Foodmomiac

Meal Plan, week of March 16

I'm going through a weird time lately. Work is crazier and more stressful than ever (there are over 16 of us now involved in Sway Group - I need to invent a word that conveys that weird mix of stress, pressure, pride and overwhelmedness). I haven't been exercising and I haven't been cooking. These are usually the signs that I'm heading into a hard time, yet there are other aspects in which my life is so in control.

I've been taking vitamins daily for well over a month now. I floss every night. I love where we live and I watch less TV, read more, and just really appreciate the amazingness of everything that is around me.

Yet, I know I need to bring the cooking and activity back into my world. This week I am starting with the cooking. Dylie and I headed to the San Rafael Farmer's Market this morning and stocked up. Here's the plan:

Sunday (tonight): Grilled Atlantic salmon, Baba Rice, grilled asparagus

Monday (St. Patrick's Day!): Corned Beef (I usually like making my own corned beef, but I bought a corned brisket at the Farmer's Market, and it looks AWESOME), cabbage, butter ball potatoes

Tuesday: Chicken on the grill, melted fennel and onion (making this up - not sure of the recipe yet), cauliflower rice

Wednesday: Spaghetti All' Amatriciana, salad, garlic bread

Thursday: Grilled Pork Chops, roasted beets and brussels, macaroni salad

Friday: PIZZA NIGHT!

 

Weekly Menu, June 10 - June 15

Second week in a row of meal planning! We did a great job last week, and actually made everything I had planned to make with the exception of pizza. Pizza night still happened, but we grabbed takeout instead of making it ourselves. 

So, I sat down once again and made a weekly menu. We didn't take a trip to the Farmer's Market this weekend, so the menu wasn't as challenging (I didn't have to search for a recipe for Lamb's Quarters). BUT! Our CSA (community supported agriculture) starts up again this weekend, and I can't wait. I literally let out a "woot!" when I got the email notificiation from them. 

Weekly Menu, June 3 - 9

Here is our menu for the week! We went to the Green City Farmers Market yesterday, and used the ingredients we got there to guide our plan.

The lambs quarters are essentially a weed, but were marketed as wild spinach. I am looking forward to cooking them!

What are you guys eating this week?

 

Weekly Menu, Week of October 2, 2011

I actually meal planned this week - whoo!

Here's what's on tap:

Sunday (last night): pot roast, cheesy mashed potatoes, roasted brussels sprouts and french green beans

Monday: Mujadara, lamb meatballs, greek salad

Tuesday: Staff Chicken, salsa verde, brown rice

Wednesday: Baked fideo, fresh veggie TBD (CSA delivery is Wednesday)

I'll need to figure out the rest once we get our delivery of veggies. What are you guys cooking this week?

 

The Pitfalls of Meal Planning

Much has been written about the huge benefits of meal planning (less wasted food! saves money! saves time!, less stress!), but I don't know that I recall ever reading anything about the drawbacks. I will still try to meal plan each week, at least casually, but there are definitely things about it that annoy me:

- Meal planning doesn't always take advantage of what looks best at the store. The best meal plans are created pre-shopping trip, and the shopping list is generated after the plan is written. But.. what if you plan to make steamed artichokes, and the artichokes look gnarly? Or... what if you were going to make meatloaf, but there is a sale on whole chickens from a local farm? 

- Meal planning doesn't take whims, cravings and aversions into account. Last night, the plan was to make Jambalaya. Come 4pm, I was totally NOT in the mood for Jambalaya. Nothing could have sounded worse. But... that was the plan, my Wednesday meal couldn't be subbed in (the whole chicken wasn't yet defrosted), and I didn't want to screw up the whole week. So, I made Jambalaya. This was actually fine, and it tasted great, and everyone loved it, but I spent the afternoon annoyed that I was trapped into making Jambalaya. 

