My brain is only attracted to the novel and non-practical hacks like pushing a straw through a strawberry to remove the stem, creating a speaker for an iPhone with paper towel roll and cups, or chilling a beverage with frozen grapes instead of ice. Maya is trying to use some meal planning hacks to help her out in the kitchen.
When I make special appearances in the kitchen, meals aren’t ready on time, the kitchen is a mess, and recipes are new and not child tested and approved. Basically, I have lacked consistency. Because of this, my efficient husband took the lead, and I don’t prepare too many meals. After listening to this week’s module, I realize that becoming consistent in cooking has been difficult for me because my ADHD brain controls me even in the kitchen as I crave complexity, seek out novelty, and change things often.
As my husband covers my slack in the kitchen and makes mealtime work, he unknowingly applies Dana’s strategies of menu planning, theme nights, and recipe rotations.
Before going to the grocery store my husband discusses with us any meals we’re interested in having the next week. Then, he shops with meals planned out for the week. While he can do most of this planning in his head, if I’m involved in the process the plan would need to be simple, visible, and flexible. By combining a few of Dana’s meal planning hacks, Theme Nights and Recipe Rotations my husband streamlines our mealtimes. Taco Tuesday is a popular theme night and we have several regular meals that fit into an overall rotation of meal times.
During my next break, I’d like to spend some time streamlining our system by finding a few more recipes. First, I’d like to work to add recipes to our mealtime rotation by finding a few extra recipes to add. I’m going to try and find 2-in-1 recipes to add; Dana calls these elastic meals; these are meals that are transformed into a second totally different meal the next day. I’ve already begun doing a little research on this and have a few ideas.
Earlier in this year’s ADHD Success Club, I decided to put dinner making into my weekly routine. What I didn’t factor into the equation was simplicity in meals, systems for success and flexibility in planning. What I didn’t know about was Dana’s clever meal planning hacks.
Hacks by definition are practical ways of making life easier. Perhaps the time has come for me to zoom my focus to practical hacks of daily life instead of wasting my energy on novel hacks of lesser importance.
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