Quasi-Meal Plan Monday.

My sweet husband will probably laugh when he reads this, and begin his own blog "This is the REAL Katie dot blogspot dot com" which he threatens to do regularly, because the man thinks you all should know the truth about the execution of my big plans whether they be projects or discussion about cooking him meals.

So in the interest of full disclosure on my own blog, I'll explain that this post is merely an aspiration. And I'll be upfront and tell you about my shopping extravaganza today. Okay, maybe extravaganza is a little bit far from the reality, but I went to the grocery store (with a bit of a plan) which is pretty much a miracle in my house. I have a lot more success at grocery shopping and cooking in general when I am not in school, so making a meal plan trip the week that classes begins is a little bit ambitious, but you know, I'm growing and maturing and trying to learn to love cooking eat at home a little more often. And even though Mr. Ruggedly Handsome could likely survive on chips, crackers, cheese, and cereal, I occasionally feel terrible that some weeks he has to. And truthfully, I'm not particularly pleasant if I don't eat protein at least once a day.

So I called my mom and I read some recipe books magazines and I decided I would head to the grocery store to buy us some healthy snacking options and to go out on a limb (or more like the freaking Golden Gate Bridge) and buy some raw meat and veggies and other things that tend to go bad in my kitchen). And off I went, semi-list in hand. And now I am now home, and unpacked, and happy to say that this week, I should be able to "cook" dinner for hopefully WITH my husband three times.

I definitely won't say that I'm going to cook meal A tonight and B on Wednesay and C on Thursday, but without further ado, these are the meals I have ingredients for!

A. Beef Stew! Oh my gosh, its an undertaking I know. I think I'm going to adapt this Real Simple Recipe a bit, but I've definitely got beef chuck, vegetables, and a little bottle of wine ready.

B. Fried Egg and Sausage or Bacon Sandwiches. I went ahead and bought some sausage and fresh cheese and we already had eggs (and bacon). The fried egg part might actually be scrambled egg and cheese and salsa, but you get the idea. And I'm extra excited that we will even have the choice of wheat or sourdough English muffins (for the bread part), because we have a few sourdough left from the last time he went to the store and I just swoon over the wheat.

C. Spaghetti and Meat Sauce. Okay, so I didn't really do buy a lot of ingredients for this one, because we have a variety of pasta noodles at hand in our make-shift pantry, as well as spices, and we also have some marinara sauce, so all I bought for this was a little bit of ground beef.

But its a start right? Maybe someday I'll be super fancy and plan out an entire week worth of meals, execute in a proper fashion, and turn into Martha herself (or maybe Julie is the new Martha). Or hmmm, maybe I'd rather turn into Ree. Well, whatever, you get the picture.

So I'm here. And I'm writing (and maybe even cooking)!



Oh and as a bonus, for the day next week sometime when I'm starving and have no time, and no desire to go back to the store, I gathered up the few things I need to make a creamy chicken and noodles soup.