Meal Planning for People Who Hate Meal Planning Because Feeding Your Family Shouldn’t Feel Like a Full-Time Job (But Somehow It Does)
Let’s be real: If you’ve ever searched “easy meal planning hacks” only to end up stress-scrolling Pinterest with a bag of tortilla chips for dinner, welcome home. You’re in good company.
I hate meal planning. There, I said it. But you know what I hate more? That 5 PM moment where the fridge is aggressively empty except for half a cucumber, questionable lunch meat, and an existential crisis.
So, for all my fellow hot messes out there, here’s my approach to meal planning — for the people who deeply despise meal planning — but still have to, because everyone keeps insisting on eating multiple times a day. Rude.
Step 1: Embrace “Chaotic Meal Planning” Energy
Forget the Pinterest-perfect color-coded charts. We are not that organized. Chaotic Meal Planning is all about survival — and occasionally pretending you know what you’re doing.
Here’s how it works:
✅ Write down 3-5 meals for the week. Not seven. You’re not that ambitious, and I refuse to set us up for failure.
✅ Keep them loose — Tacos? Sure. Stir-fry? Cool. “Breakfast for Dinner” because everything else fell apart? You’re a genius.
✅ Accept that at least one night will be “whatever’s in the fridge weirdness.” You’ve eaten cereal for dinner before, you’ll survive.
Step 2: Pick Your Lazy Go-To’s
Every human needs a backup roster of meals that require minimal brain cells. Here are my personal favorites — feel free to steal:
- Sheet Pan Dinners: Throw random protein and veggies on a tray, bake it, pretend you’re thriving.
- Quesadillas: If it melts, it belongs inside a tortilla.
- Frozen Pizza with “Extra Effort” Salad: Bagged salad counts. Dump it in a bowl, drizzle dressing, and act fancy.
- Theme Night Cop-Outs: Taco Tuesday, Pasta Thursday, Snack Plate Sunday — you’ve planned! Look at you!
Reminder: No one is handing out awards for originality in your kitchen. Repeating meals is self-care.
Step 3: Lower the Bar. Like, Lower Than That.
If your brain is fried, your house is chaos, and you’re Googling “can toddlers survive on Goldfish crackers,” congratulations, you’ve officially hit “meal planning burnout.”
Here’s the fix:
- Have emergency frozen meals stocked. Even if it’s dinosaur nuggets and frozen peas.
- Embrace leftovers like a boss. One meal feeds you twice? That’s practically a vacation.
- Rotating the same 4 meals for two weeks straight? Normal. You’re in survival mode, not Top Chef.
Step 4: Grocery Shop with Realistic Expectations
We’ve all gone to the store with big dreams and come home with snacks and regret. The trick? Go with a short list. Get what you actually cook, not what Instagram influencers suggest.
Example Grocery List for the Week (Actual Chaos Edition):
- Tortillas
- Eggs
- Shredded cheese
- Bagged salad
- Chicken thighs
- Rice
- Frozen veggies
- Pasta & sauce
- Bananas (that will go brown but it’s the thought that counts)
Boom. That’s half your meals covered and no one’s starving.
Final Thoughts: You’re Doing Fine
Listen, meal planning doesn’t have to be a perfectly organized binder situation. If everyone gets fed (even if one meal was popcorn and string cheese), you’re crushing it.
The goal here isn’t perfection — it’s to avoid the nightly panic and maybe, maybe, eat something green once in a while.
So next time you dread meal planning, remember: We’re keeping it low-pressure, semi-chaotic, and always caffeinated. You’ve got this.
Want more hot mess survival tips? Sign up for my news letter or check out my other chaos-friendly recipes — because we deserve to feed ourselves without losing our minds.