Sunday, March 25, 2012

New Addition: Menu Planning Sunday!

Another new addition to Sea Salt n Pepa! That's two in just one week. I'm on a roll! Or finally just buckling down to be the blogger I've always wanted to be. Either one.


Anyway, every week I plan my week's meals, what I'm going to blog that week, etc. prior to going foodshopping. Foodshopping is pretty much my favorite thing ever, so having a list of what I am getting stops me from buying EVERYTHING in the grocery store. I just, exactly 5 seconds ago, decided I need to take pictures of my amazing grocery store, Fairway...
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Sorry, distracted myself thinking about Fairway. Back to the topic! I like to plan out my meals, at least my weekday meals, ahead of time so that I can go foodshopping for all the ingredients I need in one fell swoop. I do the majority of my shopping on Sunday's so I have time to wander around and don't feel like I'm in a rush. Then if there's something that could go bad (i.e. fish for Thursday that would be stinky way before then) I just have to run in and out to grab that.


Menu planning also lets me plan meals that have similar ingredients, which is really important since most of the time I'm cooking for only one! If I had entirely different ingredients for seven different dinners, my grocery bill would go through the roof.


From now on, I'm going to let you in on that process with a little something I am calling Menu Planning Sunday. I even made that cute logo for it! Very exciting, I know. 


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So my mum came to NYC this weekend to look at property with my brother in the Catskills, and I had the lovely responsibility of taking care of my dog Kodi (no sarcasm at all, Kodi is probably one of my favorite people in the world, and she's a dog...)

who wouldn't love this little nugget? And by little I mean 65 lbs so...biggish nugget?

Anyway, this little look into my weekend has a point for Menu Planning Monday--my mum, to thank me for caring for Bear so she didnt have to drag Kod with her to all the properties, went to the Ardmore Farmer's Market near my parents' house and got meat for me for next week! One of the reasons I don't eat that much meat is cause, to be completely honest, it's super expensive in New York! I think everything at Fairway is extremely reasonably priced, minus the meat--which causes me to not buy it, which is actually not a bad thing. But sometimes I just need a little iron in my diet.

So my fabulous mum stopped and picked me up red snapper, a NY strip steak, a pork loin, 2 chicken breasts, a lb of ground meat and my favorite eggplant lasagna from DiBruno's. So this makes my menu planning a bit easier since I don't need to decide what I'm in the mood for since I already have all of my proteins! So here goes...

Sunday (already made, will blog about later): Steamed Red Snapper Packets

Monday: Take out since I will be working late

Tuesday: Steak with mashed potatoes and asparagus
While I'm waiting for this to cook, I'm going to make mozzarella stuffed meatballs with the lb. of mixed meat (pork, veal and beef) my mom got me for dinner later this week. Because it can take a while and I did not have time on Sunday, I would be WAY too hungry to make and eat the meatballs the same night. Also, I have a happy hour on Thursday so will be eating after that and a birthday party on Friday that I need to eat before, so pre-cooking my food is super convenient.

WednesdaySpinach and ricotta stuffed chicken breast
While I'm waiting for the chicken to cook, I'll cook the pork tenderloin as it takes a while to roast.

Thursday: Pork tenderloin with sauteed apples and leeks

Friday: Mozzarella-stuffed meatballs

Saturday: Marinated salmon with broccoli and corn

And there you have it! With this list, I can easily go to the grocery store to get all of the ingredients I need. This week is especially easy since I have all my proteins, so I have a bit of leeway as to how I want to prepare since my spending will be low without buying meat/fish. Next week you'll see how my meals use similar ingredients to keep my food shopping bill down.

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