THE NO-DECISION MENU
Remove food decisions from your week
These are default recipes you can plug into your schedule.
I created these so you don’t have to think about it.
Breakfast:
Spinach & Feta Egg Muffins — 12 protein-packed breakfasts from one tray. Freeze half, eat half fresh.
Lunch:
Creamy Tomato Soup + Grilled Cheese — Freezer stash + 6-minute grilled cheese = lunch insurance for the whole month.
Dinner:
Smash Burgers with Oven Fries — The burger night that beats the drive-thru. Screaming-hot cast iron is the only trick.
THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR
How Will You Generate Retirement Income?
Most people with $1,000,000 or more saved have a number. Fewer have a plan for turning it into reliable income. Fisher Investments' Definitive Guide to Retirement Income helps you calculate future costs and build a portfolio strategy around them.
THE SYSTEM
In 2013, I’m feeding 500+ people, 3x a day.
I walked into the base galley thinking we needed to plan each meal the day of. Just like at home.
Now think about how you typically figure out tonight's dinner:
You pull up a bookmarked recipe or cookbook page
Find something you have ingredients for
Maybe make a quick grocery run for anything missing
Cook a new meal while you're starving
The majority of people do this every night. Some do it for every meal. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. This burns mental energy and takes a ton of time.
Before culinary school in the Coast Guard, I was the same way. I thought meal planning was all about figuring out what to eat 15 minutes before mealtime.
Turns out you can’t make 1,500 meals a day with recipes alone. People love hyping up how many cookbooks they own or recipes they have under their belt. That only gets you so far.
At scale, we used a 3 column notepad (or a spreadsheet).
The headers were:
Protein
Starch
Vegetable
The rows were:
Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner
I'd fill in each empty slot. Then repeat for the entire week.
At the end, you've got a full week's menu. We'd repeat the process until we had 10+ weeks of menus for any upcoming deployment. This is called a cycle menu. I talk about this more here.
In your household, you only have to worry about 1 week at a time. And plan to repeat some of those meals across the week. It takes the guesswork out of what's for dinner.
Once your meals are mapped, figure out servings for each one. Do the math on how many ingredients you need. Combine duplicates. (If carrots show up in a stir fry for dinner and a soup for lunch — add them together.)
Now you have a functional grocery list.
This same method that worked at scale for me, works for your household of one or more.
This Sunday, spend 5 minutes on this exercise. Start with one day. If that feels easy, expand from there.
P.S. Reply to this email with a picture of your notepad. It'll keep you accountable, and I'll give you an actionable tip based on it.
Here's a picture of mine:
Keep it simple at first
PUT YOUR WEEK ON AUTOPILOT
This Week’s No-Decision Tools
Kitchen gear I recommend to make cooking your meals easier and faster.
Cook Faster:
Analog Meat Thermometer — Set this up once by getting a cup of ice water, and twist the thermometer to 32 degrees F. No batteries dying out to slow you down. Industrial grade for under $10. Same type I used for years in my Coast Guard galley.
Store Smarter:
Small Storage Containers — I use these daily to speed up my time in the kitchen. Prep your vegetables when you have time. Store them in these so they’re ready to cook dinner.
Clean Up Easier:
Bench Scraper — This tool is the most underrated by far. Use it daily. Anytime you’re chopping anything, use it to scoop or move the tiny pieces. Need to clean up your kitchen work area — use this to speed up your time.
Some links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy through them. I only recommend tools that support fewer decisions, less friction, and easier weeknights.
WHENEVER YOU’RE READY
1) Plan Your Weeknight Dinners in 60 Seconds — You already made 100 decisions today. The 101st doesn’t have to be “What’s for Dinner?”.
2) Get Meal Planning OS Web App — Spend 10 minutes every Sunday morning planning, to save yourself hours each week.
3) YouTube Channel — Deep-dives on building a meal system that actually sticks.
Your Saturday system reset, same time next week.
— Steven
