Big questions of the day: what to wear and what's for dinner. I can't help you with what to wear, but I do have some help for answering the what's for dinner question.
The other day I realized that great recipes are everywhere. They are online, in books, in magazines, in your head, on little cards at the grocery store. A search on Amazon for books using the term cookbook yields 102,622 results. And we are still looking for recipes. A lack of recipes is not the problem with deciding what to eat for dinner. The problem is menu planning, especially if you are focusing on wellness and eating more healthy foods. At least for me that is definitely the hardest part.
If I wait until I am hungry and it is time to eat a meal, I end up choosing whatever is fast and is easy to prepare. Even with vegan foods that often means I will be eating the more processed and least healthy choices in the kitchen.
Now that I know what is the most difficult task between me and a healthy meal, I have been putting more effort into planning menus for the week. I am naturally quite a planner and list maker, so I have easily found a system that works for me. I need to plan three meals a day.You might not need to plan so many meals, so you may have an easier task than I do. Even if breakfast is oatmeal with fruit (again) and lunch is leftovers from dinner (ideal), I need it in writing. Dinner is what takes the most effort to plan and prepare, but 3 meals a day must be in my own plan.
1. On my paper I write the seven days of the week and "B", "L" and "D" with enough space to add a brief list of the dishes for each meal. This should all be on the left side of the page so you can put your grocery list on the right.
2. It helps if at least some of the days are set meals. For instance on Monday or Tuesday, we go to the local pizza store to take advantage of their really great prices on those days. We order a pizza with just tomato sauce, stop at The Boys Market for a box of grilled vegetables, and finish our own pizza in the toaster oven. Sometimes when I really feel like cooking, I grill my own veggies. I gave up on the homemade pizza years ago because I just can't compete with a professional oven. Or maybe you have plans to eat out for lunch or dinner during the week and know you won't have to be shopping for ingredients for those meals. So that is one day.
3. Choose two menus that you like to prepare that will provide enough food to give you leftovers for dinner. That is four days more.
4. Think about what vegetables are in season and plan a dinner and lunch around them. Now we have 6 days of dinners planned.
5. Choose one more dinner based on beans, pasta, or rice depending on the other selections you have made so far.
6. Now you have menus written on your piece of paper for 7 dinners and any other meals you have planned. Look at the recipes you will use or review the ingredients in your head. Check your supplies in the kitchen to see what is missing. Write the items for your shopping list to the right of the menus.
If you need a little more help, check back tomorrow and I will share my meals from last week's menu planning.
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