I think I have been planning out meals consistently for about two months now. At first it seemed that we were eating the same thing over and over. Meal planning has made me more creative. These are some of my “muses”:
-My grocery store’s weekly sale, together with what I have on my pantry: Since I want to maximize savings I try to make meals using the week’s loss leaders.
-My husband: he must think he has the best wife ever because I am often asking him what he would like to have over the next week for dinner and today I even asked if he wanted me to make him something special for breakfast! Ok, so maybe I am trying to make him happy *wink* but I am also looking for new ideas.
-Cooking magazines, cooking websites and my friend the chef: Sometimes just reading old magazines and menus available gives me ideas of new things I could make. I often discuss these recipes with my friend the chef because I am always looking to simplify them, use alternate ingredients, or just make them healthier.
But sometimes, even all of these resources provide me with zero inspiration for the week. Saturday, it seems I spent a lot of the day thinking about what I could cook for this week. I asked my husband, checked a few magazines and then finally took a couple of ingredients that I wanted to work into our menu and headed to the Allrecipes, Food and Wine magazine and Foodtv websites. I was finally able to find something that suited our tastes. So this week I am supposed to be trying two new recipes. Hopefully they will work out, if so you might be seeing them featured here.
