Meal Plan

. . .Because if I don't make a plan for the veggies, they're going to get forgotten at the back of the fridge, like the bok choy from the last basket.

Chicken Broccoli Stirfry, with the chicken that was on sale at Fry's this week. I'll be skipping the bok choy in this one, for obvious reasons, and need some oyster sauce. A trip to Lee Lee's is wel overdue.

Potato Broccoli Cheese Soup. I think. If I do this, I want to try Beer Bread with it. We were talking about that recipe at work, and figured the oats and beer would be great for lactation, and adding some flax would make it even better, so if I make it, I'm going to have to make enough for the Pumping Moms, too. I might make a broccoli quiche instead, with no crust, to keep it simple. Soup sounds really appealing, but we live in the middle of the desert, so we're still seeng 110+ weather.

Pizza, with green peppers, made with the tomato sauce I opened tonight. Will either make a quick crust for this one, or try the 5-minute bread recipe I've been looking at. I'd like to have a salad with this, to use up the romaine.

Since there are only two adults (one with a really odd work schedule) and one baby here, I figure that'll do us for the week. On nights when I'm alone, I can eat leftovers, or make grilled cheese sandwiches, and stick bits of avocado in those. I can make a small, less-sauced pizza for Milo's lunches, and either send chunks of potato and cheese, or little bits of quiche. I'll pick up some frozen ravioli, too, since he's currently really enjoying that.

Will try Milo with slice of pairs, and see what he thinks. I'm not too fond of them, so if he doesn't like them, I'm giving them away. Apples can be eaten as-is, or baked, or made into apple crisp, if I'm feeling a bit ambitious. Watermelon and bananas can go into lunches, the peaches still need to ripen, and I like grapefruits, even if no one else does.

So, my grocery list for tomorrow is:

1 onion
A loaf of bread
A big thing of vanilla yogurt, for breakfasts
Oyster sauce, I hope
Shredded cheese, since it's 97 cents this week
Eggs
Maybe bouillion cubes, except they're so darn salty
Frozen ravioli

Will try to get out for about $20, but will probably fail.

And everything else we need is in the house already. Neat.

Bountiful Basket, Barely Made It

As it turns out, if you have an alarm that's set to go off from M-F, it won't wake you up on Saturday. Oops. I ended up waking up at 8:36 this morning because Milo was crying, and remembered that I had a co-op fruit and veg basket to pick up at 8:30, which led to all sorts of running around, trying to find clothes. Add a rather nasty diaper to that, and I was shocked when we got to the pickup spot and there were still people there. Anyway, I ended up chatting to a woman wearing her little daughter in an Ergo carrier, because she'd asked what I had Milo in (it's a buckle tai, a mei tai carrier with buckles), and where I'd gotten in (Etsy). Apparently, she'd had a lot of people ask if her baby could breathe in there, which I've never had to deal with, since Milo is usually either babbling to people, or trying to steal their cell phones. He's not exactly an introvert.

We came home with two bags of produce, which I'll be trying to use for meals this week.

5 avocados
2 heads of broccoli
1 head of romaine lettuce
6 baking
potatoes
2 big green peppers
a little bunch of radishes

3 lbs bag of gala apples
4 grapefruits
a 'personal size' watermelon
9 peaches
a big bunch of bananas (Milo ate TWO bananas last night)
4 pears

All of this cost $16.50 -- $15 for the produce, and a $1.50 handling fee. There are usually themed add-on packs too, like Italian ones with eggplant, tomatoes, and muchrooms, or Mexican, with onions, cilantro, and tomatilos. There was a tropical one a few weeks ago I really wish I'd gone for, since it ended up containing a ton of good looking fruit. Those are usually about $7.50. I did get the $15 case of cherries (18 lbs!) which I shared with coworkers and inlaws, made into pies, and ate a ton of. Would definitely do that again. With very few exceptions, the items are always in really good shape. Oh, there's an organic option some weeks, too, for $25, and bread, which is GOOD, but only available in large quantities.

All of this stuff comes from BountifulBaskets.org, and if you're in Arizona, Utah, or Washington, you should definitely check the site out. I'll be writing about what I do with my basket later.