How to plan your dinners for the week.

Like lots of people, I am trying to save money and eat healthier. I think I've hit on a pretty decent method to plan dinners ahead of time so you waste less food, money, and time. I am not saying this is the best or only way to do this, but I thought some people who read this could get some ideas. Here's my steps towards getting your dinners sorted out:

On Saturday morning, sit down with your cookbooks or the internet and start thinking. The first thing you want to think about is where you are getting your food. Are you going to the farmer's market? The grocery store? Are you getting fresh veggies from a CSA? No matter where you get your veggies, you need to think about what is in season and what you are likely to get/find. In-season veggies, even at a regular supermarket that doesn't make any effort to purchase locally-grown food, are much cheaper. If you get your veggies from a CSA, maybe do all this planning AFTER you get your box. The steps will still work for you, you just need to change around the order :)

Keeping in mind what is in season (or what you have in your box), go through your cookbooks and look for recipes that appeal to you. Pick out main dishes and think of what sides would go well with them (for example, find a recipe for braised seitan, and think about what veggies and grains might go well with it). Make a schedule and jot down all the main courses and side dishes (when I do it it's usually as simple as "braised seitan, freezer veggies, rice) -- Saturday through Thursday or Friday -- I like to leave an "open" day for eating out or if unforseen circumstances crop up. Decide what recipes you will cook on what day. This is a little intimidating at first, because you might feel like it locks you in to too much, but this will quickly pass the first time you get home and don't have to stress out about what to make!

Some things you want to keep in mind at this point are what days you need extra-short meals (gym nights, kids' lessons, working late, etc). Plan quicker meals those nights (I like to do a quesadilla on one gym night and a soup/salad on the other). Also make sure you plan to eat the more fragile veggies or other ingredients early in the week. If you get a box with a bunch of spinach, a couple eggplants, and a bunch of carrots, eat the spinach early in the week before it wilts, and the carrots at the end of the week, because they'll keep longer.

Once you have your meals picked and scheduled, use the recipes to develop your shopping list. Don't forget your staples -- do you have onions, garlic, cooking wine, olive oil, etc? Not to mention cat food, toilet paper, and light bulbs! When you get home from shopping, stick your schedule on the fridge so as soon as you get home you'll know what you're eating that night. Not only that, but you'll definitely have all the ingredients you need!

I hope this helps some of my friends who read this blog save money and eat better. If it doesn't work for you, that's ok too, maybe you can still get some ideas on how to plan some meals or shop for the week. Good luck!

Maybe soon I'll post the World's Easiest Thai Butternut Squash Soup Recipe.

Too funny.

Found this at Shakesville, and it made me laugh until I cried so there you go.

The curse of the grammatically correct.

Joelster and I were driving around today, doing errands (groceries, wine, mice, pick up suitcase full of gasoline-y clothes from office), and were talking about Quiznos. The reason we were talking about it was I noticed on a sign it said "Quiznos Sub." Wait, what? Shouldn't it be "Quizno's Subs" or even "Quiznos' Subs"? So to compare we started looking at signs for various establishments. Wendy's, McDonald's, Arby's, and Applebee's all have apostrophes. Reeds, Wegmans, and Starbucks do not.

I, personally, think they all should have apostrophes because the implied owned object for each of them is "Restaurant" or "Store" or "Coffee." (Actually, it is Starbucks Coffee on the sign and everything now that I think about it.)

Places like Cole Muffler don't bother me as much because the name is not inappropriately "s"-ed; i.e. it's not trying to go for possession and instead getting pluralized.

Anyway, I know for a fact that the founder of Wegmans is named Wegman, not Wegmans. And that means it needs an apostrophe. And it bugs me and now I can't stop looking at signs.

HAH!

I am dying.


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PS

Is blogger being totally weird for anyone else? I tried to post an entry yesterday and it took forever to open my dashboard, then when I tried to upload a picture it just totally crashed and I eventually had to force quit firefox. And the past couple of days I've had issues accessing other blogspot blogs. Happening for anyone else?