Mod Apron

July, is that really you? Wow, you’re still weeks away in my head. This year is flying!

After a week of visitors and then a week of chaos, we are back on track with a brand new meal plan here at Apron Headquarters. Did ya miss it?

This meal plan is ever-evolving, it seems. Now that I’ve committed to improving my health, you’ll probably see some subtle changes on my meal plans. White stuff like bread, sugar and refined grains will be taking a back seat to vegetables, vegetables and more vegetables. And while a lot of the meals will look the same as always on paper, I’ll be making a much healthier version in real life.

I’m excited to do a big shop. Trader Joe’s, here I come! We are out of practically everything! (And as usual, the Grocery List has exceeded its parameters and has spilled over in to the To-Do column. I put the Grocery List in lavender to alleviate any confusion.)

One last note - if you ever want to see a recipe for any of my meal plan meals, please feel free to email me and I will post any recipes requested. Most of these meals I could practically make in my sleep, but I will do my best to type out some coherent directions. 

Happy Monday, folks! And Happy Canada Day to my friends up north!

Heavens to Betsy. I left the house holding one of the kids’ maracas today and it wasn’t until I was already 2 blocks away that I realized.

I can’t actually say how it happened; all I know is that the kids were playing with the bucket of instruments after breakfast and at some point I was cleaning up, getting shoes on, grabbing Maya’s lunchbox and ushering us all out the door to get to Maya’s summer day camp. It was a blur of activity as we were leaving the house.

You can just imagine my puzzlement when I realized I was still holding that thing, and with no pockets or anywhere to put it down. There were more than a couple of sideways glances from people passing by on the sidewalk.

But you know me, I’m always looking at the glass half-full. I decided to use that maraca for emphasis and excitement when talking to other adults at summer camp drop off. 

“Would we like to have a playdate next Thursday? That sounds GREAT! (shake shake shake)”

“Oh! They’re baking bread in class today! How EXCITING! (shake shake shake)”

“Sure, I’ll empty out Maya’s cubby for the weekend. Yay WEEKEND! (shake shake shake)”

Ya gotta make the best of it, that’s my motto. 

And speaking of making the best of it, I did my best to remedy my meal plan and grocery shopping drama by popping by Cal-Mart on the way home for some goodies to tide us over. I bought mostly veggies and I think it was money well spent. Tonight, we’ll have a vegetable and tofu stir-fry with brown rice for dinner. And at some point this afternoon, I’ll make some veggie stock from my two overflowing bags of veggie scraps in the freezer, of which some of that stock will become a simple vegetable soup for dinner tomorrow. Sunday is still a question mark, but chances are it will be soup leftovers.

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Hello, Monday! While I’m sad to see another too-short weekend come and go, I can’t really be mad at this bright, beautiful, 77 F (25 C for my Canadian friends) blue sky day.

If you’ve seen my meal plans before, you might notice that today’s looks a bit different. I’m in the midst of embarking on some intricate lifestyle changes, people! Let’s just call it “sharpening the saw”. I’m giving myself a long-overdue little health tune-up by means of some simple dietary adjustments, greater mindfulness and a daily commitment to my yoga practice.

On the meal plan, this translates to :

• A different type of breakfast for moi. My old breakfast of coffee/tea and toast was not serving me very well at all. I’m switching to a warm grain (millet, rice, quinoa, etc.), some soaked raisins and a sprinkling of sunflower seeds instead. I’m replacing morning coffee with hot water with lemon and fennel. Plus whatever herbal tea strikes my fancy! (And as you can see above, we all have our breakfast favorites!)
• Actually eating a proper, sit-down lunch. Every day. No exceptions. This has been my biggest challenge since kid #2 came along. After feeding both the kids their lunch, I never seem to have enough time to feed myself, and this really must change. I’m going to tweak our schedule a bit so that I can fit in a balanced lunch too. The days of eating a handful of pretzels and an apple (and sometimes another cup of coffee) are gone. A proper lunch! Yes!
• No more snacking. (This has served as a poor substitute for missing lunch anyway.) Thus, I have only included Kid Snacks on the meal plan. Three squares a day for me. Nothing more, nothing less.

