Meal Plans

31 is a funny age. So many times I think about what I'm doing and who I am and I realize, "Wow. I'm really an adult now." It's like a revelation sometimes. I mean, I guess I've been an adult for a while... but not like the being married for more than a year or two, having children, caring for children, owning your own business kind of adult.

Another thing that has made me feel like an adult is making meal plans. It's really brought this sort of simple joy to me over the last few months. I decided to share my current one with all of you (I just prepared it today) because I always think it's interesting to see what different things people eat. Food is really part of our heritage. We eat what we eat, a lot of times, because that is the type of food we ate when we were growing up. Then, when we get married we get to form a new food heritage - a combination of husband and wife. It's interesting to me.

I grew up in a home with a single parent until I was a senior in high school. My mom always prepared healthy meals for the two of us - often ethnic, lots of vegetables, nothing pre-prepared (is that a word?). We ate things like artichokes and steamer clams.... and while it seems weird to me to think of doing it now with my little family of four - we'd often eat in front of the tv together. But it was a nice kind of together - with our meal spread out before us on the coffee table. Place mats, napkins, bowls of butter to dip stuff in. Just the two of us.

Justin grew up in a home with his mom, dad and two sisters. His mom was raised on a dairy farm and both his parents grew up in very small, very rural towns. Forever eating around the dinner table, often after sports practice, they ate more typical "homestyle" food. Meat and potatoes all full of goodness and comfort. When Justin and I got married I asked him what his favorite meal was and he told me "spare ribs." To this day, I don't know that I've ever eaten spare ribs. We certainly never ate them at home. He had never eaten an artichoke....

In our family, meals are also a little weird because of our unusual schedule. Justin works 24 hours at a time so when he's not home I don't make a big meal. I also teach Jazzercise 3 days a week in the afternoons right before dinner time so I have to be creative in preparing food ahead of time that Justin can put in the oven or get going with ease. Because you know, our deal when we got married was that if I cooked, he would clean up the kitchen. I love the arrangement and am not about to shirk my end of things. So, without further adieu - our meal plan:

Today: Fish Tacos
Friday: Pizza w/ Trader Joe's pizza dough
Saturday: Sandwiches and soup
Sunday: Taco Soup

Monday: Crock Pot Chicken Mole
Tuesday: leftovers
Wednesday: Lasagna (I had never made and rarely eaten this before we got married. Simply not practical for 2 people)
Thursday: I'll make a big pot of refried beans this day and make burritos or something.
Friday: Trader Joe's s simmer sauce with rice and vegetables
Saturday: Sandwiches and soup
Sunday: Chinese Noodles (my great grandma's recipe from the Chinese people she cooked for in a restaurant in Alaska)

Monday: Thai Coconut Chicken with rice
Tuesday: leftovers
Wednesday: Spagetti-ish stuff probably with vegetables instead of meat (I was running out of time and ideas and found a package of whole wheat spaghetti noodles in the cupboard so I figured I'd use them up)


*I go pay day to pay day - in case you're wondering why I started on a Thursday and ended on a Wednesday.