Some thoughts on groceries

I had ALL THESE THINGS to write about, sort of an Indeterminate Number of Quick-ish Takes, but they have all gone poof! Alas! We spent most of this 95 degree day at my parents' house where Phillip and I did all sorts of alone and grown up things like go to the movies and browse in Costco (which is different from SHOPPING at Costco, an occasional necessary evil with children.) By the time I got to my computer, the brain was malfunctioning. 

So I marinated meat instead. And thought about groceries. Between my regularl weekly shopping trip on Saturday and our Costco trip today, I thought I would discuss Feeding The Cheungs: Version 2012.

Sooooo, is it me, or did groceries get more expensive? I SWEAR I am buying the SAME OLD STUFF and my bill is $20 to $30 higher in the last several months. I even joined that stupid Safeway program even though I keep telling myself I WILL NOT SHOP AT SAFEWAY because their produce is TERRIBLE, but I spend even MORE money at other stores. I am BAFFLED!

Here are some new things you should know. The first one is that I am trying VERY VERY HARD to do a lot of my dinner prep work on weekends, or right after one of my shopping trips when I am feeling all foodie-like. So cutting up chicken and vegetables, marinating meat, that sort of thing, and shoving it all (neatly labeled, obvs) in the freezer. This makes me feel SO AWESOME. Maybe it's the fact that it's not eaten right away? And sits obedidently in my freezer, waiting for its Moment? And nobody says, "I don't like this one, Mommy." 

I'm still doing a meal plan for the week and shopping that list, but now I'm trying to put a lot of the pieces together ahead of time. When it works, it's awesome. When it doesn't work, eh! No biggie. 

But here is a New Thing, as of, like, yesterday, that throws a big kink into the works. Phillip is going low carb! This shouldn't be a problem, as low carb is basically How I Eat Now and I don't make a lot of dinners that I won't eat myself HOWEVER! I am, as you know, not really into eating (unless it is cake, cookies, brownies, ice cream, etc.) and content to eat scrambled eggs for dinner and I will skip lunch entirely in favor of snacking on cheese and, well, Phillip is not that sort of person. Also, if you take away his potato chips, he will require MORE meat. 

SO! While I am a proud supporter of this endeavor, it's going to be EXPENSIVE. Hence the Costco trip today where we loaded up on frozen thingies Phillip can eat at work if he doesn't bring a lunch, lots of fresh veggies (to cut up and freeze). But I don't normally SHOP at Costco. I might go once a month to buy a giant box of fruit snacks or those Costco hot dogs that everyone in my house loves and the giant tub of cherry tomatoes, but I don't SHOP SHOP there. I feel like the months I shop at Costco I always go over budget. 

While we were IN Costco Phillip and I were talking about how we have ROOM to be Costco shoppers now. The old owners left TONS of food (and paper towels and toilet paper, almost a year's supply, SERIOUSLY) in a closet downstairs, so that is obviously the Costco storage closet. We COULD buy everything in sight and never go to the grocery store until October. 

This month is an experiment, I guess. We came up with more ideas than just a week's worth of dinners. I have a ton of stuff in the fridge and freezer and next week I'll just be buying things to supplement dinner, not MAKE dinner. I'll still go to the store next week, but my load will be smaller - hopefully it will be smaller all month. 

I would love to shop at Trader Joe's, but I don't know what you buy there that isn't a snack or some sort of gourmet frozen dinner. (Which means, obvs, that in a perfect world I would love to shop ONLY at Trader Joe's.) 

I want to shop at Central Market, but it's more money and I don't really buy organic (*HIDES*).

Sometimes I meet my friends at Whole Foods for coffee and a bakery treat, and if I'm early I go walk around the produce section and shock myself. 

When I get really mad at Safeway I go to the grocery store with the playroom which is more expensive and farther away, but has way better produce. 

Poor my family, huh?

