A Look at Menu Planning

This week's box contains:

• Desiree Potatoes
• Red Cabbage
• Lettuce (traded for more potatoes)
• Strawberries
• Chantenay Carrots
• Sweet Corn
• Walla Walla Onions
• Heirloom Tomatoes

Great box, especially with the lettuce traded for more potatoes.  Like last week, this proved to be a busy weekend.  I have a lot going on at work, so don't expect to have time to get creative during the week.  Next weekend I'm out of town.  Same sad story ~ great food, desire to eat well, not enough time...

One way I manage situations like this is through planning.  There is no one "right" way to plan a menu for the week and I use several.  This week I'm going for my fast and easy method:

1. Pick some generic preparation methods and map them to the days of the week.
2. Take a look at the ingredients I have on hand and align them with the selected methods.
3. Scan recipes as needed to determine what other ingredients will be needed, then build a grocery list.

Do you plan your meals for the week?  If so, what's your method?   Here's how it went for us this week:


Step One: Preparation Methods

This is as simple as listing the days of the week on which you plan to cook and picking a method or meal type that will fit in the amount of time you expect to have available.  Grilling (with charcoal anyway) takes more time and is a leisurely meal for us, so I chose that for Sunday.  All the rest are quick and easy assuming ready made ingredients or pre-preparation of those that take time (more on this later).

• Sunday: grilling
• Monday: risotto
• Tuesday: wraps
• Wednesday: stir-fry
• Thursday: pasta

Step Two: Ingredients on Hand

A quick scan of the pantry, refrigerator, and the freezer gave me a solid list of ingredients to work with.  Here's what I found that looked promising or time sensitive:

• onions
• potatoes
• tomatoes
• ginger
• garlic
• bread
• vegan sausage
• Thai curry cubes
• pesto
• chipotle tofu
• black beans
• whole wheat tortillas
• salsa
• frozen spinach
• carrots
• cabbage
• fennel
• parsley root
• turnips
• green onions
• veggie stock
• asparagus stems

After that, I just matched the list of ingredients to the list of meal types.

• Sunday: grilling (vegan sausages, green onions, fennel, corn, potatoes, bread, tomatoes
  
• Monday: risotto (sweet corn, tomatoes, onions, vegetable stock, salsa)
  
• Tuesday: wraps (whole wheat tortillas, chipotle tofu, salsa, black beans, onions)
  
• Wednesday: stir-fry (red Thai curry, potatoes, carrots, turnips, frozen spinach)
  
• Thursday: pasta (pesto, vegan sausages, carrots, fennel)

Step Three: Choose the Recipes, Build Grocery List

As I sorted out the ingredients, likely dishes came to mind:

• Sunday: Grilled Sausages with Vegetable Kabobs and Grilled Farmer's Market Bruschetta
  
• Monday: Sweet Corn Risotto with Salsa
  
• Tuesday: Black Bean Burritos
  
• Wednesday: Thai Vegetable Curry with Jasmine Rice
  
• Thursday: Whole Wheat Pasta with Pesto and Sausage and Roasted Vegetables

By dish, I referenced cookbooks and websites to find recipes that I could follow or adapt.  By looking at the recipes, I was able to build a grocery list to fill the gaps.  After a quick trip to the store, we had everything we needed on hand.

One final note.  As the saying goes, the best laid plans ... often go awry.  I know that in order to be able to prepare these dishes, I'll need to do some prep work today.  I'll clean and chop the vegetables we'll use this week, cook the rice and store it in the refrigerator, etc.

Food Across America: Route 66 Days Seven & Eight

Yesterday was a long day that wrapped up nicely at Latitude 26 Tex-Mex.  The food was good and the staff took great care of us.  I'd recommend this spot to others in the area.

We left St. Louis, MO today  ~ heading back to Silicon Valley via I-80.  While off Route 66, we are still deeply interested in the food along the way!  I must say, today has been a banner day.

We started out at the hospital with my father.  It was like the movie "Groundhog Day". I smiled to myself when I saw the breakfast provided to him (pictured below).  Strikingly similar to the buffets along our path so far... 

I have always wondered what "American food" was; I guess the unmistakable pattern we've seen over the past week is the classic American breakfast! 

Dinner tonight was nothing short of stunning.  As a reminder, I'm a vegan and Sean is not.  Lots of compromise happens when we dine.  Tonight was a nearly perfect situation with fantastic meals for each of our individual tastes.

Using Yelp on our iPad, we found a vegan restaurant within minutes from the city's best barbecue.  Both restaurants offered carry-out menus on their web sites, so we were all set.

Sean ordered the rib combo platter (which was enough for 3 people).  It included beef ribs, pork spareribs, pork short ribs and lamb ribs as well as baked beans and french fries.  Nothing was less than excellent, but according to Sean, nothing but the ribs mattered.  The menu itself is incredibly broad; if we were local, Sean would work his way through it.

Star of Show: lamb ribs (due primarily to their novelty; this is the first time he'd seen lamb ribs as an option).

Eden Alley's menu was equally broad. Thankfully their staff was incredibly helpful in narrowing the field of options.  We settled on half orders of the roasted potato burrito (daily special) and the spinach and mushroom loaf.  Truly amazing.

Star of Show: roasted potato burrito; the diablo sauce was incredible.

Food Across America: Route 66 Day Four

The breakfast in Albuquerque was nearly identical to the breakfast in Flagstaff.  The only difference is that Albuquerque offered tortillas in addition to the other bread products.  I am amazed at the lack of variation and the minute amount of local flair.

This morning, the only option for me, oatmeal, was not yet fully cooked so I headed to the market within the lobby to see if there were choices there.  No such luck.  I opted for an apple, an orange, and some oatcakes from the stash I brought from home.

Lunch was really good.  We stopped at Jorge's Tacos Garcia in Amarillo.  I had a margarita and the "Tex-Mex Stir Fry", which consisted of zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers, onions, mushrooms and roasted corn sauteed then served with corn tortillas. After scooping off the cheese and sour cream, I was all set.

Dinner was vastly different than the last two nights.  We went to "Big Vern's 66 Steakhouse" just down the street from our hotel and pictured above.  I had a baked potato and a side of steamed vegetables.  Sean went for the ribeye, which by all accounts was better than average...

Today reminded me how hard it is to make good choices when it comes to food.  My preferences aside, if you're looking for a healthy meal (referencing the USDA's guidelines as an example) these buffets and restaurants don't set the average person up for success.   Of course choices infer you have options, which is another, very important discussion in its own right.

Tomorrow night ~ Joplin, Missouri.



At home this week, the box contains:

• Fennel
• Spinach
• Salad OR Little Gem Lettuce
• Strawberries
• Cherry Tomatoes OR Green Beans
• Chives
• Chantenay Carrots
• Basil OR Mystery
• Erbette Chard OR Red Beets

Our good friends David and Marina are picking it up and will share their culiary adventures once complete.

Box Contents July 15, 2008

This week's box contains:

• Lettuce (red leaf, green leaf, or butter)
• Mystery of Fruit
• Leeks
• Cabbage or cauliflower
• Bok Choy
• Beets or red chard
• Onions
• Carrots
• Summer Squash
• Gypsy Peppers

I'm on the road this week, so my friend David picked up the box. We should hear from him about how he used shortly.

Remnants of last week's box is still hanging around. We used the spinach and the zucchini on our grilled pizzas and the new potatoes for a pesto potato salad. The strawberries molded quickly, so hit the compost pile early this week. I'm going to try a Mexican-inspired pesto with the cilantro and will likely roast the turnips with a bit of truffle salt.