Menu Monday: The Process

When I was a Real Housefiancee of Atlanta (a.k.a. unemployed), I took a lot of time to establish a weekly meal system that would both help us eat better and save us time and money.

I made a habit of checking the weekly sale paper (Publix in our case) to see which meats and produce were on sale. Since those seem to be the most expensive meal elements, it helps to plan around those to start.

Sidenote: This also ties in with one of the best pieces of healthy eating advice I've seen -- shop mostly the perimeter of the grocery store...meat, dairy and produce. Fill in with only minimally processed items from the interior aisles...pasta, rice, beans, stock-in-a-box, etc. We don't do all organic or "whole foods only," but this does help us cut down on processed food and stick to what we can make ourselves.

So, once the sale items are tracked down, I look for recipes or meal ideas that fit. RealSimple.com has a great recipe finder that allows you to put in what you have/what you want to make, and it comes back with easy recipes! I also like to use FoodNetwork.com/Food Network Mag, Real Simple (magazine), AllRecipes.com, Cooks.com, The Pioneer Woman Cooks, and plain old Google searches.

Sometimes I use recipes from my good friend, Ina.

Then, I take some time--maybe 30 minutes or so--to choose recipes or varying combinations of meat-veggie-starch for four or five nights (depending on our plans for the week).

Sidenote #2: Having the menus planned in advance saves a lot of time, and I don't come home from work wondering what in the world we're going to eat. If I didn't have this taken care of ahead of time, the employees at the Lindbergh Chick-Fil-A would probably start to ask whether we even own a stove.

This is where you might think, "Wow. Settle down, Mrs. Type A." But, my next step is to make the grocery list, organized by the layout of our grocery store. When I had all the free time in the world, I just liked being able to shop in a practical pattern, but now that we are both working and have to shop on Sunday's when every other citizen of Atlanta is also grocery shopping, it just saves time. (Plus, if you don't go by the Oreos, you probably won't go buy the Oreos either, if you know what I'm saying.)

My list works like this:

• Interior Aisles (Starting on the right-hand side, zigzagging through -- and yes, after awhile I learned which items are on which aisles, and I put them in that order)
• Meats (These are on the far left of our store, so it's where you end up after the interior stuff.)
• Dairy (Along the back wall--heading back towards produce on the far-right)
• Produce & Bakery (Back right corner of the store, before zipping up to the cash register admiring how fabulous and organized we are until I realize we forgot a can of beans back on Aisle 7)

Does that make sense? Only in my crazy brain?

Then, we come out with plenty of [relatively] healthful foods and know when we're going to eat them during the week. Do we necessarily want to take time out of our weekend to sit and read sale (web)papers, make lists and go to the grocery store? No. If we didn't, would we end up eating a lot of expensive junk? Probably. Yes. We've just had to make it a priority.

This Week's Menu:

• Baked Spaghetti with Bread & Salad
• Pork Tenderloin with Asparagus and CousCous
• Greek Chicken Pitas with Grape Tomatoes, Cucumbers & Tzatziki with Roasted Red Potatoes on the side
• Chicken Quesadillas with Corn, Black Bean & Avocado Salad
• Rigatoni with Roasted Sausage and Broccoli

What are you making this week? Any grocery or cooking tips?