One of my friends has a similar grocery budget, but she makes AMAZING DINNERS and buys organic milk. I am not entirely sure how she does it. She says it's because she only buys what's on sale, BUT I DO THAT TOO. So yes, there are a few low carby things I require that aren't always cheap or on sale, but the fact that I do not buy organic milk should make up for that, right? So I don't get it. 

Oh, she also goes to three or four different stores. I... do not do that. I COULD. I SUPPOSE. But honestly, just one shopping trip a week is enough for me, and I LIKE grocery shopping! I think she must go after work without kids? I don't know. I don't do in and out of car seats for a mid-week grocery shopping trip, not if I can help it. 

In the meantime, I am constantly going overbudget and not entirely sure why. Except now I'll be able to say, "Phillip can only eat meat! Must buy lots of meat!" 

Blargh. 

Oh! One note about the plastic bag ban - I am in favor. I mean, I was always supportive IN THEORY, but I was a little nervous about HAVING bags, not FORGETTING my bags, making sure I had ENOUGH bags... turns out the only bad thing about the bag ban is the mass of teenage baggers who try to cram everything you bought into your smallest and crappiest bags. Seriously, the giant sturdy Target bags are RIGHT THERE. Don't use my flimsy thank-you-for-attending-our-event college department reusable bag. THAT IS A BACK UP BAG! 

But I like not having the extra mess of cleaning up plastic bags, and it's easier carrying 4 or 5 heavy cloth bags up my stairs to the kitchen rather than nine thousand half empty plastic bags. Am a fan. My greenification is increasing. And I always remember to take my bags to the grocery store and I always forget to take them to the mall. Blargh. 

Another string in my Cooking Bow*

I had friends over for dinner tonight and GUESS WHAT! I MADE GOOD FOOD!

All the props go to A'Dell, who quick-as-a-flash answered my OMG WHAT DO I FEED THESE PEOPLE email with "Enchiladas, DUH."

See, I LOVE having people over and I LOVE doing stupid stuff like setting the table and setting out the good wine glasses (don't you have GOOD wine glasses?) but I am paralyzed by the cooking. I mean, I have improved over the married years and I now have a [short] repertoire of tasty-ish things I can make without totally screwing up. I think the fact that I don't particluarly ENJOY cooking makes me feel like my dinners aren't very good. I think I could devote an entire blog post to that theory, but I won't bore you (TODAY, anyway! HEH!) SO ANYWAY. The point is: I made food and people liked it! And I feel so proud of me!

A'Dell recommended green enchiladas, a version of which I make every so often myself, so that was no biggie. But then she gave me this recipe for enchiladas with red sauce and this recipe for fajitas AND I MADE THOSE THINGS TOO. I KNOW. 

So I didn't eat the red sauce one because 1) I am low carbing it and 2) I am not a fan of Red Sauce With Things In It. Because I am four. I know. Shameful! And I didn't even put onions in it because one of our guests is allergic to onions! While I just don't LIKE onions! But then he didn't even come! So! But everyone told me those were yummy so YAY. The green enchiladas I made with low carb tortillas and those were yummier than the ones I usually make. And the fajitas, which I ate tortilla-less, were REALLY yummy. That marinade is awesome. And there weren't any leftovers! I KNOW! 

Is this blog post totally obnoxious? It just occurs to me that I sound super obnoxious. But PEOPLE. THIS IS HOW INSECURE I AM ABOUT MY COOKING!!!

Also, people didn't leave till, like, NINE, so we are pretty much screwed for waking up in time for preschool tomorrow. Which isn't to say I was upset about people staying late. Oh no. I love it! People staying late is a sign that you have delivered a good time... oh, I am just adding to the obnoxiousness. 

Okay, all I really wanted to do is give you those recipes. AS YOU WERE. 

*Did anyone ever read those books with the dog named Zero? WHAT ARE THEY CALLED? I have to look it up. Just a second. THE BAGTHORPES!!! (Oh, that was a LOT of behind-the-scenes Googling, people. Yeesh.) I don't really remember anything about those books (besides the dog named Zero) except for where the kids are constantly adding "strings" to their "bows" and I use that expression ALL THE TIME. And only now does it occur to me that maybe other people do NOT use that expression. Hmm. 

