I love it when a plan comes together

After a crazy busy, pull my hair out, birthday/baseball/father's day, "I live in my car" weekend, I'm ready to get back to "normal". Or at least back to "home food" normal. Except to purchase a few things for a bday and a dessert for a family dinner, I haven't been near a grocery store this weekend...and I wouldn't call it "missing it, Bob".

I don't really enjoy grocery shopping, per se. If I could, I'd do ALL my shopping online. At 11pm at night. In my jammies. So when I have to venture out, I buy lots at once, so I don't have to do it again super soon. I have access to a produce coop- I shop online for the "main basket" and then can add some "extras". Produce shopping is now clicky-clicky online, show up on pick-up night, grab big blue bag, go home. Truly amazing.

Produce pickup is twice a month: money/time/energy saving. I plan meals around what is in my produce pick-up and what is on sale/good deal.  I use a club store to purchase meat, eggs, dairy, and Diet Pepsi. What -You didn't know Diet Pepsi is a food group?

I do the club for meat once about every 6 weeks. I supplement odds and ends with 2 local grocery stores- one of the "discount" types for basics, one a locally owned for the good stuff, like Blue Bunny ice cream and Oreos. Priorities. About once every 2 months or so, I hit the Asian market and or Trader Joes. That is the fun trip for me. The rest are drudgery.

It is not unusual for me to not step into a store for more than a week at a time. I do not make multiple, quickie but expensive trips into the abyss. I try to substitute or skip an ingredient all together than make a special trip the store for 1 item... that invariably becomes 10 or more.  It's cheaper and faster to grab an extra gallon of milk at the gas station than to go past all the impulse buys to get the back of the store where they "hide" the milk!

To get back into the swing of things after a frenetic weekend, I'm starting with figuring out what's for dinner tonight AND tomorrow night? During the work week, I typically cook 2 days, and put something in the crockpot 2 days. One of my "cook" nights, we'll be at the ball fields from 5:45 until 10pm. I'll barely be able to bring the car to a full stop in front of the house between work and game time... so, it's a night off for me. Ballpark franks and hot pretzels anyone?  At least youth baseball concession stand prices are low! Friday nights are usually either EASY leftover recreations from the week, or the $4 menu at Steak n Shake. Friday night's are mine typically... as in, "Mom is done, fools."

Produce pickup is tomorrow night, so I need to see what needs "used up"... several things, but not too bad considering I didn't cook over the weekend

Eggplant, sliced with olive oil spritzed on and sprinkled with hot curry powder. Hey, I figure I'm the only one going to eat the eggplant, might as well make it like *I* like it. Wrap in foil pouch, will toss on grill.

 Sweet potatoes, cut into chunks, spritzed with olive oil and an Asian blend; again foil pouch; grill.

Partial bag of previously frozen shrimp... not all went into a stir-fry

Shrimp cocktail with the kabobs tonight
Cocktail sauce:
1/2 c ketchup
juice of half a lemon
tsp-TBSP horseradish - to taste
sprinkle of white pepper

 Cantaloupe. Sigh. Cantaloupe. Maybe it's the juiciness (mess). Maybe it's the amount of "waste" from the prep... maybe I'm just lazy and I loathe cutting up cantaloupe. Maybe music will help...as the rind and flesh go their....

Whew! That's done! I hardly even noticed doing it this time. Thanks Steve!

During a recent "fly through" trip at the grocery store, I found these cuts 25% off. This grocery store frequently has meat on discount on Fridays. If I'm in, I'll grab up a few packages and they go straight into my chest freezer. I like to balance the food budget with a variety of types of food at different prices. Tonight will be $18 worth of flank steak kabobs... tomorrow looks like $5 Chicken Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches.

Since I'm cutting and chopping anyway, I'll do the prep work for both tonight and tomorrow.
For the kabobs, I combined:
1/2 c rice wine vinegar
juice of 1 lime
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/8 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp white pepper
TBSP sesame oil
TBSP soy sauce (low sodium)
Marinate in fridge (shake up a few times)

Onion and pepper strips to go in crockpot with chicken quarters tomorrow; tomato slices for chicken philly cheese sandwiches

So, after about an hour of my time (including cleaning out the fridge),  here is dinner for both nights - just waiting to hit the grill, or be dumped in the crockpot.

Kabobs and foil veggie packets on grill... decided to rain as I stepped out the door

On a med heat, grilled the kabobs for about 10 mins per side; the veggies about 15 mins per side.
Flank steak kabobs, eggplant, sweet potatoes and warmed up moroccan rice

By tomorrow evening, there will be dinner waiting and actually some room for the new stock of produce! On my way home from pick-up, Ill stop at the discount grocery store for eggs, milk, and a few other items to round out the week.