- Meal planning actually CAN lead to wasted food. What if something comes up? You defrost a whole chicken, and then you fall down the steps of the school bus at the end of your son's kindergarten field trip to Little India (why yes, this did just happen to me two hours ago). My chicken is defrosted and needs to go in the oven, but I'm laying prone on an ice pack feeling sorry for myself. What is a woman to do?

 

So... meal planning. Love it? Hate it?

Hey... I meal planned this week!

As I mentioned yesterday, one of my daily goals is making dinner. With both of us working outside of the home full-time, it became really difficult to do this every night. Even when I did my best to plan and prep, it was just hard to get home at 6pm and then commence with the dinner preparations. We started getting really lax and ordering in a LOT. And, you know, it wasn't that satisfying. I know we were (are) very lucky to be able to afford to do this, but it does end up wasting a lot of money (just because we can afford it, doesn't mean we should do it) and it really isn't very healthy. So, I'm cooking more. And I am remembering again why I named this blog Foodmomiac. When I have time to cook, I LOVE to cook.

I'm not fully meal planning every week because I want to be able to run out and grab fresh ingredients midway through the week. This is especially important to me during the warm weather months, since I can run to farmers' markets around town on weekdays, stocking up on in-season produce.

That said, I did plan our meals through Wednesday of this week.

Sunday (last night): Marinated lamb kebabs (lamb was from Mint Creek farm), salad made with living lettuce and arugula from the Green City farmers market, Crash Hot Potatoes from Pioneer Woman

Monday: Shrimp Kebabs (I'm kind of kebab happy lately - so easy!), dill and onion brown rice (made in the rice cooker), grilled asparagus

Tuesday: Jambalaya with white rice, green beans

Wednesday: Roast chicken, macaroni salad

 

What are you guys making this week? Have you hit any farmers market lately?

Back in the groove (with this week's menu!)

Wow, so great to be home for the weekend with no plans for travel anytime within the next few weeks. I have really missed my routines!

The major activity of the weekend was gardening. We planted some herbs (flat leaf parsley, oregano, peppermint, basil, Thai basil), vegetables (roma tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, two kinds of peppers, cucumbers) and flowers (marigolds, impatiens, salvia). My arms are all scratched up, but things are looking pretty damn good. I still have some more annual planting to do at front, and the mulching will be a major project next week, but I'm really proud of what we accomplished!

I also managed to squeeze in a run with my friend Katie (only three miles, but we rocked a 10:30 pace, so I feel good about it) and create a weekly menu. Here's to routine!

Weekly Menu, Week of 5/2:

Sunday: Tomahawk steak, mushroom sauce, green beans with pine nuts in browned butter, macaroni salad

Monday: Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green salad with cucumber and radish

Tuesday: Moroccan tempeh with cous cous and green beans

Wednesday: Brats from Paulina Meat Market, leftover macaroni salad

Thursday: Homemade pizza with dough from Trader Joe's

Friday: Family dinner out

Weekend Update and a Weekly Menu

Michael left for Austin (to attend SXSW) last Friday, so I had the kids all to myself this weekend. It went surprisingly quickly. Usually, I struggle a bit when I'm alone with them on the weekends, but it was easier this time. Probably because they are older, but it was still somewhat of a shock.

Saturday morning, the kids had their ice skating tests. They have just completed their third session of ice skating lessons. After each of the first two sessions, Dylan graduated to the next level. Not Max, though. He has stubbornly refused to do anything required of him in the tests, and we were kind of resigned to watching him skate in "Tot 1" until he was 12. But, as you can likely glean from the above photo, this week he passed! Tot 2, here we come! (Dylan's streak ended this time, and she will repeat Beta this spring).

Saturday was also the day I tried to introduce Star Wars to the kids. I thought for sure Max would be enthralled. Not so much! Dylan kept talking about how stupid it was (we watched Episode 4, so I guess the special effects were too old fashioned for her?) and Max asked me to turn it off after about 45 minutes. Oh well. Yesterday, in line with our movie theme, I took them to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D at the IMAX. Dylie loved it, but Max hated it. That's his new favorite verb - he hates everything these days. It's very charming.

