Weekly Menus

Since we moved into our new apartment and met our wonderful new neighbours J & P (now our wonderful friends), I have been copying J's method for grocery shopping and weekly menu planning. I had heard of people doing this, but hadn't actually seen it in action. Seeing her do it made it seem like something simple that I could do, too.

I was so surprised the first time I opened her fridge door and realized the fridge was practically empty, save for a few condiments! (Don't worry, she goes into our fridge without asking too. I love that we have this relationship.)

And she told me, well, we ate everything I bought at the grocery store this week - that's why the fridge is empty!

And that's when it struck me that if I planned my meals and only bought food for the actual meals, I wouldn't waste as much! Before, I would go to the grocery store without a plan, buying just food that I liked or felt like eating. But then I would get home, look at the random ingredients in my fridge and not know what to do with them. Or invariably be missing the one ingredient I needed for a recipe.

Meal planning is great. If I'm the one doing the meal planning, I'm making food that I already know I like (or that I want to try), so there's no "I don't feel like eating this tonight". Ok, so I will switch it up sometimes, eat Tuesday's meal on Wednesday. But by the end of the week I've almost always made all the meals I'd planned on making! And I always start with what's already in my fridge or pantry when I make meals so I actually USE what I have. (Ingredient search helps a ton.)

Another tip she gave me is always freezing portion-sized leftovers. Lunches are so easy now - grab a container from the freezer and go! And you don't necessarily have to eat the same thing you ate last night. I usually have enough portions left over for several meals, so I always have lots of frozen meals to choose from when I pack my lunch.

I'm going to miss J & P so much when they move at the end of the month! They'll only be a 15-minute car ride away, but still... it won't be the same.

Trying out new recipes

I’ve made two ‘dud’ recipes in the past two weeks. I guess that’s part of trying out new recipes, but it’s still somewhat disappointing.

Last night I decided to make zucchini sticks, which I love, since my grandmother gave me some leftover caesar dressing I wanted to use up (it was a great dip!). I’ve never made zucchini sticks at home, but I thought, why not? I even found a recipe for baked zucchini sticks on Epicurious.

So I made up some bread crumbs, did the triple-dipping thing (flour, egg, bread-crumb topping) and stuck them in the oven. Well, they were edible… but it’s a good thing I really like zucchini because that’s pretty much all they tasted like.

The moral of the story: some things taste better fried. No, wait, everything tastes better fried. So I guess I should say there are some things that only taste good fried!

I don’t know if I’ll actually try making fried zucchini sticks one of these days because (a) I try to avoid fatty foods and (b) frying makes a giant mess and stinks up the house. Oh, and it scares me. I spilled some olive oil from a dish in the oven the other day and it set the oven on fire…

By the way, the other dud was a recipe for Moroccan Chickpea Stew. I thought it would be really flavourful, which I guess it was, but I found the tomato flavour overpowering. Maybe I’m just not used to eating tomatoes anymore? (MB isn’t a fan.) Actually, not true – I had a tomato sandwich the other day and it was GREAT. Yum. But anyway, I don’t think I’ll be making that recipe again.

On the other hand, one new recipe I tried recently had my friend raving about it – it’s a good way to make cauliflower interesting (recipe here). I didn’t think it was that great, but I’ll probably make it again just to see how it turns out.

Some food blogs I like: Smitten Kitchen (beautiful photos), Chocolate and Zucchini (there's an English version of her blog as well), Not Martha (not just a food blog)and 30 Bucks a Week. I just recently discovered One Frugal Foodie. And I also regularly check out Epicurious (obviously) and Mark Bittman's column in the New York Times.

A chef's goal

A random goal: learn to cook with tofu. And make it taste good.

I was looking up recipes last night and found a lot of very highly-rated tofu recipes, but most of them involved frying - duh, everything deep-fried tastes good! But I know it's possible to make good food with tofu in it (with all the nutritious qualities it has, on top of being dirt-cheap) -- I have made an avocado dip with tofu in it before that was really delicious. There's a teriyaki tofu recipe that I'll be trying for sure.

To be continued...

Recipe

There are only two ingredients in pasta?? Really?

To make: fresh pasta!