Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Monthly Meal Planning Update

As mentioned in my last post, I decided to tackle the very arduous task of planning a monthly meal calendar.  Actually, I'm starting small and did just 2 weeks.  The actual decision as to what to fix for dinner was the easy part.  I took stock of what was in my freezer and pantry and then found recipes utilizing those items.  What's been difficult, and majorly time-consuming is going through each recipe, making a master grocery list, checking off what I already have and then dividing the remaining ingredients into individual grocery store lists based on which store carries what.  Sounds easy enough right?

Well, I made my monthly trip to Trader Joe's this morning with my list in hand.  Per list, I bought the can of organic kidney beans for the Crock Pot Barbecue Baked Beans that I am making as a side for our Saturday night hot dog dinner.  I forgot to write down the 3 cans I needed for tonight's Red Beans and Rice meal.  So....2nd official night into my monthly meal planning, and I'm already short a key ingredient!  How frustrating!!  Thank goodness I was able to raid my best friend and neighbor's pantry for my missing ingredients.

Tomorrow, I'm doing my Harris Teeter and Super Target shopping, hopefully for the only time this week and next week.  What are the odds that I'll get everything I need??