Meal Planning

So perhaps you are wondering where I get all the recipes on this blog, how I decide what to make, how I make a shopping list, where I shop, and how much time and money this all takes me.  Maybe you're not.  But I'll tell you anyway, because it's a process that I have fine tuned for about three years now, and I think I've got it down.

We subscribe to a community supported agriculture (CSA) project through Full Belly Farm.  We get a box of fruit and vegetables weekly, which seems like a pretty good place to start.  Each week, I take a look at what we're getting in the CSA, make a list of vegetables still remaining in the fridge, and take inventory of other ingredients to use up.  Then I come up with seven meals that make the most efficient use of everything.

For example, if the CSA contains broccoli, potatoes, carrots, lettuce, onions, spinach, and chard, and I still have sweet potatoes and beets in the fridge, plus some whole wheat pasta, couscous, lentils, and black beans, I'll probably come up with some roasted root vegetable dish, a pasta dish that involves broccoli, potato and chard enchiladas with black beans on the side, and a few simple dishes that can be served with a side salad.  That's a good starting point.  I'll fill in with recipes that I've been sitting on for a while, as I mark whatever makes it onto my radar as a delicious dish to try.  I go through my cookbooks, cooking magazines (I got a huge pile of old issues of Food and Wine for free a few months ago), and my favorite food website, Taste Spotting, which is like a run down of all the best food blogs.  I'll also click the "Surprise Me!" button on Smitten Kitchen if I'm in need of some real inspiration.

Once I have a meal plan, I make a list of ingredients and cross off the ones we already have.  What I'm left with is what I'll need to cook for the week.  The rest of the list will be things I buy every week (corn flakes, milk, orange juice, yogurt, seasonal fruit for lunches and snacks, bread) or things we don't go through every week but run out of on a fairly regular basis (butter, cheese, salami, coffee, olive oil, flour, sugar, etc.).  Bright and early on Sunday morning, I head out to Trader Joe's for dairy, bread, cereal, etc. and Berkeley Bowl for produce and bulk.  I don't know what I would do without bulk food; it makes buying things like flour, grains, legumes, nuts, teas, and spices dirt cheap.  All told, I attempt to spend $80-100 each week on groceries, which does not include the $16 for the CSA box.  For three adults, it's not that bad.

This is the system that works for us, and it's been perfected over many years.  It demands planning, but the result is no wasted food, as I only purchase ingredients that already have a recipe waiting for them.  Each week, I write out a menu on the kitchen chalkboard, which serves several purposes.  It means that the diabetic in the house can program her pump accordingly, and it means the person who does not appreciate surprises knows what she'll be eating all week.  It means I have a visual reminder of what's for dinner and a sense of accomplishment for feeding three adults healthy food relatively cheaply.  We out out sparingly and spend dinnertime together as a family, which is a habit that has been linked to lifelong health.