I don’t really know how to write our resolutions this year because they would all start to sound like run on sentences. This one would begin with our desire to (finally) start our garden that we plan to start each year and then give up once the herbs start flourishing. Which prompted our discussions about what we like to eat, what’s in season, how we continue to try and eat things from closer, fresher sources. These conversations occur around the dinner table and over junk food on our long car trips. Our daughter discusses it weekly in her culinary arts class and practices it daily in her homecooked lunches at her school. And now we have a fourth diner to think of as well, so we’re giving our eating (and planning) a bit of an overhaul this year.
I’ve mentioned before that M does a good portion of the cooking during the week because he’s home in the afternoons with the girls. So I’m pretty fortunate to come home most evenings to dinner on the table. But I really do enjoy cooking, and I absolutely love to bake, so I like to participate in a few of the weekday meals, and I use the weekends to try out new recipes or old, complicated favorites. We don’t shop at one particular store, rather, we have many different stores and markets that we like for different reasons and they are near other things that we are doing throughout the week so we plan our trips accordingly. So we’ve started out this year with some new menu planners and grocery list planners and we’re trying to work through the upcoming week during the weekend so that we have what we need for the week ahead – and hopefully with a lot less waste than you get with ill-purchased ingredients that don’t actually ever make it into a dish.
I’ve mentioned before that M does a good portion of the cooking during the week because he’s home in the afternoons with the girls. So I’m pretty fortunate to come home most evenings to dinner on the table. But I really do enjoy cooking, and I absolutely love to bake, so I like to participate in a few of the weekday meals, and I use the weekends to try out new recipes or old, complicated favorites. We don’t shop at one particular store, rather, we have many different stores and markets that we like for different reasons and they are near other things that we are doing throughout the week so we plan our trips accordingly. So we’ve started out this year with some new menu planners and grocery list planners and we’re trying to work through the upcoming week during the weekend so that we have what we need for the week ahead – and hopefully with a lot less waste than you get with ill-purchased ingredients that don’t actually ever make it into a dish.
The baby is helping to plan our meals as well as we think of menus around produce that’s abundant right now that she can try out. We got this handy dandy little gadget from M’s parents for Christmas and it is downright addictive.
I’m kind of partial to chopping anyway, and so it’s a lot more fun to chop up squash for a pasta dish and a bit extra for the steamer. On our snow day Thursday, while F napped, E and I chopped the afternoon away, steaming and labeling and freezing a nice stash for this week and next.
We’ve discovered that the kids currently have this perfect symbiotic relationship – we cut up the fruit for the baby while her sister eats all the peels. (I’m not sure why she thinks I can’t see her grabbing pear slices while I’m looking through the camera.)
She labels frozen ones while more steam on the counter, and we make up funny recipes and combinations to try out on her in the future.
She continues the list of foods, marking down the reactions so far and guessing at future ones. We think they will all receive a smiley face – one thing we know for certain from this past week – this kid likes to eat. So skip that long run on sentence I mentioned before. Let’s just call this one “Eat”.
I love to EAT! Can I hang my coat tail on your resolution? I laughed out loud at your comment… and I’ve heard wonderous things about that blade. I have a gift card from the church, that has been earmarked!