This weeks fare

We didn't get to everything last week. The pea soup and beans and rice lasted longer than I anticipated. The soup was great and very possibly the best pot of it I have ever made, everyone loved it but still, when I served it for "brunch" on Saturday, there were groans.

• Sunday: Shrimp, broccoli and carrot stir-fry, rice, banana bread
• Monday: Mexican beans, Mexican rice, corn tortillas, coleslaw
• Tuesday: Gumbo, sauteed greens, fresh bread
  
• Wednesday: Taco salads, potato dumplings
• Thursday: Hot and Sour soup, sushi, sauteed broccoli
  
• Friday: Foccacia, salad with tuna and potatoes, sorbet
• Saturday: Pork souvlaki, barley bread, hummus, beet salad, pumpkin pie

On another note, I figured out how to grocery shop without a plan. Once again, many people probably already know this. I have a well stocked pantry--beans, flours, grains, canned goods and dried fruits. My freezer is well stocked, as well, with meats and fruits. It is the perishables that get me when I don't have a plan. What I used to do was over shop. I would put any produce item I could ever possibly want in my cart, that way, my options were endless. That resulted in a lot of waste. For most of the month of April, I just couldn't wrap my mind around a weekly menu, but this time I used another tactic. I, mostly, stuck with the basics that don't go bad in a few days, or even weeks (carrots, beets, celery, chard and kale, potatoes, apples and oranges,) with a few exceptions that were in season or I knew we would eat in the first few days (rhubarb, asparagus, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower.) I get yogurt and a hard cheese or some feta--something that isn't delicate, and I called it good! It was a nice change of pace without a lot of waste or feeling like there was a lot of food to be dealt with before it went bad.

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at I am an Organizing Junkie.