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I recently taught a class for Seattle Free School at the Broadview Library about meal planning and grocery shopping and wanted to share the information to my blog audience as well. Meal planning will be put forward in four sections, the introduction found here , part  2 for meal planning basics for everyone, part 3 for smaller families, and part 4 for larger families. Grocery shopping will  be its own post. Feedback is always welcomed.  General information on the teaching aspect and how it went is at Seattlejo.com here.
Meal Planning Basics

Square one, a place to start.

This is the most simple element of grocery shopping. Simply I take a notebook or excel spreadsheet and write down the days of the week,  and what the date is like this.

6-Oct Monday

7-Oct Tuesday

8-Oct Wednesday

9-Oct Thursday

10-Oct Friday

I recccomend that this list is at least 2 weeks long, and have even gone as far as a month. This does not need to coincide with your grocery shopping days.

From there, I lable the dates that I’m going to be out. For my family size it means that I may ask someone else to make dinner, I might have a crock pot meal going, or we may order out.  For a smaller family it might mean a planned leftovers night, a planned crock pot meal for when people do get home, or again, eating out. Then I begin labeling with meals  that I want to make.

This is where it gets tricky. How do you know what you want to eat?  I remember reading once that the average person eats the same 20 meals over and  over. Regular repeats. While thats not bad, one of the benefits of meal planning like this is that you get to add some variety into routine, and are aware of your ruts.  So first, look at your cravings. Ask your housemembers what they want to eat. Think about what you want to cook.  Look at cookbooks, recipe websites for inspiration, meal planning services, even what your favorite restaruants serve (see the links at the end of this post for what inspires me). These are all inspirational items you can make.

Still need more help? One trick I’ve used in the past is to  theme each day, and go from there.  Here is an example of what I’ve done.

• Monday : Soup/Sandwich/Salad. During the winter this is soup and sandwiches, during the summer its salads as well. A soup and salad doesnt have to be grilled cheese and tomatos soup, but it could be. It could also be Pho and Vietnamese sandwiches, it could be meatball subs and minestrone, or cuban sandwhiches with a chopped vegetable salad. So many options for interpertations here.

• Tuesday: Vegetarian. This means pulling out recipes that omit the meat. Pasta with garlic and olive oil, pancakes with fresh fruit, veggie burgers, tofu pad thai, beans and rice.

• Wednesday: Comfort foods.  Chicken pot pie, Tuna casserole, roasted turkey breast with all the trimmings, meatloaf and mashers, sheperds pie and so on.

• Thursday : Meat. Your meat is predominant on your plate for this meal. That means pork chops, steaks, baked chicken, pot roast, and so on. Obviously some of what goes in this day could go in comfort foods.

• Friday : Take out. No we arent ordering take out, we’re making take out. I make a great pad thaii, lemon chicken , and sweet and sour pork. I love making pizza at home. With the pizza crust recipe from Joy of Cooking, I can make a big batch  freeze it and have pizza crust at the ready.

• Saturday :Grill. Whether its a grill pan or out in the yard saturday is great day for grilled chicken, burgers, fajitas, grilled veggies and so on.

• Sunday: Cooking Class. On Sundays I have the most time available for cooking projects. So I’ll pull out a cookbook and learn more complicated techniques or pick up a skill I didnt have before. This is how I leared hollandaise sauce for eggs benedict, and its how Miss Thing learned to make her famous chicken katsu.

So now you’ve done it, you have a list that looks like this

6-Oct    Monday    Meatball Subs  and Caprese salad

7-Oct    Tuesday    Pancakes with fruit

8-Oct    Wednesday    Tuna Noodle Casserole

9-Oct    Thursday    Pork Chops with stuffing and corn

10-Oct    Friday    Okonomayaki and Chicken Katsu

11-Oct    Saturday    Grilled Chicken with rice and zuccini

12-Oct    Sunday    Homemade Spaghetti with garlic bread and broccoli

13-Oct    Monday    Turkey Strudel with Vegetable Beef Soup

14-Oct    Tuesday    Potato stuffed perogies, roasted beets

15-Oct    Wednesday    Hedgehogs, Green beans

16-Oct    Thursday    Kielbasa with roasted potatoes and fresh spinach salad

17-Oct    Friday    Sweet and Sour Pork, rice,  broccoli with garlic

18-Oct    Saturday    Smoked Turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce.

19-Oct    Sunday    Make your own pizza day

Even if you only shop every couple of days because of your fridge space, this gives you a plan of attack for those trips. You will know that you can buy a larger package of Pork and freeze half of it to cover two meals. You’ll also know what you are adding to the pantry for future meals.

Next time you sit down to plan use this same list. You’ll know what you’ve just eaten so you don’t repeat and you’ll know what you liked for items you want to repeat.  No matter if you use the large family plan, small family plan or a different plan over all. Plan it out.

Sources of inspiration

Recipe sites

Food Network,

Cooking Light,

Epicurious

Meal planning places.

Month of Meals,

Zone Seattle ,

Dancing Women,

Lucky Palate,

Delicious Planet ,

Tumeric’n more,

Julia’s Indonesian Kitchen.