Babies, but also online grocery delivery. WHAT.

Thanks you guys. You are all so awesome. Kisses for everyone. Although my favorite Blog Pregnancy Announcement Anecdote comes courtesy of Phillip, who told me he got an email from an old coworker today. Said coworker was talking with someone whose wife blogs, and he remembered someone else's wife who blogs (ME) and then looked me up and then was all, "DUDE! Must send random yet congratulatory email!" And of course all I really wanted to know from this story was who the other blogger is! (No one felt this was important information, alas.)

I put up another "announcement" at Parenting. If you like that sort of thing. 

I should tell you that I've felt SO much better the last two days, which would be worrisome if I weren't firmly against acknowledging worrisome things at this stage. I've had 24/7 nausea and I fall asleep while a kid is shouting at me to pour another drink of water, but the worst part is the anxiety. My happily happy pill-controlled mental instability shot through the roof about a week ago and I'm back in that Experimentation With Fixing It stage. Which sucks, if you must know. It's super super clear to me that it's hormones, but that doesn't make me feel less crazy, just more resolved to do something about it. I don't know how much I talked about this or if you remember or whatever, but I was BAT@*%& CRAZY when I was pregnant with Molly and I promised all and sundry I would not do that to us again. So I'm working on it, I am, but it will take some time and the waiting game sucks. Also well meaning and blameless medical personnel who generalize your eight or nine years of expert investigation into The Crazy into "everyone's a little anxious when they find out they're pregnant!" Gah. I think I need to get over that.

ANYWAY. La la la!

I have a million new blog topics (obvs) but I don't particularly feel like getting into all that right now. I don't want to be INTROSPECTIVE. I don't want THOUGHTFULNESS. I want to talk about Amazon Fresh. 

That's right! I don't do the review thing! I'm bad at writing about Stuff! But I must spread the Groceries Via Internet Gospel!

It now occurs to me that Amazon Fresh is just a local thing. Hmm. WHATEVS. It all started when I really really really needed to go grocery shopping but could not BEAR the idea of actually putting on clothes and getting in the car and going to the store, let alone hauling all the groceries from my car into the house. (This would also be the day I begged my inlaws to come over so I could sleep away the entire afternoon. Oh yes.) 

But! Before I fell asleep I logged onto Amazon and ordered my groceries. I'd tried this before. I compared my shopping list with Amazon Fresh and Safeway online delivery and ended up choosing Safeway - SO much cheaper. (I'm too lazy to find the link.) I haven't done it since because I'm picky and I LIKE shopping and after your first time, Safeway delivery costs $15. 

But this time I just didn't care. I didn't CARE if I could only order fancy, name-brand, organic, cage-free, produce that slept in bassinets food from Amazon: it would show up at my house without me having to LEAVE my house. That itself was worth all the extra money. 

However! I think a few things have changed because I didn't spend any more on my Amazon order than I usually do. AND I ordered meat. AND a lot of fresh produce. AND it only took me ten minutes. THEN I went to sleep. HUZZAH!

Delivery was free (I think it's free over $75, I forget) and I scheduled it to arrive on my doorstep before 6am. It was all there, as promised, packed somewhat inefficiently in six or seven giant plastic bins that I have the pleasure of storing until my next order. They probably could have packed my order in three, maybe four bins, but I have to say, hauling the bins inside and opening them up was possibly the best part. For the kids anyway. CHRISTMAS! With BANANAS! And GROUND BEEF!

The produce was seriously so good. The grapes were crisp and juicy. The bananas were brown spot-free. I AM SO DOING THIS AGAIN. And that from a committed grocery store lover. Phillip happened to run into (another!) old coworker today and found out she's working at Amazon... packing Amazon Fresh orders. Even she said the produce was awesome. 

Anyway. SOLD. I love shopping, but I rarely get to go by myself AND have help carrying it to the house and up the stairs. POOR ME. Now that I'm In A Condition AND ordering from Amazon costs me as much as the grocery store with the free playroom, why not? HMMM?