• My Grocery List was so long, it spilled over into the Notes column. For visual ease, I put the items I need to purchase for this Meal Plan in green.
• Dennis is in LA all day on Wednesday so the kids and I are on our own for dins. Rather than make a fancy dinner, I’ll just throw together whatever leftovers we’ve got hanging around plus a few odds and ends. I love dinners like that. And it’s a great way to use stuff up!
• Another week of hot weather is ahead, which explains why my meal plans are featuring more cold food lately. It’s hard to get excited about soups and stews when you’re wearing a tank top and sandals. Just my opinion.
• My parents are coming! My parents are coming! I seriously cannot wait. They’re arriving on Saturday and I’m counting the seconds until they get here. Aside from all the help they give me with the kids, I just adore their company and I’ve got lots of fun stuff planned for their visit. And since they don’t arrive until the weekend, this week’s meal plan isn’t hugely impacted by the extra people in the house. But next week should pose a fun challenge as I attempt to feed 2 extra people on my $50 per week budget. (I honestly love challenges like this!)
• Sunday is Father’s Day and mom and dad are taking us out for dinner to celebrate! I’m excited!
• There won’t be a grocery shopping expose this week, folks. Yesterday, my friend Kendall rented a car and surprised me with an offer to drive us the 6 blocks up to Trader Joe’s and back so we could both do a big shop. This was my opportunity to stock up because, since we don’t own a car, I am usually limited to whatever I can fit in the stroller. Honestly, I’m totally fine with stroller shopping and I always make do; but when the opportunity to do a major stock-up presents itself, I am compelled to take advantage. I moved some money around and spent much more than I normally would on yesterday’s grocery shopping trip (obviously), but I’m okay with it because I had a little nest egg set aside for just such an occasion.
• Lastly, Parks & Recreation is quite possibly the funniest show in the history of funny shows. This comment is clearly not meal plan related but it really needed to be stated.

Fin! Have a glorious week, my friends. 

Well guys, the masses* have spoken: I shall continue posting about my grocery shopping trips. Huzzah!

And as planned, Henry and I trekked the 5 blocks up to Trader Joe’s this afternoon. When we arrived, it was eerily not crowded, which totally surprised me. Trader Joe’s is always crazytown and I was completely taken aback by the near empty aisles and the quiet handful of shoppers. But by the time we left, normalcy resumed and the place was a zoo once again.

I (mostly) stuck to my shopping list and here’s what I bought:

• lemon hand soap for the kitchen (how sad is it that I get really excited about purchases like this?)
• 2 cans of yellowfin tuna packed in olive oil (once you try tuna in olive oil, you’ll never go back to water-packed again!)
• box of pearl tomatoes
• box of organic strawberries
• bag of russet potatoes
• 4 bananas
• 2 sweet potatoes
• bag of dried apricots (I used the last of them making a double batch of granola this morning.)
• 2 organic mangoes
• 2 organic pears
• 3 ears of corn
• bag of organic baby spinach
• 2 bags of organic whole wheat pasta - spirals and penne
• half gallon of organic milk

My total came to $26.78, which means I’m under budget by $11.16 for the week! (Good thing, too, because the restaurant we’re going to for Date Night on Saturday is kinda pricey!)

*By “masses”, I actually mean about 6 emails. Ha! Heartfelt thanks to all who took the time to send me your 2 cents. I truly appreciate it!

I got so busy with emails this morning that I didn’t get time to go to Trader Joe’s for groceries. It’s times like this that I’m quite thankful indeed for Cal-Mart only a block away, even though it’s a lot more expensive. 

I’ll make it a point to hit Trader Joe’s tomorrow, but I did need a few odds and ends today that just couldn’t wait.

I bought:

• organic baby cereal
• about a pound and a half of beautiful Cali green grapes
• large container of organic whole milk yogurt (it’s local too!)
• quart of organic milk

The total came to $12.06. Which leaves me almost $38 for the rest of the week. I don’t have much to buy so this should be easy peasy! (I’ll probably even come in under budget this week. Love it when that happens!)

On another note, I’m starting to feel like these grocery posts are a bit boring and redundant. Is anyone even reading these? I wouldn’t blame you if you skipped them entirely; they’re not very exciting. Plus, my weekly meal plan with my shopping list is probably enough information.

So I pose this question to cyberspace: Should I keep posting about the groceries I buy every week? Or is it too boring?

I’d really love to know what YOU think. If you would be so kind as to email me* with a quick note telling me your thoughts on this, I’d really appreciate it. Even if you just put a “yes” or “no” in the subject line and leave the rest blank, that’s good enough for me. Obviously, I want to post about stuff that’s interesting, and I really don’t want to waste anyone’s blog-reading time. Your opinion means a lot to me. And you won’t hurt my feelings either way, I can totally take it.

*Of course it goes without saying that I’d never dream of sharing anyone’s email address or any such nonsense. This is truly just a humble, personal request for your 2 cents. Cheers!

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Happy Monday, folks.

After such a glorious warm and sunny weekend, this morning has broken with some gloomy overcast skies here in SF. Yup, sure feels like a Monday around here. I’m confident it will all burn off by noon, which it always seems to do whenever we get a few clouds.

Since we don’t usually have much grey to speak of here in San Francisco, there’s a little part of me that actually likes it. Not too much, mind you. Just a little grey is okay with me. Makes me feel deliciously homesick for Vancouver, where grey skies abound. I love it here in Cali, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, but I do miss my family and friends up north.

You can take the girl out of Vancouver, but you can’t take the Vancouver out of the girl, I guess.

Anyway, despite the clouds, it’s still a Meal Plan Monday around here. And as you can see above, this is actually a pretty easy week.

