When my older 3 kids were little I didn't mind not having a grocery plan. In fact I actually preferred waiting until about 2pm each day to decide what I wanted to fix. Then when the kids woke up from their naps, off to the store we'd go. We lived very close to the grocery and it was my excuse to get out of the house a little each day. With three kids under 3 I needed at least a few minutes in the outside world each day and this usually went smoothly for us. But it wasn't very economical and on those days when the kids were sick or cranky it usually ended in a call to my husband to pick up something on the way home. But as our family grew and kids got into school, after school activities, etc that plan was too impractical to continue.
So in recent years I have tried to become better at getting a dinner plan in place. One that allows for grocery shopping to be done in one easy and hopefully cost effective trip. Also so that the hour or so before dinner that is already a hectic period of homework, hungry kids, and a multitude of activities isn't complicated by me trying to figure out what to feed this group. My plan isn't very concrete though and often I find it to be a frustrating experience, much like this week.
I went out on my weekly grocery trip with list and weekly dinner plan written out. Only once I got into the grocery store I realized I had forgotten my list but I still had the dinner plan in my head so I was sure I could remember what I needed. As I went up and down the aisles thinking through what I knew was in my cabinets and what would be required to complete my menu, I saw it. A package of Italian dressing mix. On most days this wouldn't spark excitement or even interest me, but the site of it made me recall a recipe I had seen on a friends blog and had been wanting to try. So I grabbed the packet, quickly thought through my weekly menu and decided where it could be substituted. Tuesday, that would be the day for this new recipe. (I have to admit that I'm a bit of a cooking nerd and get excited over new recipes.) So I bought the other items I didn't have for that meal and went home.
Tuesday morning arrived and I went to begin preparing dinner. It was 10am and as I went out to the garage fridge I was surprised to find that my roast was not sitting there waiting for me. As I searched frantically for the large piece of meat that I had just purchased I wondered if it had actually made it into the grocery cart. It wouldn't be the first time an item had gotten left behind at the store, either by the bagger or myself. So I searched through my purse for the grocery receipt just to ensure that I had actually bought it. It's not unreasonable for me to forget that I didn't get an item because it wasn't there, the price was more than I expected, I needed to get it at a different store or I simply forgot to pick it up, but there it was on the receipt. Before calling the store to ask if it had gotten left at the cashier I sat down and ran through the my previous shopping trip to see if I could recall the last place I had seen it. It hit me that the kids had helped put the groceries away that day and had been asking where things should go, indoor fridge? outdoor fridge, freezer? THE FREEZER! I ran out to the garage again and pulled open the freezer door. After moving a few things around there it was, a solid frozen mass of meat. The mystery was solved, but now what to do about dinner?
I switched my plan around and put the roast in the refrigerator to thaw. Tomorrow we would try the new roast. Tonight chicken. And then Wednesday came and again I started getting ready to prepare dinner. Only wait, a roast tonight wouldn't work. There will be no one home. And Thursday was a no go because there still wouldn't be anyone home to eat it. Of course this also affected Thursday's menu as that was supposed to be leftover night but I guess now it will be sandwiches. Luckily the roast will still mostly frozen so I left it in the fridge for Friday.
When Friday finally rolled around I went through my usual morning routine, ran out to do an errand, fixed the kids lunch, then it hit me: I was going to make that roast tonight. I'd have to be quick though I only had a little while to get it on so it would have enough time to cook. So I began looking for the recipe only now I couldn't remember which post on my friend's blog it had been on. When I had run across it I had be looking through some of her older posts that I hadn't read yet. After viewing about 10 posts I thought surely I could just Google it and come up with a close enough recipe. Nope! So I continued to search. Finally there it was in the middle of one of her posts. I jotted it down ran upstairs and began pulling out the ingredients, it only had four. But wouldn't you know it one of them (one that I always have on hand) I didn't have. ARRGGGGHHH! Sometimes.........
P.S. I did continue on the recipe and came up with a suitable substitute for the missing ingredient. Hopefully dinner tonight will be a success!
