my attempt at being a domestic diva

When I started this blog a few weeks ago (just call me a blogging slacker), it was going to be about how well my first attempt at meal planning was going. And believe me, it did go well for the first week. Then came a few snafus...

Let me start of by saying I never thought I was the "meal planning type"....I don't really know what that means except that it seemed like a lot of work for someone whose idea of cooking for the past few years was sticking a Lean Cuisine in the microwave. However, when Jamie and I sat down to talk about our budget a few weeks ago we realized we were spending WAY too much on food (namely because we were eating out all the time). Because my trips to the grocery store usually result in buying lots of food and then coming home only to realize I have nothing to actually make a meal, I decided to give meal planning a shot.

I sat down with my Kraft Foods magazines and a few other recipes and made a grocery list with all the ingredients I would need for the week's meals. I was surprised to find that not only did planning ahead help me focus at the grocery store (instead of just buying anything that looked good at the time), it actually helped me save money. Score one for meal planning!

Like I said, the first week went remarkably well. Jamie was able to come home on his dinner break each night to eat and I was able to have time after my rotation to cook. The one night I was on call during the week, I made something the night before so that Jamie could have leftovers. Then last week hit....I was on call 4 nights and Jamie worked twenty-some hours of overtime. That is when the meal planning fell apart a little. I was still able to cook a few days and have some leftovers ready for some of the other days but it didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped, especially compared to the first week.

Overall, I think meal planning is a good thing that we can make work with some adjustments to make sure things fit with our lifestyle. I've realized a few things:

1. I actually like cooking most of the time and feel a sense of accomplishment when I cook a "real" meal that my husband likes.
2. Jamie and I have crazy lives and schedules right now so it may not be a realistic goal for us to be able to cook a meal and eat together every night.
3. My meal planning may not look quite the same or go as smoothly as that of others so I need to stop comparing, but it is a way for Jamie and I to cut back on some of our spending and hopefully a step towards getting our finances under control.
4. Practice makes perfect so hopefully the meal planning will get better as time goes on!