CALL ME, AMAZON! OBVS AM WILLING TO BE FREE CORPORATE SHILL!

Now I have to clean up my kitchen and stick my kids in their pajamas. Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to order anything off the internet to do THAT. 

And thanks again. It's really warm-fuzzy amazing having friends in the computer. 

Responding to comments

Going back to the grocery posts...

Christiana said: "And I thought we were the only ones! But you didn't mention eating out a gazillion times a week instead of cooking, so maybe that was just us..." Oh, we ate out all the time. I can't believe I forgot to say that. I can't really remember where or how often, but I know we did. And neither of us ever made the effort to bring lunch to work. I can't even imagine how much money we spent on lunch when we were DINKs. 

Raven said: "If you like eggs so much have you thought about trying quiche or a frittata just to change it up a bit?" YES. But then I went on this whole Weight Watchers kick where Eggs Are Two Points Each, OMG. And all the "light" recipes want you to use egg substitute, which: YUCK. I have been kicking around an entirely new post about "diet-friendly" food... I think that's one of those posts where I'd need a degree first. Anyway. When my family used to go to Spain all the time (and I'm sorry, I know how that sounds, BUT WE DID) we ate tortillas, which were basically giant omelettes with potatoes and MMM, I think I better google that.

Jen said: "I am not yet into the circular. I always buy off brand stuff anyway, so I rarely find coupons for anything we actually use." Oh but JEN! My grocery store circular has coupons FOR the off brand stuff! And sometimes they have, like, coupons for Breakfast, where eggs and bacon and milk and all these other things I buy all the time are another dollar off. 

Lenadeeanne said: "When I get home from work and the Three Munchketeers are waiting with their beaks open..." There's nothing to really say about that except "beaks open" made me laugh out loud. 

Blogless Kathleen said: "Although I think my husband finds me weird that I get excited to show him my receipt and say, "Look, I saved $23.02!" It makes me feel like I won an award though." Kathleen, I do this EVERY SINGLE WEEK. And every week I wonder where my medal is. Or at least my free doughnut.

Sarah said: "Bread, dairy, produce, look for sales in processed foods, get out!" Yep, that's pretty much how I attack Costco too, although substitute "Freezer Section" for bread. And do not pass the 72 oz bag of chocolate chips, go directly to checkout.

Elizabeth said: "It's physically impossible for me to shop with a cart and only spend $100. I might have to stalk you and figure out how you do it." Oh, Elizabeth-san, it's because I am a Grocery Store Ninja. Come visit me and I will teach you my ways.

A different Jen said: "I totally appreciate you "going there" because I always want to know what other people's budgets are like and how mine compares!" I am here to serve. You are welcome. On the next post the same Jen said: "Do you have a WinCo in Seattle? It's my favorite grocery store." No, I do not have a WinCo in Seattle. (Or do I? Locals?) But there is a WinCo near my in-laws and I went there once and just the LIGHTING in that store was enough to make me sob with depression. It was a very dismal despondent sort of store and I've never been back. The problem with where I live is that even the average grocery store is swankier than the ones in the suburbs. (This I base on visiting Safeways in my parents' town vs. Safeways in a 5 mile radius of my house. We Seattleites are store snobs.)

Marie said: "Do you have a Trader Joe's?" I DO have a Trader Joe's. Off the top of my head I can think of about three of them within easy driving distance. BUT (and I realize I may be breaking some sort of Unwritten Internet Law here) I don't quite get the TJ fascination. It was even something people were talking about when we were planning the Blathering last year - "oooh! They have TJs in Sacramento!" I mean, I like TJs, but I don't buy frozen prepared meals that often and their Treat Aisle is the death of me. Everything else I can get at my other store for a decent prize and less hassle. SORRY, INTERNET!

The lovely Maureen said: "But on the bread front, can I suggest you buy "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day"?" and to that I say: why do you want me to weigh nine hundred pounds, Maureen? WHY?

