My Month of planned meals,

I am a bit burnt out on cooking. I'll share my plan with you and I actually have lots and lots of leftovers in the freezer so it's not really a big deal that if I don't cook because I have stuff in the freezer.
I cooked less and less as my morning sickness ampted up and didn't cook what so ever for a while. Then I started cooking a bit here and there until 2 weeks ago where I have been cooking from scratch at least 2 meals a day and often more.

Here is the meal plan:
Dinners, I picked 6 genres plus leftovers night then 4 main dishes in each.

American, burgers, pot pie, BBQ, roast

Italian, pizza, red sauce, white sauce, pasta e fagoli

Mexican, burritos, enchiladas, fajitas, nachos

Indian, chickpeas, tikka, rajmah chawwal, queema

Leftovers

Soup night chicken noodle, Tuscan bean soup, veggie lentil dumpling, pumpkin shrimp

Fish, curry, creamed tuna, lemon pepper fillets, fish tacos

Lunches, I did the same basic thing. 

Soup and sandwiches

                               Tomato and grilled cheese

                                Bbq and dry veg soup

                               PB&J and potato soup

                               BLT and minestrone

Hand pies

                               beef hand pie

                               mushroom hand pie

                               chicken and kale hand pie

                               lentil hand pie

Mac and cheese

                               With black beans and carrots

                               With TVP and corn

                               With bacon and green beans

                               Texmex

Fried rice

                               Veg

                               Shrimp

                               TVP

                               pineapple

Wrap sandwiches and crudités

                               Tomato and cheese

                                Creamy avocado and white bean

                               PB and sunflower seeds

                               Hummus and grilled veg

Left overs

Stuffed veg

                               Cheese stuffed tomatoes

                               Cabbage rolls

                               Curried lentil stuffed squash

                               Blackbean stuffed sweet potato

 For snack I picked 14 things that I knew we could repeat happily.

Snacks

1)      Nuts

2)      Fruits

3)      Muffins

4)      Pretzels

5)      Popcorn

6)      Granola bars

7)      Trail mix

8)      Applesauce

9)      Cheese ball and crackers

10)   Chili con queso

11)   Pinwheels

12)   Bean dip and corn chips

13)   Cheese carrots and crackers

14)   Pumpkin butter and crusty bread

I did the same with sweets as snacks and knew both could be saved if we didn't do them at all or didn't want a second time in the month.

Sweets

1)      Pecan pie

2)      Cookies

3)      Cake

4)      Stewed apples

5)      Pumpkin bread

6)      Pear crisp

7)      Bread pudding

8)      Chocolate mousse

9)      Fruit cake

10)   Apple turnovers

11)   Cream puffs

12)   Carmel apples

13)   Nut brittle

14)   Spice cake

Because we really prefer variety and I prefer spontaneity talk to my husband about what choices are left out of the week genre wise and then we decide on what main dish to serve. The only problem is I am tired after 17 days of cooking 2 or more full meals a day, exceptions being leftovers. 

Thinking about how we eat.

This is a thinking out loud kind of post. This is what I am thinking, We eat lots of carrots, onion, and apples regardless of other factors. In part because they are cheap, in part because my big boy loves to eat carrots and apples and in part because they are nearly always available. Except for this pregnancy, and even still, tomatoes and cheese are the 2 major staples of our diet.
Meats are eaten more in colder weather and beans in warmer weather. I bake more in cool weather, serve many more salads in warmer weather and cook Indian recipes more frequently in hot weather. I make candies around Ramadan and in the fall.
Typically we don't each much citrus fruit, given we live in mountainous desert the quality isn't usually that good for what I buy anyway. We eat more fish in warm weather but not very frequently. We nearly only drink water and milk with hot beverages on occasion and juice slightly more frequently. We also do drink pop rarely.
I much prefer, since my pregnancy with my 1 y old, meals that take less than 20 minutes to prepare, or at least 20 minutes or less of my standing at the counter or stove. I don't mind a meal that took 6 hours to cook, I just don't want to be in the kitchen the whole time.
I'd rather serve rice than potatoes because they require less attention and bread over rice as once baked bread requires nearly no attention at all.
As far as meats go I would rather touch a red meat than poultry or fish. I would rather toss a hunk of meat in a pot or in the oven than any other method and I would rather eat ground beef than any other meat.
I love the taste of berries but they are more expensive than apples or even grapes. I love trying exotic fruits but again the price is a big factor, as well as questionable ethically. That is to say, is it really justifiable that I spend my limited dollars on a piece of fruit that was definitely grow many hundreds of miles away, probably under conditions bad for the environment and bad for the farm workers? For most likely very little pay, if any?
I buy very little candy in a given year, buy dried goods in bulk generally and do buy frozen dinners occasionally.I justify the frozen lasagna or whatever in that I am not spending as much money as I would if we ate out.

SO given all that how can I make meals easier, cheaper and faster?

My thoughts are making freezer meals, freeze leftovers, make simpler recipes and get others to share the burden of cooking.

I post on those ideas in the future, inshallah.