New Direction?

Confession: I've been thinking about how this whole receipt thing isn't work out. I started with the best of intentions. But I often find myself buying lots of a staple that's on sale. When was the last time I seriously spent $40 on groceries?

For example, this weekend, I plan to stock up on some goodies... chicken, shrimp, mahi mahi, red onions, red potatoes, red bell peppers, avocados, whole wheat pasta and papaya... They're all on sale and who could say no? Right, right, so the produce can't live forever (we will DEFINITELY go through avocados and bell peppers in a week. Love them!). My brain sister introduced me to the loveliness of papaya in a fresh green salad. I'm planning to throw one together with one of my cheap-but-so-good meals, fideo! Plus, you can also freeze those puppies and put them in fruit salad, bring them along as cubes with your lunch, or pair them with yogurt or add to a smoothie!

Perhaps I should start calculating how much a meal costs per serving... It wouldn't be hard, and I think I might surprise myself. Perhaps I feel like I eat on the cheap, but I don't. Perhaps I'll be surprised by how low the number is!

I'll give it a whirl... In the mean time, I'm planning to whip up some major meals this weekend. I've been really inspired by Epicurious' interview with Michael Pollan and the Wasted Food blog shared by Mark Bittman on Bitten. With me in class, I'm hoping to make a heaping bunch and freeze it for easy homemade microwave dinners and perhaps teach Kendall a bit about cooking in the process. I'm hoping it will help us waste less. I seriously need to take stock of what is in my pantry! I know I have bits of pastas, some lentils, canned goods, etc. I need to weed through it all and use it up!

Here's what I'm planning so far, based on sales this weekend...

• Thai-Style Chicken in Coconut Sauce, served with rice and an Asian Slaw (bone-in chicken of various cuts, red bell peppers and Napa cabbage on sale)
• Chicken Fideo served with corn tortillas and guacamole, paired with a papaya, pepper and greens salad (bone-in chicken of various cuts, red bell peppers, papaya on sale)
• Mahi Mahi (not sure how, but have found several great recipes) served with roughly mashed red potatoes and broccoli (fish, potatoes and broccoli crowns on sale)
• Shrimp Stir-fry of some sort? I have rice, and sugar snap peas in the freezer, plus broccoli & shrimp is on sale.

I figured this will give us some fun new recipes to try and store for this week or later use. It sounds ambitious, and we might not make all four, but I think three would be fun!