disclaimer: yep, I post and tweet about food and I’m not going to feel bad about it. I’ve been taking pictures and blogging about food since 2004 before Twitter even existed!
The past few months have been ridiculously busy and we have been caught in the (take a deep breath, run on sentence coming) get home not sure what to eat order crappy take-out or let’s go out real quick and spend way too much money on food we can make better at home rut.
The challenge with cooking at home is that it takes a little bit of planning and I’ve been completely wiped out. One more thing to plan would cause a) cognitive overload and b) a meltdown. As I was running errands on Saturday I opened up the latest issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray at the grocery store. Poor Rachael gets a bad rap sometimes, but, in her defense I’ve never cooked a bad meal from her recipes. As I was flipping through, I ran across her Weeknight Meal Planner. It had a list of what to buy for the week, all the selections looked pretty darn good and the whole cost was less than $40 (for two of us.) I didn’t have to think about a thing!
I started the week on Sunday (since we usually like to go out with friends on Friday.) Short of having Rachael come over and cook the stuff herself, it was an awesome experience! Every day when I got home I didn’t have to think much and had dinner on the table in 20-30 minutes. For the first time in a long time I used up every single thing I purchased and physically feel SO MUCH better because I know exactly what I’m eating and where it comes from. I even learned a few new tricks – I had never thought about grilling sweet potatoes or avocados before, they were excellent!
(On a side note, I love Bittman’s How to Cook Everything app, and he also has shopping lists with his recipes, however, it doesn’t give a weekly list w/running themes so I can use everything up.)
So, I just wanted to say thanks Rach – you were a much needed guide on the side to help me get back on track!