Monday, March 7, 2011

A New Way to Plan

Manatee and I really enjoy planning our meals. Okay, correction: I enjoy planning the meals and Manatee enjoys eating them.

We were running into some problems in terms of 1-Manatee being upset when he had to wait to eat leftovers and sometimes wouldn't get any (yes, he is super rough to cook for, let me tell you) and 2-Me feeling like we had to base our social calendars based on these planned meals. Last week I felt a sudden shift in cooking- it was turning into something I HAD to do instead of I WANTED to do. This could be the death of me wanting to cook so I knew we had to make some changes.

I really like being able to buy groceries for a week and having the ingredients at home so I didn't have to deal with that on a daily basis. We came up with picking out 3 or 4 meals (depending on how the week looks) but not scheduling them night per night.

Our Meals this week:


  • Pasta with Chickpeas and Charred Tomatoes (Bon Appetit)
  • Crockpot Beef Fajitas (Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker)
  • Roasted Shrimp with Rosemary and Thyme with Vegetable Saute with Orange and Balsamic (Fine Cooking)
  • Chicken Pad See Ew (Ultimate Cookbook) with Spring Rolls (me making it up)
So, far we have made the first two. The pasta was actually on the list last week but we had things crop up so we didn't cook as much. It was my first recipe from Bon Appetit and I was pleasantly surprised. You actually stir some hummus with the pasta water to give it a creamy yet rich sauce. The Beef Fajitas were amazing. This recipe has entered into the ultimate top 5 and next time we make it, I will have to remember to take pictures so I can share the recipe properly. 

The next two I'm not sure when we will make. The Chicken Pad See Ew is actually a practice run. We are having friends over for Thai food and I made Spring Rolls once with someone else. I thought it would be fun to do with company but we need to do at least one practice run so I can properly pretend what I am doing. I know that may take longer than the Shrimp so it may turn into a weekend dinner.

I am curious to what other people do in terms of planning. Do you plan per day? How do you factor in unexpected social engagements? Do you just roughly plan? 

1 comment:

  1. It really depends on the week for us. Sometimes I plan per day and sometimes I just pick four recipes for the week and leave one leftover night. At this point we don't have unexpected social engagements! :)

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