Tell me what to do

Upon the recommendation of a friend, I recently checked out Fresh20, which offers (at a small cost) a menu plan for every week utilizing 20 fresh ingredients which you can shop for at the beginning of the week. Everything else comes from your pantry, so the food costs are pretty reasonable.

Despite being an organized and frugal mama, I have long dreaded "meal planning." It has always seemed to backfire on me, not providing me what it is purported to do. I felt too constrained by it, and even when I allowed myself to just plan the rough outline (i.e., five meals that could be on any five days, not specifically assigned to a day) I still felt like it took the fun and creativity out of it, and heaven forbid I have a craving for something and the groceries I already purchased go to waste. (Languishing celery! how we mourn for you...)

Anyway, lately I've been kind of feeling blah about cooking. (I know - crazy, right?) The flipside of being one who LOVES cooking and feeding my family (and friends, who, if you are one of them you know you are our extended family, really) is the depressing feeling when there isn't a plan or any inspiration to come up with one.

Fresh20 offers a trial of one week's menu for free but I was still very nervous about doing it. I think it's really a control issue for me. Letting someone else decide what I was going to cook and eat, for a whole week????

But when I thought about it, I figured, what is there to lose? I tried to focus less on what I was giving up (supposed control, haha) for the possibility of what I could gain: peace of mind because I didn't have to plan, less waste because of planning ahead, consequential savings, new recipes and tastes, and food on the table (duh).

I figured, I can do anything for one week. It was actually nice to have a challenge, to see if I could stick to something for a week. (Maybe most moms would sigh with relief to be given a menu plan, but oh my goodness it was hard for me.) I told David (but really I was just telling myself), at the end of this week, I can decide what worked for me and hold on to those things. I said, maybe I'll like the menu as it is and want to purchase the plan. Or maybe I'll like the concept of planning things out and doing shopping only once and I'll continue to do that. Or maybe I won't change my opinion on menu planning but just learn a new recipe that I enjoy. Either way, I won't die. Right? (I really had to reassure myself of this one fact.)

Lemon-thyme ricotta latkes with sauteed brussels sprouts. They didn't kill me.

Well, I'm here to report that I liked it (*cringe*), and it really did work for me. I didn't love any of the recipes enough to make them for company, but here's what I did love:

• only having to go grocery shopping once.
• in fact, truthfully, not having to go grocery shopping at all. Since there was one list and one stop, I asked David to do it on Saturday and he was happy to comply.
• and it only costed under $50*. (Granted, we did do a mostly vegetarian week.) I had heard budgeting described before as giving yourself a raise, but I felt like following a menu plan was giving us a raise! We usually allocate $100/week for all our food and household expenses.
• knowing that all the ingredients needed for dinner were already in the fridge and all the recipes printed and stapled together. I could put together dinner during nap (while watching Netflix on the iPad) and be ready when David got home.
• no stress, no thinking.

I think before having a baby, I treasured thinking/planning/creating/having-a-blank-slate. (Ha!) And now, in this stage of life, I guess I'm thankful for someone to just TELL ME WHAT TO DO!

Like I said, since I didn't specifically find the recipes anything to write home about, I don't think I'll be paying for the product. (Plus, there's no way on earth we can go a whole week without eating rice!)  Instead, I'm committing (at least one week at a time) to menu plan. In fact, as accountability, I'll tell you what I'm making this week:

Monday: Red Lentil Soup with rice and leftover Easter lamb!
Tuesday: Lemon Braised Chicken & Beans with Mint Pesto (with rice, again!)
Wednesday: Corn, Chile & Potato Soup
Thursday: David is on-call so I will probably eat potato chips for dinner
Friday: Chicken-and-artichoke penne (from April's Southern Living)

Eep! I'm becoming that mom! Do any of y'all feel like you are "selling out" when you menu plan??

(Can you tell that I'm the baby of the family?)

(Speaking of baby, look who fell asleep during independent playtime this week.)

Yes, that is condensation in the tupperware(?!) from his sweating!

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*shopping receipt proof. We did buy one $4.99 rotisserie chicken from Costco to supplement one of the leaner meals.