b’vive.

Inspired by my dream not to cook

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be Angela Bower from Who’s the Boss. If you’ve never seen that show or it didn’t imprint quite the same on you, here’s what you need to know. The premise of the show highlighted a quintessential theme of the 80s: challenging gender stereotypes. Angela was a single mom with a successful career who hired a hunk of a male housekeeper. 

I loved the strong female characters in that show and the idea of someone else doing the cooking!

As an adult, I learned about the joy of cooking and bringing people together around food. I fell in love with cooking watching shows like Barefoot Contessa (all bow to the queen), Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis and 30-Minute Meals with Rachel Ray. These strong women taught me about the importance of good quality, simple ingredients, the practical ease of pantry staples, the magic of fresh herbs and that a ¼ cup is basically a handful. 

More importantly, they helped to shape my philosophy on cooking, which is embedded into my approach to eating — neither one has to be complicated.

And yes, I did grow up to work in advertising. Thank you for the inspiration, Angela.

The question I get most often from people: What should I make for dinner? 

Planning a weekly menu can be a lot of work. From knowing what to make to having the time to prep it all, menu planning and preparation can be a mind-consuming and time-consuming chore. Let’s not make it harder than it needs to be.

Growing up, my dad did most of the cooking, and we had a weekly menu planning ritual that went like this:

Make the menu — Usually, on a Friday evening or Saturday morning, we would talk about what meals we wanted to eat the following week. This usually included reviewing what we’d had the week before. We would decide what made sense for the upcoming week and plot it out.

Make the shopping list — Check the pantry and fridge for the basics and add whatever was needed to make the menu items.

Do the shopping — Always get a treat at the store. This is just how we did it, living a nutritious and delicious life already.

It sounds so easy, right? But how do you know what to put on the menu?

Three things you need to plan your weekly menu with delight!

Know what works.

I use the 80/20 rule when it comes to meal planning – 80% of the time, I prepare my family’s favorite, go-to meals. 

There’s a lot of room for variation in these favorites, so that helps to keep things a little different week to week.

Grilled chicken + salad

I’ll vary the salad by the season or whatever I’m obsessed with at the time. Some favorites are: Caesar salad, Greek lettuce salad or an Italian salad. Or my all-time favorite arugula with fresh herbs and a lemon vinaigrette. Your family doesn’t like those? Wait until we get to No. 3.

Serve with sourdough or homemade challah bread [link]

Steakhouse dinner

Grilled steak (because my husband does not believe in making steak any other way), salad and potato. Baked potato, sweet potato, homemade fries or roasted baby potatoes. All delicious. All easy.

Tacos

Or burrito bowls. Or taco salad. It all comes down to what proportion you want between your taco meat and lettuce.

Up the fiber and antioxidants with avocado, bell peppers, tomatoes, green onion, fresh lime and cilantro.

Up the protein with beans or greek yogurt (with a squeeze of lime).

Add spice with your favorite salsa.

Rice, quinoa, tortillas and corn chips are optional.

Lazy Girl Parmesan Chicken

I got this from a children’s recipe book 15+ years ago. It’s a family favorite and a dish I’ve gifted to friends.

Season chicken tenders with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Dredge in EVOO* (add chopped garlic if you feel like it) and then grated parmesan cheese. Put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Add fresh herbs and fresh mozzarella if your heart desires.

Toss grape or cherry tomatoes with EVOO, season with salt, pepper and oregano. Add a little crushed red pepper if you’re feeling feisty. Add white wine if you have some open because cooking with wine feels fancy.

Bake at 500 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Serve with your choice of steamed green beans and/or a salad. I like to cook penne noodles and toss with a little EVOO, salt and pepper. The baked tomatoes make a great sauce for the noodles and adds a ton of flavor to the chicken. Finish with some fresh basil or parsley. You’re welcome.

*Pretty sure we have Rachel Ray to thank for this beloved shorthand for extra virgin olive olive.

