Stocking Up and Planning

It's Autumn - my absolute favorite time of year! So much of what makes this my favorite time of year is the crunchy leaves on brisk walks, the beautiful colors, candles burning, cooler air, jackets, apples, pumpkins, fireplaces working overtime, and spending lots of time inside with family and friends. But I think one of my favorite parts of this time of year is the food! Between Chili, Chicken Tortilla Soup, Goulash, Lasagna, and so many more, it's hard to remember why I struggle to maintain weight as the weather gets cooler until I list it all!

Well, the past 2 weeks, I've been struggling to figure out what to make, since we always shop the sales in the ads and with coupons, and well - the staples for winter cooking haven't been on sale lately! So without many canned goods to work with, and a dwindling meat supply, I was forced to change things up a bit and just make a super long list!

Step 1: Organization

I took all my main dish recipes (well, most of them, anyway) and started writing them down in a long list under categories (pork, beef, chicken, seafood, vegetarian, pasta).

I then began (in a separate document) listing each recipe and its ingredients in a checklist style fashion so that, should I need a basic list of ingredients, I could just check them off and circle what I don't have.

Step 2: Making the List

After I had a nice list of recipes with their ingredients, I sat down and picked 15 recipes to make for the next month (leaving space for leftovers and eating out), and started checking off the ingredients I already had, and therefore had my list to work from.

Step 3: Shopping

As I mentioned before, we don't generally make a list based on what we intend to actually make, but rather we go through the circular ad, write down the sales, and practically never buy extras at regular price. It works well when what we want to eat is actually on sale, but I found that my "staples" (i.e. diced tomatoes, extra lean ground beef, chicken breast, tuna) haven't been on sale in a long time, so I was running out.

On a general shopping trip, we probably spend around $40-60, and we end up going too often (i.e. 2-3 times per week ~ $80-120 per week!). It's not that we actually NEED to go that often, it's that we'll run out of 2 things and end up coming home with the trunk full again - just because we happened to be in the store and can't get out of there without 10 items minimum.

I about fell over on this first ever "major" shopping trip when the total came to $122, but when I realized that this $122 was for a cart full of staples I was stocking up on, it made it less of a blow. Since the trip was to Mankato, however, this did not include any meat or frozen items, so a secondary trip - to Worthington's Fareway - was in order.

Last night Mark and I made the Fareway run, and while the total was another $120, we came away with 20lbs of ground beef, 9lbs of chicken breast, 2lbs beef brisket, 4 large boneless pork chops, a bag of honeycrisp apples, and a bag of bartlett pears (on top of a few other things). If this doesn't feed us through the winter, I don't know what will!

Step 4: The Recipes

So I'm sure you're wondering what recipes I decided to go with, right?

Well, I will list the full recipes as I go, but here is my basic list for this month:

* Chili
* Apple Chicken Stew
* Chicken Tortilla Soup
* Chicken Enchilada Chili
* Barbecues
* BBQ Ribs
* Goulash
* Manicotti
* Cavatini
* Spaghetti
* Mushroom Cider Brisket
* Almond Crusted Pork Loin
* Tuna Noodle Casserole

The End

Well, for now, anyway :) I'll be blogging about these delicious recipes as the time goes on! Until then - HAPPY AUTUMN :)