Jessica said: "I live in Iowa, am the daughter of a farmer, and the wife of a commodities (corn/soybean) broker. You should get my family started on organics!" This reminded me of my stint working amongst Local Crotchety Fishermen Types and how we could get them going on farmed fish and government regulations and oh, those were some fun times.

My real life friend Janey said: "What I think my grandparents got right was that home cooking is usually healthier than eating processed foods and eating a wide variety of foods is good, too." This is part of what I'd write about in my as-yet-unwritten diet food post, which probably originated the moment I found that Weight Watchers is Anti-Cheese. 

Lindsay said: "I think organic food does taste better in a lot of cases. there are lots of reasons well explained in the comments and by you as to why to not buy organic, but certainly there are some non yuppy, non pretentious reasons to buy organic too." Yes. Agreed. I want to be better informed about what I'm buying and why I'm buying it instead of something else. I fully cop to the fact that I have been Ignorant On Purpose - I'd like to work on that.

Gosh that was a lot. I hope you weren't bored to death. I really appreciated EVERYONE'S thoughts on this subject and you would not believe how many real life conversations your comments spawned! I'm also so grateful for the utter lack of anything even remotely mean or snide or snarky. You guys are just the best, and super funny to boot. I've been in a funk for a few weeks now (maybe you've noticed!) and I'm just so thankful to have this place for hammering it all out, even if I'm just nattering on about GROCERY STORES. 

Have a nice weekend. Oh, and for those of you who wanted to come eat hot pot - just let me know when you're in town!

Feeding The Cheungs: Guilt, the Final Chapter

Okay, all those other posts I wrote pretty much all in one sitting and I've only edited them here and there before posting them. But this one is harder. I've started it nineteen times and it's still not coming out right. I HATE THAT.

Part of what's trying to escape my brain is: when you become a mom, food becomes this... this thing. Phillip and I ate pretty much whatever we wanted before we had kids, but now I put a lot more thought into it. All the parenting magazines like to splash it across their covers: You are your child's nutritionist! Think about what you are putting into his system! It better be organic and local and made from animals who slept on rainbows and pooped sunshine!

And then you meet all these other moms, at the playground or in moms groups or in church or whatever and you notice what they feed their kids. What kinds of snacks, what kinds of lunches. If you are like me, you don't compare the kids, you compare yourself to the moms. And whenever I compared myself on the food front I quickly determined that I was FAILING MISERABLY. 

For one thing, I rarely buy anything organic. I used to buy organic milk, but then someone told me that it doesn't really matter if milk is organic and I stopped buying it. I have no idea if that's TRUE, but have you seen the price of organic milk? Perhaps I was looking for any excuse. I buy plain old Kraft mac and cheese, though Annie's is also nice. I don't buy organic produce, I don't buy organic dairy products, I don't buy organic kid snacks - it's just too expensive. 

But it's not just buying organic, it's BEING AWARE! There are a million trillion things to BE AWARE OF and I will probably be the last person in the world to read In Defense Of Food. I feel bad about it, because I LIKE to be aware, but I also feel like I'm doing the best I can with what I've got. I've got one kid who eats nothing but preservatives and one kid who subsists on yogurt and Laughing Cow cheese wedges and a husband who will never be a vegetarian EVER and those are the people I am responsible for feeding every single day. Top it off with trying to feed them HEALTHY things and I have my work cut out for me. 

This is only as guilt-inducing as I allow it to be, of course. When Jack was teeny and we were meeting with three different moms groups, it seemed like everyone was drinking the neurotic new mom kool aid. It seemed like we were competing to be the first to bring up The Next New Thing To Freak Out About, thereby establishing our cred on that subject. BPA in plastics, organics, who knew how to make the best and most creative baby food, keeping chickens in your backyard, vegan skincare products - OH THE DRAMA. It was so stressful, and I'm willing to concede that it was entirely my issue, I AM. But I had to escape and escape I did. 

