Some people just don't know when to quit....

My last published meal plan is dated April 7th, and it's May 1. I mention this not because I feel like a slacker for not making and posting meal plans....although I suppose it's true. I don't feel guilty about it particularly, although it does remind me to redouble my efforts. Nope, I mention the time gap because in reality, I spent the last 24 days attempting to follow my April 7th meal plan, and not having very much success. So as I sit down to make the next week's plan, I'm trying to sort out what went wrong.

Dinners:


Pan-seared chicken breast from cook's illustrated
This I actually did make, last week. It was more effort than I really wanted to spend on worknight dinner, but the sight of several ingredients approaching the end of their useful life convinced me to suck it up.

These three never got made:
Beef Strogonoff from cook's illustrated

thai lemon grass pork chops w/ginger-lime sauce

chiang mai noodles

The first one didn't make it because I never bought the beef to go with it....I assumed that I had the right sort of beef in my giant freezer stockpile, and I was wrong. The other two depended on me not being too tired and hungry to deal with new recipes....

This one got made:
turkey meatballs
...in part, I think, because they are one of my specialties, and popular with the family.

Freezer:


Hah. Didn't happen. I bought all of the ingredients except for the chicken, made plans to get the chicken on sale, missed the sale, and never recovered.

In the intervening weeks, I entertained my in-laws during their "new grandchild" visit, cooked and ate most of the pre-cooked meals I put aside earlier in the year, and ended up going back to work earlier than I had planned -- I took 4 weeks leave instead of 8.

What was my real error in all this? I didn't recognize failure early enough. 3 weeks spent trying to implement a 1-week plan should have been a sure sign that I hadn't made much of a plan, that circumstances had changed, that a new plan was needed, but I never took a step back to observe things from an outside perspective.

So, what's the plan this week? Step 1, use the Freezer inventory to build the meal
plan...not my "wow, we have a lot of meat, so I'm sure we have THAT kind" imaginings....Step 2, go back to using my "working mommy" style of meal plan, and don't plan to spend ninety minutes in the kitchen every day of the week, you silly girl!

Dinners:

• grill outside 2-3 times -- turkey burgers and hotdogs and burgers and brats, potato salad, green salad Mon and Mon next week
  
• crock-pot pork roast -- for shredded pork tacos Thu
  
• crock-pot lamb roast in pita with greek yogurt Tue
  
• italian chicken, pasta & sauce w/spinach Fri
  
• frozen stirfry mix w/eggrolls, sweet & sour sauce Sat
  
• leftovers Wed and Sun
  

Freezer:

• Fruit & Grain Bars
  
• Pizza Rolls
  
• Chicky Nuggets w/peach sauce
  
• Sweet & sour chicken
  
• Buffalo Shrimp
  
• Ravioli Lasagna
  
• Turkey-egg-cheese "muffins"
  
• Twice-baked potatoes
  
• Bread! Finally!
  

After today's shopping trip, I can proudly announce that I'm actually starting the week with all the ingredients for my week's plan in-hand.