Yesterday, we talked about my thought strategies and meal planning. Today, it’s all about the listing. (Right Homefries?)

Like I said, I list out all the foods that we have that I want to use up.
Then, I list out all the recipes I’ve seen that I want to make.
Then, I list the ingredients I need to get at the store.

The Listing of the Recipes
It’s hard to come up with recipes.

New recipes are scary and daunting and not to mention all of the questions in my head:
Will my picky three year old eat it?
Will my meat-obsessed husband eat it?
Will it be good in leftovers?
Can I make twice as much ahead of time and freeze?

The only way I overcome my fear of new recipes is by challenging myself.

Self challenges include:

• No recycling a food-related magazine unless I’ve prepared at least one recipe from it. (Thanks Melissa Summers!)
• Make at least 5 recipes from every cookbook.
• Clean out my Epicurious recipe box every 6 months.

These help me consistently make new foods and try new techniques. And for reals, I am honest with my shortcomings. As aspirationally Vegan as I am, there’s just no getting around that dinner for my family includes a starch, a veggie and a big chunk of protein, usually meat.

An great way I challenge myself is through making interesting side dishes. Side dishes are perfect for safe weekday dinner experimentation. I’ve made an amazing spinach and ricotta filled cannelloni slathered with marinara that I served with just plain roasted chicken breasts. (That’s another dish that can be made ahead of time, frozen and tastes good in leftovers.)

The Listing of Meals, part one
I already have my list of foods in our cupboard and refrigerator.
With that list, I get some recipe ideas. Then I write down a sketchy, ugly list (list number two!). I list out a tentative first meal plan. On that meal plan, I make it scribbly. Then, I add dishes I want to make, ingredients be damned.

I look at when we’re eating chicken and what dishes leftover chicken can go into.
I look at when it’s a good time for something complicated.
I look at if I’ll be home for dinner.
Then, I look through the recipes I want to make and list out what I need to buy.

On that same piece of paper as I’ve scribbled draft 1 of our meal plan, I write my shopping list.

This same piece of paper thing is important. When I have the meals I want to eat all on the same list that my ingredients, I’m constantly surprised about what I forget.
(e.g. Oh RIGHT, I forgot we’re out of rice.)

The shopping list includes new ingredients as well as items copied from the big chalkboard in our house, that holds notes and reminders and as we run out of supplies (contact solution! diaper wipes!) during the week.

The Listing of Groceries
The shopping list is also grouped in terms of grocery store layout. You know your grocery store as well as I do, so group it in the way you shop. It saves oodles of time.

(My grocery list is grouped: Vegetables, Meat, Pantry, Non-foods, Dairy, Bakery.)

Now I’m not going to pretend I always only go to the store once a week. We house a tiny almond milk addict as well as a handsome dairy milk addict. We eat roughly 89 eggs a week. We’re going to run out sometimes.

But by making this effort, I keep my trips minimal. I do my best.
(Just like you.)

So tell me about your grocery list, what works for you?

Our meal plans are, on average, followed 60% of the time. Some weeks (especially the broke ones), it’s 100%. Some weeks (the busy ones) it’s 25%. All averaged out, 60% followability.

And like I says, 60% is better than 0%.
I’ll take it.

This week I’ll go through the whyfores of how I plan my meals in the hopes that it might save you a little money, time or effort yourself.

Today is all about first, the food-we-have list and second, the calendar.

First. The food-we-have list.
Usually early Saturday morning, I creep downstairs and make a really messy list of all the ingredients that we need to use up. Man, it’s ugly, real back of the envelope, back of a crumpled piece of construction paper kind of list.

On this list, I take note of rotisserie chicken carcasses, wilty green onions and potatoes that might just be starting to sprout. (Those foods you really don’t want to toss quite yet.)

Then, I add pantry staples. Sometimes, I have an errant 1/2 cup of corn meal that’s just bugging me. Sometimes, I need to use up one of the 6 giant cans of roma tomatoes that are taking up too much room. Sometimes, I become obsessed with using up a can of evaporated milk and I take it from there.

It’s the ugliest little list you ever did see, I scratch things off, I circle and draw connecting lines. I look at what leftovers we have and what leftovers we will have so that we can minimize food waste and maximize our prep time.

Second. The calendar.
Once I have that, I look at my calendar. Just like you, between social events and an intense work schedule, we’re pretty booked. Thinking about our week ahead of time, helps prepare us for the events ahead — and sets up a sense of happy anticipation.

(When I look at my schedule as it relates to food I look forward to my week instead of dreading it.)

On the days I work in San Francisco, I don’t get home until 8:00 pm. This means that dinner for James and the girls needs to be ready to go without me. James is a great preparer of food, but as you know, with two toddlers, there’s just not a lot of time. So we plan meals that can either be made in the slow cooker or meals that are ready to go.