Now I'm a few years into this kid thing, I've got two of them now and I'm EXPONENTIALLY more laid back. You have no idea how proud I am of this fact. I might not come off very laid back on this website and probably not in real life, but I know the difference between my inner monologues during Jack's first six months and Molly's first six months and it is significant. I am a much better and easier going mom this time around. Mostly I am easier on myself. 

But I still have guilt around food. I tell myself that if I loved my family more I would spend less money on clothes or going out to eat or seeing movies with my husband and buy organic produce. Or even just buy food at the nicer stores. I know the bread I buy isn't very good - hello, I lived in EUROPE, I know good bread! - but I'm too lazy and cheap to go to the stores with the good bread, or make a special trip to a bakery. I feel like I put so much effort into feeding my family - not spending a lot of money, making sure I cook dinner most nights, finding things the kids will eat - but it's still not healthy enough. 

And it's not just wanting to do what everyone else is doing, or following what's in fashion or whatever- I really WOULD like to buy local and pay more attention to the kind of meat I buy. I think this food stuff is real and important and I would like to do my part. I'm just... BUSY! And not willing to spend what it costs.

That's what started this whole, uh, MANIFESTO on grocery shopping in the first place. Sitting down to make my menu and my shopping list, and realizing that the good food was at that store, but I knew what my bill would be if I went to that store. 

And all of this is just to say: feeding your family is a tough job. THE END!

Feeding The Cheungs: How Much I Spend At The Store

Budget smudget. We've been attempting budgets in some form or another for years now, and we've yet to land on The Perfect System. (Pretty sure The Perfect System would involve lots of extra money, probably this is why we haven't found it yet.) I took over The Finances when Jack was born and revamped our entire spreadsheet (multiple fonts were involved) and while we have a budget and I keep track of everything via Mint and my pretty spreadsheet, we ALWAYS go over. At this point in our lives, with one income and grad school, it's just sort of The Way Things Are. 

But we try, because we really want to, and now that I am in charge of The Finances, I am a Food Budget Dictator. The food budget (which is only groceries, not eating out or other items you occasionally pick up at the grocery store, just FOOD) is pretty much the only line item I am able to keep track of each month. By which I mean, I am AWARE of how much I've spent and how much I have left over at any point in the month. I don't always stay within my budget, but at least I know the minute I go over.

Anything remotely out of the ordinary trips me over budget. If we have a party, the food budget is blown. If we have friends for dinner and make an extra grocery trip: budget is blown. If PHILLIP goes shopping: budget is BLOWN. To stay on budget I have to 1) not feed other people besides ourselves and 2) do all the shopping and planning myself. Number one is lame, because I like having people over to my house and you should ALWAYS feed your visitors and that's when I start telling myself that maybe I am not staying within budget, but I am being a good steward of my money by FEEDING THE HUNGRY. As for number two, Phillip knows better than to offer to do my grocery shopping for me. Harrumph.

(At this point you may be wondering why we don't move some money around and increase the grocery budget, or just do away with it all together, but I need it, at the very least, as a guideline. And we don't ALWAYS have friends for dinner. And we don't ALWAYS throw parties. Sometimes the budget is well within reach!)

Basically, I make weekly shopping trips, and I try to spend $100 or less on each of these trips. (Perhaps it's not done to go around telling people what you spend on groceries, but since that is what this post is ABOUT and I have clearly GONE THERE, I might as well go all the way. Right? The end.) The official budget is $450, with that $50 trying to account for extras, but har har har we rarely stick to $450. See above: multiple ways to fail and/or choosing to go over. Sticking to the grocery budget in December is a joke. But January? ROCKED IT.

Staying within budget amounts to four trips to the grocery store a month. Other months I have opportunities, or I make a point, to visit Costco. In theory my weekly trips add up to less because I bought in bulk at Costco for the month, but Costco is the Target of food stores and I almost always go over budget during Costco months. Woe. I really need to stop going there which means Phillip really needs to stop always wanting to hang out in the TV section.

Anyway. After I make up my menu I inspect the fridge and the pantry for missing items. There are TONS of missing items, but I only write down what we need for that week. That includes dinner ingredients, but also whatever the kids and I eat for breakfast and lunch. So we always need milk and yogurt and bread and cheese. (What? Your kids aren't dariy-tarians?)