Dinner’s Ready

Dream Dinners

Sites that plan for you

Saving Dinner

Relish

I recently taught a class for Seattle Free School  at the Broadview Library about meal planning and grocery shopping and wanted to share the information to my blog audience as well. Meal planning will be put forward in four sections, this introduction, part  2 for meal planning basics for everyone, part 3 for smaller families, and part 4 for larger families. Grocery shopping will  be its own post. Feedback is always welcomed.  General information on the teaching aspect and how it went will show up in Seattlejo.com shortly.

Meal Planning, an introduction.

This is not meal planning for dummies. Not because you need to come into this class with previous knowledge but because I don’t consider anyone a dummie for not knowing this. My mom was great about teaching me how to cook. From the time that I was three  I was in the kitchen. Mom taught everything from the family kolatchkies to her spaghetti sauce and chili. By the time I was a teenager, I was able to make meels on my own at home. But no one ever sat me down and said “Here is a budget you need to feed 3 people for 2 weeks, and here are the allergies you are cooking around.”  Even if you had that happen in class in highschool, thats still a simulation, and as we all know, real life is different.

Why am I qualified to “teach”? Because i’m experienced. Part of the beauty of Seattle Free School is that you don’t need to be a certified instructor, you just have to have enough expertise to feel like you can share.  At this time, I’m feeding a family of 6 for a total of $500 a month. That includes breakfast, lunches and dinners.  It works out to about $83 a person a month and we’re feeding 4 adults and 1 child, and 1 teenager. I’ve done this or a variation of this for the past 5 years. 

Why plan meals?
It all comes down to three basics, health, time and money.

• Health : Planning meals is healthier because you know what you are eating. You can plan indulgencies, and you know what is going into your diet. Even if you arent planning a “diet” meal plan, you’re going to do better then eating out all the time.
• Time: Having a plan means there is less of the “What am I having for dinner” dance each night. There is less incentive to stop by the local thai place to pick up dinner (adding to health there)  Planning ahead means you are cognizent of what you are cooking and the time involved.
• Money: Planning saves money because you are eating out less, you are working through your pantry foods regularly and you don’t have to stop at the grocery store for every meal. Stopping at the store for every meal is crazy expensive.  I stop to pick up items for 1 meal and it runs me $40, but shopping for 2 weeks worth of dinners runs me only $250.

You’re never going to eat all your meals at home. You’re never going to avoid eating out entirely, but having a plan will help!

Part two will cover some planning basics, including a discussion of different planning methods.
Part three will cover specific information for smaller families
Part four will cover specific information for larger families.

It’s October already! Time to start thinking of holiday crafts, holiday cookies, holiday fruitcakes, holiday cards! I’m going to be working on a mock up of our holiday card for the year before I set to making 50 or so of them.
In the meantime, there has been stamping.
I’ve made thank you cards, and Halloween cards
 

20 of the Thank you cards got packed into a card box given to church for a fundraiser. 20 Thank you, 10 Birthday, 10 Holiday, 10 Sympathy cards. They went for the price asked for, though I think they were valued a little low at $30 for 50 cards.

On the needles:

I’m still working on the Maple Syrup sweater, but have slowed down. I know I need more yarn and am just unsure about when I’ll be able to order it.
I’m also working on socks, as they are the perfect portable project as I bus back and forth to Bothell. I’m to the point where I know 2/3 of the sock pattern by heart.

This weeks grocery shopping trip was  preempted by car difficulty. We can’t go without our groceries so Leah made a quick trip to Cash and Carry and I placed an order online through Safeway.  Since part of the shopping had been done already, I was working with a portion of our budget and placed my order so that I was within our regular budget amount.

The order arrived today. It came about an hour and half late, though they did call and let me know.  However we did have a small problem.

They gave me too much meat. The pork loin was listed as follows.

What they delivered was 5 packages of meat, ranging from 8lbs to 10lbs.  So instead of getting the 15lbs of meat that I ordered I got 40lbs.

40 POUNDS!!!! At a $30 price difference

I called customer service and they offered a  credit, for that and a promotional code issue I had. The big question was, how do I avoid this in the future.
“Well they offer meat by the package and the weight may vary”
“By 25 lbs???”

She agreed that it was perhaps excessive, and suggested I include a note for my personal shopper next time. 
What would the note say? “Use logic?” “Don’t send enough meat to feed the neighborhood?”

What note do you think I should give the personal shopper next time?

I don’t know where they came from*, but as soon as I got home it was clear, we were under attack! By Monsters!!!!

From Blog Photos

As you can see they greeted me at the door, as I came into the house I found them everywhere!

From vases,

From Blog Photos

To Bookshelves

Read more… »

From Blog Photos

” I won”t take a picture of your food this time.” I promised
“Good!” Aron replied
“Because the camera is out of batteries” I finished honestly

Aron does not approve of me taking pictures of his food. Especially if he’s already started eating it.  Today my camera was dead so there were no pictures of skillet fried chicken that graced my plate for lunch.
Skillet Street food is special. The trailer has 4-5 locations throughout the city and  is there one day each week. The most convienent for me is Thursday’s in Fremont. Except starting next week  I’ll be in class in Thursdays in Bothell. Tuesday as well, or else I’d go join my friend  Susan in  SODO for lunch occasionally.