This week, I work in the city Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I’m spending the night on Wednesday, so I know that on Thursday, James is going to be beat.

Knowing this helps me work around the calendar with a combination of convenience, pre-prep and the freezer.

Sunday
Sunday is my day to make all of the foods – Sunday dinner is a priority for our family, so we usually have some sort of time and/or intensive meal. On top of the baked potatoes, greens and steak, I made chicken soup, the meat sauce for the spaghetti and cooked the broccoli. I also packed the lunches for the next day and set up the coffee. (Sunday from 3-6pm is quite a busy time in the kitchen, I’ll tell you what.)

Monday
For dinner on Monday, all James needed to do was boil some pasta and heat up the sauce, insto-dinner-presto! I rolled in at eight and made a late night salad after the girls were settled.

Tuesday
Since I’m home Tuesday (today), when I’m preparing tonight’s dinner, I’ll brown the short ribs and cut all the veggies and add them to a slow cooker bag. I put the meat and veggies in a slow cooker baggie in the fridge.

Today I’ll also make the mashed potatoes for Wednesday (mostly). I’ll cook and rice the potatoes — and stir the butter through. I’ll leave stirring the milk through for James on Wednesday.

Wednesday
On Wednesday morning, James adds the short rib mixture to the slow cooker before heading to work. Wednesday night, he’ll heat up the mashed potatoes, stirring through the milk and the short ribs will be ready already! Thank you slow cooker!

Thursday
For James and the girls, Thursday will be a fun convenience food night because sometimes, you need to eat foods named poppers.
GO AMERICA!

Friday
Friday, is for chicken soup and sandwiches — I made this chicken soup on Sunday. (We had a surplus of cooked chicken and some celery and carrots that were starting to wilt.) Sunday night I tucked it in the freezer when it was done. We’ll defrost and heat up the soup and make grilled cheese sandwiches and super salads.

Friday is the day most likely that we cave and order a pizza or pick up something — so I like to have Friday’s meal be easier than pizza ordering. Self hack!

Saturday
Saturdays are our funnest food days. I usually do my grocery shopping on Saturday, so I don’t need to plan my meal based on food I already have in the fridge. We’ll plan for make your own pizzas (also thwarting any Friday night pizza temptations) — I’ll have time to do the crust myself, and if I don’t, I can buy a crust. I’m easy like that.

And I have a sneaking suspicion you are too.

(Tomorrow, we’ll talk about shopping lists and strategies for meal planning.)

Any more questions about meal planning? Ask ‘em in the comments!

I plan my meals every week.
It saves me time and money.
It helps me visualize when I’ll need extra help, or when to scale back or when to pull out the fancy forks*.

It keeps me from wasting food.
It takes less than 15 minutes a week.

So, what are you having for supper tomorrow?

*Just kidding, I don’t have any fancy forks. Do you? Do tell.

Every year, our bocce team gathers at the local pizza place to eat, drink and reminisce about the previous season. This year was no different.

Every year, I make an award for each member of our team. For a few years, it was framed certificates, then medallions to hang about the neck.

This year, we went for a more musical attribution.

Each Joanie Loves Bocce teammate received an award and a matching song. I burned the songs on a mix cd. Eleven songs, eleven cds, one for each of member of my favorite bocce team in the whole world.

I put the individual cd covers together on my ferry ride. I may have confused the other commuters with my arts and crafts but I had a lot of fun in the meantime.

Each award mapped nicely to these Mexican loteria cards that I picked up at a local grocery store. (Napa Valley visitor pro tip! For a cheap wine country lunch, stop for tasty tacos at the La Azteca grocery store.)

Lasts night we distributed the awards over pizza and wine with lots of love.
We can’t wait for next year.

I think we’ll make it to playoffs, don’t you?

Now that I’m back in my routine, it’s much easier to focus on the small, the regular, and that which is awesome.

Oh, the freedom that comes with deciding only to focus on one’s health, finances and storytelling for a year.
It’s glorious.

No worries about my personal brand, no back bending machinations to make all the events and the parties happen and all the recipes tested and all the drawings and the content calendar and aaaargh I have kids and a job and a husband and a dog.
(Only a few tardy emails. Yep, I’ll get back to you soon.)

Mom’s recovering!
I didn’t need that mole anyway!
My muscles are aching!
My lentils are done!
That project seems fun but, sorry, I can’t help!

That said, tonight is our bocce awards ceremony. With the help of a few teammates, I’ve made awards for each member of the team as I do every year.
(When was the last time you attended a local awards ceremony? Maybe you should throw one for your church group, your softball team or any group that means a lot to you.)

We do this at a local pizza restaurant every year, just like when we were eight. The season ended in October, so we haven’t seen our team in a while.

I can’t wait to see them.

The small, the regular and that which is awesome.
I need to try this more often.