And then, when I go to the store, I ONLY BUY WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN ON THAT LIST. Well, maybe a handful of extra things (chocolate chips are on sale! Ooh, wine!) but I am actually pretty good at this part. I hardly ever spend more than $100 in one weekly  shopping trip. (It's the extra "Let's invite so and so tonight!" and "Party on Saturday!" trips that do me in.)

Also, since I am The Family Shopper and have been so for nearly three years now, I know what I'm doing. I know what we're going to end up throwing away, I buy store brands unless I know we prefer something else (store brand Cheerios? BLEAH.), and I know how much we'll eat of a particular thing in a given week. I collect coupons from the circular and sometimes the newspaper; they never save me very much but they make me feel nice and pious. I organize my list by section, I prefer not to bring the kids but I can if I must, and I go to the same store every week so I am a MACHINE, people. The sad part is how much I like doing it. The amount of joy I find in increasing my grocery store efficiency is an amount to which no sane person would actually admit.

It's kind of a competition I have with myself. How much I spent that week, how many dinners my husband seemed to really like. Yes, I know, MY WORLD IS SMALL. 

But I still try to figure out how to save more when I go to the grocery store. It's a time consuming process just going to the store, and also rife with Moral Dilemma! Tomorrow: But WHICH grocery store!

Feeding The Cheungs: Making A Menu

This wasn't really and truly hammered out and religiously adhered to until the arrival of Baby Number Two, but this is what we do: 

At some point towards the end of the week, I sit down with my favorite Target Post-It notepad, a good pen and the grocery store circular which comes in the mail every Tuesday. In my Previous Life I threw these grocery store circulars away. Junk mail! Boring! But no more. Do you know there are COUPONS in there? And I sit at the dining table wearing my Food Thinking Cap, trying to come up with dinners for the next week. (My dad, right now he is getting his comeuppance.) 

This is really hard for me. I mean, you know how some people love to cook and cook new things and try new foods? Um, yeah, that's not really my thing. I don't hate to cook - it's an awesome feeling when everyone eats the dinner you made that night! - but I never cook for fun. I'm just not INTO it, not like some people are. I LIKE food (obvs) but I'm pickier than the average adult (hangs head) and at various points I am low carbing or Weight Watchers-ing (I KNOW) and I truly and honestly wouldn't mind eating scrambled eggs for dinner every night. (Dessert? An ENTIRELY different story.) So I have a hard time thinking of dinner ideas. At one point I finally wrote a list of all the things I 1) know how to make with a fair amount of success and 2) are easy and quick enough to be weekly dinner menu items. This helped, but let's face it, that list is short, and that bugs. Not EVERYONE in my house wants to eat eggs every night, and maybe I don't want to cook for fun, but my overachiever side desperately wishes I'd improve. So, herewith, things I do to find new dinner ideas:

• Hint around for food magazine subscription, open sub to Cooking Light on Christmas Eve, thank my mother
• Make awesome internet friends who send me cookbooks (two so far! Would you like my mailing address?)
• Call my mother, ask for the recipe of that thing she made last weekend
• Allrecipes.com I WANT TO MARRY YOU, ALLRECIPES.COM!
• Idly ask my friends what they are making for dinner, go home and copy them
• cooking blogs, though I have to admit, most of the time these intimidate the crrraaappp out of me

I have a handful of cookbooks I actually use, a lot I don't use, and a binder I bought someone else for Christmas (but decided to keep!) full of recipes I've printed out or acquired from friends or torn out of magazines. I would say about 75% of the recipes in that binder are for cakes. Sigh.

I have also stopped asking Phillip what he likes or wants for dinner that week. It's frustrating. He's either hedgy about saying what he really wants (or what he thought about last week's dinners) or he suggests something I don't like or don't want to make again. BOTHERSOME.

