What do you put on your grocery list? When do you start it? How long does it take you to do?

The weekly meal plan is kind of like the home Bible for the week.

Even the best laid plans go awry.

My grocery list is an ongoing saga, never complete and rarely perfect. Some people buy a few items to put together each day - a few proteins, some veggies, canned goods and other random items. I don't have this kind of flexible planning capabilities. Instead, I use a weekly. meal planning app called Samsung Food, formerly known as Whisk, to put together my daily meals (sometimes even breakfasts and lunches) and, yes, I even mark the app for eating out. 

Recently, I found the app's "note" function and have begun jotting down things that might be going on in my world, Evening meetings, school events or games, and all the things on my calendar that would impact the meals that day. 

The truth is though, I don't think I've accomplished a single week of sticking perfectly to the plan. And, I have to remind myself constantly... that's OK.

For some reason, my first instinct is to count veering from my own self-made plan as a failure of sorts, in part because I spent so much time and effort researching cookbooks and sifting through my many foodie subscription emails. But also because I try to match up the days I'll be working out (cycling or running) with heavier carb meals so that I fuel myself appropriately. But honestly, it's exhausting. And keep in mind, this is just the planning phase. The execution of this plan is the other part of the equation that sometimes doesn't quite work. Often, unplanned events pop up or honestly, I experience a simple loss of willpower to make that night's dinner creation.

Part of the idea behind Matzy Platzy is to try to get beyond this wearing down of ourselves and make things that are easy, healthy and quite doable, even on a tight timeline or when that willpower seems to just disappear without a trace. I do think that's possible, but there's got to be an honest heart-to-heart with one's self to fully admit what's possible and more importantly, what's not.

I remember one time in particular I was way over my head with the plan. It was a party for my son, Luke, at the end of his 5th grade year. Keep in mind, this was during the height of the pandemic. He'd spent the remainder of that year at home doing his classwork. To celebrate this big moment of the end of elementary school and the start of middle school, he had originally asked to do one of his favorite dining experiences at that time: a Chinese buffet. The problem was, we couldn't due to COVID. 

That's when I came up with the plan to bring the Chinese buffet to our apartment.

The plan I create each week is based on inspiration I see in the wild, whether it's on the internet, a favorite show, an email from the many food subscriptions I receive in my inbox, or something I hear people talking about. But there are also the meals that I happen to love eating and making. Some of these include beef or pork ragu, refreshing chalupas, a comforting chili or a flavorful tortilla soup. One of my absolute favorite dishes at home is this recipe for turkey picadillo tacos. They are amazing - all at once comforting, extremely satisfying, and while only somewhat involved, still qualifies as a Matzy Platzy Approved dish.

I find this is the easiest way to come up with my plan - ideas that come my way, meals I might see others enjoying, inspiration from food blogs and cravings that cross my mind on a whim.

Then it's a matter of deciding what meal on what day - is there something going on like a school function, am I working out, do I have an after work meeting, or is it simply a night in without any distraction?

All this to say, I'm still the eternal optimist and I plan like I will follow it to the letter every... single... week. I plan without fail. Even if I fail every time.