Moving on, I managed to get some food prepped yesterday for the week.

Our menu:

Sunday (last night): Meatloaf, roasted fingerling potatoes, peas

Monday: Jambalaya (prepped yesterday)

Tuesday: Shrimp stir fry (maybe)

Wednesday: Michael's choice, as I'm heading out with some friends

Thursday: Corned Beef and Cabbage, one day late! (the beef needs an extra day to corn - I didn't start it until yesterday)

Friday: Family dinner out

Saturday: Date night!

Dinner Reality

As I mentioned a week or two ago, we instituted a new budget at the beginning of the year. My love affair with mint.com has not abated, and I am very pleased to report that we are still being really good. This is a total shock. This is absolutely unheard of in our household. Typically, our budgets last about a week.

One of the areas (not surprisingly) where we realized we were spending/wasting the most money was for food. Grocery shopping, takeout, and restaurants. Not to mention lunch at the office. It was kind of scary. However; in the past, I think our budgets have failed because we have gone the total opposite direction and created budgets that were totally unrealistic. "We'll cut our restaurant spending in half!" "We'll eat beans and rice every night for dinner!" It's just silly. So, we made a budget we could live with, and it is working.

That said, it's not always a total walk in the park. Last night, I had no desire to make dinner, Michael was working late, and we didn't have anything pre-made in the fridge. So, we kept it real, and ate a full-on Trader Joe's meal: chicken tenders, canned corn (theirs is the BEST) and garlic fries. Everyone ate it. Everyone was happy. And we didn't order delivery.

Our other meals this past week:

Sunday: Homemade pizza using Trader Joe's pizza dough (I was going to make Pastitsio, but I was sick, so Michael simplified)

Monday: Macaroni and cheese, peas, and kielbasa (I was at a work dinner, so Michael did his part to keep it real - the kids LOVED THIS DINNER)

Tuesday: This recipe, which took 10 minutes to prepare and was well-received by all. (Again, not what I had originally planned, but because I was sick Sunday, my usual pre-prepping did not happen)

Wednesday: Vegetarian stir fry (made with bok choy and broccoli), topped with peanuts and served over sushi rice

Thursday: The above fanciness

Tonight: Family dinner out at Sun Wah.

Starting Fresh - The Beginning of a New Year Step One: Meal Planning

Remember the first day of school? I always wore a brand new outfit, and had high hopes that only good times were ahead. That's how I feel now. Our au pair (our last one - we are done with au pairs - another story for another time) is gone. The new nanny/housekeeper/dog walker/Alice Brady starts on Monday. School begins on the 8th. My new attitude starts now.

I'm tired of feeling like I'm drowning in my own life. I'm always behind on something and feeling like I need to catch up. No more. It's a new day.

One of the first things I'm going to (re)implement is meal planning. Yesterday morning, we went to the Holland Farmers' Market and stocked up on fresh produce. With those ingredients in mind, I sat down this morning to create a meal plan for the week.

On the menu:

• Roasted Broccoli and Shrimp with Brown Rice
• Pasta with Raw Tomato Herb Sauce and Garlic Bread
• Organic, Farm-Raised Otto's Chicken on the Grill with Corn on the Cob, Potato Salad and Cucumber, Tomato Feta Salad
• Lisa/Baba's Bulgarian Stuffed Peppers with ??? (Recipe to come - this is a winner, and you can make extra for the freezer, which is awesome.)

Other changes I'm making in my life:

• Getting my home office filing system in order
• Going to the doctor for all of my checkups (dermatologist, gyn, general practice)
• Weekly masques/mini-facials at home
• Keeping the house in order (with the help of Sammy, our new Alice Brady)
• Going back to my old work schedule which involved leaving at 4:30 to come home