So I make my menu and it usually only contains three to five pulled-out-of-my-own-brain dinner ideas. This is because Phillip ALWAYS makes stirfry on Sundays (the only night he has time to cook), we ALMOST ALWAYS see my inlaws and eat with them on Mondays and Phillip ALWAYS has class on Friday nights which means I don't have to think about cooking. Oh, and one night is usually leftovers/Maggie-doesn't-feel-like-cooking night, and that night is completely at my discretion.

I try to make dinners with lots of leftovers early in the week, because Phillip brings them for lunch the next day. I look at our calendar so I know if we have anything going on in the evenings that might affect dinner. I try to factor the kids into meal planning, but half the time Molly wants to eat dinner at five, a full hour before Phillip gets home, and what I think is a kid-friendly dinner is often flat out rejected so WHATEVER, CHILDREN. So much for taking YOU into account!

I do go through the circular and see what's on sale. I have been shopping at the same store every week for nearly three years, so I know the prices of the things I buy all the time. But I try to pay attention to meat and vegetable sales, since that might dictate what's in the stirfry that week or whether Phillip gets to have steak. And I do a cursory hunt through the freezer to see if I've forgotten anything - which reminds me, I need to marinate tonight's tuna steaks! 

Grocery shopping - the part you were interested in in the FIRST place, you had NO idea what you were getting into, did you? - coming tomorrow!

Feeding The Cheungs: The Prelude

I would just like to say, first and foremost, that I think shopping for and feeding your family is a HARD JOB and those of you who said, "I'd like to read your tips on grocery shopping!" are going to be disappointed. I HAVE NO TIPS. Sorry! But I am going to tell you what we do, what works for us and what isn't working, and then spend a nice long time venting about Random Shopping- And Food-Related Quandaries. Ready?

First, some Background Info!

I grew up in a family that planned weekly menus and made enormous weekly shopping trips. We were two working parents and five kids, so it may be that this was the only way to ensure there was food in the house, but my siblings and I have had a grand time making fun of my dad and his lists. Everything from his handwriting to his menus, because isn't that such an OLD person thing to do? Plan MENUS? WHATEVER.

Then I became a Fledgling Adult and bought my own food, but I don't really remember cooking it. Oh, I would make little calzones when my sister came to visit my 10 square foot studio. And I would make this truly pathetic pasta and chicken dish for Phillip and his roommate. Phillip lived in a much nicer apartment directly across the street from a QFC (Kroger for the rest of you). I would park in the QFC parking lot, buy that evening's dinner and watch nineteen episodes of Friends with Phillip and Phillip's Roommate while we ate our pasta and chicken. Good times. Seriously! 

This continued when we got married (and with the roommate! Well, he ceased to be the roommate, but we still ate pasta and chicken in front of Friends every night.)  We didn't have a method for grocery shopping or making dinner, and in fact, grocery shopping turned out to be a fricking huge deal. People say the first year of marriage is really hard. For us, it was only the first month that was really hard, and that was probably because of grocery shopping. We shopped so differently that eventually we decided, for the sake of the marriage, that this was something we should not do together. EVER. You'd think we'd have figured this out while dating (it's not like GROCERY SHOPPING is one of those things you "save for marriage"!) so I don't know what our problem was. BUT IT WAS A PROBLEM. 

After a while we got into the swing of things and we took turns buying and cooking. Phillip makes a million different kinds of stirfry (all of them delicious) and he would do all the stirfry shopping and cooking. I made sure we had things like flour and butter and bread and eggs, and I made everything that was not stirfry, although not very often because (and this will be important later) I am a rotten cook. We bought these things as we needed them - never on any schedule or system - usually on our way home from work, with no thought for what we might do the following night. 

But now - NOW we are a one working parent, one stay-at-home parent and two very small children family and we cannot just dash across the street to the QFC, load a bunch of items we'll use only that night in the cart - without looking at the prices - and make dinner at eight. I WISH, right? I totally miss my child-less evenings of yore! But that kind of shopping and cooking is NOT happening. Not for a VERY LONG TIME. 

Tomorrow: Menus! Not just for my dad!