On becoming a domestic diva (which I most certainly am not)

When Justin and I first got married, I didn't know how to cook much more than a frozen dinner. I was intimidated just to set foot in a grocery store as the one with the primary responsibility for determining what we would eat. I may even have come close to hyperventilating a time or two. (I don't like to be bad at things, especially seemingly simple things like making a trip to the grocery store.)

Over the past few years, I have become much more confident in my cooking (and shopping) "skills." My appreciation for Pioneer Woman and my undying love for Tasty Kitchen should come as no surprise to anyone reading this right now. (Allrecipes, with a few recipe exceptions, is forever ruined for me.) One of the things I am most grateful to have figured out is knowing what I like to cook with on a regular basis. I still have a number of spices that I used once, four years ago. Yet despite the advances I have made, I am still quite inefficient with and significantly intimidated by meal planning. One of the reasons I love Tasty Kitchen is because Ree and the gals feature five recipes every weekday. I go there almost every day and add any recipes I really want to try. Viola. A substantial recipe base to consult whenever I choose. And while I have made several of those recipes, my "menu planning" is still nowhere near as consistent or convenient as I would like it to be.

I do have a point.

Here it is.

Ann Voskamp posted this link to (someone else's) 15 weeks of meal plans, and the meals themselves look pretty good. The website even includes printable shopping lists for each week. This isn't the first time I've been tempted to try something like this. However, I cannot overcome the one objection I have always encountered when contemplating taking the leap. I feel so constricted by using just one person's recipes! I know, I know. It should be so simple just to trade out a couple of recipes. But I literally feel physically unable to make that kind of commitment.

Hello. My name is Lisa. And I am a commitment phobic--at least where any kind of work, change, or especially work coupled with change is involved. I think.

This is where you come in, friends. Do you have any meal planning tips that work for you? Did you have this same irrational fear of committing to meal planning, but there was something you did that finally propelled you into slowly morphing into a meal planning pro? Can you tell me to stop being ridiculous, just use the dang meal plan, and swap out a recipe or two already? I feel like I'm a frozen newbie in the grocery store again. I need a good swift kick in the pants, or I will probably be frozen here for the rest of my life, paralyzed by too many options.

I'll let you know if I ever thaw out and get moving. Until then, I hope someone else finds the meal plan link helpful. Revel in your domestic diva-ness, and then try to telepathically transfer some of those vibes to me.

Sincerely,
Your domestically-challenged friend