Random thoughts on meal planning....

I realized last week that by actually cooking meals and having everyone ready to sit down to eat around 6-6:15, I'm losing my running window.  Not that I've been doing all that much of it lately but I am hoping to get back into it full force now that things have settled down.  Soooo, it looks like I'm going to have to go back to early mornings again.  It's not that I mind so much but I do find that evenings are much easier for me.  Since I did very little running in Nov and virtually none in Dec I started out today with a brisk 2 mile walk.  My old creeky body wasn't that happy about it but I'll get used to it again.  But my ears were very happy.  :-) Thanks again Clay for my new earbuds.  They're awesome!

I also discovered that meal planning seems to cost a lot of money in groceries. I've spent about $400 in the last two weeks alone!  But thinking about it....we haven't gone out to eat in two weeks, my Sam's shopping trip ($136) will last two to three weeks (I split all chicken/pork/steak/ground turkey before freezing), portions of a few of the already prepared meals have gone into the freezer,  and I've stocking up on pantry staples such as spices/cooking wines/etc.  With that in mind I'm hoping my grocery bill drops dramatically in the next week or so.

The best part of this whole thing is that Meg is actually trying new things.  She ate a big bowl of tortellini and pasta sauce (when I made the chicken tortellini soup), took a bite of oven potatoes and didn't gag, and heartily ate her pork and brocolli last night.  If you know my daughter you'll understand just how much of an accomplishment these things are.   She hates mashed pototoes (I know! right?) so it will be interesting to see how she does with tonight's mashed cauliflower.  :-)