Some notes about this week’s meal plan:

• I’m able to recycle some of the meals that were meant for last weekend, due to the fact that my meal plan didn’t exactly pan out last weekend. Sometimes that happens. Whatevs. I’m happy to have two less days to figure out this week.
• Saturday is Date Night for Dennis and me. We’re going to a fancy-pants restaurant down the block. I’ve never been and I’ve heard nothing but great things about this place. I am really excited!
• I’ve got a few marching orders for this week, but nothing too difficult. All those chores I could probably do in my sleep, I’m so used to it by now. Hopefully, I’ll find the time to get it all done early in the week.

Have a beautiful week, friends!

You might notice that there isn’t much produce in the photo above. That’s because tomorrow, I’m very excited to report, I’ll be stocking up at the farmers’ market! I used to go twice a week when we lived on Nob Hill. But now that we’re across town, I haven’t been going. And oh, how I’ve missed it.

My dear friend Kendall is joining me and I’ve just charged up my camera battery for the big day. I’m even keeping Maya home from school tomorrow so she can come along on (although if you know me IRL or if you’ve read this blog with any regularity, you know it doesn’t take much arm twisting to get me to let Maya play hooky and stay with me for the day…I just enjoy that kid’s company like none other.)

So tomorrow morning, when the golden sun rises over the hill, we shall set off to the farmers’ market to collect our worldly fare. Or maybe at around 10:30am.

Cannot wait.

Even Trader Joe’s can’t beat farmers’ market prices. And speaking of Trader Joe’s, let’s talk about what I bought this afternoon:

• bag of sunflower seeds
• bag of peanuts (I realized this afternoon that Maya has never tried an actual peanut. Peanut butter, oh heck yes, but nary a peanut. I gave her one, she ate it and looked at me thoughtfully for a moment before proclaiming, “These taste like they’ve got peanut butter inside, mama!”)
• bag of small organic gala apples (I prefer a small apple; larger ones just seem like such a commitment.)
• bag of frozen peas
• bag of frozen mixed veg (Sure, why not?)
• a six-pack of organic eggs
• stone ground mustard
• half gallon of organic milk
• large container of organic whole milk yogurt (Hi, yogurt? I’d like to introduce you to my granola. I think you guys will get along swimmingly.)
• organic raspberry jam (I could make my own, and I’m still kinda flirting with the idea. But TJ’s has great, all fruit jam for much cheaper than I could ever make at home.)
• bottle of Cali-grown EVOO (Love that peppery kick in the back of the throat!)
• 2 cans of organic garbanzos (I’m pretty sure chana masala will be making an appearance on my stove sometime next week.)
• bag of whole wheat flour
• 5 bananas (Gah, we’re already down 2 bananas between buying them and typing this post. This won’t even be close to enough bananas. No, this will never do. Why didn’t I buy more?)
• 2 sweet potatoes
• box of Yogi Green Tea Super Antioxidant (Free radicals, be gone!)

And there you have it!

Total cost = $27.69. And that leaves me just over $22 for the market tomorrow!

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Thanks to today being a holiday, I’m a little late getting this meal plan put together. Usually I like to have it done first thing in the morning. But today I’ve been dawdling, sipping my coffee, playing with the kids and puttering around the house. What a decadent morning!

It’s just past noon now and I’ve finally got my meal plan sorted. Better late than never!

Some notes about this week’s meal plan:

• Hooray! My grocery budget is back up to $50 per week! That seems so luxurious after operating at a deficit over these past couple of weeks. It’s a good thing too, because we’re definitely in need of a good shop.
• You might notice that we’re having quesadillas tonight. They were supposed to have been last night’s dinner, but they got bumped to tonight instead. Yesterday was a super busy and productive day, and instead of sitting down to regular meals, we all kinda snacked throughout the day. By the time dinner time rolled around, we weren’t that hungry. I ended up just throwing together some odds and ends and that was enough.
• The forecast in San Francisco this week calls for some very warm weather. So naturally, soups and stews are off the menu in favor of sunny weather fare.
• Okay, so I’m going to try to cut down on coffee - again - starting tomorrow. I do this little dance every few months because I know that coffee isn’t great for me, yet I’m head over heels for it, so coffee and I always find our way back to each other. But oh, my dark master, I must forsake you yet again. The spring has sprung and I’m feeling the urge to clean up my diet.
• Speaking of cleaning up my diet, I’m considering doing a cleanse. It’s a good time to do it since we’re embarking on a seasonal change, and I’m feeling very motivated lately. Ah, but alas, that is for another post.
• Granola. How many weeks has this been on the meal plan now? Sheesh. I really need to get around to making a big batch. Why does my week always get so busy? This week, making granola is my priority. It will happen! I might even get crazy and make some jars for my neighbors too.
• “ww” stands for whole wheat.
• I didn’t specifically list any fruit or veg on my shopping list that isn’t earmarked for a specific meal. In addition to what’s listed, I usually pick up whatever fruit or veg is in season, on sale, and looks good. I like to keep my produce options open. And I always need bananas.