RenovationGirl: What's On Your Plate?

For a long time, I've been wanting to blog about meal planning and cooking and all things kitchen (except cleaning my kitchen, because I fail miserably at that consistently!). Finally, after a successful and peaceful start to the year, at a time when I find myself feeling more centered than I have in a long while, I can finally start blogging about it.

Meal planning was essential in my house growing up. While I didn't realize that my mom was doing this, or if I did, couldn't really assign a name to it or the importance of it, every week, without fail, she knew what would be on that table every night for dinner. At first, it was out of financial necessity...she stayed at home with us until I was in the third grade, so living on one meager salary meant a lot of scrimping and planning. When she did go back to work, meal planning became a necessity to just have a meal on the table anytime before bedtime. Mom hates to cook. She hates to eat, too. (I know, people, can you believe it??) When you eat not for pleasure, but for survival, spending time in the kitchen is not about creating food, but getting sustenance on the table. Meal planning also cut down on the time Mom had to spend in the kitchen. (Not by much, I'm sure!)

As we got older and more responsible, Mom would leave us notes of how we were to start dinner. (Short side note here...Mom spent her career as a legal secretary, and often in her haste to leave the note, she would write it in shorthand...which we couldn't read...) Usually it was just to turn on the oven and take out whatever she had started the night before. Sometimes it was to make a salad or mix things together. (Someday, I'll have to tell you about my sister's first attempt at chili...) But it taught us more responsibility and the importance of having a nutritious meal together.

Mom would spend many Sundays in the kitchen preparing meals for the entire week. I'm guessing Saturday she grocery shopped, but for the life of me, I have no recollection of this. (I'm sure as a teen, I could have cared less!) Watching my mother and understanding on some deeper level the commitment and love this took to do this for us weekly and daily instilled in me to plan my meals and it is something I relish. Whereas mom did it out of necessity, I do it because I love cooking and planning meals and I simply love cookbooks. (One can never, ever have too many cookbooks!) Well, I do it for necessity, too, but I like doing it, so it never feels like a burden to me.

So what I'd like to do is share with you what we've been eating each week. Some nights, I work, so those nights are leftovers or I leave Remodel Man to figure it out (that means fast food...sigh...). One night a week, we do pizza-it's easy, it's the one meal that Builder Boy will definitely eat, and with carryout specials of just $6.99, it's pretty inexpensive and we still feel like we're "eating out." If I can link to the recipe, or similar ones, I'll be sure to do so. Or if it's especially good, I'll type it out for you. Hopefully, it will help you on your meal planning journey or provide you with some new recipes or just give you some ideas for your own kitchen. So, here's what last week looked like for us:

Monday - Leftovers from the weekend (I worked)

Tuesday - Chicken Broccoli Casserole

Wednesday - Slow Cooker Beef & Tortellini Marinara w/Green Beans (found in this month's Simple & Delicious magazine)

Thursday - Ground Meat Gravy (my mother-in-law's creation)

Friday - Pizza

Saturday - Steelers Party Food!!! YAY STEELERS!

So, not a stellar week, but notice that we didn't eat at a restaurant at all. This saved us a ton of money, a ton of high fat foods, and allowed us to stay home and enjoy one another's company. Win, win, win! And, of course, the biggest win of the week:

The Terrible Kitty in his Terrible Towel
Go Steelers! AFC Championship game here we come!!

Comments

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Love the Terrible Kitty!

Thanks for the chicken & broccoli recipe. It's always nice to have something new to try. :)

Posted by: Shayne | January 16, 2011 at 07:13 AM

I am so glad you posted this because I need one giant kick in the pants to get back to meal planning and eating healthy! I have to - HAVE TO - get back to this. We have spent so much money on eating out lately! Not only do I want to start meal planning, but I want to start LIKING to cook. Right now, I hate to cook. But I really want to like it! OK. OK. You made your point - I shall try!

Posted by: Ann Kimmel | January 16, 2011 at 08:53 AM

Wow, such a different mindset than I grew up with or live today. I don't think I have the ability to plan ahead like that. I grew up with an amazing cook that decided what do make each day as she went along, so I've always kind of done the same thing. We stop a lot at the store on the way home to pick up what we want to cook that evening. 1/2 of our car ride home is a discussion over what we want to eat -- it's tough to get a consensus sometimes! My first step towards improving what happens in my kitchen needs to be to organize my recipe binder. It's such an embarrassment. It's a collection of some recipes written on cards, some printed out from the internet, some written on scrap paper, some torn out from magazines, etc.
Enjoyed your post. Hope you're having a great weekend.

Posted by: Alexis | January 17, 2011 at 01:14 PM