So i knew today was my last chance for a while. Add to the fact that Susan promoted this week’s lunch  special : Fried Chicken. I love fried chicken. LOVE  LOVE LOVE.  I like Albertson’s fried chicken. I like KFC. I like homemade chicken.  I just have a love for chicken marinated, battered or breaded and fried. I don’t make it often as it falls into my category of pain in the ass foods.

Todays fried chicken was boneless with a cayenne kick. A side of fries and  a salad that I added to the order was too much food*. (Aron likes their burger)  Luckily Aron ate most of my fries and  my second piece of chicken. it made me happy. From being able to order ahead and pay with paypal, to the friendly staff, the skillet   is such a treat to do business with. 

Perhaps winter quarter I’ll have class on MondayWednesday, and still get my skillet fix.

*The chicken comes with bibb salad, well i wanted fries, but I also wanted to try the salad. so i ordered a salad to split with Aron.  However he was uninterested in the salad because the put dressing all over it.

My project today and tomorrow is to warp up my inkle loom, and Miss Bit’s inkle loom. It’s got me thinking of weaving and looms in general. I’m stilling pining away for a rigid heddle loom, but have tabled the idea of getting one until I’m back at work full time. Instead I’m still weaving on the box, working on the inkle loom and looking for other “outside the box” weaving projects.

I’m really interested in this pipe loom. The book, Kids Weaving, shows it being used to make pouches for example. While googling around the ‘net it also appears that these kind of looms can be used for tapestry weaving.

I’m still looking for card weaving classes, hoping to be able to figure out the getting started phase. Once I get started, I think I’ll be able to figure it out.

On that note, I wanted to share a new resource I found, Weavezine, an online weaving magazine. It even includes inkle loom projects, something that traditional magazines don’t include often

I’m trying to start a new tradition at Circus Maximus of Pizza night. Its an every other week thing, on Sunday night after we have gone grocery shopping. We’ve done two of them so far and they’ve worked out so well, that I look forward to continuing on.

How does Pizza night work?
First I make a batch of the pizza dough from the Joy of Cooking. I can’t tell you how great this dough is. It is my basic go to do for pizza, foccacia and grilled bread. It doubles easily and can even be frozen.

Then come the toppings. I fry up a little sausage, roast some garlic, saute some garlic, open up some pepperoni, caramelize some onions. Add some pizza sauce, oregano, mixed italian herbs and cheese. These all end up set out on the dining room table, as a topping buffet.

I preheat the oven to between 500-550.
I roll out the dough right on a silpat mat, and take it to the dining room table. There the intended household member adds toppings to their liking and gives me the go ahead when they are done. That pizza goes into the oven and the second one is rolled out. We usually end up with one in the oven, one waiting for the oven, and one being topped.

The kids love doing it, and I find it satisfies pizza cravings without having to call for delivery. We’ll gradually get more exotic on the toppings, but for now the basics fit our appetites.

Pizza Dough
Mix in a large bowl to proof.
2 1/4 tsps active dry yeast
1 1/3 c warm water.

Let proof for 5 minutes, then add

3 1/2 –3 3/4 all purpose flour
2 tbls olive oil
1 tbls salt
1 tbls sugar.

Mix by hand to blend. Knead for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly coated with olive oil, turn it once to coat. Cover and let rise until doubled in volume.
Roll out, let rest 10-15 minutes. Then top and bake at 475.

From Food

My Mom’s cookbooks were cherished in our family. There is wisdom in these pages. Family members names were tied to the recipes they contributed. Some recipes were designated with “the one we use” to differentiate it from others in the book. Other recipes are grease stained and nearly translucent from aging.

These were the tried and true recipes my mom used. Need to make cookies? There recipe is right there. Want a good “Amish” pot roast? The recipe is there. Mom also included other information, particularly from the years she did canning. I can see how much 20 pints of bread and butter pickles cost her to make in 1982. (.15 per pint) There is the grape jelly recipe that she and my stepfather gave away in wine glasses as a wedding favor when they got married.

My recipes come from all over. I use a variety of cookbooks to fill my cooking needs, but there are cookbooks I turn to more frequently then others. One particular book has lost its cover, and it’s spine is dying. Others have wrinkly pages where they got hit with water. I keep going to the same recipes over and over.

So I made a kitchen book, much like my moms. I have a few of her recipes included, but we eat differently now. The book is done, 36 pages of recipes. From puffy pancakes and garlic cheese biscuits to chocolate tofu pie and debaroni.There is a little bit of everything, but 99% of it represents my tried and true. It’s got a spot in the kitchen and I’m glad to start using it.

Next i need to start organizing those “to try” recipes that I never seem to get to , and figure a way to add them to my menus.

This was a fun little project. It didnt take to long, but makes a nice little impact.

I started with a shoebox that I was using for my stationary.

From Blog Photos

And added decorative paper. The box above is the bottom box in this picture. There are two covered shoe boxes and another random box that got covered. Its a cuter way to store my office supplies.

From Blog Photos