M. Suzanne Terry

There is at least one day every June when this is what dinner looks like.

When I started meal planning, I over-planned. I was trying to follow the advice of the existing meal planning wisdom that was available at the time, and it was not written for single people. I was convinced I needed to cook something every night. I was also convinced that I needed to go to the store every week, because that’s what every book I read on the subject advised regarding keeping the pantry stocked. At the time, I was working three part-time teaching jobs in three different counties, so the intention of going to the store every week died quickly. That’s also how my drive-in habit started, because the thought of still having to come home and cook after teaching five classes and being on the road for a collective three or four hours was not appealing.

After complaining to my mother about the difficulties of trying to make this square peg plan fit into the round hole of my life, I was slightly offended when she started laughing. She asked why I was making my life harder than it needed to be. She reminded me that I was the sole decision-maker of my household, and I could therefore decide what to eat and how often I wanted to cook. She also reminded me that I love cereal and sandwiches and that sometimes they make perfectly respectable suppers.

These simple reminders revolutionized my whole thought process about food. They taught me to be flexible.

Flexibility is the ultimate key to a solid meal plan. Many of us associate food with some kind of memory or longing. Most of us make dining choices emotionally at least part of the time. Otherwise, we would only eat what is perfectly good and healthy for us, and we would only eat it at sensible times and in sensible amounts. We also wouldn’t enjoy our meals as much, and I like to enjoy as many aspects of life as possible.

So rather than propose that you rid your plan of flexibility, I say embrace it. Have an idea of what you want to do, but don’t get too upset if your calendar doesn’t exactly reflect your reality. Mine seldom does, and the months with the most change are usually the months that I remember the most fondly.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my strategies for Epic Meal Planning this month. I am hoping to make the book – which will include my personal recipes and ways to expand or contract the tips to adjust them to your lifestyle – a reality by February. If you would like to keep up with its progress (as well as the progress of future projects), you can sign up for my newsletter here. My first newsletter will go out on Monday, so you can be a part of my inaugural group!