"Kalmia" > wrote in message
...
> I'm going to turn over a new cooking leaf. I'm sick of panicking at 4
> pm and then trying to thaw something, finding out I am lacking an
> ingredient, feeling rushed, and then resorting to going out.
> Today I decided what to make when I woke up, pulled the needed
> ingredients, thawed the meat -- things went smoothly and I had a more
> relaxed day. I won't utter a clue on how many years ago I should have
> started this plan.
>
> Is this your routine or what?

Depends on how our schedule is going. At times I plan out all of the meals
for the week prior to shopping. I do the bulk of the shopping on Friday but
I don't buy the meat at that store. I usually buy that on Sat. or Sun. Not
that we have meat every night, because we don't.

Right now I don't really have to do that. My daughter is only taking dance
classes two days of the week but she is there for many hours. We need a
quick meal after. Tonight she had a toasted cheese sandwich. I had a can
of bean soup. And we had raw veggies. I have already planned tomorrow's
meal because I have some food I am trying to use up. Will be a tuna
casserole for her, using spaghetti. I will have a similar casserole but
with ground beef and beef gravy. I have boxed gravy that I need to use up.

What I do is go through the cupboards every once in a while and pull out
anything that is close to expiring. Then I plan to make something to use it
up.

Currently it is just the two of us. I just have her look for whatever looks
good to her in the store. She is on the South Beach diet so that severely
limits her choices. Mainly whole wheat pasta, brown rice, sweet potatoes,
beans, any kind of meat or fish (although she dislikes most fish), cheese,
eggs, fruit and whatever veggies she wants.

I am easy. When it's just me, I rarely cook. If I do cook for myself I
will just make a big pot of soup or chili and just eat that all week. Or I
will have taco salads, which I guess isn't really cooking except for the
meat part. Otherwise I will have peanut butter and jelly, hummus and flat
bread, canned bean soup (like tonight) or canned beans in taco shells or on
tortillas. I eat plenty of raw veggies. We always have raw veggies in this
house.

All this will change when my husband gets home. Currently things are up in
the air because he has yet to get a job. He is retiring from the military.
I suppose the type of food I fix for him will depend on what his current
weight is and/or what kind of job he gets and when he gets off of work.

At first when he gets home it will be a big push to eat up all that we have
in the freezer that my daughter and I can not currently eat. Like the Amy's
bean burritos. And there are a few small things like little pizzas and hot
pockets. Not his favorite foods but I really need to clean out that freezer
in the garage so I can defrost it while the weather is warm. I also bought
some whole wheat thin pizza crusts at World Market and also some sweet
potato gnocchi.

Then I will settle into some kind of routine. But I will probably plan
things out in advance by at least 2-3 days.

I am mostly a planning kind of person. I do have a few meals I can pull
together quickly if I need to because I always have those things in the
house. Some kind of sandwich, hummus with flat bread or veggies, bean
tacos, some kind of pasta, some kind of rice dish. But my husband and
daughter do tire of these things so I am constantly on the lookout for new
meals to fix.

As a general rule, I do not like to keep meat in the freezer. I will keep
some cooked ground beef, cooked seasoned taco meat, cooked burger patties
and chicken. That's about it. I don't like to freeze raw meat and will
only do it if I have some kind of meat that's about to go bad and I don't
have time to cook it. Or if we have been snowed in and can't get to a
proper grocery store. The health food store around the corner from us does
sell really good organic meat but they keep it frozen.