Planning Ahead

by Katie Ryder — September 21, 2008

I have to admit something. There are days when I feel like the most domestic diva on the block and the culinary bug starts biting in all the right places! I dream up ideas of homemade pasta sauce, stir-fried veggies, and delicious fruit salads. I will go to the store or my garden to pick up fresh vegetables and fruit, and I feel so excited about it when I get home. And then something happens. We are invited out to eat with our friends, my husband wants to order a pizza, or the domestic diva inside me decides to peace out. Within a few days, all of my delicious produce is moldy and my culinary dreams never come to fruition.

So I am putting out some advice to everyone out there, and I promise to adopt this advice myself: plan ahead!!! Plan out your actual meals for the week, with ingredients and recipes. Talk to your husband/roommate/housemate about the plan so that they know that they will be eating eggplant parmesan on Wednesday night. Pizza is out of the question. Unless it's homemade pizza from scratch.

Then and only then should you go to the store. You'll know exactly how much of everything you should get and it will get you more in the mood to cook, making it more likely that the feeling will stick around. And if your friends invite you to go out to dinner, invite them over for a homemade meal instead. You'll be a hit.