you cook. I have even felt it foster creativity in my cooking.
I have been consistently feeding people for a long time. Lots of people. Over the years I’ve hoarded up methods and systems to help me feed these people and I realized as I sat down to share some words on the topic that the words just kept coming. I thought there might be public interest in these words, and that maybe my sharing in more detail could help ease the tedium of meal planning and re-inspire creativity in the kitchen. Because I have so much content on the topic I plan on releasing my thoughts serially so that no one gets overwhelmed.
Please stay tuned!