Q&A | Meal Planning? What’s that??

A question- I’d love to hear how your menu planning and cooking habits have changed in going to a smaller household! It seems like you don’t meal plan as much but I might be misinterpreting!

I am in a phase of life where I need to meal plan to get food on the table (3 kids under 5) but I love hearing about how people in different phases handle this!

This is very true; I fly by the seat of my pants so much more than I used to (in many ways, honestly.)

Part of this is because I am in a smaller household, but also part of it is that I am free from expectations.

My sole roomie (Miss Zoe) does not have an entitled attitude about what I cook or how fancy I make meals, and she also really doesn’t care if we get takeout or she needs to fend for herself.

I also have a fair number of evenings where I am feeding only me, and that is the ultimate easy way to eat! I just poke around in the fridge and come up with some combination of protein, veggies, carbs, and sauce.

Or sometimes I make myself a little plate of whole wheat blueberry pancakes with a side of cottage cheese and call it dinner. 😉

I do have to be careful with quantities; I’m certainly not making 9×13-inch pans of anything! And if I do make a larger batch, I usually freeze part of it for a future meal.

For instance, if I make a pot of pulled pork, I freeze it in meal-size portions. Or if I make burgers, I freeze half the patties (ungrilled) for a future meal.

As far as planning goes; I used to plan a good week or two at a time.

But now I just sort of have a loose idea of what I might make in the next few days. It has to be flexible because sometimes Zoe’s schedule and plans are unpredictable (teenagers tend to make last-minute plans, as you fellow parents probably know!)

So, yes…I am way more loosey-goosey in the kitchen than I used to be, but it all works out ok.

More adjustment will come my way in the future too; I will finish school eventually and then start a real job as a nurse, so that will change my cooking patterns.

Also, one day Zoe will move out and then I’ll be down to just feeding myself all the time (at which point I will have to fight the urge to just eat an egg and veggie skillet for every meal. Ha.)

No matter what changes about my life circumstances, though, I’m pretty some things will stay consistent.

Like, I will probably always try to:

• mostly cook at home
• feed myself foods that aren’t super processed
• avoid food waste

Since you got divorced and are no longer on spousal benefits; how did you get medical and dental benefits?

-Michelle

This was a bit of a challenge because I am self-employed. Obviously, my blog doesn’t offer me a sweet benefits package, even though I am the sole employee. Ha.

So, I went on the healthcare.gov site for my state and bought an insurance plan through there. I don’t qualify for any subsidies, so it’s not exactly the cheapest health insurance ever, and it is also not the best health insurance ever; I chose a plan that is one of the more affordable ones.

But, it is enough coverage for me to not have to worry that a catastrophic health event will bankrupt me, which is the most important thing.

And once I graduate from nursing school and get a full-time job at the hospital, I will have access to employer-sponsored healthcare benefits. Woohoo!

For now, I would be very delighted if my healthcare needs ended up being very minimal until I graduate. Here’s hoping for a run of good health for me.

(Just FYI: I know a lot of self-employed people do health-sharing plans. But my school requires me to have actual-factual health insurance for liability reasons when I go to clinical sites.)

I want so bad to return to school for nursing. It was a childhood dream.

Are you physically in school or online? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

-Theresa

My program is in-person, although there are occasional meetings on Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

I know nursing programs went online in 2020, but I really, really cannot imagine that an online-only nursing program is nearly as good as an in-person program.

There are so many practical skills that you learn by doing them hands-on, in the lab and in the simulations; doing them online would not prepare me nearly as well for real-world nursing.

Plus, clinical hours at the hospital are really important for learning how to do skills on patients and also for learning how to interact with patients and other staff.

I think when I get my bachelor’s degree after this, most of those classes will be online, which is fine (I hear they are the sort of classes where you do a lot of paper writing and discussion boards).

But the classes you need to get your R.N. are the ones where you learn your practical skills.

So. Even if an online program exists at this time, I would never willingly choose that for myself!

Readers, have you ever adjusted to cooking for a smaller household? Tell us about it!