Week 3

Why oh why did I not do this years ago? I was always a Meal Planning Skeptic. Yes, if I was very organized, I would plan a week's worth of meals. And sometimes I would plan a week's worth, and Atlanta Mom would plan a week, and then we would swap so we each got 2 weeks out of the bargain. But whenever I heard someone say "I plan out a month's worth of meals at a time," my snarky little brain would immediately think, "I don't even know what I'll be doing in a month, so why would I know what I'm eating?"

Well, news flash. In a month, or six weeks, or whenever, I think I can assume with confidence that I'll be doing pretty much the same thing I'm doing now: Working. Driving carpool. Juggling soccer practice and sight words. Planning a small dinner party. Trying to fit in some exercise. Grabbing the occasional tennis game or lunch out. Meeting with clients.

In other words, my life is not quite as spontaneous and varied as I might lead myself to believe. Which brings me back to meal planning. I'm telling you, dear readers, having these meals planned out is a weight lifted off my Sunday afternoon shoulders. And here's the bonus: we are somehow saving about $100 per week, or more. Part of it is easy to understand - we have cut out the "I have nothing in the house let's just eat out" $50 meal. A smidgen more baffling is that for the past 3 weeks, my grocery bill is $50 - $75 less than usual. I don't know why this is, since I'm cooking more, but I'm guessing that I am throwing fewer random extraneous items in the cart in the hopes they'll magically transform themselves into dinner (impulse buying at the grocery store is admittedly a weakness of mine, so perhaps I've found a way to combat it?).

All that said, I'm sure you are now on pins and needles for this week's menu:

Monday: Pork chops and rice, salad
Tuesday: Roasted chicken leg quarters, mac and cheese, roasted vegetables
Wednesday: Spaghetti and meatballs, salad
Thursday: Roasted shrimp, pesto pasta, whatever veggies come in our farmbox
Friday: Pizza

Coming up next: Shrimp Pizza!

Thank You and You and You

This post is really a quick shoutout to my Mom, Gran, and Uncle Jon, who over the years have collected on my behalf the most gorgeous pieces and knick-knacks for my table. Unlike the three of them, I am not a collector (DH will attest that he tends to hide things from me so I won't throw them out) (seriously, what does one need with a box full of Boy Scout badges? I just don't get it). My eyes glaze over and my body slumps at the words "estate sale," "antiquing," or (shudder) "yard sale." But lucky for me, I come from excellent hunter and gatherer stock, and I am always appreciative when it means I can set a beautiful table with the pretties they have found me over the years.

Week 2

We are now into week 2 of my six weeks of menus. All I have to say is - wow. What a nice thing to have already done with absolutely no thinking required. Every once in a while I'll remember a family favorite that didn't make the six week plan because I just didn't think of it while sitting there on the plane, so I'm jotting those down. If I'm lucky I'll get a 7th week, and stretch the time between repeats even a bit more.

Here is this week's plan:

Monday: Greek lasagna, Greek salad (Last time I made the lasagna I froze half of it, so this is already in the freezer waiting for me. Just need to make the salad - perfect for a Monday).
Tuesday: Grilled shrimp, baguette, and salad or tomato soup and grilled cheese (this week it will be grilled shrimp, of course!)
Wednesday: Apricot pork chops and green beans
Thursday: Chicken and black bean quesadillas, with whatever veggies come with our farmbox delivery. (If I have to drop a planned meal, which often happens as unexpected things pop up during the week, this is the meal that we'll skip)
Friday: Pizza night!

Happy eating!

One Fish, Two Fish

Here we are in Week 1 of my fabulous meal planning, and I'm already making changes. I promised the recipe for fish tacos, and that's next, but I'm also including my recipe for black beans and rice, which I ended up serving with the tacos instead of the avocado. Avocados are temperamental little buggers, no? And lesson learned - not a good side to plan to serve with fish unless you buy them ripe the day you plan to eat them. I bought 3 on Sunday (at the ridiculously dear price of $1.29 each, ugh) but they weren't quite ripe on Monday. Any other meal I would just push back a day, but not so much fish...don't need that sitting around the fridge, waiting on a few fussy avocados to be ready for the party. But all's well that ends well, because I spied a can of black beans in the pantry and remembered how much we all love black beans and rice, and that worked out much better.

First, the fish tacos. (Side note: I love tacos for family dinners in general. Serving tacos lets me feed the whole family the same meal, but everyone can fix them exactly how they like them. Makes it easy to make everyone happy). These are so easy it's not even a real recipe. This is per taco.
Ingredients:
1 small flour tortilla
1 cod fillet (about an inch thick)
One generous pinch of taco seasoning (I just used good old McCormick)
One lime slice
Your toppings of choice: diced tomato, shredded Mexican cheese blend, shredded iceberg lettuce, sour cream, salsa
Directions:
Wash fish and pat dry. Sprinkle both sides of the fish with taco seasoning, squeeze lime juice over the fish. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add a small pat of butter and about one tablespoon of vegetable oil (not olive oil). Add fish, cook approximately 4 minutes. Flip, cook approximately 2 minutes on the other side. (Cooking time with fish is the hardest thing to get right. You want your fish cooked all the way through, to the point that it flakes easily but isn't dry). Remove from heat, let stand for a minute or two, and then flake with a fork. Build your taco as desired.

