This Is How I Do It…

I was stuck for a post today, so here is a random idea of something that may or may not be interesting that popped into my brain.  I am fascinated by the way other people deal with, shop, cook, eat, think about, and otherwise act around food, so I figured I’d share how I roll with my food habits day by day for a typical week.

Saturday/Sunday morning:

Our food supplies are starting to get picked over.  The easy stuff to make and/or the stuff we were really looking forward to has already been used up for the week, so it’s time to make a list.  I plan out the lunches and dinners we’re going to have for the week, considering our schedules, and assign them to days.  I try not to plan the same things for two days in a row (though it happens), I try not to plan the same meat two times in a row, and I try to make sure that Zliten is on board with the plan or it fails.  Once that’s done, I come up with an ingredient list, and add anything else we need to the list (breakfasts, snacks, sodas, etc) and email it off to both my phone and Zliten’s phone so we have it for reference.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Sunday:

It’s grocery shopping day!  I *try* to get out by 9:30-10am so I can get most of it done while all the good folk are at church and the store is less crowded, but it doesn’t always work.  First, I stop at the local, organic, hippie-dippie grocery store which is closest to my house.  I get almost all my produce there, and other odds and ends.  A lot of their canned and packaged goods are more expensive, but totally better quality, so I’ve stopped shying away from paying more there for it.   Unless it’s ridiculous, like paying 4 bucks for a bag of frozen broccoli instead of a dollar or so for the regular grocery store kind.  As I find everything, I mark it off the list on my phone.  I have reusable bags in my car, but I often forget them.

Then I head to the larger, chain grocery store.   This is where I pick up whatever I couldn’t find there – which usually involves lettuce and fruit (for some reason, lettuce and fruit both SUCK at the hippie place), frozen veggies, sodas, and anything I don’t want the super organic version of (like hot dogs/buns/frozen lasagna/etc).  Oddly enough, I always end up spending more at the regular store even though I swear I buy less there.

Then, I head home and unpack the car, clean out the fridge (if things are starting to grow and/or I need the room), and put away the groceries.  Oh, and Zliten has usually cleaned the kitchen and has dishes going by then.  BTW – Zliten does NOT go grocery shopping with me.  He is like a kid in a candy store and is very grabby – not that all of it is unhealthy, but we’ll come home with 3 different types of hot sauce and odd cans of beans and about 40 bucks of other things that aren’t on the list.  I deviate too, but not NEARLY as much and usually when I remember things I needed that I forgot to list.  Anyhoo, usually by that time we’re so hungry, we end up going out to lunch, heh.  This Sunday, we went to a new little mexican place and it was yummy.  I had a few too many chips, an enchilada, half a flauta, and the toppings of a tostada.

Sunday night though is usually a cook-y night.  There is usually something I’ve purchased from the store that takes a little more prep time than I’d like for a weekday meal or something super healthy because we splurged for lunch.  This week, we had made whole wheat spaghetti with a little bit of super low fat ground beef and meat sauce with tons of veggies because of the latter.  Zliten cooked while I wrote and it was awesome.

Filet mignon, taterflowers (half cauliflower/half potatoes), and asparagus

Monday:

Zliten gets fed free breakfast at work so I don’t worry about him (seriously, they cater whole foods breakfast every day for the entire company… so jealous), but he was nice enough to put the beef stew ingredients in the crock pot before he left for work.  I’ve been on a bar kick lately so I alternate between a pro-max bar or a zone bar (both about 15-20g protien, a little fiber, and 180-200 cal).  This perks me up after a workout and keeps me full until lunch.

Around 1pm we both head home for lunch together (he works 1.5 miles away, I work 3 miles away – love it).  On this occasion, we made black bean burgers, which I stuck into pitas and he put into tacos.  I added a little low fat sour cream, salsa, low fat cheese, lettuce, olives, and onions and chowed down on 2 pita pocket halves.

Around 4pm I broke out my half pint of raspberries and ate the whole damn thing.  Because they were just so good.  An hour later, I grabbed a handful of pistachios and enjoyed those too.

Got home around 7 and the beef stew was smelling *ohsogood* in the crockpot.  I tried to stave off the urge to dig in early since Zliten wasn’t home yet from the gym with some turkey pepperoni (I could tell I needed some protein as I hadn’t had meat for lunch), but I gave in and had an appetizer sized bowl of it.  When he got home we ate about 1/3 of the crockpot each and saved the rest.  Later, since I had the calories, I indulged in about 100 calories of halloween candy.

Italian Veggie Pasta Salad

Typical Weekdays:

Pretty much the same as Monday.  If I’m skipping lunch, I’ll usually have a builder bar with more protein and calories for breakfast and either a soup and salad or Amy’s Indian meal for lunch.  I always try to have a piece of fruit in the afternoon, but sometimes I’ll do veggie and hummus instead of nuts or sometimes if I’m having a caloric day I’ll skip it altogether.  Typical lunches are sandwiches, leftovers from dinner, soup and a salad, garden burgers/hot dogs, and in a pinch microwave meals.  Sometimes the salad bar if we really don’t feel like making lunch.

For dinners, we typically cook unless it’s a rare night out somewhere.  This week, on the menu is chicken curry with veggies and saffron rice, grilled fish tacos, shepard’s pie (96/4 ground beef, mixed veggies and tomato sauce smothered with a thin layer of mashed potatoes and light cheese), and tuna veggie pasta (essentially a tuna helper with double protein and a heaping helping of frozen veggies.

Usually before dinners I’ll have a small healthy snack like jerky or turkey pepperoni (it’s a habit I’m trying to break, I just get home and it hits me how STARVING I am).  Usually after dinner I’ll have a sweet of some sort (another habit I’d like to break, but it’s usually something of very little caloric impact if not something healthy like fruit).  Very occasionally, instead of a bigger dinner and a sweet, I’ll have smaller food and few drinks.

Fridays:

These are a different animal.  I’ll usually make sure to have a zone bar or something lighter because lunch is earlier (around 12:30).   We go to pho, which is vietnamese noodle soup.  It’s about 400 calories and amazingly awesome.  I usually try to resist the egg rolls but about once every other month I’ll splurge and have one.  I usually try to go light on snacks because we typically come home and either get somewhat healthy takeout, eat something quick, or fire up the BBQ and have some cocktails.  This week I plan to take it mellow and stay in, but then again last week I was out and about being a party animal.  So it varies.

Saturday:

We wake up and almost invariably go out to lunch even if I have weekend food planned.  Now with Zliten working overtime not as much (if it’s just me I generally poke around and just find something to eat in the house), but generally we don’t want to be buggered cooking anything major.  Saturday night totally depends – if there is something on the menu we are still looking forward to and we don’t have plans, we eat.  If we’re looking for a quick meal before going out, we usually scrounge.  If we don’t have major plans, we might head out to dinner somewhere or get takeout.

Rinse, and repeat.

How do you plan out your weeks?  Do you fly by the seat of your pants?  Batch cook everything on the weekend?  Do you make a menu or do you just eat what you feel like each day?  Like I said, I am totally curious about other people and food so comment away!

Pictures are foods we cooked over the summer…