Start It Today - Planning Dinner

I talked briefly about meal planning last month - what to do and how it helps.

Let's elaborate, but mostly, I'm gonna focus on DINNER.

Each week, either Ben or I make a grocery list with between 4-7 dinners on it. Depending on inspiration and quantity of groceries (sometime meals can be made with things on hand, cutting down on $$ and time spent at the grocery store = more dinners added to our list.).

This also includes what we will eat for breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner. I've learned  over many failed attempts at "dieting" that if you don't plan out all your meals, you won't ever actually know what you're eating, and somehow a whole bag of chips will be your "snack".

Some guidelines for choosing my dinners:
- All dinners must have protein source and vegetables. As a rule of thumb, no starchy carbs (bread, crusts, etc) at dinner unless it was a workout day. I'll be the first to admit that I've made this for dinner, and didn't feel guilty about not following my own rule.
- I aim for "one pot meals" -- it makes for less things to keep track of, and it lends to more of a well blended, flavorful meal.
- Meals must take less than an hour to make. It hurts, but I hate having meals where we spend 40 minutes chopping 15 different vegetables. One day I hope to get this down to where we spend Sunday or grocery day chopping and preparing the meals for the week. (dreaming. I know.)
- At least half the dinners should create leftovers for lunches. This means we usually always include a stew or chili just because it creates a ridiculous amount of leftovers for our work lunches. 

Have emergency dinners ready!
I always have brown rice, polenta, chicken/ turkey sausages, canned white/black/garbanzo beans, and canned/frozen veggies on hand. there have been many cases where I three of those ingredients up and call it done. It also helps hang us over until we can get to the grocery store. Again, think: protein and veggies and low carbs for dinner.

Where to find Recipes
Like I mentioned, at home we primarily use Smitten Kitchen, Dinner: a love story, and It's all good. We also Liked the simplicity of this college cookbook.
On the web, we have found consistent luck with Smitten Kitchen, Whole foods, and Blue Apron.
note: blue apron is an ingredient delivery service, but their food is right on target (calorie and taste wise), so I've used their recipes but never their actual service.

Experiment!
- Don't be afraid to change up ingredients. Swap out rediculous hard to find items with easy, all ready in your cabinet items (Martha Stewart is not watching or judging you!). 
- I often find myself writing on post it notes to Ben to omit this step, and do this instead to save time. Aka - one of my favorite Gwen recipes says to roast garlic for an hour - no thank you! I just add the minced garlic to the pan first. Side note: Ben is usually the one that cooks dinner because he's awesome and lets me spend most evenings kicking my own ass at the gym.
- We've taken a few cooking classes with a local Seattle chef - Chef Ricky, where we have learned a ton of techniques and recipes. Look for a local chef or take a class somewhere - it might save you money and time on future cooking adventures. Note: chef ricky turned me on to ceramic knifes, and I have never looked back. Those things are AMAZING.