Before you cook anything, or have anything to eat in the house, you will need to go grocery shopping. Before you do that, you will need to make a list, and before you do that, you will need to have a food plan. For the purpose of this post, I am going to assume that you shop once a week.

Making this plan is simple, well, in theory it is simple. You write down the days of the week you need to shop for, and assign breakfast, lunch and dinner to those days. Oh, but don’t forget coffee (or any other beverages), and any desserts or snacks you might like in the meantime. Also, don’t forget all the sundry items.

Sundry Items: Toilet paper, Paper towels, Shampoo, Soap, Dishwasher Soap, Cleaning supplies, Vitamins

I shop on Sunday’s, and my food plan outline usually looks like this:

Sunday:

• Dinner – something fancy that takes time to prepare.

Monday:

• Breakfast – Cereal
• Lunch – Leftovers from the night before
• Dinner – Chicken and Rice (with veggies)

Tuesday:

• Breakfast – Cereal
• Lunch – Leftovers from the night before
• Dinner – Kona’s (a family recipe for cheesy chicken enchiladas)

Wednesday:

• Breakfast – Cereal
• Lunch – Leftovers from the night before/purchase salad at work cafeteria
• Dinner – “Experiment” this is usually a recipe I have not tried before (my husband is a patient man – who keeps soy sauce and hot sauce handy to “help” my experiments)

Thursday:

• Breakfast – Cereal
• Lunch – Leftovers from the night before
• Dinner – Adult Mac & Cheese

Friday:

• Breakfast – Cereal
• Lunch – Leftovers from the night before
• Dinner – Leftovers from the week

Saturday:

• Breakfast – Cereal
• Lunch – Leftovers from the week
• Dinner – Go out to eat

Snacks/Desserts: Chips, Chocolate, Check with Husband

Beverages: Coffee, Tea (Crystal Light mixers), Creamer for coffee, Coke

Sundries: Paper towels, Toothpaste (his), Body wash (hers)

I also tend to go shopping around noon, so that I can hit fast food on the way home and have a “free” meal, one that I don’t have to cook.

 

As it is just my husband and I, 90% of the lunches and at least two of the dinners are leftovers, and require no extra planning.

Seems simple right?  It is and it isn’t.

Here are some of the challenges:

• Picky eaters. My husband will not eat fish of any kind, and he really hates tomatoes or mushrooms. I have a dispensation to use tomatoes and mushrooms for one meal a week (as long as they are diced fine), but no fish will be cooked in my house. I really don’t like the taste of barbecue or curry, but again, I will add these in at least once a month as my concession to a peaceful home.

• I am also allergic to garlic. And EVERYTHING has garlic in it. I have found, through painful experimentation, that my system can handle garlic only if it is fresh, and I mean “bought that week fresh”.

• The other not so simple part is the actual planning. I have a variety of cookbooks and of course the internet to choose meals from, so I generally pick one cookbook for the week and work out of that one. I also try to have only one red meat a week, two chicken or pork dishes and the rest meatless, be they pasta, beans or salads.

• And I have another disadvantage. I grew up in a, well, let’s call it a “not wealthy” home. Growing up, we drank dry milk (blech), and shopped in the yellow “generic” aisle. The idea of fresh vegetables and fruit at meals was something it has taken me years to learn to add to my food plan.

• Balancing preferences. My husband has a sweet tooth. A BIG sweet tooth. And while he would probably be happy if most meals had a sweet component, I would go nuts. I prefer salt, and cheese. I try to balance both of our preferences during the week. (A favorite meal of BOTH of ours is “American Pie Chicken” from the Mr. Food’s Diabetic Dinners in a Dash cookbook, which consists of Chicken, Apple butter (sweet) and Cheddar Cheese.

• Which leads to the last difficulty I have with my food plans. Husband is diabetic. What that means in practice? Fruit is limited. Rice and pasta are limited and I cook a lot of meals that are prefaced by the word “Diabetic”.

Oh, and let me explain the “Check with Husband” notation on the desserts listing. I am the cook and my husband is the baker. So if he has an inspiration for a dessert, I check in with him and make sure to add the dish to the list.

I would LOVE to find a website where I can download healthy, weekly meal plans for two that will not break my bank account (or tax my cooking skills) but that exact website does not exist. There are however, many websites that offer menu plans (with grocery lists no less!) and sometimes I use parts of them. It really is just what I in the mood for that day.

So that is it for today. Wednesday I’ll talk about making a list and grocery shopping, and Friday will be about what to do when you get the food home.

Until then,

-Auntie Zia