Plan a Meal That Will Let You Rest

It's Saturday again. Will you be taking a day of rest, a Sabbath, tomorrow? If so, what can you do to prepare for it today?

Last week we looked at starting small by putting out the clothes you plan to wear the next day (or putting them out the day prior to when you'll take a day of rest). This week I'd like to talk about meal planning - not planning your whole week or month's meals, just a plan for meals on your day of rest.

Why put together a meal plan? For one of two reasons:

• If you're a foodie, then you might want to plan a meal that allows you to play and explore in the kitchen. To make it less like work (and save making a trip out to the grocery store), it helps to have everything you need on hand. This means sitting down the day before and selecting which (new?) meal you'd like to make. And then taking the time to be sure you have all of your ingredients and going out to buy whatever you still need. This is how my husband likes to operate. Having time to plan and prepare a meal is enjoyable to him.
• If, on the other hand, you're like me and cooking is a necessary evil, then you'll want to free up your day of rest from this chore. This means you also need to plan your meals, and in particular the big meal of the day, whether midday or evening meal. Then you'll want to shop for any ingredients you don't have on hand. But for you, there's another consideration: you may want to think about planning a no-cook meal or a prepare-ahead or crockpot meal. Anything you can do to free yourself from the kitchen will provide you with more opportunity to rest. It may mean you tap your foodie spouse to be the chef for the day (like I sometimes do. Except when DH offers to cook, which is actually more often than not).

Do you have a plan for your Sabbath meal yet? What can you do today to make mealtime more enjoyable and less like work? If you do this already, let me know. I'm interested to hear what other people do for work-free (or less work) Sabbath meals.