Feeding my family

How one operations specialist figured it out for herself and for you.

About 2 years ago, making dinner for my family broke me. Every night, I got home from work (both my husband and I work full time) and had to play a twisted version of Chopped in which no one wins. I have cooked for more than 20 years and am excellent at improvising, but the restrictions and time kept getting tighter, and I kept feeling more and more used. I couldn’t see a way out and it was taking its toll.

I did ask for help, but my husband pointed out that not only was I better at cooking than he was (this is true, especially when timing counts, but I also think it is bullshit that because I spent time on a skill, I now have to use that skill whether I like it or not. That is for a different newsletter.), but that he never knew what I was planning.

“That’s because I don’t have a plan! I just have ideas and have to figure them out at home every night!”

Saying that out loud felt ridiculous, especially when I tell you that I am an operations specialist. My career is about making teams efficient and functional, yet here I was throwing away food that went bad while realizing I don’t have the ingredients I need. I work with teams to keep communication transparent and aligned with the task at hand, yet here I was not telling my teammate the plan or even having one myself. Of course it was a shitshow.

I fixed this mess with a weekly email entitled “Meals this week.” Here is what it looks like:

Key benefits:

• the shopping list is based on it, so we have what we need and waste less

• hyperlinks to the recipe mean that whoever gets home first can get started

• everyone knows the plan

Through this newsletter, I am sharing this work with you. You will get my planned list of meals for the week, as well as my reviews of the meals I prepared the week before, all packed into some fun, chatty prose. To start, here you have my methodology and limitations:

• 2 vegetarian (chicken broth OK, which I will explain) dinners/week

• No mushrooms, seafood, kiwi, papaya, zucchini, eggplant, or avocado (between picky-ness and sensitivities, this is where we are)

• Easy on the spice (because kids)

• Dinner ready by 7 (because kids)

During social distancing, I am not arriving home, sweaty and with a pounding heart, at 6:30, trying to figure out how I can make a 45 minute recipe take only 30. So, I have a little more time to play. This will look different when I am back to work.