Category: Life Skills

What to Cook for Dinner

There’s an endless refrain in every extended conversation among friends: What to cook for dinner. I have a simple trick that I use whenever I get frustrated with menu planning.

Whenever I’m stumped I grab a trusty spiral notebook and turn to a clean page. Those notebooks are plentiful in my house, so this is the easy part. Then I list Monday – Sunday across the top. Then I just assign a type of meal to each day, including 1 or more delivery or takeout or eat out options.

Coming up with ideas for what to cook for dinner:

Stack of 5 cookbooks plus one open to chicken recipes. Each cookbook is for a different label: desserts, vegetarian, healthy, cooking, recipes,
What will you cook for dinner?

Here are some examples but the possibilities are endless:

Monday – chicken

Tuesday – Vegetarian

Wednesday – breakfast for dinner

Thursday – pasta

Friday – eat out, or pick-up, or delivery, maybe even frozen pizza

Saturday – Fish or seafood (tuna casserole or salmon patties count)

Sunday – crockpot favorite

Once you have a category, the ideas of what to cook will flow!

As an example, I can think of 5 or 6 meals based on chicken easily. Same with something in the crockpot. Laying out categories is the secret and that’s actually more fun than any part of what’s for dinner other than dessert.

More What to Cook for Dinner categories

Here are more category ideas just so you can see how easy it is to get the ideas flowing: Chinese food, Anything over rice or noodles, Air Fryer favorites, Mexican food, Thai, Leftover buffet, Quiche or Pot Pies, Italian, Beef, Pork, InstaPot favorite, Soup and Salad, Grill out, Picnic favorites, and more. Your imagination is everything and it can change every time you use this trick.

August musing

I’m a Leo, born in August. Tomorrow’s the big day when I advance further into Senior Citizenship. But somehow Facebook reminded people today and the greetings started to flood in.

For a minute I thought I had really overslept and missed a day – that was a little unnerving. But a text about lunch plans tomorrow quickly verified that it was indeed still Tuesday. Whew.

I’m not upset about getting older. The alternative has taken too many people I love already. I just thought I would be wiser and have just a few more adventures under my belt. My vision is getting worse and my bones yell “Hey” throughout the day, but I am extremely lucky in many ways.

I do still have adventures booked and friends to roll along with me. Not many days from now we will be exploring new territory and praying our luggage keeps up with us. When we recover we have a list as long as our collective arms of more things to see and do.

The best thing about reviewing my life at this advanced age is that I am extremely happy and feel lucky every day. I live in a wonderful community and I have awesome family and friends here and scattered elsewhere across the country and I count that as my biggest blessing.

Matter of fact, I think the wisest thing I could do today is hit publish on this rambling post and head out to enjoy the August sun. I might mention how we already did August sun weather in May, but that feels like a “geezer check” moment to me.

Life Skill – Learn to RSVP

There’s a life skill you need if you ever go out to meet up with people or if you attend various activities. Learn to RSVP. Whether it’s an organization meet-up or a lunch dates with friends, your response or lack of one makes a difference.

How to RSVP

Responding to an email reminder of a social activity is as simple as hitting reply and saying “I plan to be there”. Done. How do you know if an RSVP is needed? Usually the email will say “Please let us know if you plan to attend”.

Why RSVP?

Why is it so important? Let’s look at a recent example. I belong to an interest group that meets monthly. The first organizational month, there were 19 people. The hostesses were interrupted just once to find another chair and expand the circle for an unexpected latecomer, but it was mildly irritating to try and get back on track.

Month 3 – now there are 39 members signed up. The lovely demonstration was interrupted 6 different times to find room and chairs for latecomers who were not expected. A simple RSVP by all of them would have meant that chairs were already in place. So simple.

Table for 2?

Another example is when 2-6 friends try to plan a lunch date. If the meeting is at a popular time for the restaurant, the number of people who will be showing up is critical. Will you be trying to cram 5 into a booth meant for 4? If only 2 actually committed, can you risk a two-top in the corner?

Choosing to respond is the simplest way to move through your social life. Please make it a habit.