How to Plan Dinner at the Very Last Minute
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Does it sometimes take you by surprise that it’s 5 PM and you don’t have a thought in your head for what to make for dinner? And you consult your partner and hey, they don’t either? This is usually the point when we either order pizza or make a freezer pizza (“healthier”, right?)… but I recently sat down and made a list, so I thought I’d share.
Today at Corporette we’re talking about how to track your period without an app, and it’s in part because one of my favorite planner people released a really cute free period tracker. But she ALSO has one of my new favorite products for planning dinner, so I thought I’d share.
We actually have talked about dinner prep a lot, rounding up 5 family dinner strategies better than delivery, how to share dinner duties between two working parents, how to plan dinner every night, easy weeknight dinners, meal planning apps, repeating recipes vs trying new ones, meal prepping, and the best meal-kit services.
How I Plan Dinner at the Very Last Minute
The inspiration for my lists was the “Planning Game Board” from Imperfect Inspiration, a shop that specializes in organizing and planning products for people with ADHD. The idea is that if you’re low on motivation (for chores, for dinner, for self-care) you can pre-make lists, then roll a die to choose which one you’ll do — the theory is that leaving it up to the roll of a die removes the need for self-motivation.
I like all of the game boards in the set (the downloadable version is free, or you can buy laminated versions for $15 at her shop), but the dinner one, with some modifications for me and my family, is particularly great.
The original list categories are above, but I’ve modified mine to include slightly different categories. There are 6 answers for each of the 6 categories… the idea is that you roll the die twice. The first roll chooses the category, and the second roll chooses the item in the category.
How I Modified the Planning Game Board for Dinner Recipes
These are my modified categories for our small family (where the kids often eat separate meals, sigh):
- fast food/GrubHub type places
- old favorites of the kids (not necessarily healthy — think pizza, mac ‘n cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, etc)
- healthy recipes for the kids, like air-fried chicken, breakfast-for-dinner,
- old favorites of my husband’s and mine that we usually have all of the ingredients for in the fridge/pantry/freezer (I’ll admit I’ve cheated and #6 on the list is “whatever kids do”)
- recipes that we can make for the whole family with 3-4 hours notice (well, 3 of us), such as egg salad, broiled shrimp, or a few really quick-cooking crockpot meals like salsa chicken, lentil soup, etc. (We’re not big fans of our Instapot, but if you have pressure cooker recipes you like, this would be the place for them)
- healthy(ish) recipes for my husband and myself (chicken soup with those frozen dumplings, frozen turkey burgers, pre-made soup, tuna salad, etc)
I was actually really surprised by how long it took me to come up with list items for the different categories! But it’s been really helpful, and I have consulted it numerous times since putting it together.
(I still like the previous method I’ve used for planning dinner every night — but I still haven’t gotten the hang of planning for leftovers, if that makes sense?)
Readers, what do you do when it’s 4:30 and you realize no one has planned dinner for the family? (If your partner usually plans dinner, what are their methods for dealing with this situation?)
Pasta. Takes under ten minutes. My kids will always eat it (and like it plain), and for grownups we always have marinara / butter / parmesan in the fridge. And anything pairs with it – any veggie that I can grill on the side and any protein we have in the fridge (and if there is no meat/fish, it still feels like a meal). An egg yolk can fancy it up very easily too.
Canned vegetables are a lifesaver – just throw on the stove for 2 minutes to warm.
For protein – if there is really nothing else, including no time to defrost, eggs.
Most weeks, I make sure to stock up on a bit of cheese and salami/proscuitto/some other cured meat. They can last in the fridge for a little while, and if I truly come through the door when it’s already time for dinner, we do sandwiches, carrot sticks (or some other raw veggie), and whatever fruits we have.
Always keep a frozen lasagna and/or pizza and/or other Trader Joe’s meal in the freezer. They might take 25 minutes, but at least there’s no thinking and no clean up on a busy day!
My husband usually cooks. I have the big job plus a lucrative side hustle. We both work from home.
We keep veg burgers and kosher turkey burgers freezer. Recently added two grill pans to facilitate easy burger dinners.
Keep various jarred salad dressings on hand for CSA ingredient salads. Hard boil CSA eggs for use in salads and other. Make a weekly veg soup with CSA plus staples (onions, garlic, bell peppers, celery) plus window herbs plus homemade broth. Always have soup in the fridge and freezer.
We have a handful of reliable delivery options. Also have a lot of dry goods plus jars options, pestos, pastas, curries, etc. When all else fails, we have breakfast cereal.
Does anyone else have a partner who does most of the cooking? Up until a year ago we both worked and he almost always took care of dinner because I worked late and did day care pickup. But now I’m a SAHM so I do dinner. And it’s still usually an “oh crap what’s for dinner” situation. Eggs, pasta, tacos, salmon and sheet pan chicken are my go-tos.
Our go-to last-minute dinner is curbside pickup from Wegmans — kids burger meal for the 6yo, mac n cheese for the 4yo, salads for the grownups, and sashimi for everyone to share. Wegmans is the best.
Our what are we having for dinner options when I (primary cook with a DH who could burn water) haven’t planned anything and we are choosing not to do delivery:
– if we got HelloFresh that week, which of the meals sounds the most appetizing and is the fastest
– hot dogs (DH can cook these, DD will eat them, as opposed to everything else on this list)
– pasta with jarred tomato sauce (maybe meatballs if I have them frozen)
– pasta with butter and parmesan and black pepper
– mac and cheese
– frozen pork potstickers
– frozen egg rolls (DH can cook these)
– frozen pot pie (turkey for me, chicken for DH), but these take an hour in the oven so we need to be OK with that.
Lately I’ve also taken to getting the large Costco caesar salad each week which also helps in the what do we have to eat but don’t feel like cooking. DH and I can usually get two salads each out of it, so it’s a pretty good deal, and he eats his as caesar and I dress mine up with the croutons I like, cheddar, onion, sliced cherry tomato and ranch dressing like the heathen I am.
Our go to lazy homecooked meals are:
Fried or scramble eggs + sauteed veg + toast/bagel. Tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms are especially good. Add hotsauce or salsa for fun
Frozen veggie pizza
Noodles with butter sauce and frozen veggies (typically california blend in a bag) or beans. Add garlic salt and some herbs
Salads + canned soup or sandwich
Refried bean quesadilla with rice or veg
All these can go with cut fruit or veg and kid will eat some variation of most of these.
Scrambled eggs and toast if we have bread. Stirfry as the quick nip into Aldi if the fridge is empty option. Pancakes if we really have NOTHING.
Something I’m always looking for on this (especially in the summer, when we tend to want to be spontaneous and keep options open) is something that can go directly from the freezer to the grill. It seems like there should be more options on this front.
I am never surprised that it’s dinnertime. Meals are always planned in advance and my husband will inevitably start demanding to be fed before I’m ready to start cooking. (To those who will say “well, then he can cook,” I’d rather cook myself than trade chores with him because I can’t stand his chores!) The problem is that sometimes I’m just too wiped out to cook, but I feel obligated to cook so I don’t waste the ingredients. For this reason I’ve actually backed off of the meal planning somewhat this summer. Instead of meals planned day by day, I’m buying ingredients for one or two actual dinners per week and keeping easy quick-fix stuff like leftover pasta salad and frozen veggie burgers on hand for the days when I just can’t. I don’t know how this looser approach will play out in the fall when extracurriculars resume and our schedule resembles a Tetris game.