Next, black beans and rice. I've blogged a different recipe for these before here, which is naturally delicious, but after playing around with the recipe some more over the past few months, I actually like this one a bit better.
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 gloves garlic, minced
Red pepper flakes, according to taste. (I try not to make this too spicy so the boys will eat it, so I do just a pinch. If I weren't making it for little ones, I'd make it a generous pinch, or maybe 2)
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup long grain rice
1 teaspoon salt
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed.
Heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Saute onion until translucent. Add garlic and red pepper flakes and cook 2 minutes more, stirring frequently. Add water, rice, black beans, and salt. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer until all the water is absorbed. (Note - I often have to add just a bit more water to get the rice and beans to the slightly-overcooked-consistency that seems to make them taste just right).

Enjoy!

Barefoot in Bermuda

We have just returned from the most fabulous, relaxing, rejuvenating vacation ever. 5 days in Bermuda to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary, and we did nothing but move from restaurant to beach to restaurant to pool to restaurant to beach...you get the idea. I read 10 books, slept 9 hours each night, and occasionally stepped foot in the fitness center. I came home 5 pounds heavier physically but 20 pounds lighter mentally.

On the plane coming home I was a bit bored with my one remaining book, so I did something astounding. I planned a full 6 weeks worth of meals. It was surprisingly simple. Each week I really only need 4 dinner ideas, because we have pizza every Friday night, at least one night each week DH works and the boys and I eat sandwiches or leftovers, and we generally eat out at least one night. So I made a list of 6 each of my family's favorite chicken dinners, beef/pork dinners, pasta dinners, seafood dinners, and soup dinners (the seafood and soups will be alternatives for each other - right now when it's still hot there's nothing better than a light fish dinner, but when cold weather comes soup will hit the spot). Then using those lists I started making menus for each week, playing with the combinations so we had a good balance. (Ahh, the luxury of not flying with small children who require entertainment). And voila! Suddenly I had 6 weeks planned, and there's no reason at the end of the 6 weeks we can't just start right over at the beginning. If I am insanely organized, I can even double some of the recipes when I make them the first time, freeze them, and have them ready to go when their turn circles back around.

Here's this week's menu:

1) Atlanta Mom's Chick Pea Pasta, salad
2) Fish tacos with avocado slices (recipe to follow later!) OR butternut squash soup and cheese toast (this week we are doing the fish tacos, but on the next round we'll likely do the soup)
3) Cheeseburgers with oven fries, corn, salad
4) Roasted chicken, macaroni and cheese, peas.

Friday night pizza will be my favorite pesto and chicken pizza using the leftover chicken for the adults, and the usual pepperoni for the kiddos.

Happy eating!

This Post is Brought to You by the Letter B

Books, blueberries, and Bermuda...that's what's on my mind these days!

First, a confession. I have a been a complete and total failure at keeping my family fed this summer. I have no real excuse. Yes, our schedule has been crazy and a little unpredictable. And yes, with kids out of school I'm not driving by my favorite grocery store as often (conveniently located right next to their school). But the real problem is that not one single time this summer have I sat down on Sunday and planned out the week's meals. Have dinner fixin's on hand isn't so tough - between a well stocked pantry, a weekly farmbox delivery, and a babysitter who doesn't mind making a grocery store run, I have at least something on hand all the time. It's the thinking time that I've been lacking, because it doesn't matter how many fabulous things I have in the pantry and fridge; I absolutely cannot come up with how to put them together when it's 5pm, we're all standing around in dripping bathing suits, tired and STARVING. I really need that list on the side of the fridge telling me what to make so I can just do it on autopilot. Without it, we've either been eating sandwiches at the pool, or DH has been grabbing take out on the way home from work. I am vowing to change my ways when school starts back in 2 weeks.
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But between now and then, I am going from being barefoot in Savannah to being barefoot in Bermuda...DH and I are heading out sans enfants to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.
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In the meantime, I leave you with this fabulous recipe for blueberry cobbler from my friend Stacy, who started our book club (where we talk about our books for approximately 37 seconds and then move on to a month's worth of chatting and gossip). Stacy brought this cobbler to our last book club and it was fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. I emailed her afterwards and asked her for the recipe. Here's what she said:

I'm almost embarrassed to send the recipe b/c it is so easy to make, but not so healthy to eat. But if you're only enjoying it a couple times a month, I mean year, then it can't hurt, right?

I've been making this cobbler (without a recipe) since I was probably 5 years old. I will do my best to put it into a recipe format for you. This is probably the basic cobbler recipe that every Southern cook follows.

True Southern Blueberry Cobbler

1 cup self-rising flour (has to be self-rising, NOT all-purpose b/c it contains the leavening agents)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 stick butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the stick of butter in a 13x9x2 dish and melt in the oven.
While the butter is melting, mix the flour, milk, and sugar together with a whisk just until it is combined. After the butter is completely melted, spread the berries in the pan. Then add the milk, flour, sugar mixture on top. The butter may rise to the top, but it will be ok after it bakes. It usually takes about 20-30 minutes to bake, but it will vary depending on what size recipe you are making. Sorry I can't give you an exact time. It is ready when the top is golden brown and (like other baked goods) a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
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Enjoy!