Dinner planning for the week

With the move, dinner planning had completely gone by the wayside. I have to admit that I had gotten really lazy about planning dinner out before that, but at least I knew what we were kind of having for the week and I could pull something together.

Unfortunately, with the move we ate through most of the pantry and I gave a lot of what was left away. I did not want to move it. I also know that our space in the apartment would not be adequate compared to what I had. It would be a great time to clean out the stuff I knew that I would not touch for a variety of reasons. I also would not have the fridge or freezer space nor did I want to cart more than would easily fit in the small apartment fridge across the state for 5 hours in a ice chest or freezer bag.

So we started with the bare minimum upon my arrival here on June 16th at about 11pm. I then limped along as I got my bearings to my new surroundings and was busy cleaning and getting things set up. I was exhausted and it showed.

Honestly though, I am exhausted from this. My body is showing the wear and tear from the messed up diet. We would go out to eat to try little eateries in the community. That was fun. That was easy for tired bodies that had worked all day. It was not always conducive to my restricted dietary needs. So all of that has finally caught up with me. That and the fact that I had truly cooked almost everything thing but a couple of chicken breasts and a couple of pounds of pork sausage that I brought with me from Tomball when I came.

It was time. It was time to bite the bullet and go grocery shopping. REALLY go grocery shopping.

I had been sitting down with a handful of my cookbooks for over a week trying to come up with a plan and make a list. I just could not wrap my head around a plan. I could not commit.

Why was this so hard???

I honestly did not know why this was so hard this week. This is something that I could do without problems. I knew that I just needed to pick something and make the list of the ingredients. I knew that I just needed to make the plan.

So today I sat down and did just that.

My goal was to clean up my diet. I needed to get it cleaned up again. I was feeling it. My body was telling me that it was unhappy with the way that I had been treating it and I needed to give it a little more care and attention in the diet department.

My goal was to simply be kind to my digestive system this week. Maybe that was the problem to solve that made it so hard? Sometimes those substitutions can be so overwhelming. Sometimes it can mean extra work and extra time reading labels.

I had to do it…

I finally just started writing down a couple of recipes that I knew the kids would enjoy. They were tried and true recipes already. They would be fairly easy to make. The problem would be finding the supplies as a previous trip to the grocery store earlier in the week revealed. Even to a large chain grocery store here in Denton, TX it does not guarantee that you will find what you are looking for. It simply means that you will find the basics. Grocery shopping will be interesting to say the least.

My list for the week grew to this:

• Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake
• Tangy Chicken Thighs
• Honey Dijon Chicken
• Chicken and Ham Tetrazzini
• Taco Salad

Now you will notice on that list immediately a couple of items that are risky for me. They certainly do not fall into the “cleaning up” category and are probably thinking, “but what about the pork?” Do not be confused by those items. I had to get a list made. I had to make a plan before I could shred it.

When we stayed with Ben’s Uncle Cordel and Aunt Maude a couple of years ago on a visit, they have a big family dinner every Sunday. He made chicken cordon bleu that Sunday we were there. It really touched me because he had at the table a couple of people with special dietary needs, it was not just me. He did not leave us out even though both of our needs were different. It really touched me. It made me think about what I would do if it were my own family and I have really tried to be more mindful of those around me since then. Anyway, traditionally Chicken Cordon Bleu has a slice of ham in it. Uncle Cordel substituted turkey bacon for the slice of ham. It was not the same, but it was close enough that I was reminded that one of my favorite foods COULD be eaten IF I was willing to play with the ingredients and find an acceptable alternative.

So this week, I wanted to eat something I had not eaten in a very long time. This casserole is not the same as the real thing, but it is pretty close. The flavor is similar. It is just a little less work and it freezes well. Except this week, I was going to clean it up – a lot. I knew we had eaten it before. I had left the ham out completely for myself before. I knew that. There was a tiny check mark in the cookbook so it was a recipe that was considered good enough to eat again. This week we were going to give it another good and do it with 100% effort.

I was going to make the same substitution with the ham in the Chicken and Ham Tetrazzini.

I must confess that I am not a fan of turkey bacon. I am not a fan of most turkey products in general. I personally think that they are too salty for my liking. They have their place, but I am not a fan. I would not eat them as a general rule for breakfast as a slice of bacon, but mixed into a recipe as a substitution helps reduce the saltiness in my opinion. My preference is chicken bacon but it is so hard to find.

Once I had my list, I sat about writing down my list of ingredients that I would need to purchase. This is a multi-step process for me. Some people might be able to make a single list and go from there. I cannot. Or rather, I do not. I like to make the list per recipe as I am pulling them out of the cookbooks and then consolidate them as I go. It becomes multi-step in between because I have to make sure I have everything for some of the substitutions as well.

