Odds and Ends

[wshaffer]

So, zazzle.com nixed my first attempt at creating a Doctor Who-themed running shirt, on the grounds that it violated copyright. It's a fair cop, though I thought they might let me get away with it as a one-off. (I really liked the tag line I'd come up with for the back: "Team TARDIS: Running throughout Time and Space since 1963.") I wonder if the BBC has thought about the possibilities of Whovian workout gear.

Speaking of Whovian things, BBC iPlayer is replaying Toby Hadoke's excellent Moths Ate My Doctor Who Scarf. I've been told that even non-Whovians find it funny.

I stumbled across a new food site called Plummelo. It lets you create a personalized online "Recipe Box" and save recipes from other websites (like foodnetwork.com and epicurious.com) to it. Although what I'm really interested in playing with is the ability to create meal plans and shopping lists. I've never been much of a meal planner before, but I'm getting less fond of regularly finding myself leaving work midweek with no idea of what I'm going to make for dinner and the knowledge that I have nothing in the fridge but a block of feta cheese, half a packet of baby spinach, and a jar of natural peanut butter.

Do you plan your meals, or just wing it? And do you use any particular tools to plan?

Comments

[zellandyne.livejournal.com]

I'm intrigued by Plumello. Will probably look at it after work.
I have to plan food in advance to some extent, since my diet is so limited. Sometimes I can wing it, wherein wing it means that I have 4 or 5 different things that I always buy because I know I can eat them in a pinch. Like tuna and rice cakes. Or beans and cheese.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do rely a lot on having a few recipes that I know by heart and can just keep all the ingredients on hand for.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I am trying hard to set up a meal plan, but I'm completely sucking at it.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

What are you finding most difficult - the planning, or executing on the plan? Some years back I tried a brief experiment where I'd figure out all our meals for a week and order the ingredients delivered from Safeway. It failed largely because the plan didn't leave sufficient flexibility for life happening, but also because of Safeway's habit of substituting random items in odd ways.

These days, though, I seem to have trouble just figuring out a plan.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

All of the above, really. Either I figure out a plan and run off it, or I don't have a plan and run out of food.

The ultimate goal is to have a stable set of ingredients and be able to riff off of that in as many directions as possible, Stocked Kitchen-style.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I try to do some interim of planning several meals we could potentially have during a week and then being flexible about when we actually have them. Because having two people in the house with medical issues that lead to digestive issues and one person whose work schedule sometimes runs into the dinner hour means that being really really insistent that Tuesday Night Is Tilapia Dammit is not always going to work.

But this all stays in my head, the awareness of when the green beans will go slimy and when we need to use up the chili verde leftovers. No software. Just me and a notepad by the door out to the garage.

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've tried the Tuesday Night is Tilapia Dammit thing, and it was pretty much an unmitigated disaster. Some people seem to manage it, though.

[(Anonymous)]

I've never menu planned effectively for more than three weeks running, but I try to keep to the goal of dinner at home every night + no more than two weekly trips to the grocery store. My current version of a meal plan is that each week has 2 low cook/no cook dinners (salad, bread and spreads, etc), 1 tried and true meal that everyone likes, 1 experimental dinner, 1 husband cooks night, 1 big ol meal to make leftovers for lunch, and 1 leftovers night. Then I write up a list of every meal I can think of in each category, and use that list to plan the grocery shopping.
Diana