Andrew and I have a lot of really good intentions when it comes to cooking, but we also can get very easily persuaded/sucked into a routine of eating on campus/out during the workday and opting for a "quick meal" out (we are the regulars at the Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood, and on good weeks, the Panera by our gym). We're both good cooks, creative in what we like, and we know we eat so much better when we cook for ourselves.
Because it's January, like the rest of America, we've been feeling self-imposed pressure to do a little better when it comes to meals. I'm not really a fan of grocery shopping, and Andrew isn't really a fan of meal planning, so we've had to pool talents and motivate each other a little bit to come up with solutions that work with our busy mornings, busy days, and mostly busy evenings.
Both Andrew and I thrive under a system I think of as "variety within a routine." Really, Andrew could probably take a turkey sandwich to work every day for a year, while I would revolt after 2 days. But every now and then, for a semester or a season, we'll institute these silly lunchroom habits of "Pizza Fridays" and the like. We used to make pizza every Friday before Andrew had to cover basketball or football, but now that he's no longer a sportswriter, we've continued Pizza Fridays at our favorite area pizza places as a cheap date at the end of the week. During the fall and winter, I love making soups, so several years ago I instituted "Soup Thursdays." Completely non-related, I used to take horseback riding lessons on Monday nights and found that I absolutely dreaded leaving home on a Monday after a long day at work (and often not enough time spent at home over the weekend) so we created "Sacred Monday" which means nobody plans anything on Monday nights. It's just our night to relax so we have energy for the rest of the week (right...I know this is the supposed purpose of weekends). Mondays have often also been Meatless Mondays in our house, espcially when I'm in a more vegetarian leaning than omnivore.
But what inevitably happens is that seasons change (Pizza Friday turns into "Grill out" - which is the theme of pretty much every night in the summer, unless is "Go to a baseball game and eat there), schedules change, and we end up back in a rut.
We're starting week 3 of my semester (Andrew's workplace is on tri-mesters, so I have yet to really figure that out), so my day-to-day work schedule finally has its kinks worked out and I'm falling into a groove. Unfortunately, since I'm on the go so much, it's also been a groove with way too much fast food - which is not good. Both Andrew and I are lucky that we have healthy, pretty affordable options to eat on campus, but I have a few days a week where eating on campus isn't an option. Sometimes I have access to a microwave, and one day a week, pretty much everything in my lunchbag needs to be cold, snack options like hummus and pita, carrots, etc.
Anyway, so with all of these things in mind, meal planning can be a giant puzzle. We finally figured out a roadmap, that should hopefully last us most of the semester:
Mondays -
Lunch: On campus or packed
Dinner: Crock pot
(No one wants to cook on Sacred Monday - so the crockpot is our answer to no one having to cook. Brilliant, huh?)
Tuesdays -
Lunch: On campus or packed
Dinner: Meatless or Fish Tuesdays
(Yes, we know that fish sortof defeats the intended purpose of a meatless day, but we're rolling with it)
Wednesdays -
Lunch: Cold finger foods/on the go items
Dinner: Out - most likely Panera by the gym or our favorite Mexican place
(Here's the story on Wednesdays - it's a long night for me! We try to meet at the gym and then I have choir practice that can go until about 9pm - so though we've tried, that itty bitty hour between gym and choir isn't really all that conducive)
Thursdays-
Lunch: Packed (hot)
Dinner: Soup Thursdays
Fridays-
Lunch: On campus or packed (or meet if we can)
Dinner: Pizza Friday
So, does it work? We've been following this mini routine for - a week. And I got sick in the middle of the week, throwing things off a little. But here's what we had last week:
Monday-
Lunch: Ate at our church after the MLK rememberance service/day of service
Dinner: Beef Stroganoff from Cooking Light - sub sour cream for greek yogurt.
Oh my gosh this was good!
Tuesday-
Lunch: Beef Stroganoff Leftover
Dinner: We caved. I was tired and my sinuses were awful, so I wanted really spicy food. We got Thai carryout.
Wednesday-
Lunch: I was home sick and slept all day. Andrew took roasted eggplant, onion, and pepper hummus pitas. These are really yummy.
Dinner: Andrew brought me my favorite chicken and rice soup from our frequented Mexican place.
Thursday-
Lunch: I had a salad from Subway
Dinner: Shrimp and baby potatoes - basically, Tuesday's menu.
Friday-
Lunch: on campus
Dinner: Burger Basket with sweet potato fries at a fantastic local bar before running off to a student exhibition at a local gallery
Saturday-
Normally, we don't cook much on Saturdays since we're on the go, but I made Thursday's Potato and Leek soup. It was pretty good, and will be re-vamped for Monday's lunch.
Dinner: Date night!
Sunday-
Between Andrew feeling croupy and a minor ice storm, we didn't go anywhere on Sunday. We subsided on
Lunch: Chicken salad sandwiches (grabbed from Saturday's errands)
Dinner: Frozen pizza and leftover stroganoff, potatoes, and shrimp.
Looking at how the week went, we have work to do in the upcoming week, especially when it comes to lunches. Like I said, we do tend to eat at work because there are good options available, but it's almost always more affordable to bring things from home (plus a good opportunity to send Andrew, the resident lunch packer, a mid-day note about how awesome lunch was). Here's our plan for this week (hopefully we can talk eachother into staying a little more on track):
Monday-
Lunch: Leftover potato soup with cheddar, chives, and bacon bits turns into loaded potato soup
Dinner: Crockpot bean/corn/chile enchilladas
Tuesday-
Lunch: Roasted eggplant, pepper, and onion/hummus pitas; edamame in pods for a side
Dinner: Kale and spinach pesto over gnocci, grilled asparagus
Wednesday-
Lunch: Grown up lunchables (cheese, crackers, some kind of cured meat, mustard), and fruit
Dinner: Panera
Thursday -
Lunch: Kraft boxed pasta salad (Can't be gourmands every day, right? It's processed like crazy but I love it.)
Dinner: Broccoli cheddar soup in the crock pot - I really don't like most broccoli cheddar soups, but when it's made with real ingredients (broccoli, onion, spices, cheddar, broth/water) the stuff is so, so good.
Friday-
Lunch: Leftover soup over a baked potato
Dinner: Pizza (out)
Saturday-
Lunch: We pretty much never make plans for Saturday lunch. It will either be whatever we rattle up in the fridge or somewhere out between errands.
Dinner: Pasta...or leftovers. We have a mad selection of pasta from the farmer's market in the pantry, so it's pretty much always a viable option.
Sunday-
Lunch: Pizza with our church youth group. We've learned not to schedule things against the super bowl, so we're taking them out to lunch instead.
Dinner: We invited our friends over with their two young sons, and so far I'm thinking the menu will be hot ham and poppyseed sliders on hawaiian rolls (all over pinterest - looks so good), potato salad, deviled eggs, and Ninjabreadmen cookies. Because how fun are Ninjabreadmen?
Would my trainer be too happy with my meal planning? Um...probably not crazy about it. But, I figure we make steps in the right direction - plus eating at home makes it so much easier to control portions.
I'm always curious when I read blogs about how people eat - first, do they really do that? Um, probably not. Second - how long does it take them? Hours? Not going to lie, that potato soup on Saturday took some sweet time - but I got to use my new dutch oven from Christmas and we have plenty of leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.
Andrew is out doing the grocery shopping, and Downton Abbey is starting right now - so it's time for this post to conclude.
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