Stress Relief: Meal Planning

I am pretty much always stressed. 

I wear my heart on my sleeve.  I am very sensitive.  I take everything personally, even if it happens to you and I only read about it via your blog. 

For example, I couldn't sleep last night.  Insomnia is a bitch, y'all!  And did you know that there is nothing on TV at 3AM?  Probably not because you are sweetly sleeping.  But let me tell you, there's nothing of even minimal value to watch/listen to.  So I ended up on OWN and Dr. Phil.

I don't like Dr. Phil.

He's smarmy and condescending and rude.

But there I was, listening to this show (my eyes were closed because I was tired but I just could not shut my brain off so I was trying to fall asleep to the TV) about this horrible husband to his slightly immature but innocent wife.  He beats her but after an hour with Dr. Phil, horrible husband was insistent that he needed to do that to "restrain" the wife and he needed to give her ultimatums.  Oh and horrible husband, in the five years they have been married, has had AT LEAST 50 affairs.  He said that was a low estimate.  (Who has that kind of time?)

I have a point...I promise. 

So there I am, trying to get to sleep at long last and I am now completely upset.  I'm angry on behalf of the wife who was very young and meek sitting on that sofa.  But upset and stressed as if horrible husband did this to me.

I'm weird.

And I get easily stressed out.

So I take every opportunity to attempt to help known triggers.  Like meals. 

Now I have explained many times that I try to stock my freezers well with ready to make meal parts- cooked chicken and turkey, cooked rice, and veggies- all just a microwave away from being a meal.  However, I do try to sit down on a Saturday or Sunday and make an actual dinner meal plan.  And then I make sure I pick up any necessary ingredients that I don't already have on hand.

I don't always stick to the plan.  And that's completely OK with me. 

Because the plan is like a Tums.  It's there to settle me.  When it gets to 5:00 and I am gearing up for evening things like phone calls that always come around then, walking and feeding the puppy princess and making dinner, I know that I have everything I need ready to go.  If I decide to meet friends or eat leftover or eat a baked potato instead, no prob bob.  But I have the ingredients on hand if I decide that I do want to make a big pot of split pea and ham bone soup (that's totally on the menu this week).

Do you make meal plans?  Do you make them for meals other than dinner?