Every couple of days a new article shows up on Facebook with the same tag: Here’s a great way to plan all of your meals for the week! Assuming you want to eat the same thing for lunch every day.  For seven days.

Frankly, that just doesn’t appeal to me. I genuinely look forward to cooking dinner when I get home from work. That does not mean I come home, throw open the pantry, and ask myself, “what’s for dinner?” It means I need a different kind of meal planning.

My mom is the queen of weeknight dinners.  On Sunday mornings she pours a cup of coffee, she surveys her collection of cookbooks, and she checks out the sales at the grocery store.  She plans her meals based on what’s on sale and what sounds like fun to cook. Mom’s meal planning keeps a zen-like calm over evenings when everyone…