What's For Dinner?

2 July 2009

Deciding what to eat for dinner is an ongoing challenge. My life would be much easier if my pantry was like the Tardis (of Doctor Who fame). Then I could just open the doors to my tiny pantry and find a massive supermarket inside... I could wander in and grab a tub of cottage cheese when I needed it, or a particular spice when required, and not have to worry about whether I have every form of cheese known to man stocked in my fridge, along with yoghurt upon yoghurt, spices, herbs and fifty different varieties of vinegar in my cupboards! In my dreams the little supermarket men in my Tardis pantry would sort it all out for me, and everything would be there when needed, and none of it would be past it's expiry date either...

What's In The Cupboard Dictates What's For Dinner

Because often the problem with deciding what's for dinner, centres on the availability of ingredients. Take last night as a great example, I discovered a healthy lasagne recipe in a magazine - great. I knew I had some beef mince in the freezer and tinned tomatoes in the cupboard, along with lasagne sheets, so I thought - Yay! I've found a healthy option for dinner! But, then I read the ingredients list further and discovered that it called for cottage cheese.

Well, hello, I just don't have cottage cheese sitting in my fridge every week. It goes off if you don't use it. And how many times am I going to use cottage cheese in a week? And of course sometimes you can get by with substitutions. Like coriander, I hate the stuff, deplore it, despise it. So whenever I see coriander in a recipe it gets traded out for something else - if it's fresh coriander leaves I'll use fresh basil or mint instead. If it's ground coriander seed I might use cumin, or just miss it out altogether. But, what can you trade for cottage cheese? All I had was low-fat tasty cheese, Edam cheese, Parmesan and some mozzarella. It was just all too difficult, so the healthy lasagne recipe was canned, along with the tomatoes.

Meal Planning Has Its Merits

Sometimes, darn it all, you just can't swap things out. You need the ingredients you need. And no-one in my household wants to make a dash to the supermarket from home at 5.30pm. At times like these I imagine how wonderful life would be if either a) I had a Tardis supermarket in my pantry, or b) I got organised and did a weekly meal planner and made sure I had the necessary ingredients for the week.

So while I hold out for a) to come true, I've decided that I could again try option b) the weekly meal planner. My beloved husband and I did created a weekly plan once, some years ago. Yes I mean literally once, we wrote a meal planner for one week, it still hangs on the inside of the pantry door as a stark reminder of my failure to get organised for main meals after that one week. But, it's never too late to try (again) and I can see a lot of benefits in meal planning, particularly for families...

How To Create A Weekly Main Meal Plan

1. Write a list of the different main meals you regularly make (the ones you know the recipe off by heart, or can quickly find in recipe books/magazines);
2. Group the meals into categories - beef dishes, chicken dishes, vegetarian dishes, quick easy meals (my favourite), and so forth, keep this list of categorised meals in your pantry;
3. Look at your household's weekly activities and note down any nights where a quick meal would be needed (have to get kids off to clubs/sports/activities, so an early dinner is needed, for example) or a meal that can be reheated easily (for people arriving home late after others have eaten);
4. Aim to include 2-3 red meat meals per week, some fish and poultry-based meals, a vegetarian meal (a great way to save money) and a 'night off' meal as well;
5. Make a regular 'night off for the cook', Sunday nights are a great time for this. Everyone can pitch in to make a simple meal - scrambled eggs or baked beans on toast, reheat leftovers, nothing fancy, just quick and easy;
6. Use your categorised meal list to create a plan for the upcoming week, choose the main meal option for each night and then decide what veges and starchy carbs (i.e. potatoes, rice, pasta or couscous) to include with it, hang this plan on the pantry or fridge door;
7. Buy your groceries based on the weekly plan for main meals, you might find that choosing veges to go with meals is more easily achieved in the supermarket rather than at home - in the supermarket you can see what's in season and priced reasonably and buy up a week's stock. Plus, always keep some frozen veges in the freezer for a back up;

Have A Quick, Easy, Healthy Meal For Back Up

And always have a quick, easy meal option as a back up for those busy weeknights. Our friends at Potatoes New Zealand have come out with a handy little flyer with simple instructions, that kids can follow, for making a baked potato with a baked bean or creamed corn topping for dinner...

Recipe for Baked Potato with Baked Beans or Creamed Corn

What a great option for those nights when you're tired, too busy, it's late, you can't be bothered, there's nothing in the cupboards, it's the night before shopping, you just can't decide, everyone's complaining, it's Sunday night and you want to relax... just throw them a baked potato! And then there are all sorts of other toppings you can put on your potato! But, that's another story for another day...

And as for our mince-based dinner last night? It turned out to be a good-ole-faithful Cottage Pie, my husband's favourite. And actually we renamed the pie a 'Bungalow Pie'. Because we live in a bungalow, not a cottage, and given we topped it with fresh vogels bread crumbs we figured that was enough of a personalised touch for us to rename it - Bungalow Pie!

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About The Author

Jennifer Bowden Nutritionist, MSc (Dist), BSc (Hons) - Human Nutrition

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