Food for the Week

A friend from a pug board started an interesting thread about dinners, recipes, and planning. It got me thinking: can we stick to a scheduled menu for the next 6 days or will we end up with evil fast food/take out? With so many food choices so close it isn't always easy to stay on a dollar-and-calorie-budget.

(Note: And I say "we" but I guess since I am the only one that cooks, it is really "me" I'm talking about.) 

I enjoy cooking and planning and prepping and baking; I just don't love grocery shopping or cleaning up, but Joe can handle both of those. If he gets the groceries today and I do most of the preparation and planning ahead of time, there is a good chance we can pull this off.

He's actually at Guitar Center playing new guitars right now :)  but I have faith that he will make it to Albertson's and get the necessary supplies. Since cross rib roasts and London broil are buy one get one free, the meals will be slightly beef-heavy but whole chickens are also on special, so with that I'll try to balance it out with lots of root vegetables and grains. 

We're still sort of in that zone where I'm still using what I consider to be "fall/winter" vegetables (onions, potatoes, yams, carrots, citrus fruit) and transitioning into "spring/summer" produce (more fresh fruit, fresh corn, zucchini and yellow squash, tomatoes). I'm going to work on serving a small green salad (romaine, butter lettuce, whatever vegetables are left over from the night before, mushrooms, avocado, tomatoes) with either lemon or lime, or salsa as a dressing.

So this is the plan. The menu? We're having: 

• Individual baked mostaccioli casseroles with spicy turkey meatballs simmered in red sauce
• Pot roast with a lighter version of mushroom gravy, potatoes, carrots, brown mushrooms, onion
• 48 hour marinated firecracker flank steak with Thai peanut noodles and lime
• Roasted chicken and lemons baked with red potatoes and onions, served with lemon couscous  
• Lettuce wraps with chicken, mixed julienned veg, and orange/soy/sesame dipping sauce, with steamed brown rice
• Whole BBQ chicken, broccoli casserole, rice
• Extra meal (in case I'm feeling lazy) is scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, biscuits, and fruit

(All these meals served with the aforementioned green salads.)

So, this week I'm putting my kitchen skills and my will power to the test. Will we do it? I'll blog about it daily and keep myself honest that way. After all, there are at least one of you (maybe even two) reading this and that's enough to keep me on the path.