The debut of The Meal Matrix

My friend Julia, whose son, Sam, is one of my favorite religious ed students, like, ever, remarked in a tone of awe when I told her that I operate my kitchen on a meal matrix, "I didn't know you could do that."

"I have to do that," I admitted. "Otherwise, I end up making chili, meatloaf and tacos over and over again and after a few weeks, everyone in my family threatens drag me out to the park and make me eat grass and wet leaves until I agree to make something else for dinner."

She wanted to know what the Meal Matrix looked like and how it worked. I thought this would be a good time for me to go ahead and type it out, not only so that Julia can see it, but so that I can get it set down permanently for myself. Because one time last winter? I thought I lost the paper I wrote the matrix on and I fell into a terrible funk and kept sending anguished emails to The Keanu Reeves Fan Club and served everyone cold cereal every night for a week. Plus the president of the fan club may or may not have taken out a restraining order against me. I can't remember. It was a dark time.

Here's how it goes:

1) First of all, I sat down and thought about the different kinds of meals we like. We like the standard beef, chicken and pork meals -- you should just try my garlicky pork roast that's been simmered all day in the slow-cooker -- and we all like breakfast-for-dinner, homemade pizza and Mexican dishes. I also decided to reserve space every two weeks for meals that I designated as Easy/Cheap, for those nights when I just don't feel like cooking, or the weeks when I'm trying a more ambitious recipe that eats up more of my grocery budget than, say, eggs on toast.

2) Next, I got out a legal tablet and made columns, one column for each menu choice. For example, one column was labeled "Chicken," another labeled "Mexican" and so on. My columns for my family's preferences were as follows: Chicken, Beef, Pork, Mexican, Soup, Pizza, Spaghetti Night, Breakfast-for-Dinner, Easy/Cheap, Seafood/Meatless and New.

3) In each column, I listed the appropriate meals for the heading. For instance, in the Chicken column, I wrote: Chicken Pot Pie, Baked Chicken & Stuffing, Julia Chicken, Crispy Oven Chicken and Chicken, Broccoli & Rice Casserole and Chicken & Mushroom Casserole. Those are all recipes that I know how to make and that we all like. I tried to make sure I had at least 4-6 items per column so there'd be some variety. In some columns, there were eight or nine different entries, which I found interesting. Obviously, I like to cook some foods better than others.

Here are a couple of notes: I added one dinner a month to try out a new recipes, my choice. I also try to make sure I have a slow-cooker meal for Sunday, because that's Mom's day of rest too and I don't want to spend it in the kitchen.

4) When I got that all figured out, I got yet another piece of paper and, in four rows, I listed the days of the week, just as you see in the picture above. I looked at all my different column headings and divided them up so that we're always eating something different -- there aren't two fish meals placed back-to-back, for instance.

Here's what I ended up with for each month:

FIRST WEEK:

Monday - Chicken

Tuesday - Beef

Wednesday - Soup

Thursday - Pizza

Friday - Seafood/Meatless

Saturday - Mexican

Sunday - Pork

SECOND WEEK:

Monday - Beef

Tuesday - Chicken

Wednesday - Breakfast-for-Dinner

Thursday - Easy/Cheap

Friday - Seafood/Meatless

Saturday - Spaghetti Night

Sunday - Chicken

THIRD WEEK:

Monday - Chicken

Tuesday - Beef

Wednesday - Soup

Thursday - New Recipe

Friday - Seafood/Meatless

Saturday - Mexican

Sunday - Pork

FOURTH WEEK:

Monday - Beef

Tuesday - Pork

Wednesday - Breakfast-for-Dinner

Thursday - Easy/Cheap
Friday - Seafood/Meatless

Saturday - Spaghetti Night

Sunday - New Recipe

I found that this is a nice way to keep everything fresh in the kitchen. I mean, with my menu-planning. If you ever find a way to keep everything fresh in the refrigerator, or learn how to avoid finding a tin of sage that's been pushed to the back of the pantry shelf and reads "Best if Used by 2-26-99," please let me know. I mean "fresh" as in, "not cooking the same things over and over" which is important when cooking for a family.

My personal opinion -- and boy, do I ever have a lot of them -- is that moms should be always trying new things once or twice a month, not only to strengthen our own skills in the kitchen, which is the heart of the home, but also to avoid falling into the kind of rut that sends children out into the world as the kind of adult eaters who are so finicky, you just want to bash them over the head with a skillet.

"I don't like rice. I don't eat eggs. No vegetables, not even potatoes. I don't like Italian food. I can't eat anything with onions in it. Why? Well, because I don't like them. Oh, and I can't eat bananas, pickles, any kind of salad dressing, food imported from Brazil, any kind of cheese because it gives me gas or soups made from a chicken broth base."

"Really? Well, would you mind telling me: WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU EAT?"

"Ummm....chicken nuggets and french fries. And maybe corn. If it's from a can, not frozen. And chocolate milk."

See, parents have a responsibility to make sure that this kind of thing is not turned loose in society. And since parents are the ones who cook, well, that means that some actual cooking is going to have to take place and we can't rely on frozen convenience foods and/or packaged items all the time. Some of the time, yes. We have to allow ourselves room to serve fish sticks and Stouffer's macaroni and cheese sometimes. But we need to PLAN and SHOP for those meals and try our best not to be flinging ourselves into the grocery store at 5:35 p.m. with a wild look in our eyes and start throwing microwave dinners into a cart. That's not going to cut it. We all wind up with headaches and everyone grumbles that dinner sucks AGAIN and it's no way to develop a child's palate into an adult's palate.

So! Maybe the Meal Matrix will help. It has helped me enormously. The original idea isn't mine; it actually came from my internet friend Johanna. But it's brilliant and it makes planning and shopping and cooking a variety of meals so much easier, you just won't believe it.

Email me if you decide to try the Meal Matrix and tell me if you think it's helped you.