So, many people would see that as an excuse to order out or go out. Our family doesn't think that way. With four children, eating out and ordering out are often much more expensive than eating in as a family. I looked at my menu plan for the week and realized that making one of my other meals would take far less time. Instead of having the pork I've been looking forward to for 2 weeks now, I pulled out 2 individually wrapped packages of chicken and put the pork in the refrigerator and left. Yes, the best laid plans may go awry, but there is always a backup plan. We ate a very wonderful meal of Orange BBQ Cashew Chicken.
This recipe is from Rachel Ray's Look and Cook Cookbook which I highly recommend. Many people complain that her meals take way more than 30 minutes, but I can HONESTLY say that I came in to start cooking at 5:26 and we were eating at 5:55. I pulled out the jasmati rice that I keep in the pantry and put the water on to boil to go with it. With that started (it takes 20 minutes), I started pulling out my cutting boards, veggies and chicken. I added some celery and mushrooms to the recipe that is not currently in it, because the cashew chicken we get from our local place usually has those in it. I quickly chopped up the celery, mushrooms, red pepper and onion. Then moved on to the chicken. I had the veggies cut up in a just a couple of minutes, and start stir frying the chicken. While it was cooking, I grabbed my hoisin sauce, orange marmalade, chicken stock and soy sauce. Swapped the chicken batches, then measured out the sauce ingredients while the second batch cooked. With the chicken cooked, I popped in the veggies, stir fried them quickly, re-added the chicken and sauce and we were good to go. Actually, looking at the time on my picture which was taken as we sat down, it was 5:50pm.
If you plan ahead your meals, with a variety of meats and cooking times, and shop for the groceries by the week, you can save money and time by being able to quickly change your meals at a moments notice.
One more thing... when I shop, I shop on Thursdays. However, I always have the ingredients on hand for Thursday and Friday's meals. I do this just in case something happens, like I have a sick child on Thursday and need to shop Friday instead. Or, if on Wednesday something changes my plans, I can always switch the meal day with either Thursday or Friday's meal.
Having planned for and shopped for a week's worth of groceries before the snowstorm, I was also able to grab my meats from the freezer, along with the ingredients from the meals and transport them to my mom's for the week as well. I do occasionally have to run out for ingredients I forgot... in fact, this week I will definitely have to do that. I forgot my grocery list when I went shopping, but I was able to call to my husband at work and say, "what's on my menu this week?" and he was able come here, read it off and I went from memory of the recipes. I forgot the anchovies and escarole for the caesar spaghetti, and the all important straws for my daughter's science project this week, but I can always pop in to pick up one or two items without spending a fortune.
We're going to try the pork mole today... wish me luck, we have faith formation and trick or treat... but I really want that pork.
Bon Appetit.
I do this, too. I plan and shop weekly and although I have a chart (in Word, that I now throw on Google docs so I can look it from anywhere on my phone) that lists the meals by day (with some consideration for what's going on that day), it doesn't necessarily mean we'll eat that meal that day. It just means I have the ingredients for all of those meals and can swap them out as needed due to time, or sometimes just whim. We probably succumb to takeout more than you do, but I've been trying really hard lately not to!
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