Allow space for play and flexibility.

When I’m not making a go-to dinner, I try new recipes. Some are great and become part of the rotation and some are not and I just hope they’re not so terrible that they become legend (like my epic tofu lasagna fail).

Legend has it that some people actually do make the same exact meals every week. Maybe they’re like Einstein wearing all black all the time and actually geniuses. But I feel like that leaves out a little joy.

I’m definitely pro trying new recipes, with caution. Let yourself enjoy the making of the new recipe by allowing yourself time to play. At least if the recipe is a flop, you enjoyed the process. If the recipe is a flop and it was stressful to make . . . woof, that’s a double whammy. 

Consider when you make the new recipe and who is involved. Perhaps you only make new recipes on the weekend because you know you’ll have a little extra time. Or, maybe you have a meal kit subscription that brings the family together to cook one night a week.

Think about what works for you to make the experience a happy one. And I don’t care how quick and easy the recipe claims to be. Whatever time it says it takes, double it. If I’m wrong, you win a few extra minutes to stand there feeling like Super Woman.

By flexibility, I mean allow space for plans to change. Have some things in your pantry or freezer that you can use to whip up a quick dinner just in case . . . your plans to eat out get canceled, someone eats the leftovers you planned to re-purpose, what’s on the menu just doesn’t sound delicious tonight.

Permission to deconstruct.

Sorry Aristotle, sometimes the parts are more important than the whole. Think about serving dinner deconstructed.

One of the biggest challenges with creating the menu is trying to please everyone in the household. When your family goes out for dinner, most people order different things, right? Unless you’re with me, and I make everyone share so we can taste all the things. But seriously, why do we expect everyone to eat the same at home?

Let’s say you’re looking for new recipe ideas and you see a mouth watering recipe video for a Thai Chicken Salad and you’re thinking “I would love to make that  . . .  But oh, that’s a lot of chopping for one meal. My kids won’t eat cabbage. My husband won’t eat just a salad for dinner . . .” Wah wah wah.

Hold up, sister. As they say, where there’s a will, there’s a way. And as they say less commonly, where there’s a salad, there’s a dinner. (Less common as in I might be the only one who says that.)

Anywho, look at what’s actually in that recipe. Chicken. Everyone likes chicken. Or they don’t, insert your favorite protein. A ton of vegetables, surely there’s at least 1-2 in there each person will eat. And a whole grain or starchy carb can always be added to make it feel more like a meal than a salad.

And bonus, after all of this chopping, you will have components for meal prepping your lunch for the week.

So, instead of a salad that only you want to eat, you can now see a buffet with:

Grilled chicken

Chopped romaine (for the non-cabbage people)

Chopped cabbage

Sliced bell pepper

Shredded carrots

Edamame (because lots of extra protein)

Green onion

Fresh herbs like basil or cilantro

Peanut dressing (in a small bowl so I can’t dip my face in it)

Chopped peanuts or cashews (more protein!)

Sliced avocado

Sesame seeds

Rice, quinoa or rice noodles (now you have a bowl)

Tortillas (make it a wrap)

Serving something like this in my house, my daughter is likely to put the chicken, bell peppers and edamame on her plate – all separate and not touching – and she might take some dressing for dipping. My husband is likely to have the grilled chicken with a side salad of romaine, bell peppers and carrots, topped with one of his favorite store-bought dressings. I think you know how I’m serving myself: all of it, tossed together for maximum goodness as God and the internet chefs intended.

This salad bar method works great with my other favorites like BBQ Chicken Salad, Caesar Salad or a Mediterranean Salad. Oh girl, sometime I’ll tell you about my Caesar Salad bar.

For now, I hope that you are planning a menu of nutritious and delicious meals.

1. Know what works
2. Allow space for play and flexibility
3. Permission to deconstruct

I hope that this approach to menu planning is one more healthy step on your journey to a nutritious and delicious life.

Be well, my lovelies.

Margaret Faintich

b’vive