Here’s the plan
This begins the week that I’m going to start trying to cut down on eating out. Friday night Mexicans and another recurring social event in the middle of the week will probably have me eating out twice during the week, but if I can eat in the rest of those nights and get into the habit of packing a lunch, I will have cut down my eating out by 11 instances (I had Chick-fil-a for lunch today). I don’t want to plan every day in advance, since I fear that planning too far ahead would make eating a chore again; hopefully giving myself a few options for a meal without limiting myself to any particular one will keep some spontaneity in this plan.
I don’t want to spend a whole lot of time cooking during the week, so I’m going to try to have enough prepared this weekend that I can quickly assemble a meal on a weeknight. Tonight I’m going to bake a meatloaf which should give me four or five servings, among those lunches being a possibility. Tomorrow night I’m going to cook something out of the pasta cookbook: orecchiette with spinach and garlic. I’ve made this recipe before, and I want to make it again in part so that I can use up the rest of the orecchiette I have from last time and in part so I can raise hell when I can’t find any spinach. Seriously, grocery people, it’s edible again. The pasta book claims that the recipe will make six servings, but I’m going to assume that I’ll end up pigging out and plan for three. For a couple more meals, I have some frozen gumbo from the St. Ann (I guess it’s Annunciation of the Lord now? The new name isn’t very catchy) Memorial Day shindig, and I can thaw that in the fridge on Monday (and possibly Tuesday. I don’t actually know how long things take to thaw.). For side dishes, I have a cob of corn, and I plan to buy some green beans today as well as fixings for some macaroni and cheese that I can make in an hour or so. I can either wait that long one night after work or make it on Sunday.
I figure that all this food gives me at least nine meals, and I can make non-meatloaf sandwiches for the other two. I hope that this works. Coming next week: crock pot adventures.