Meal Plan • 11/9/15

• Monday: Kale & Cannellini Bean Risotto
• Tuesday: Sofritas with Chili-Lime Rice
• Wednesday: Crockpot Corn & Potato Chowder
• Thursday: Purple Pad Thai
• Friday: Italian Vegetable Soup with Phyllo Croutons
• Saturday: Grilled Spinach & Goat Cheese Calzones
• Sunday: Weekly-fend-for-yourselves-day

The sun hasn't come out here in years, and it has rained for 175 days straight.  We have been abandoned by light and beauty.  Clouds are settling into our brains.  Our toes are forever pruned and our shoes will never again be dry.

The weather report shows part of a sun for tomorrow.  We shall see about that.

In the meantime, because I couldn't bring myself to leave the house today in this cold, dreary drizzle to obtain the ingredients I needed for the recipe I had originally planned for this evening, I made our favorite (and absurdly easy) risotto recipe.  It was perfect.  Warm and creamy, nourishing and comforting - everything I need right now, really.

Tomorrow's recipe has me excited (and not just because there is a chance of sunlight during the day - before the sun sets at 3:15, that is).  The recipe sounds a lot like my favorite burrito filling at Chipotle, and will be a glorious addition to our Taco Tuesday repertoire if it turns out as deliciously as it sounds.

Wednesday and Thursday are more new-to-us recipes, but Friday is a return to an old favorite.  Have you ever made croutons out of phyllo dough and butter?  It's worth writing home about.  Yesterday, someone mentioned calzones and I've had them on my mind ever since, so I'm breaking out another old recipe for Saturday.

Meal planning for the win, again. Each week, due to either a change in schedule or some unforeseen minor disaster, we generally end up having to scrap the plan for one of the nights, but rarely is it more than one, and there's a lot to be said for the relief I feel when I get the plan made at the beginning of the week and know that there's one less worry to take up valuable real estate in my head while I'm playing whack-a-mole with everything else that comes up over the course of the week.

I read a blog post recently in which the writer said she liked to have the dinner plan in place by 10:00 each day so as to not have to worry about it for the rest of the day.  To me, that's no bueno.  I don't want to think about it every day.  It forever stays an urgent and pressing problem to be solved if it is a daily issue, and I need to know when I wake up tomorrow that I can get right to work because dinner has already been solved.  I set up meal plans for the same reason that I depend on seasonal uniforms and set specific days each week to concentrate on specific clients' work: because I am an idiot and I thrive in situations that have been idiot-proofed.

Also (and this is turning into my new favorite thing), I love running into friends throughout the week and hearing which of these recipes they are cooking for their own dinner tables.  You guys are awesome.