Let me explain…

The Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake recipe is actually quite simple. It consists of 8 ingredients: stuffing mix, cream of chicken soup, milk, chicken, pepper, ham, swiss cheese, and cheddar cheese. That is all. Not too complicated. Of those 8 ingredients, however, I had to make sure that each ingredient was “safe” for me to eat so that the dish as a whole would be safe. If I knew that I would have to check the quantity of the item in my pantry, fridge, freezer, or cabinet in anyway I wrote it on my list. I knew I had plenty of pepper for example so it did not get written down. Everything else went on the list. Milk always goes on the list because we drink a lot of milk through the week with a household of 3 boys so if I need a special amount of milk for recipes to “cook with” I have to make sure I purchase extra in addition to what we drink. I have to account for recipe usage.

My grocery list started like this with the heading:

Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake (p. 33)

• 2 pkg reduced sodium stuffing mix (6 oz each)
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup milk
• 8 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 3/4 pound “deli ham” – TURKEY BACON
• 1 cup shredded swiss cheese (4 oz)
• 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese (12 oz)

The list is pretty straight forward. You will see that I already wrote in my substitution on the list. I knew that it would be the substitution from the get go.

Things like milk, butter, cheese, get added to the list on each recipe so that I can add them up for a total calculation on how much of each item to purchase. I purchase extra, of course. You might find yourself needing extra so round up just in case.

Now it is time to clean it up. My next set of notations were this:

Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake (p. 33)

• 2 pkg reduced sodium stuffing mix (6 oz each) Make
• 1 can cream of chicken soup Make
• 1 cup milk Aldi
• 8 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 3/4 pound “deli ham” – TURKEY BACON
• 1 cup shredded swiss cheese (4 oz) Whole Foods/Sprouts
• 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese (12 oz) K@Aldi

The diced chicken and the cubed chicken in these recipes, for example would come from the chicken used to make the chicken broth. I intentionally increased the broth recipe to have extras and have enough meat for certain recipes. I will have to have a couple of extra breasts for the Chicken Cordon Bleu Bake recipe as I do not think I will have enough chicken from the stock even with 5 pounds of chicken but I usually buy a little extra anyway just in case.

Once I had each recipe list made like the above, I could then consolidate them all onto a single piece of paper divided by store. You will notice that I had already made notations on where I would buy certain ingredients based on experience on what is the best place to get them. I just had to fill in where I was going to purchase the other items.

I made a list just for all the meat items so I could check the prices on those each store I went into for the best deal. I did indicate where I believed would be the best place to get certain items, but that was a guide.

Grocery ads do not always give you the whole picture when you are working with more specialized items – keep that in mind when you are working with more specialized dietary needs. You need to be aware of prices at most stores and save as much money on all the other items as possible so that your budge can absorb the specialty items.

Someone asked me why I would spend the money on items that were “kosher” because they were “so expensive”? I hear that a lot. Unfortunately, it is a decision that through trial and error I have had to go with the answer is not as simple as “it is so expensive.” For me, it is a matter of how well I feel at the end of the day. It is not a 100% fix to the problem. It is not a guarantee that I am going to feel good. It is not perfect. I still have to really read the labels and make conscious decisions on what is and is not a good choice for me. Sometimes I decide that even the kosher item is not a good choice because it contains too much extra “garbage.”

We really do live in a processed society and it is scary. It is in that processing that I find my biggest fear and my biggest cause of pain and misery after eating. So this is why this week is a milestone for me…an exercise in getting it out of my diet. Just healing my stomach. It does not mean that I am going to do some crazy diet or anything like that, it simply means that my digestive needs me to stop eating to garbage so much.

My list looked more like this when I was done:

Penzeys

• 1 tsp rosemary Penzeys
• 4 tsp thyme Penzeys

Whole Foods/Sprouts

• 1 cup shredded swiss cheese (4 oz) Whole Foods/Sprouts

Aldi

• 2 1/2 cup butter Aldi
• 5 cups milk (or cream) Aldi
• 18 cups bread cubes Aldi
• 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese (12 oz) K@Aldi

Walmart/Kroger

• 8 celery ribs
• 1 cup flour Kroger/Walmart

Meats

• 5 pounds bony chicken pieces Aldi?
• 3/4 pound “deli ham” – TURKEY BACON Aldi?

I continued to add each recipe to this list until I was done. I then added the other things I needed as well. Breakfast foods, for example. Supplies for Ben’s salads for lunches at the office. Misc supplies we needed such as bandaids, hydrogen peroxide, Tylenol and Zantac. This was much more manageable. It was easy. It was a time consuming process to get to this easy to follow list, but I got there.

The recipe for Bread Stuffing actually gave me a count of bread slices for a batch. I doubled it to allow for bread shrinkage as it dried as a picked an airier bread. I made a notation of how many slices of bread I would need roughly to get 18 cups of bread cubes. It was the right amount.

Once I had my compiled list, I also converted the measurements to more meaningful units of purchase to the side if necessary. For example, 2 1/2 cups of butter simply became 2 boxes of butter on the final list, 5 cups of milk became 1 gallon of milk. I was not going to fret over a gallon of milk that we were going to drink anyway or a portion of a box of butter that we would use anyway.

I am excited to get started for the week. We will have left overs 2 nights this week. I still have to make dinner tonight in spite of the grocery shopping spree that took all day and the frustration with the grocery stores here. It is something that I am going to have to get used to here.